Favorite Type of Bonus Features

[Jave]

You heard me. Now vote. And explain yourself. :D

I vote for "Deleted Scenes", not only because of movies, but because I'm really curious on seeing the restored scenes in the upcoming Looney Tunes Collection.

[Yengwa]

I chose documentaries and interviews.

I like to get an interview with the writer or director or other people and get a more personal experience of what happened during the filming of the movie. Sometimes audio commentaries and behind the scenes can do this, but not on a personal level. Besides, audio commentaries can get kind of boring sometimes. And a lot of behind the scenes stuff nowadays is "we used CG here and there." So they're usually nothing special.

[Kathy Kane]

I like the audio commentary the best, but I also like the technical pop-up notes, as they have in the Doctor Who DVDs. I love Deleted scenes and trailers.

[Craig Crumpton]

Bloopers! How could you forget to include bloopers?
That's been *the* deciding factor for me on some of my DVD purchases.

I rank my interest in bonus features thusly:

5. Commentary
4. Theatrical cartoons, although not too many DVDs include them
3. Deleted scenes
2. Featurettes, behind-the-scenes, documentaries, and "making-of" are all essentially the same
1. BLOOPERS!

I enjoy deleted scenes, but sometimes they aren't that great -- there's a good reason they were deleted. My favorite deleted scenes are on Weird Al's "UHF" SE -- not so much for the deleted scenes themselves (because they're really bad), but for Weird Al's commentary over them.

Audio commentaries have been hit and miss with me, and it's time-consuming to listen to them... especially if they aren't entertaining or informative. I'm to the point now that I only listen to scene-specific commentary for spots in the movie I want more details on, unless it's a movie/TV show I really really enjoy -- then I'll at least give the commentary a chance. Otherwise, I just go online and check reviews to see if they're worth listening to so I don't waste my time if they're boring and uninteresting.

I think audio commentaries could be improved if there was a film buff or journalist present asking questions to the commentators during the recording session. Too often, they tend to ramble or just plain don't know what to say, and I especially hate commentaries where all they do is describe what's going on in the scene -- talk about obvious -- for crying out, we can see that for ourselves. Having someone there who knows what questions to ask -- things like what fans and film lovers would actually want to know -- would really improve the quality of audio commentaries, IMO.

[Jave]

Bloopers! How could you forget to include bloopers?
That's been *the* deciding factor for me on some of my DVD purchases.*Bangs head on desk over and over again*

[Craig Crumpton]

Wanted to add that I think most every "interactive game" I've seen on any DVD as a "bonus feature" has been a complete waste. Whether they're creative or not, they're just a gimmick at best, and never have any replay value.

Has anyone actually found a "bonus feature" game on a DVD they actually wanted to play more than once?

[Adam Tyner]

I'm a sucker for a good commentary. I agree with Craig that it helps to have more than one person in the booth...having someone else to bounce off of keeps the discussion more lively.