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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Adventures of Indiana Jones, The: Bonus Material (2003)

Adventures of Indiana Jones, The: Bonus Material (2003)

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Released 21-Oct-2003

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Adventure Main Menu Audio & Animation
Main Menu Audio & Animation
Featurette-Making Of-Raiders of the Lost Ark
Featurette-Making Of-The Temple of Doom
Featurette-Making Of-The Last Crusade
Featurette-The Stunts Of Indiana Jones
Featurette-The Sound Of Indiana Jones
Featurette-The Music Of Indiana Jones
Featurette-The Light And Magic Of Indiana Jones
Theatrical Trailer-Raiders Of The Lost Ark,TheTemple Of Doom,The Last Crusade
Teaser Trailer-Raiders Of The Lost Ark, The Last Crusade
Trailer-Re-issue Trailer - Raiders Of The Lost Ark
Game-Preview - The Emperor's Tomb
Web Links
DVD Credits
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 2003
Running Time ?
RSDL / Flipper Dual Layered Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Laurent Bouzereau
Studio
Distributor

Paramount Home Entertainment
Starring Steven Spielberg
George Lucas
Harrison Ford
Frank Marshall
Karen Allen
Vic Armstrong
Ben Burtt
Kate Capshaw
Sean Connery
John Rhys-Davies
Alison Doody
Richard Edlund
Paul Freeman
Case Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI Box Music None Given


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Full Frame English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio None
16x9 Enhancement No
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English
Spanish
Croatian
Greek
Hebrew
Portuguese
Serbian
Slovenian
Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    This is the fourth disc in the Indiana Jones DVD Movie Collection, containing "over 3 hours" of bonus material, which is primarily a set of retrospective documentaries with cast and crew on all three films in the trilogy.

    The bulk of the bonus material forms a feature length set of documentaries collectively entitled Making The Trilogy, so I will review that as the main feature and all the other featurettes as "extras" in this review.

    Making The Trilogy consists of three featurettes:

    All three featurettes include a set of interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, screen tests, excerpts from the films, storyboards, and other material. Each featurette is encoded as 1 title with no chapter stops. I would have preferred some chapter stops.

Raiders Of The Lost Ark (50:51)

    The origin of the concept of Indiana Jones is discussed, as well as casting, including rare footage of a screen test featuring Tom Selleck and Sean Young as Indiana and Marion. Other areas covered include making the sets, costumes, and the filming of key scenes like the opening cave scene (the one with the large boulder), the Ravenwood bar scene, in Belloq's tent, in the Well of Souls, the fight at the Flying Wing, Indy being dragged by the truck, and of course the opening of the Ark.

    Interviews include:

The Temple Of Doom (41:09)

    This covers how the story of the second film grew out of leftover ideas from the first film, plus the screenwriters' fascination with India. Other areas covered include casting, and Harrison Ford's back problem during the shooting, Scenes discussed include the opening dance number, at the village, at the palace, the camp by the lake, the exotic dinner, the bugs scene, the spike chamber, the mine car chase sequence, and the suspension bridge.

    Interviews include:

The Last Crusade (35:03)

    Scenes discussed include the Venice scenes, the young Indiana Jones sequence, in the Austrian castle, in Berlin, in the blimp, being chased around at the borders of Germany, the tank chase, and of course the final scenes.

    Interviews include:

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Transfer Quality

Video

    All the featurettes are in full frame.

    The video quality is variable. The retrospective interviews are, of course, great, as are the film excerpts (presented in 2.35:1 letterboxed), which look like they are taken from the digitally remastered transfers.

    The behind-the-scenes footage is somewhat dated, looking slightly grainy, soft and with faded colours.

    There are several subtitle tracks on the disc: English, Spanish, Croatian, Greek, Hebrew, Portuguese, Serbian, and Slovenian. I turned on the English subtitle track briefly. Dialogue accuracy is okay.

    This is a single sided dual layered disc. The layer change occurs between The Temple Of Doom and The Last Crusade featurette in the Making The Trilogy section of the disc, therefore is not noticeable.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is only one audio track: English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded (192kb/s).

    As you would expect, the audio track is acceptable in quality, with clear dialogue and no issues with audio synchronization.

    I am not sure why it is surround encoded - probably for the film excerpts.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

    Since this is an extras disc, you better hope it has plenty of extras. Well, it does, but not as much as I would have liked. Where are the deleted scenes and the scripts? The web site does contain a number of additional items, and you need one of the DVDs inserted, as well as the InterActual player installed, before you can access the site.

Menu

    The menus are 16x9 enhanced, and extensively animated with background audio. In addition, there are animated menu transitions.

Featurette - The Stunts Of Indiana Jones (10:56)

    This focuses on the stunt work on all three films. Scenes covered include the Ravenwood bar scene, Indiana being dragged by a truck, coming out of the Obi-Wan night club, and the tank chase scene. The featurette is presented in full frame and Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded (192kb/s).

    Interviews include:

Featurette - The Sound Of Indiana Jones (13:20)

    This focuses on the foley effects on all three films. Sounds covered include whip cracks, gunshots, the giant boulder, punches, snakes, the opening of the ark, mine car chase, rats, and earthquakes. The featurette is presented in full frame and Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s).

    Interviews include:

Featurette - The Music Of Indiana Jones (12:22)

    This focuses on the musical score for all three films by composer John Williams. Melodies covered include the theme song, the love theme, atonal music, the Nazi theme, the opening of the Ark, the Thugee ceremony, the trek on elephants, and various themes from The Last Crusade. The featurette is presented in full frame and Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded (192Kb/s).

    Interviews include:

Featurette - The Light And Magic Of Indiana Jones (12:20)

    This focuses on the special effects for all three films. Scenes covered include the opening of the ark, the mine-car chase, the Indian village, the Indian palace, the cliff and the suspension bridge, the plane crash through the tunnel, the "leap of faith" bridge, and the accelerated aging of Donovan, . The featurette is presented in full frame and Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded (192Kb/s).

    Interviews include:

Theatrical Trailer - Raiders Of The Lost Ark (2:27),TheTemple Of Doom (1:22),The Last Crusade (2:07)

    All trailers are presented in 1.78:1 (16x9 enhanced) and Dolby Digital 5.1 (448kb/s), except for The Last Crusade, which is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded (192kb/s).

Teaser Trailer - Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1:00), The Last Crusade (1:24)

    All trailers are presented in 1.78:1 (16x9 enhanced). Raiders Of The Lost Ark is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 (192kb/s), and The Last Crusade in Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded (192kb/s).

Trailer- Re-issue Trailer - Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1:35)

    This is presented in 1.78:1 (16x9 enhanced) and Dolby Digital 2.0 (192kb/s).

Game- Preview - The Emperor's Tomb (1:45)

    This is presented in full frame and Dolby Digital 2.0 (192kb/s).

Web Links

    You are promised an "exclusive web link" if you put the disc into a PC with a DVD-ROM player and install InterActual Player.

DVD Credits

    This is a set of 12 stills.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on:

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on:

    The two versions appear identical apart from foreign language content.

Summary

    The Adventures of Indiana Jones: Bonus Material is the fourth disc in the Indiana Jones DVD Movie Collection, containing all the bonus material.

    The video transfer is variable in quality.

    The audio transfer quality is acceptable.

    The extras are mostly featurettes.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Christine Tham (read my biography)
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Review Equipment
DVDCustom HTPC (Asus A7N266-VM, Athlon XP 2400+, 512MB, LiteOn LTD-165S, WinXP, WinDVD5 Platinum), using RGB output
DisplaySony VPL-VW11HT LCD Projector, ScreenTechnics 16x9 matte white screen (254cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum/AVIA. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationDenon AVC-A1SE (upgraded)
SpeakersFront and surrounds: B&W CDM7NT, front centre: B&W CDMCNT, surround backs: B&W DM601S2, subwoofer: B&W ASW2500

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