DVD Easter Eggs

October 3, 2003 11:24 PM

DVD Easter Eggs... 1182 of 'em.
posted by crunchland (12 comments total)

I've always loved easter eggs, especially the self-aware ones like stuff in Zoolander and Kevin Smith's stuff (they'll often say something like "if you wound up here, you must be a total nerd that uses the internet too much").

However, a few have gone too far. A while ago, a friend told me he bought LA Story on DVD and although it's one of the funniest comedies to anyone that's ever lived in LA, he said it had paltry extras and was a ripoff. When I checked an easter egg site the one featured here, I saw there were quite a few extra bits he didn't get to see. I told him about it and he loved the new parts, but was pissed someone had to dig up instructions for him.

Aside from that, the most obvious question is how the hell do people find these? Is it hunt and peck or do people that worked on the disc leak info to these sites?
posted by mathowie at 12:25 AM on October 4, 2003

Well all the content is there. And Assuming its accessible via the user menus it has to be linked into the table hat holds the index to all the data. NOw that much being said.. i expect most of the stuff if found by ppl copying dvds and come across things that arent normally found.
posted by MrLint at 12:49 AM on October 4, 2003

Anyone have the special edition memento? The entire disc is essentially an easter egg. Good side- being able to play the movie in correect order. Bad side - going through a page of instructions to do so.
posted by efalk at 4:05 AM on October 4, 2003

I just got Futurama season three for my birthday. And I thought it was pretty funny that it says "easter eggs" right there on the back of the box. I've never seen anything like that.

Thanks for the link crunchland! An amazing resource!
posted by soundofsuburbia at 4:28 AM on October 4, 2003

Anyone have the special edition memento? The entire disc is essentially an easter egg. Good side- being able to play the movie in correect order. Bad side - going through a page of instructions to do so.

i had it but quickly got rid of it as the menus were annoying. it was the worst interface i've ever seen on a dvd.
posted by dobbs at 9:32 AM on October 4, 2003

it was the worst interface i've ever seen on a dvd.

Even more annoying than the Simpsons match-the-face? Man, that menu kills me.
posted by einarorn at 10:27 AM on October 4, 2003

And I thought it was pretty funny that it says "easter eggs" right there on the back of the box.

Better selling point than "Interactive menus", though. I'd sure hate to plunk down 20 or more bucks for a disc only to find out it had those non-interactive menus ... how would one watch the movie?

As to the Simpsons DVD match-the-face game, I just keep hitting the 'menu' key on my remote and bypass that. Now that's interactive!

Great link, crunchland ... this site helped me figure out how to get to the secrets on the first Harry Potter disc. Not worth the trouble, though.
posted by WolfDaddy at 11:37 AM on October 4, 2003

Aside from that, the most obvious question is how the hell do people find these? Is it hunt and peck or do people that worked on the disc leak info to these sites?

Depends on how hidden they are, I guess. The hidden stuff on all the Babylon 5 sets I managed to find on my own. Found a "hidden" option with the first season, and when the second season came out, I tried similar things and found it again. Which was nice, cause they had some pretty good blooper reels.

I don't mind small hidden extras, but I hate it when they hide big features. Like the mentioned Memento. What the hell is the point adding this extra value when most people aren't even going to know that it's not there? I dunno.
posted by mkn at 6:13 PM on October 4, 2003

maybe because they don't really want you to watch the movie back to front?
posted by crunchland at 7:13 PM on October 4, 2003

This stuff just makes me hate the dumb DVD region scheme more.

Almost all those DVDs are Region 1 (USA), and that's because for Region 4 (Australia, NZ) they just get the movie, stick it on a disc and package it. We get crappy extras, few commentaries and not very many easter eggs. And we pay through the nose for the discs.

The list of special features on a Region 4 DVD tends to read:

- Picture Disc
- Interactive Menus
- Trailer
- Subtitles

I really don't like being taken advantage of by movie distributors.
posted by sycophant at 10:40 PM on October 4, 2003

Curious, I just looked up the instructions to the Memento easter egg discussed here. Sounds easy enough, definitely not a "page of instructions":

"Go to the Clock and select "C" in the menus that come up until you get to the one where you have to put the pictures in sequence. Going left to right number them 1-4. To see Memento in chronological order, flip the above around; 3-4-1-2. The movie begins with backwards credits and ends with the beginning going forward."
posted by Fofer at 11:15 PM on October 4, 2003

This stuff just makes me hate the dumb DVD region scheme more.

Can't you get a region-free player? (or *whispers* hack the one you have?)

I love interactive menus and Easter Eggs, if done well, they're their own art form. I also have and love the special edition Memento, and I especially love how clever the menu is. Mine came with instructions on how to work it for those who didn't want to play, and you can set up most DVD players to just skip the menu altogether and just play the damn movie if you find menus annoying to deal with. (*mutter* Philistines and Luddites...)
posted by biscotti at 12:31 AM on October 5, 2003