MOVIE COMPANY: LUCASFILM LTD./20th CENTURY FOX
CAST: Starring Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Ian McDiarmid and more.
DIRECTED BY: George Lucas
PRODUCED BY: Ric McCalum
RATING: Rated PG
INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE URL: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0120915
TYPE OF MOVIE: Sci-Fi, Adventure, Drama
DURATION: 133 minutes
Begin your Star Wars DVD collection with Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace. Packed with over six hours of additional material, including exclusive documentaries and never-before-seen deleted scenes, this 2-disc set provides the perfect showcase for the incredible detail and breathtaking scope of George Lucas’s first episode in the mythic Star Wars Saga.
DVD EXTRAS:
• Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
• Color, Closed-captioned, THX, Widescreen
• Commentary by George Lucas, Rick McCallum, Ben Burtt, Rob Coleman, John Knoll, Dennis Muren and Scott Squires
• Exclusive Deleted Scenes Documentary features seven new sequences completed just for this DVD release
• All-new hour-long documentary film culled from over 600 hours of footage, “The Beginning,” including an insider’s look at Lucasfilm and ILM during the production
• Multi-angle storyboard to animatic to film segment featuring the Submarine and Podrace Lap 1 sequences
• Five featurettes explore the storyline, design, costumes, visual effects and fight sequences
• Award-winning twelve-part web documentary series that chronicles the production
• “Duel of the Fates” music video featuring John Williams
• Never-before-seen Production Photo Gallery with special caption feature
• Theatrical posters and print campaign from around the world
• Theatrical teaser and launch trailers, and seven TV spots
• “Star Wars: Starfighter-The Making of a Game” featurette from LucasArts
• DVD-ROM weblink to exclusive Star Wars content
• Widescreen anamorphic format
• Number of discs: 2
KNOWN DVD SECRET(S):Â None that I know of
DVD REVIEW:
For so long, many Star Wars fans have wondered when a DVD version of any of the Star Wars episodes would be available for sale to the public. There have been rumors that no DVD release would be made for “Star Wars” until the next two episodes are completed. Of course, this angered many Star Wars fans.
But when the word came out months ago that a release was in the works, one could not imagine that the “Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace” DVD would be setting a standard for DVD’s in jamming what they could on two DVD’s and giving fans more than what they have expected.
First, let’s talk about the movie. The movie is provided via anamorphic Widescreen with an aspect ration of 2:35:1. The movie looks beautiful and the audio utilizes English Dolby 5.1 Surround EX. Did I say the movie looks beautiful?
Now, the second DVD. I don’t know how long it will take me to finally view the complete DVD because it’s jam packed with featurette’s, deleted scenes, documentaries and much more.
One thing is that there are some deleted scenes I wish they added in the movie such as one deleted scene featuring the green bad guy known as Greedo (who was in the fourth Star Wars episode) and the Web documentaries galore which include the “Bad Droid Karma” which features the difficulties of making R2D2 work.
If there was one nitpicky feeling that I had for this DVD was that it didn’t feature the movie in DTS. I’m wondering if we are going to see a “multiple version” like the videos of the Star Wars series was released to the market. But I’m still pleased with the Dolby 5.1 Surround EX.
Although not my favorite “Star Wars” in the series, the DVD is just plain awesome and I’m just hoping if they release the other episodes on DVD, that the others can measure up to this one.
An amazing DVD giving new meaning to “jam packed” when it comes to special features.Â
THE MOVIE:Â B+
THE DVD EXTRAS:Â A+
THE DVD OVERALL:Â A-