Disc Four


The Introduction is done by three of the hobbits: Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan and Elijah Wood. Again, they talk like we've never used a DVD player before. Listen close to Elijah. He's developing an English (or perhaps Kiwi) accent. Boyd has some advice I doubt a lot of people will take: "And remember… do get out of the house occasionally."

Filming The Return Of The King - Cameras In Middle-earth runs 73 minutes, is a comprehensive documentary on the making of The Return Of The King. It features interviews with Jackson and all of the principal actors, which is nice.

The very first shot was actually from Return of the King on the stairs of Cirith Ungol, where Frodo tells Sam to go home. It goes on from there, with things like problems on the set, a surprise visit by Sir Edmund Hillary, Sean Astin fighting thin air where Shelob has to be, how Viggo helped Sean with Sam's wedding scene, and many more anecdotes. You definitely want to watch this. Also in this section are 70 Production photos viewable as a slideshow or independently.

Visual Effects - WETA Digital is a 40-minute piece covering the digital shots in The Return Of The King, all 1,488 of them. To put that in perspective, Fellowship had 540 special effects shots and The Two Towers had 799 shots. With each year of production, WETA got better, and doing one film made it possible for them to do the next one. The featurette covers the Battle of the Pelennor Fields work, such as the Rohirrim cavalry charge, Shelob and the Mumakils (oliphaunts), including how Legolas did his Fred Flintstone slide down the Mumakil.

There's also a demonstration on The Mumakil Battle, a 30-second demo showing the Pre-Viz, Environment, Animation, Massive and Rough Composite shots in multiple windows, with an audio commentary from WETA folks to describe each part.

Post Production: Journey's End is a four-part series. Part one is Editorial: Completing The Trilogy, where Jackson and his editor, Jamie Selkirk, discuss the editing process used for all three films, and the decisions they made on what scenes to use or omit.

Music For Middle-earth is mostly dedicated to Howard Shore's score, but it also goes into Pippin's song, and Billy Boyd really did sing it. Philippa Boyens went out with some of the actors one night and saw Billy singing karaoke and decided to put his talent to use. John "Denethor" Noble was also quite effusive in his praise.

The Soundscapes Of Middle-earth deals with the sound effects in the film, from swords clanging to an avalanche of skulls. They get into Shelob, the Minas Tirith and Pelennor Fields fights and the collapse of Sauron's tower.








The End Of All Things looks at the editing/visual effects parts, with the added fun of the tight schedule for the film. Peter Jackson was splitting time between cutting the movie and shooting pickups, while Howard Shore was working on music right up to the very end. Jackson ended up moving to London to work with Shore, which made things difficult because post-production was going on in New Zealand.

The Passing Of An Age is a 24-minute segment on the world premiere of the movie, which was done in Wellington as a thank-you to the city and country since it hosted the production. Jackson, little devil he is, pushed New Line into a corner and got the premiere there rather than in L.A. The result was 145,000 people in Wellington, which must be half the population of New Zealand in and of itself (yes I'm joking). Air New Zealand flew a jumbo jet with Frodo and Sam painted on the side over the parade, and even Prime Minister Helen Clark and the national Parliament got involved. It caps off with the big Oscar win in L.A.

Cameron Duncan - The Inspiration For "Into The West" is a touching 32-minute piece on a 16-year-old aspiring New Zealand filmmaker who had won awards, but was stricken with cancer in his teens. The song "Into The West" was inspired by Cameron's film Strike Zone. Duncan's short films Strike Zone and DFK6498 are also included. This kid could have been great. Cancer is evil.

DVD-ROM contents aren't easily accessed, and getting Flash updated was a royal pain in the butt. Once I got it working, there were six features, one of which, A Journal for The Ages, isn't live yet. Constructing Middle-earth provides a half dozen architect sketches for different buildings in RotK.

The Murals of Rivendell shows six murals from Elven history, with text for each mural by Allan Lee explaining the history of the mural. Saruman's Book is a book written in Elvish. I'm sure someone will enjoy it. Character Palantir is broken on my disc. It had an error on loading. The Cast & Crew Palantir worked, showing the timeline for work from all of the major actors and crew on the film.

Score: 10 out of 10

All artwork ?2004 New Line Home Entertainment, used with permission.

-- Andy Patrizio

The Movie
The new footage isn't necessary but it is nice. 10
The Video
Some softness in long shots, but the rest is beautiful, reference-quality. 9
The Audio
DTS rules. 10
The Extras
The usual rich assortment, with a great commentary from Peter. 10
Overall Score (not an average) 10