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Outstanding
Achievements in DVD for 2004
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 BEST
DVD - STUDIO |
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Warner
Bros.
Never in the entire history of The
Bitsys has this category been so easy to decide. With
only a very few exceptions, Warner Bros. simply dominated the
field in 2004, releasing great movies with top-notch picture and
sound quality. Whether it was beloved classics, obscure catalog
titles, new films or TV product, Warner knocked one release
after another out of the park. Their classic films in particular
are handled with great respect - not only do you get
meticulously restored picture and sound, but the Warner
Night at the Movies format recreates the ENTIRE film
going experience of the past, complete with all of the newsreels
and shorts that many of these great films were originally shown
in theaters with. And while we didn't mention it in the Best
DVD - Packaging category, kudos to Warner for
maintaining the style of the original classic movie poster
artwork on their catalog titles. It exemplifies what we loved
about the studio in 2004. By and large, they were a class act.
|
THE RUNNERS-UP
Believe it or not, Paramount
is quietly sneaking up to become one of the best DVD studios out
there, releasing high-quality film special editions at very
affordable prices and tons of great TV titles too. Home
Vision has been quietly racking up a number of nice
art house and foreign film DVD releases. And how could we go a
year without mentioning our beloved Criterion
Collection? The choice is simple. You can either
spend thousands of dollars on tuition at film school... or you
can amass the Criterion Collection and learn pretty much the
same thing. |
|
| BEST
DVD - MUSIC (NON-LIVE) |
 |
Peter
Gabriel: Play - The Videos
(Warner Music/Real World)
While Criterion's
Beastie
Boys Video Anthology remains the standard
against which all music video DVDs must be measured, Peter
Gabriel's Play comes
awfully close to establishing a new standard all its own. These
are some of the most innovative videos of all time, made back
when music videos still mattered. On disc, they're all presented
in their original aspect ratio (some full frame, some anamorphic
widescreen), and they sound better than you've ever heard them
before with 96/24 DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1 and stereo audio
options. Plus, you get behind-the-scenes material, beautiful
packaging, a 24-page booklet and interactive bells and whistles
(the good kind for a change) like the ability to create a play
list for straight-thru play or looping. As an artist and
musician, Gabriel's always been on the cutting edge of
technology. Play on DVD
continues that trend perfectly. |
THE RUNNERS-UP
At the other end of the spectrum, the videos on
Nick
Cave & the Bad Seeds: The Videos are all
pretty terrible... and Nick and the boys know it. What's great
about this DVD are the dismissive intros to each video by the
band (and, of course, the music). If you aren't a fan of the
heyday of MGM's musicals, the wonderfully restored
That's
Entertainment! Trilogy Gift Set might just
convert you. Kevin Bacon has the chance to ask the world to
dance in Paramount's
Footloose:
Special Collector's Edition, complete with a
stunning new 5.1 audio mix. And that's not Lake Minnetonka!
Rediscover the greatness of his Purple Majesty in Warner's nifty
Purple
Rain: 20th Anniversary Special Edition.
Finally, Palm Pictures'
Tom
Dowd & The Language of Music beautifully
profiles the life and work one of music's greatest producers. |
|
| BEST
DVD - MUSIC (LIVE/CONCERT) |
 |
Live
Aid
(Warner Music)
Few truly great concerts have happened since Max Yasgur loaned
some New York farmland to an enterprising bunch of guys planning
Woodstock. And while all
share in the emotional pool of historic settings, none have had
the humanistic impact that came from Geldof's Live
Aid project for African famine relief. Given the
number of bands involved and the original restrictions on
recording the concert, Live Aid
shouldn't even exist on DVD at all. Spread over 4 discs, this
set is an amazing document of a music event that's unlikely to
be equalled. There are over 10 hours of great performance
included here, along with the original Do
They Know It's Christmas and We
Are the World videos, a short BBC news piece on the
famine itself and more. There's a lot of music history to be
found in this Digipack, and the proceeds from the DVD sales will
continue to serve the cause. If there was a better concert DVD
in 2004, we didn't see it. |
THE RUNNERS-UP
Deadheads are nothing if not completists and Monterey Video's
2-disc release of
The
Grateful Dead Movie should more than satisfy
even the most obsessive fan. You'll relieve one of The Who's
best performances ever with
The
Who: Live at The Isle of Wight Festival 1970 -
an absolutely essential DVD. A somewhat less famous music event
from that same year is chronicled in New Line's 2-disc
documentary
Festival
Express. EMI Video's
The
Beatles: The First U.S. Visit is a priceless
record of the band (and events) that started it all, complete
with all of the early black and white footage, impromptu
interviews, behind-the-scenes bits and the classic Ed
Sullivan Show appearances.
The
Rolling Stones: Rock and Roll Circus shows an
evolving era of music where ideas defined the time and the
bands. Finally, on a more theatrical note, one of Stephen
Sondheim's best musicals made its much-appreciated debut on DVD
this year...
Sweeney
Todd. |
|
| BEST
DVD - AUDIO COMMENTARY |
 |
George
Lucas & Walter Murch
THX
1138: The George Lucas Director's Cut - Special Edition
(Warner Bros.)
George Lucas has been beaten up quite a bit over the past few
years for his Star Wars
prequels, but his commentary on THX
1138 goes a long way to rehabilitating his
reputation. Lucas and long-time collaborator Walter Murch engage
in a fascinating discussion of the film's ideas and themes
instead of the usual play-by-play stuff so many director's
commentaries become. Lucas is clearly reconnecting with his
creative roots here. He has a lot to say, and you can hear in
his voice that he's very much invested in this film. With Star
Wars having taken up so much of his time over the
years, it's nice to have old school Lucas back for a while. |
THE RUNNERS-UP
Speaking of ideas and themes, philosophers Cornel West and Ken
Wilber ponder the Matrix
films WAY more than you ever will on their compelling tracks on
The
Ultimate Matrix Collection. Guillermo del Toro
is a master of the audio commentary and his thoughts on
Hellboy:
Director's Cut are lively, engaging and funny.
Frank Darabont had a change of heart about recording a
commentary for
The
Shawshank Redemption: Special Edition and the
result is very detailed and extremely entertaining. We love
commentaries that feature reminiscences of classic films, and
Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke share a lot of warmth and
laughter on their track for the
Mary
Poppins: 40th Anniversary Edition. And although
you may never listen to all four commentaries in their entirety,
seemingly the entire population of New Zealand speaks their mind
on
The
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - Special Extended
DVD Edition. |
|
| BEST
DVD - DOCUMENTARY |
 |
The
Fog of War
(Sony/Columbia TriStar)
Errol Morris won an Oscar for Best
Documentary Feature for this thought-provoking portrait of
former Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara. In it, McNamara
offers lessons that he's learned over the years in trying to
understand the Cold War events in which he played a key role.
What's most interesting here is what he doesn't say. McNamara
was one of the best and brightest minds of his generation and
yet, looking back, he seems pretty shocked by just how wrong he
was about many things, and how close he and his contemporaries
came to bringing the world to destruction as a result. Morris
successfully juggles a lot of complex issues in this film,
political, social and moral. In a year in which so many
documentaries approached these same topics from a strictly
partisan perspective, The Fog of War
became more effective and relevant than any of them. |
THE RUNNERS-UP
This was a great year for documentaries and every one of these
is well worth your time and money. Andrew Jarecki's
Capturing
the Friedmans is a truly disturbing examination
of an apparently normal family shattered by allegations of child
molestation.
Touching
the Void is an amazing survival tale that would
seem unbelievable in a Hollywood retelling but is all too real
in this combination of re-created events and interviews. Morgan
Spurlock deserves a break today after eating nothing but McFood
for a month in the darkly comic
Super
Size Me.
Tupac:
Resurrection gave us new insights on the
controversial music icon. Bibliophiles everywhere should adore
Stone
Reader, Mark Moskowitz's valentine to the power
of books. Jehane Noujaim's
Control
Room provided a compelling look at the War on
Terror from another perspective. And in a year of contentious
Presidential politicking,
Outfoxed:
Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism and yes...
Michael Moore's über-controversial
Fahrenheit
9/11... were both fascinating viewing (whether
you agree with them or not). |
|
| BEST
DVD - ANIMATED FILM (DOMESTIC & ANIME) |
 |
The
Iron Giant: Special Edition
(Warner Bros.)
Tokyo
Godfathers
(Sony/Columbia TriStar)
One of the best animated films of the last decade finally got
some respect on DVD in 2004. Warner Bros. made a complete botch
of their original release of The Iron
Giant, both theatrically and on DVD... pretty
impressive when you consider that virtually everyone in the
world loves this movie once they get a chance to see it. This
long-awaited special edition ensures that The
Iron Giant will have another opportunity to enthrall
audiences. Meanwhile, in the often incomprehensible (to American
audiences) world of Japanese anime, director Satoshi Kon
delivered a heartfelt remake of John Ford's classic Three
Godfathers. Amazingly enough, it works beautifully.
Funny, touching and gorgeous to look at, Tokyo
Godfathers is anime for people who hate anime. |
THE RUNNERS-UP
Some of the very best cartoons of all time (including What's
Opera, Doc?) are finally collected in the
Looney
Tunes: Golden Collection - Volume 2. Home
Vision rediscovered a nearly lost and forgotten gem of animation
with their release of
Animal
Farm. Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt compiled
the best animation showcase in years with
The
Animation Show, Volume One.
Ghost
in the Shell 2: Innocence was a disturbing but
visually stunning follow-up to the 1995 anime classic. We were
charmed by the delightfully strange
The
Triplets of Belleville. And Disney continued to
raid their vaults with impressive two-disc special editions of
three of their beloved classics:
Alice
in Wonderland,
Aladdin
and
Mulan. |
|
| BEST
DVD - TV SERIES PRESENTATION (TIE) |
 |
Freaks
and Geeks: The Complete Series
(Shout! Factory)
The
Twilight Zone: The Definitive Edition - Season 1
(Image Entertainment)
Shout! Factory's Freaks and Geeks:
The Complete Series is nothing less than a love
letter to the criminally short-lived TV classic. While some
discs boast stickers boasting "Over Three Hours of Bonus
Content!", the extras on the set could conceivably take an
entire school year to wade through. Meanwhile, Image
Entertainment's superlative box set of the complete first season
of Rod Serling's classic The Twilight
Zone was nothing less than outstanding. The aptly
named Definitive Edition
marks the first time these episodes have been put into broadcast
order, and they've been remastered with new HD transfers from
the original negatives to boot. The set is bolstered with tons
of rare and interesting bonus material, including isolated music
scores, audio commentaries and recollections by cast and crew
members, and even a hefty 466-page companion book. We've
certainly crossed over into the Zone
before on DVD, but we've never done it quite like this. |
THE RUNNERS-UP
Seinfeld,
the Star Wars of TV shows,
finally made its long-awaited DVD debut in 2004, and the first
three seasons proved that it was actually worth the wait. If you
haven't discovered the funniest TV show in decades, Warner and
the BBC made it easy for you by releasing
The
Office: The Complete Series One & Two and the Special.
And you can re-discover one of the funniest TV shows ever with
the first two volumes of
SCTV
Network 90. Speaking of funniest TV shows
ever...
The
Simpsons finally got around to releasing the
great stuff (as opposed to just the good stuff they'd been
doing) with
The
Complete Fourth and
Fifth
Seasons (Season Four... the best season ever).
And for the aficionado of speculative fiction, all three seasons
of
Star
Trek: The Original Series were given some
respect, while the cult hit
Farscape
got the DVD release it should have been given from the get-go by
ADV with the release of the new
Starburst
Editions. Special mention also has to go out to
Image Entertainment's work on the remaining seasons of
The
Dick Van Dyke Show (one of our Bitsy
winners from last year for its first two seasons). |
|
| MOST
SURPRISING DVD |
|
THX
1138: The George Lucas Director's Cut - Special Edition
(Warner Bros.)
Who'd have thought that the most
satisfying George Lucas DVD of 2004 would not be the Star
Wars Trilogy? This 2-disc special edition of Lucas's
first feature is surprisingly thoughtful and well-produced. The
film itself looks and sounds fantastic, and it holds up better
than anyone could have predicted. Unlike Star
Wars, the new digital "enhancements" that
Lucas' made here actually don't suck. Better still, the audio
commentary track and documentary material included on this set
is exceptional (taking home Bitsys
in both categories this year). THX
1138 represents a path not taken for Lucas. He claims
that he's going to be returning to small scale filmmaking like
this once he clears Episode III
off his plate. We sure hope so. As we said in our review of the
DVD, if he's got more films like this left in him... you can bet
we'll stand in line to see them. |
THE RUNNERS-UP
Only a few DVDs really surprised us in 2004, but Blue
Underground's
The
Final Countdown: Limited Edition would have to
be near the top of the list. Paramount certainly delivered one
of their best special editions to date with
Top
Gun: Special Collector's Edition, boasting
great picture and sound as well as in-depth extras. And we'd
begun to despair of ever seeing a really good special edition of
Luc Besson's
The
Fifth Element, but Sony's
Ultimate
Edition delivered the goods and then some. It's
still one of the best-looking DVDs on the market, and that
featurette on the life and work of production designers
Jean-Claude Mézières and Jean Giraud (a.k.a.
Moebius) was the bomb. |
|
| BEST
USE OF DVD FEATURES |
 |
"Enter
the Web" multi-angle set footage
Spider-Man
2: Widescreen Special Edition
(Sony/Columbia TriStar)
In an era when so many studios are either dumbing down their
DVD releases to squeeze more blood from the stone, or clogging
them up with forced promotional material and absolutely
meaningless bells and whistles, it's truly exciting to see a
feature that makes innovative use of the technology in a way
that actually SERVES THE FILM. The Enter
the Web multi-angle presentation from Spider-Man
2 does just that, providing a real-time look at the
making of a key action sequence in the film through the use
different camera angles positioned around the soundstage. This
is as close as you'll get to being on a film set without joining
the Teamsters. |
THE RUNNERS-UP
None.
Yeah, we know. There are lots of interactive extras being
produced for DVD these days, so why no runners-up? Come on...
set-top games might be fun for the kids (for about five
minutes), but do they really contribute anything of value to the
film experience? Nope. Meanwhile, seamless branching has become
almost passe, and there's not much on the ROM side worth your
time other than the usual script-to-screen stuff. We'd rather
enjoy our DVDs in our home theaters thank you, not on our PCs.
If there's a weak category in The
Bitsys this year, this is it. Mark our words, it's
only going to get worse with HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc on the way.
"Look! The disc downloads new menu screens from the
Internet every week! Oh, wow... you mean I can really buy that
GAP sweater Will Smith is wearing in the film with the click of
my remote?" Lovely. Read our lips: If it doesn't enhance
our understanding or appreciation of the film, we don't give a
rip. |
|
| BEST
DVD EASTER EGG |
 |
Parent
to Child About Sex
The
Girl Next Door: Unrated Version
(20th Century Fox)
Okay... so The Girl Next Door
isn't Citizen Kane, but if
you give it a spin, we think you'll find a good deal of guilty
pleasure in it. Better still, the 1960s vintage sex education
film hidden on this disc is the perfect Easter egg. It's
bizarrely funny and well worth the hunt. "George, I'm
really pleased that you can tell me about this. Perhaps it's
because we've known each other for so long..." Damn, it's
no wonder our parents were so sexually repressed. |
THE RUNNERS-UP
Oh, how movie stars love to punk each other. It's a favorite
Easter egg theme and they abound this year. Dominic Monaghan
provides a funny "interview" with co-star Elijah Wood
on
The
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - Special Extended
DVD Edition, while Alfred Molina gets a lesson
in the right way to play a supervillain on
Spider-Man
2. We have to admit taking a geekish pleasure
in watching Boba Fett take potshots at an Ewok on the gag reel
hidden on the
Star
Wars Trilogy. And absurdism rules the day at
every turn on
Aqua
Teen Hunger Force: Volume 2, nowhere more so
than in the cheerful puppet song, "This is your left and
that's your left..." |
|
| BEST
DVD-AUDIO (DVD-A) |
 |
T.
Rex: Electric Warrior
(Rhino)
Dying young does wonders for a musician's
career. It happened that way for Janis, Hendrix and Morrison,
and it worked for T. Rex main man Marc Bolan too. The impish
pixie started out as an acoustically cosmic gnome and quickly
evolved into an androgynous sex god. Electric
Warrior forever ensured T. Rex and Bolan's iconic
place in music history. The Bolan "boogie factor"
resulted in a truly great Glam Rock album that's as vital today
as it was back in 1971. Having it expertly remastered in
high-resolution DVD-Audio makes the legend even more large than
life. Thrill to the sheer "wow" factor of this disc's
surround sound mix, or the even better stereo presentation.
Outstanding! |
THE RUNNERS-UP
Neil Young's four "lost" albums, on hold for years
because Neil disliked the digital coldness of CDs, have finally
stepped back into our hearts on DVD-Audio.
American
Stars 'n Bars,
Re-ac-tor,
the unmatched
On
the Beach and
Hawks
& Doves each showcase different sides of
Young's talented explorations. Porcupine Tree's extraordinary
progressive work,
In
Absentia, finds surround sound very amenable in
the new DTS issue. And for those souls (you know who you are)
who couldn't abide the SACD version of Elton John's
Goodbye
Yellow Brick Road, Universal Music found it in
their hearts to release an equally fine DVD-Audio version as
well. |
|
| BEST
SUPER AUDIO CD (SACD) |
|
 |
Elton
John on SACD
(Universal Music/Island)
Elton
John
Captain
Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
Goodbye
Yellow Brick Road
Honky
Chateau
Madman
Across the Water
Peachtree
Road
Tumbleweed
Connection
Yep. The entire series. Just think of these Hybrid reissues
(including 2003's Goodbye Yellow
Brick Road if you like) as an Elton
John: The Best of His Best Years Box Set. That's
exactly what it is, just without the box. There are seven
classic albums remastered on high-resolution SACD, complete with
original cover art, liner notes and rare bonus tracks. Each
features absolutely astounding surround re-mixes (credit Greg
Penny) that successfully heighten the beauty of the original
music. This was a massive undertaking, and the result is
stunning. Consider them essential. |
THE RUNNERS-UP
The new surround mix on Nine Inch Nails'
The
Downward Spiral: Deluxe Edition really shines,
with its haunting and beautifully inviting sound. For classic
Southern rock, The Allman Brothers Band's
Live
at the Fillmore East and
Eat
a Peach are hard to beat on SACD - they almost
sound as though they were recorded yesterday. And troubled
troubadour Nick Drake's posthumous success is indicative of his
continuing relevance. The SACD release of
A
Treasury compiles the best of Drake's limited
output in full high-resolution glory. |
|
on
to Other DVD Awards for 2004 |
|
