Release Date: June 29, 1999
MSRP: $29.99
Video: 16:9 Widescreen (2.35:1 aspect ratio)
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Languages: English
Subtitles: English
Closed-Captioned: Yes
Discs: 1
Sides: 1
Layers: 2
DVD-Rom Content: Yes
Regional Coding: 1
Video Format: NTSC
Total File Size: 7.31 Gigabytes
Package Type: Keep Case
CTHV Catalog Number: 04139
This ground-breaking DVD release features the most extensive and sophisticated interactive options ever offered on DVD releases from Columbia/Tristar Home Video as of June 29, 1999 (it’s original release date). This DVD represents a benchmark in added-value options offered to consumers.
“Live” Feature-Length Video Commentary
Harold Ramis (writer & actor), Ivan Reitman (director) and Joe Medjuck (producer) were filmed in silhouette, watching the entire film, and commenting on it. The viewer can choose to watch the commentary with their silhouettes pointing and gesturing as they watch the film or listen to their commentary as an extra audio track while watching the movie normally. VIDEO COMMENTARY ONLY WORKS IN 4:3 LETTERBOX MODE, SO MOST PEOPLE WON’T BE ABLE TO VIEW IT – OR WANT TO.
Feature-Length Production Notes
Columbia/Tristar Home Video has taken the text of the book “Making Ghostbusters” by Don Shay and put it into a subtitle stream, so that the viewer may choose to watch the film with antidotes, trivia and bits of interviews that pertain to particular points in the film.
Featurettes:
Storyboard to Film Comparison
Watch a split-screen side-by-side comparison of three scenes in the film next to their animated original storyboards.
Before and After Special Effects
With the Multiple Angles feature of DVD, the viewer can toggle back and forth between the rough cut and the final cut of the film to see three scenes before and after the final visual effects were added.
Still Photo Galleries:
There are a total of 879 still images on the DVD. It should be noted that the 2005 DVD release contains three extra Terror Dog photos, but one less logo drawing. These three extra Terror Dog photos have been included in this collection for the sake of completeness, which brings the total number of images up to 879 (otherwise it would have been 876). It needs to be mentioned that these may not be complete storyboards. For example, the book Making Ghostbusters has some panels from the “Cheeky Ghost” scene that are missing on the DVD. It also needs to be mentioned that in the Drawings – Early NYC Concepts section, all but the very last image (Stay Puft and the city) are actually from The Real Ghostbusters animated series, and not the movie. Sony messed up. Below is the full list of still images, all in the order as originally presented on the DVD. I have used common fan names for the gallery names, with the actual DVD names in parenthesis afterwards (where different). All of the still images are available for viewing here on Spook Central. You can either view the still images in the galleries linked below, where you’ll find thumbnails linked to web-friendly 720×540 images (all padding/frames have been cropped out); or you can view the original 720×480 images straight off of the DVD, which I am providing in this 145 Mb zip file.
Deleted Scenes:
Three-Dimensional Animated Menus
The main menu is a 3-D view of the Manhattan skyline,with the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man wandering through the buildings. The main menu also has computer rendered animated transitions to the sub-menus.
Theatrical Trailers:
MULTIMEDIA:
FAN-MADE REPLACEMENT ARTWORK:
(to be printed out and used in the DVD keep case outer sleeve in place of what came with the disc)
REVIEWS:
OUTSIDE LINKS:
FastForward — The latest from the home-video front
“DVD Or Bust” by Michael Giltz
Ivan Reitman is finally satisfied with Ghostbusters. For the June 29th DVD release of his 1984 hit starring Bill Murray, the director saw to it that everything looks just right, which wasn’t the case with the first, supposedly definitive laserdisc edition. “I don’t know what happened,” he says, “but it pumped up the light level so much you saw all the matte lines. I was embarrassed about it all these years.” Not only are the blacks back for DVD, all the effects shots are complete. “When we went out into release, about half dozen shots were unfinished,” recalls Reitman, who had to rush his $30 million production. “It mostly had to do with the marshmallow man. The amazing thing is, people didn’t care.”
(article provided by AJ Quick)
