Lord Of The Rings, The: The Fellowship Of The Ring (Limited Edition 4 Disc Collector`s Box Set) (UK)

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Power Can Be Held In The Smallest Of Things
Certificate: PG
Running Time: 568 mins
Retail Price: £44.99
Release Date:

Synopsis:
Based on J.R.R. Tolkien`s masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is an epic adventure of good against evil, the power of friendship and individual courage. The saga centers around an unassuming Hobbit named Frodo Baggins who inherits a Ring that would give a dark and powerful lord the power to enslave the world. With a loyal fellowship of elves, dwarves, men and a wizard, Frodo embarks on a heroic quest to destroy the One Ring and pave the way for the emergence of mankind.

This extended cut will contain 30 minutes of extra footage and will be presented as a 4 disc set. Discs 1 & 2 will contain the extended cut of the film, presented in 6.1 Dolby Digital EX Surround, Subtitles and closed captions. Discs 3 & 4 will contain six hours of original supplementary material - details to follow. This Box Set will also include exclusive `Argonath bookends` together with a host of other superb additions which will be announced at a later date.

Winner: Best Disc; Best Extras - DVD Reviewer Awards 2002

Special Features:
Disc 1:
Director Peter Jackson`s Extended Version of the film, presented in 6.1 Dolby Digital EX Surround, Subtitles and closed captions.

Disc 2:
Ten minute preview of The Two Towers
Houghton Mifflin Welcomes You To Middle Earth
Quest For the Ring: Fox Network TV Special
The Path To Middle Earth: Sci-Fi Channel TV Special
Eight internet documentary shorts
Three theatrical trailers
Six TV spots
Enya`s May It Be music video
EA Video Game preview
Preview of the extended version DVD presented by Peter Jackson

Disc 3 - "From Book to Vision":
Adapting the book into a screenplay & planning the film
Designing and building Middle-earth
Storyboards to pre-visualization
Weta Workshop visit - An up-close look at the weapons, armour, creatures and miniatures from the film
Atlas of Middle-earth: Tracing the journey of the Fellowship
An interactive map of New Zealand highlighting the location scouting process
Galleries of art and slideshows with commentaries by the artists
Guided tour of the wardrobe department
Footage from early meetings, moving storyboards and pre-visualization reels
And much more!

DISC 4 - "From Vision to Reality":
Bringing the characters to life
A day in the life of a hobbit
Principal photography: Stories from the set
Scale: Creating the illusion of size
Galleries of behind-the-scenes photographs and personal cast photos
Editorial and visual effects multi-angle progressions
Sound design demonstration
And much more!

Video Tracks:
Widescreen Anamorphic 2.35:1

Audio Tracks:
Dolby Digital Surround 2.0 English
DTS ES 6.1 English
Dolby Digital EX 5.1 English

Subtitle Tracks:
English
CC: English

Directed By:
Peter Jackson

Written By:




Starring:
Ian Holm
Liv Tyler
Cate Blanchett
Hugo Weaving
Viggo Mortensen
Sean Bean
Sean Astin
Ian McKellen
Elijah Wood
Orlando Bloom

Casting By:
John Hubbard
Amy MacLean
Ann Robinson
Liz Mullane
Victoria Burrows

Soundtrack By:
Enya
Howard Shore

Director of Photography:
Andrew Lesnie

Editor:
John Gilbert

Costume Designer:
Richard Taylor
Ngila Dickson

Production Designer:
Grant Major

Producer:
Barrie M. Osborne
Tim Sanders
Peter Jackson
Frances Walsh
Jamie Selkirk
Rick Porras
Ellen Somers

Executive Producer:
Bob Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein
Mark Ordesky
Michael Lynne
Robert Shaye

Distributor:
Entertainment In Video

Your Opinions and Comments

10 / 10
When New Line announced they were to release two versions of The Fellowship Of The Ring on DVD within three months of each other I was surprised. Not that there was to be an extended version of the film, but that it was due quite so soon. I thought such a release was inevitable and expected it in a box set accompanied by similarly treated versions of both The Two Towers and The Return Of The King, following the latter’s release on DVD.

In fairness to New Line and Peter Jackson this was not a sly move following the successful DVD release of Fellowship in August, as many have accused them of. Both releases were advertised well in advance so we, as consumers, knew what the deal was.

Personally I couldn’t see room for improvement of the film in its original form. Unlike so many films of late the effects do not outshine the human element nor overshadow the narrative. I’ve read the book many times since the age of twelve and am well aware of the differences between the source material and Jackson’s interpretation.

This new, extended version reinstates more material from the book. I won’t spoil it by saying exactly what is included in this version but if you have read the book then you’ll have a good idea of what it will be.

So what of the much touted extended version of the film? It reminds me a little of Aliens and its special edition. To me the theatrical cut was fantastic and yet the special edition somehow improved upon it, adding to an already great movie experience and it’s in that aspect that I can draw similarities to this version of Fellowship. Extended and additional scenes enrich characters that already had dimension and further texture the world and races of Middle Earth.

Of the four discs in the package the film is split over the first two with the break appropriately placed. The image transfer is marginally better than the previous release and the sound now boasts both DDEX and DTSES that will give your system a thorough workout.

I remember when I got the special edition of T2 I wondered when I’d get enough time to wade through the wealth of extras. Well in retrospect that was nothing compared to this. The two remaining discs house what is a mind-blowing amount of extras from documentaries to video clips to stills galleries - there’s a booklet included to help navigate them. What’s more it’s highly addictive viewing that is revealing and fascinating to watch. If all that isn’t enough the feature contains four informative commentary tracks. In a world where filmmakers resort to CGI far too much, it’s nice to see that Jackson and his team employ practical solutions as well as state of the art technology. It’s clear from all the members of cast and crew that they had a real passion for the project and it shows.

The Argonath bookends are smaller than they appeared in photographs but are of good quality being made from polystone and not cheap plastic as could have been. The discs, on the other hand, come in a fold out cardboard case and this is my only gripe – theses cases may look nice but they don’t last.

For fans of the book and anyone bowled over by the film this is an essential purchase.
posted by The Shenk-man on 13/11/2002 14:10
8 / 10
Well, the outer box looks good. The Argonath bookends are so so.
But I feel that those two things are not worth the extra GBP10.00 that I had to fork out for this collector`s gift set. If you`ve ever been to China, you`ll see souvenir statues of the terracotta warriors around and the Argonaths are about the same sort of quality.
They could have packed in quite a bit more goodies in that big box for the extra GBP10.00 but they didn`t.
Just get the extended director`s version instead and save yourself a tenner.
posted by Kamion on 16/11/2002 10:31
7 / 10
What I`ve not seen so far about this film, is any mention of what, for me, was the most unbelievable feature. I mean of course the 25 minutes of credits at the end of the second disk. Most of this seems to be a list of the members of some Lord of the Rings fan club, of no possible interest to anyone who isn`t a member. When I started playing the second part of the film, I thought, great, another 2 hours of movie. Not so. I don`t remember this from seeing the film at the cinema so I don`t know if this true of the other versions on DVD. I was left feeling a bit cheated by this obvious padding.

The bookends seem hardly heavy enough to perform their stated purpose. Save your money and have less to dust around.

The scene at Galadriel`s mirror is still missing the essential bit of dialogue before she asks Frodo if he wants to look into the mirror. At this point, for all he knows, it might be a bird bath.

Complaints aside, I did enjoy the movie but the extra/extended scenes didn`t add much. Presumably the original theatrical cut is on one disk, perhaps I should have bought that instead. If it weren`t for the padding in the credits, the extended version would have fit on one disk, Apocalypse Now Redux managed it. Before you know it, flipper disks will make a comeback.
posted by scrot on 25/11/2002 10:04