Heya.
I've been sifting through the bonus items of my LotR extended DVD sets and I must say I'm very impressed with the depth of the added behind-the-scenes stuff. Also, the audio commentaries are great, especially the ones featuring the actors (Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan's comments are particularly funny, although Sean Astin tends to get a bit 'wanky' in his philosophical analyses of the book and films). If you own the extended DVDs and havn't had the time to watch the movies with the audio commentaries going then I highly recommend you set aside a few hours sometime to do so, they're great!

Anyway, I've heard on IMDB that there are secret sections of the exntended DVDs that feature among other things bloopers and practical jokes played on and by the cast. Now, I'm wondering if these secret sections do in fact exist, and if they do, how do I find them? Any help is much obliged.

Cheers all.

[ 01-16-2005, 10:11 PM: Message edited by: The Hierophant ]

The only "bonus" I found is on disc 2.

1)Select the last group of scenes (on the left side).

2)When the scenes are named (in the middle), scroll down past the last screen. A tiny ring icon will appear, and hit "select."

You'll get a joke PJ interview (kinda lame IMHO).

BTW, this same method worked on the first two Extended Edition DVDs as well, I believe.

Thanks man. I'll try that when I get home.

On the two towers extended edition the hidden bonus is reached by scrolling down from the last chapter with the keyboard as krunchyfrogg said. The bonus here is Gollum receiving the award for best digital character.

And on the first DVD it was the same thing in the Council of Elrond scene (you go to that scene in the scroll thingy and a ring appears). You got to see the Sarah Michelle Gellar & Jack Black parody from MTv awards. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 01-17-2005, 06:50 AM: Message edited by: Spelca ]

The Two Towers bonus os the best - Gollum's acceptance speech was a classic. I seem to recall he was less than complimentary to Dobby and Peter Jackson [img]smile.gif[/img] .

It is also interesting to lipread what Elijah Wood says right at the end of the hidden movie.

I actually thought the Council of Elrond one was the funniest. I wasn't too impressed with the latedt cookie.

<font color=plum>Exactly which CD is this hidden bonus on? I've been watching my extended LOTR DVD's over the last couple of days and I watched The Two Towers today. I scrolled down to the bottom of the Scenes List on CD2 and I did get a small drawing at the bottom with a ring on it, but could NOT highlight or select that drawing with the remote control.

I tried scrolling down the list of Scenes on the right hand side, I tried selecting the last two "scenes" (End Credits & Fan Club Credits) and I tried selecting the last 4 scenes of the actual movie. Scrolling through each of these screens produced NO secret "ring" on the screen.

I only checked CD2 - which has the last half of the movie on it. I did not check the CD3 or CD4 which are labeled "Appendices", nor did I check the Scene list or individual chapters on CD1.

I would really like to see the Gollum acceptance speech. Can somebody tell me what I'm doing wrong so I can find it?</font>

Hey, yeah, I've had this exact same problem too. I just gave up and started watching a Dune DVD and completely forgot about it, until now that is.

OK - step by step for my good mates cerek and Hiero (the rational coot)

1) insert disc 1
2) select the "select a scene" option from the menu
3) Up comes a menu that is selecting the first scene in the movie - you can scroll down to the end to get to "herbs and rabbit" (the painful way)or hit the up button once to get there.
4) From the herbs and rabbit selection, press the down arrow once. Instead of appearing against scene 1 (like it does on the 2nd disc) the cursor highlights a ring down near the words "* new scene"
5) Hit select and away you go.

Repeat for all 3 discs.

Cheers buddies and enjoy.

I see where you got confused - Krunchyfrogg said it was on disc 2 - well I know that the one on the Two Towers is acccessed from herbs and rabbit and that is the end of disc 1 - I just played it again to make sure. I suspect they all were disc 1. Don't blame me - blame the frogg. :D

<font color=plum>Thanks for the help, mate. I was going to try CD1 to see if it might have been the last chapter THERE instead of CD2, just hadn't had time to do that yet. I have now managed to watch ALL of the extended DVDs except for the last half of The Return of the King. I'll be putting that in the player in just a few minutes. By lunch, I will have finally finished watching the full extended version of all 3 movies.

So far, I have to say the added scenes in The Two Towers and The Return of the King have been fantastic and really helped enhance the story. The Fellowship didn't actually have very many NEW scenes, though it did have quite a few EXTENDED scenes. But it has been so long since I saw that one in the theaters, I really couldn't tell which material was NEW or EXTENDED most of the time. With the 2nd and 3rd movies, there are many more scenes that were cut completely from the theater version - so it is much easier to tell what's been added. And even the EXTENDED scenes are easier to spot - probably since these two movies are much more recent and "fresher" in my mind.

Thanks again for the help, <font color=orange>Davros</font>. I appreciate it. [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img] </font>

From memory there was only about 20-25 mins added for the first movie, then it was something like 40-50 in each of the 2nd two. I love the extended versions, but then again, I could not get enough of the Jackson movies.

<font color=plum>They're fantastic without a doubt. I finished watching Return of the King about 11am. I was so caught up in the film that - when I needed to take a bathroom break - I kept trying to "hold it", even though all I had to do was hit the PAUSE button on the remote control. LOLOLOL

My favorite added scenes were the Casting Down of Saruman and the Dark Lord's Messenger. Don't know if those are the "official" titles or not, but I'm referring to Gandalf confronting Saruman in Isengard after the Battle of Helm's Deep and the Messenger sent out by Sauron to address Aragorn and the Army of the West. I knew there was some important info missing from the theater version. Aragorn's comment "For Frodo" really didn't make that much sense in the theatrical release, so I knew that they had been made to believe that Frodo was dead somehow. Adding the scene of the Messenger filled in a LOT of blanks for that scene.</font>

Awesome Dav! Thanks!

And yeah, I definately agree that PJ is a living legend in cinema. When I was 11 all of my lil' buddies and I stayed over at a friends place on his birthday and we stayed up all night watching Braindead over and over. *wipes tear from eye*... The lawnmower scenes were truly inspirational. *sigh* Ah yes, they were days of youth and wonder...

A also really enjoyed the commentaries - particularly the ones with the directors. Good background for why the shot scenes a certain way or how they had to cut bits out and why, and what problems they had with particular scenes.

So have you guys seen the Gollum acceptance speech now, and did you lip read Elijah Wood's comments in the audience :D .

Not yet, I'm still at the uni library. I'll definately check it out when I get home this evening though. [img]smile.gif[/img] My flatmates will be keen to see it too.

[ 02-02-2005, 07:08 PM: Message edited by: The Hierophant ]

Oh man! I watched it with my flatmates about half an hour ago and we laughed our asses off! We all fully agreed with Elijah Wood's sentiment [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

:D :D :D Awesome.

Sorry for the mistake. I'm glad y'all got to see the hidden stuff, though! [img]smile.gif[/img]

<font color=plum>I finally got enough time to sit down and watch the "hidden bonuses". I had the time, so I watched all 3.

The first two were absolutely hilarious. I had seen the alternate "Council of Elrond" a couple of years ago when it was first done, but it was still funny. But Gollum's "acceptance" speech was NOTHING like I expected. It was so funny I watched it twice. I also agree with Elijah Wood's comments after the interview.

And I agree that the "joke interview" with Peter Jackson on Return of the Kings was pretty lame. It was actually a pretty big let-down after watching the first two bonus features.</font>

Curses, I've lent my films out to a friend so now I will hwve to wait to check those extras out. But thanks for the clear instructions Davros.

Wow, thanks for all this great input! I cant wait to try this out!

Hey, are there any special features that only work through a DVD ROM? I have heard that some DVDs are like this...

http://www.dvdreview.com/html/hidden_features.shtml

this site has a pretty good database of movies that have easter eggs, hidden features and plain old nifty stuff.

Don't mean to perform any thread necromancy but I do have some questions on the dvd versions of LoTR!

In fact I'm a bit confused and have already ordered a version as a gift for my hubby for Christmas (which is why I'm not starting a new thread, he doesn't come in here often, but with my luck, he'd see my name and check it out -completely spoiling what I hope will be a fantastic surprise that I've been saving up for [img]smile.gif[/img] ).

Anyway, as I was saying- I was trying to find the ultimate version on dvd and got thoroughly confused at all the 'extended', 'platinum' and other variations on the titles when I started looking for it. I finally ordered the platinum series, extended edition gift box version.

Can anyone tell me if that IS the ultimate version of the dvd or if there's another with more footage added or background or free rings and taters or... :D Any input or help would be welcome! I haven't got the set I ordered yet, although it should arrive soon and if it isn't the one I want, I can still get another and send this one back if I find out in time!

Also, does anyone know if the 'bonus' features are in the same places on the version I ordered?

[ 11-29-2005, 03:10 PM: Message edited by: Cloudbringer ]

<font color=skyblue>If it says "Extended Ed.", then yes, that is the one with the added footage that was too long for the theaters. I have those, and I am glad for it. Every minute more is valuable.

The "Platinum" Extended series comes with a lot of extra stuff that is not on the DVD, but in the box set. I do not have that, but found details on amazon.com, like: Collectible Gollum polystone statue created by Sideshow Weta, Exclusive printed companion piece showing how Gollum evolved from pencil sketch to digital character, etc...

Is this what you got?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=glance</font>

[ 11-29-2005, 04:09 PM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

Yeah, I saw the version with the gollum statue and thought "just what I need, another useless trinket." So, I just got the EE. And, not *every* moment is worthwhile -- I was incensed by Legolas out-drinking Gimli, who was treated as comic releif too much already.

That was some funny stuff... easily the best easter egg I've ever seen on a dvd.

I totally agree... I think the idea that Elves aren't affected by alcohol was added by PJ, since it's clear from "The Hobbit" that Legolas's kin were very much affected by wine. I understand the need for comic relief... especially in what is essentially a 12 hour long movie... but I wish they'd spread it out a bit more instead of heaping it all on Gimli, Merry and Pippin.

Yes, Larry, that's the one I got! The box arrived today and I have to admit, like Timber, my first thought when I ordered them was 'we don't need more stuff and junk around here!' but having seen the bookends and Gollum and the Minas Tirith trinket box... they're very well crafted and I have a feeling Nacht is gonna go nuts over the whole thing.

Mainly I wanted the gift set because..well, it's a gift! LOL And my hubby is a big fan of LoTR so I know all the background stuff will really interest him.

I'm glad to know it does have the extra footage, though as you all seem to think it was worth it, despite a drink or two among elves and dwarves! :D

PS: hmm.. yes, I'd have to say my money'd have been on Gimli in a drinking match!

For a while there was a matching Minas Morgul statue to go with the Minas Tirith one, but you had to special order it, if you're interested you might be able to find it online at various auction sites...

Thanks, Morg! Not sure I'll do it for Christmas but I'll keep it in mind if hubby likes it!