Thursday, October 8, 2009

Easter Eggs are Annoying!

What is an Easter Egg? (…In DVD terms, that is!)
The answer lies in the paragraph below, from the site dvdeastereggs.com

What is a DVD Easter Egg?This is probably the most obvious, and most frequently asked question. Of course the chances are that if you found this site, you may already know, but if not, here goes. As most will know, during the Easter holiday, people will paint eggs, then hide them for their children to find. This is the traditional idea behind the "Easter Egg". Extend that idea into the digital world, and an Easter Egg is something that is hidden, in some form of media. Way back when Microsoft released Excel (as an example) there was an Easter Egg in the software. The developers hid a game in the program. You had to fill certain fields of the spreadsheet with a specific value, etc. and you were able to unlock this 'Doom-like' game. Well much the same concept goes for Easter Eggs on DVD's. The developers who make the DVD's, their menu systems, etc. tend to hide special features on the disc.
 

UNDOCUMENTED SPECIAL FEATURES, I might add, that one can only find by random navigation of DVD Meuns (clicking or navigating to various points on a DVD menu that you are NOT directed to by listed options)… That is, IF they exist at all.

Meaning, you may own a DVD (perhaps, even for years), and not know of such a hidden feature.

Yes, it’s all in fun, and maybe I’m just an impatient grump, but I’d prefer to KNOW of any and all Special Features – what they are and WHERE TO FIND THEM – without having to consult special “Easter Egg Websites” to learn the answer.

There are two regular sources of DVD Easter Eggs among the DVD series I collect. WALT DISNEY TREASURES and THE SIMPSONS.

Perhaps there ARE more in other sets I own, and I just don’t know about them – but let’s not consider that for the moment. (…Look for examples of such heretofore unknown discoveries that lie within my collection at the end of this post!)


What this DOES mean is that, anytime I watch a Disney Treasures or Simpsons DVD, I spend EXTRA TIME clicking willy-nilly, all over ANY menu I happen to be on in an obsessive search to possibly discover another “heinously hidden hen-fruit”.

I may needlessly click around, and around again – and maybe around a THIRD TIME – before concluding that none of these egregious eggs are lurking in digital dungeons of my discs.

I will also purposely go to menus that I would not ordinarily visit (such as the ever-present Captioning Menu) and scour them thoroughly before “starting the show”.

And, as annoying as it may be to utilize precious viewing time in this fashion, it can be exhilarating to unexpectedly have a random portion of the menu light up and reveal a hidden clip of Walt Disney introducing a segment of his “Wonderful World of Color” – or Simpsons animators discussing a scene they illustrated!

But, short of taking the time to log each one of these on paper and store it within your set (which I HAVE DONE in some of the Disney Treasures sets, as their Easter Egg placement is usually more random than those found in The Simpsons), I’d STILL rather have the damned things LISTED and easily accessed from the DVDs Menus.

What say you? …Happy “Easter”!

Want more?
Click THIS LINK for an example of the many Easter Eggs hidden among the Menus of Walt Disney Treasures Silly Symphonies (the first volume), just to see how many there are. Note: On my own, I’ve only found FOUR of the FIVE Easter Eggs listed for Disc One.

And HERE is a Big One I never knew about for Superman the Animated Series Volume Three! I’m going to check this out as soon as possible!

Oh, and let’s not ever THINK about Lost The Complete Second SeasonCLICK HERE for 15 (Yes, Fifteen!) extras unknown to me!

The information is from the aforementioned dvdeastereggs.com

Go there and see what you may have missed.

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