Bodysnatcher Menus! News Posted by John Hoare on 20th October 2007, 15:05 Gorgeous. So, it’s Mr. Veale’s turn in the spotlight again. Now, you all know that I have “criticisms” of the CGI effects in Remastered. But I love these – because they suit the release. Like it or not, a lot of the content on these discs is the Remastered series, and so it makes sense to reflect this in the menus. And in the actual episodes, the CGI just doesn’t work – but DVD menus don’t have to be photo-realistic. It works extremely well on its own terms. The into sequence featuring the three main ships is fantastic – it was shown at Dimension Jump, and it’s really rather impressive. (More on the DJ presentation – rather belatedly – next week.) And, shorn of the slightly-weird glowing effect, it’s also by far the best representation of “The Bodysnatcher Collection” logo. The canister used for Disc 1 is a great idea – it being part of a scene used in The End: The Original Assembly and representing the name and nature of the release. (Grave-robbing the archives.) And the looping nature of the menus is just brilliant – and symptomatic of the huge amount of small but lovely touches throughout this release. (The awkward way some DVD menus loop – sometimes fading out the music before it ends – really irritates me. Dwarf menus have generally been excellent in this regard, but this takes it to a whole new level.) As for the rest of the menus – I think I might just prefer the text menus here to the animated bunkroom ones used in the main releases. Oh, sure, those menus looked beautiful – but ultimately, suffered from the problem of mystery meat navigation. These are just nice, simple, clear, and still look really classy – Microgramma is a beautiful font, and the backgrounds work really well with it. There is the odd criticism, mind – the main one being that I wish the subtitles option didn’t take you to a separate screen, and instead just allowed you to flick the option on and off on the main menu – exactly like Just The Shows. The subtitles option on the first disc is rather awkwardly placed as well, seeing as that disc needed five options rather than four. Oh, and the typo on the Script Extracts menu, as mentioned by Paddy Campbell on the Webboard, is a shame… but to be honest, I couldn’t see it even when I knew there was a mistake there, and had to have it pointed out. Still, they’re minor quibbles. Oh, and sorry for all you Australians out there. Not for the release now being in 2008 – just generally. Of course, the worst thing about seeing the menus is that I NEED THIS RELEASE NOW. Has there ever been a more tantalising menu than this one?
To be honest, the menus on the standard DVDs drive me nuts with the delays between every section for animation – especially VI, where the Easter Egg bit means YOU CAN’T SKIP THE $%^&ING LEAD-IN. The looping Holly quotes drive me absolutely spare – when you have a looping track, it should quit after a few plays….
> Oh, and the typo on the Script Extracts menu, as mentioned by Paddy Campbell on the Webboard, is a shame? I had to LOOK for that to find it though… The looping on the DVDs are a bit of a pain. Or you can just press your mute button. One question though? If the Dwarf is drifting past on the main menu of the 2nd Disc, does it go completely off the screen and then re-appear on the left again?
The camera stays with each object as it travels through space. So the Dwarf just moves gently within the frame. It’s a very simple, elegant menu design. I like it a lot. Looping menus – well, it’s a judgement call. Personally, I hate DVDs that auto-play if left alone…
>I hate DVDs that auto-play if left alone? Definitely. I’ll usually hit “play” before going into the kitchen to fix myself a snack. I like returning to a menu (post idents/warnings). I do not like returning to a film that’s 5 minutes underway.
>>I hate DVDs that auto-play if left alone? >Definitely. I?ll usually hit ?play? before going into the kitchen to fix myself a snack. I like returning to a menu (post idents/warnings). I do not like returning to a film that?s 5 minutes underway. I also agree. It’s a pain when it auto plays
I prefer autoplay. Sure, it’s not without it’s own problems, but you can just skip back a couple of times, and it can save hunting about for a remote. Second-worst thing ever on a DVD though (overzealous and unskippable anti-piracy crap = #1) in this respect is the “bonus” comic on the Batman Begins Bonus Disc. This loads – very loosely based on a scene from the film – which loads as soon as you put the disc in. And when you finally get to the end, sicne have to click past every page individually before you can exit), the cursor automatically goes onto “Back”, not “menu”, so you’re buggered if you don’t have your remote to hand, and have to be paying attention even if you do… Basically, I hate stuff on DVDs that slows me getting to the stuff I got the disc for. And infinite looping on anything, not just DVDs.
These are possibly my favourite… simple, elegant, and extremley sexy! For those who sam them… what sound loops with the menu? After the theme is played? Im guessing space noise…lol.
> For those who sam them? what sound loops with the menu? After the theme is played? Im guessing space noise?lol. The DJ version had temp sound effects which didn’t always synch, but yeah, Dwarf has the ship rumble, Midget has the mechanical feet sounds, Starbug has the engine roar, and the pod has a general ‘winds of space’ thing going on. (And yes, I know, they should be silent, being in space. But that’s right up there with whoever emailed Deluxe Digital to complain that the Series I menus needed changing because there are only two stasis booths on board Red Dwarf…)
I’m getting all excited now over a menu screen, damn you Bodysnatcher collection! The most annoying thing on DVDs is unskippable trailers before you get to the menu, even on VHS at least you could fast-forward the buggers but on some DVDs you can’t even do that.
>that?s right up there with whoever emailed Deluxe Digital to complain that the Series I menus needed changing because there are only two stasis booths on board Red Dwarf? When is GNP going to release the corrected edition?
>The most annoying thing on DVDs is unskippable trailers before you get to the menu, even on VHS at least you could fast-forward the buggers but on some DVDs you can?t even do that. To be perfectly honest, every time I’ve seen someone complain about “unskippable” trailers in their Amazon reviews or elsewhere, I’m able to just hit the “menu” button when they start playing and that jumps right over them. There may well be a few DVDs on which they are genuinely unskippable, but a lot of the time it’s just the “next” key that doesn’t work. “Menu” usually does. (And, a fair amount of the time, it skips things that are SUPPOSED to be unskippable, like the warnings.)
Yeah, 19 times out of 20 you’ll get one of either Skip or Menu to work. You just never know which one. That generally even holds true for the piracy ads that have been forced on those of us who purchase DVDs legally – and if not, fast forwarding will work. Though I still maintain that trailers belong with the bonus content, as an option. A few discs lately have included chocolate ads that genuinely ARE unskippable. Which is fucking horrible.
Most recent one i’ve come across with unskippable ads is the Wicker Man remake DVD, I tried menu, skip and fast forward and it still made me sit through 5 minutes worth of crap to get to the crap I actually wanted to watch. Think it also depends on the player, I know some stuff that was unskippable when played on the PC became skippable with my PS2’s menu button.
I’m not sure about these menus, really. I like the backdrops and everything, but the text for the options seems a little messy. It’d be nice to have frames for them, or something. Incidentally, I absolutely love the fussy CG menus for the I to VIII DVDs…
Looks very nice indeed. As for skipping things… most ads I find I am able to skip. Auto playing is perhaps one of the worst things in the world though.
I do rather enjoy trailers on Disney DVDs before getting to the menu, because it really gets me more in a Disney mood unless it’s Bambi 2, which for some reason I don’t like that trailer much and therefore doubt I would like the film.
There was me thinking the menu was just going to be a still shot of a corridor or something…The ‘pencil’ looks a lot better now, nicely detailed and a lot less red, and starbug looks excellent a la tikka to ride remastered, not sure about blue midget at the moment, looks the same to me, but daresay It’ll look awesome on screen. Thanks Andrew. Thandrew.
