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James Bond Special Edition DVDs

DoubleOhhSevenDoubleOhhSeven
edited July 2011 in General Discussion Posts: 1,778
I loved these dvds so much when they came out around 2000. What made them so cool was that each film's menu was different and related to the theme's of the movie. Some of the collest menus I've ever seen IMHO. Anyway here's a link to all of them. Only DAD is missing. What are your favorites? Personally my favorites are OHMSS, Live and Let Die, The Spy Who Loved Me, Octopussy, and Diamonds Are Forever


Comments

  • Monsieur_AubergineMonsieur_Aubergine Top of the Eiffel Tower with a fly in my soup!
    Posts: 642
    They were excellent but most if not all of those in the video were US releases. The uk got similar but more lacklustre treatments i.e. No vocal activation introduction apart from on DAD. I just hope they give the 50th anniversary ones this special feel.
  • M_BaljeM_Balje Amsterdam, Netherlands
    edited July 2011 Posts: 4,516
    My Favorite Bond SE dvd's menu always be the one from Goldeneye and The World Is Not Enough. Twine R2have a difrent dvd menu then R1, in the style of the maintitle with music of The Themes. Moost strange one is Tomorrow Never Dies.

    http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/6202/twiner2nlmenu.jpg

    http://www.wicked-vision.com/images_vgl/SD2SD/J/JamesBond007-Goldeneye_SE_menu.jpg

    http://www.digitalbits.com/reviews/tomorrowneverdies3.jpg

  • DoubleOhhSevenDoubleOhhSeven
    Posts: 1,778
    The link to TND won't open. Im curious to see it.
  • VirageVirage
    edited July 2011 Posts: 1,856
    My local video shop stocks them

    I Want the 50th DVDs/Blurays to have these menus with the Ultimate addition extras (well maybe a bit more....)(DAD; Icarus/Diamond, CR: A Roulette or a Ace ect. ,QOS: The Q)

    3:36- My First bond memory

    interesting to see the menus for the films that i'd only seen on Ultimate
  • boldfingerboldfinger
    Posts: 5,767
    I´m purist when it comes to menues. What I loath is the long time many newer DVDs take until they present the menu. For that reason alone I love the Bond SE DVDs, you just pop them in, and almost immediately you can start the film.
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    Posts: 13,355
    I´m purist when it comes to menues. What I loath is the long time many newer DVDs take until they present the menu. For that reason alone I love the Bond SE DVDs, you just pop them in, and almost immediately you can start the film.
    Or ones that have annoying trailers before they start that you're unable to skip.

    I too hope EON do something special for these new DVD/BDs, better not be a rush job.
  • 00Beast00Beast
    Posts: 4,762
    Yes, @DoubleOhhSeven, I love these DVDs! LALD menu is great with the different take on the Bond Theme and the Baron Samedi laugh!
  • DoubleOhhSevenDoubleOhhSeven
    Posts: 1,778
    My local video shop stocks them

    I Want the 50th DVDs/Blurays to have these menus with the Ultimate addition extras (well maybe a bit more....)(DAD; Icarus/Diamond, CR: A Roulette or a Ace ect. ,QOS: The Q)

    3:36- My First bond memory

    interesting to see the menus for the films that i'd only seen on Ultimate
    Yeah I'd never seen a few of these either. They're all really cool.
  • PropertyOfALadyPropertyOfALady Colders Federation CEO
    Posts: 3,675
    To replace the deleted video. If someone has them in English I give you permission to upload them if you like. The series menus through DAD.



  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    I love the Special Edition DVD's. They are the best out there. Shame the blu-ray's didn't have the awesome and unique menu designs as the SE DVD's.
  • StrogStrog
    Posts: 684
    The SE DVDs are my favorite as well. In addition to both the menus and nostalgia (they were the first set I owned) I much prefer the coloring timing. Some films in the UEs were too tinkered with and seemed off. (Some HD broadcasts I've caught on cable, however, seem to have fixed this. I don't own the Blu-rays so I've always wondered if they were improved, or if the HDTV masters were somehow different.)
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    Strog wrote: »
    The SE DVDs are my favorite as well. In addition to both the menus and nostalgia (they were the first set I owned) I much prefer the coloring timing. Some films in the UEs were too tinkered with and seemed off. (Some HD broadcasts I've caught on cable, however, seem to have fixed this. I don't own the Blu-rays so I've always wondered if they were improved, or if the HDTV masters were somehow different.)

    @Strog, I'd highly recommend the blu-rays. I've seen many members on this forum who were against making the leap, thinking it offered them nothing, until they finally give them a watch and saw what they were missing. I know some restorations have received criticism (I'm not an expert so can't say either way), but the sheer joy of seeing the likes of Connery's 60s movies as if they were filmed yesterday is an experience every Bond fan should have.
  • PropertyOfALadyPropertyOfALady Colders Federation CEO
    Posts: 3,675
    Just think how glorious these would be in HD.
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    The Special Edition DVD's has the best menus and features but the Ultimate Editions/Blu-Rays have the best video quality. So having both is a win win. :-bd
  • PropertyOfALadyPropertyOfALady Colders Federation CEO
    Posts: 3,675
    Anybody got English?
  • mattjoesmattjoes Julie T. and the M.G.'s
    Posts: 7,021
    I can't pick between these menus, I love them all. Took me a while to find them in my special edition DVDs, since my DVD player was set by default to use the Spanish-language menus, which are not animated; they're just still images taken from the animated versions. I didn't know the animated menus existed until I saw them in a trailer for the Bond collection in the Die Another Day DVD. I specifically changed my DVD settings to use English-language menus because of the Bond DVDs. I haven't gone back since.

    The one image of the menus that always comes to my mind is the slot machine that reveals the 007 logo in Diamonds Are Forever. With the Vegas setting of the film, I wonder why Maurice Binder didn't insert some similar imagery in the title sequence (though it's beautiful as it is).

    I hadn't seen the Dr. No animated menu before (I only own the Ultimate Edition of that one). So colorful and lively. Fantastic.
  • PropertyOfALadyPropertyOfALady Colders Federation CEO
    Posts: 3,675
    Cool! You should post the English version on YouTube.
  • BT3366BT3366
    Posts: 1,917
    This thread takes me back to how cool it was with that first set. It must have been one of the fan pages in the summer of '99 that revealed all the extra features for that first wave of 7 or so films that told me I needed to invest in this. I really thought DVD would be a passing fad and had no real interest prior to this.

    I sold my VHS collection on eBay that Christmas season to finance my first DVD player and Bond set. I got an RCA player and the first Bond collection that first Sunday after Xmas and seeing the films this way was a night and day difference. The hardest part from there was waiting for the next two sets to come out.

    Those menus really added to the excitement, all being something new to discover along with the bonus of the clearer versions of the films and the features to be discovered. And no rewinding, fast-forwarding to get to your favorite scenes, just push a button and find that chapter.

    While the blu-rays were a step up picture wise, there wasn't that real thrill with the first sets, and the generic menus don't add to the experience. I get frustrated when reverting from one part of it to go back to the main menu and the music blaring when trying to get to another part of it.
  • ToTheRightToTheRight
    Posts: 16,162
    Strog wrote: »
    The SE DVDs are my favorite as well. In addition to both the menus and nostalgia (they were the first set I owned) I much prefer the coloring timing. Some films in the UEs were too tinkered with and seemed off. (Some HD broadcasts I've caught on cable, however, seem to have fixed this. I don't own the Blu-rays so I've always wondered if they were improved, or if the HDTV masters were somehow different.)

    The Blu-rays for OHMSS and DAF immediately pop to mind as ones that improved upon the UE DVDs. LALD as well.
    I'm tempted to go back and try to re-collect that SE set. I recently got TMWTGG and TSWLM and found the colors to be stunning.

    I'd say the SE DVD of TLD is far more accurate to the cinematic version as well. In fact the Blu-ray does not improve the color timing whatsoever. The sunrise shot in the desert is an excellent example where Lowery didn't do the colors justice. In the cinema and SE version, it's a beautiful golden sunrise. On the UE and Blu, the colors are extremely muted.
    It was a treat collecting the SE DVDs. The menus were extremely cool, although I could do without the "activate" button. Still each menu fit the tone of the film.
  • mattjoesmattjoes Julie T. and the M.G.'s
    Posts: 7,021
    PropertyOfALady wrote: »
    Cool! You should post the English version on YouTube.

    Maybe I will, but it's no picnic; it would take a while!
  • mattjoesmattjoes Julie T. and the M.G.'s
    Posts: 7,021
    ToTheRight wrote: »
    Strog wrote: »
    The SE DVDs are my favorite as well. In addition to both the menus and nostalgia (they were the first set I owned) I much prefer the coloring timing. Some films in the UEs were too tinkered with and seemed off. (Some HD broadcasts I've caught on cable, however, seem to have fixed this. I don't own the Blu-rays so I've always wondered if they were improved, or if the HDTV masters were somehow different.)

    The menus were extremely cool, although I could do without the "activate" button.

    Admittedly the "activate" buttons were not a practical thing to include, but it's so cool to have to "activate your navigation system" that I don't really care.
  • PropertyOfALadyPropertyOfALady Colders Federation CEO
    Posts: 3,675
    mattjoes wrote: »
    PropertyOfALady wrote: »
    Cool! You should post the English version on YouTube.

    Maybe I will, but it's no picnic; it would take a while!

    That's okay. No rush!
  • mattjoesmattjoes Julie T. and the M.G.'s
    edited December 2018 Posts: 7,021
    @PropertyOfALady It never happened in English because, well, I'm too lazy, but someone else did it!

    https://youtube.com/channel/UCjRX6WrQvufX1ED8u_FbkRw/videos

    Especially interesting for me are the menus of the 1997 DVDs. I'd never seen them before, and had no idea they had a different design. Great work with these uploads indeed.

    Edit: And some of the SE DVDs themselves have alternate menus for the R2 versions. Fascinating.
  • PropertyOfALadyPropertyOfALady Colders Federation CEO
    Posts: 3,675
    It's okay, @mattjoes I completely forget about this. Wasn't worried in the slightest. Those are awesome though. My nastalgia just went back to a time when DVD menus were actually cool looking and people put effort into them.
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