Best Menus on DVDs

[LBPound23]

Spurring off the "Movie or Menu on Startup?" thread from the Soapbox section, this question is inevitable (and I'm sure has been done before). What DVD menus are your favorite? While I don't think anyone can define one clear thing as being a good menu, certain movie's menus just work. Here are some of my personal favorites.

Ghostbusters (awesome animated 3D menu featuring NYC street and Stay-Puft Marshmallow man walking by)
A Bug's Life: Collector's Edition (animated menu is calm, pleasant and completely works for this great DVD)
Truman Show (the layout is nice with the big screen showing the documentary feature, although after a while can get annoying even more so than other animated menus)
Godzilla (nice design in a camera's view perspective)
The Wizard of Oz (just saw it for the first time today, and it is an appropriate theme for a classic family film)

So, it seems like most of my favorites are animated but it just makes them neat. Not all animated menus work, but almost all catch your attention. What are your favorite menus?

[indiephantom]

Favorite menus
The JAMES BOND WAVE ONE especially on
GOLDFINGER and GOLDENEYE.

The NIGHTMARE ON ELM ST. COLLECTION

HALLOWEEN: LE
PINK FLOYD: THE WALL
INSOMNIA
ALIEN
THE HAUNTING (I don't own it, but the menus were cool)
THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE

[TheMovieKid]

Here are some of my choices for best menus:

The Abyss: Special Edition
Halloween: Limited Edition
Ghostbusters: Collector's Series
Alien: 20th Anniversary Edition
Pink Floyd: The Wall
The Nightmare On Elm Street Collection
Lost In Space
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
A Bug's Life: Collector's Edition

Nothing beats the Abyss menus baby!

I liked the Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me's menus cause it was neat to actually see Mike Myers dancing around in full AP regalia saying "make a selection baby!" I've never seen a DVD in which the star of the film appear in material shot exclusively for the menu.

some of my favorites...

Piranha-again I wonder if these funny menus cost more than the movie itself did?
Texas Chainsaw Massacre-creepy...the first time Leatherface came charging out at me I jumped a foot off my couch.
Alien & Aliens-Alien is a watermark in dvdmenus.Aliens is cool as well but not as cool.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)-This one is nothing special but it is the first menu I saw with animation.

I would pick some non horror/Sci-fi menus but most of those aren't as much fun.

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-Dougpirana
"all right you primitive screw heads Listen up! "

[Richard]

I have to agree with the Texas Chainsaw Massacre disk. This is one of the only menu's to creep me out.

I like The Abyss menu but after awhile it gets to be a chore but how else to you organize so much information.

Austin Powers 2 is awesome. It just fits the movie perfectly.



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Richard Stocks
Editor
DVD Addiction

I liked the X-Files menu quite a bit. Really fit the feel of the film. And while I overall like the Wizard of Oz menu set-up, couldn't they have had something other than "We represent the Lolly-pop Guild" as the first sound bite? Okay the first time, but every stinkin' time you hit the main menu?! ARRRGH!
And the Abyss menus definitely rock! Anyone find more than two "face-hugggers" easter eggs?
AB

Oh, and musn't forget the visual roller coaster of Ghostbusters' disc either

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Oh Dear God! It's Growing BIGGER!!!

You people amaze me. All of the menus that you think are cool just suck from a usability point of view.

You are so caught up in having "cool" animated tricks that are willing to trade-off organization and conveniance. You must be the same people who create web pages with water droplet backgrounds with yellow text that blinks.

The first clue that the menus are bad can be determined in the DVD liner contains a map of the menus (Wizard of Oz, Bug's Life CE come to mind).

Using even a fairly simple menu organization allows for creativity on the part of the producer.

Brian Glaeske

[clortho]

Personally, I thought the Bug's Life CE menus were very nice. Simplistic and very easy/quick to navigate. I also liked Halloween LE, The Spy who Shagged Me, and Alien menus because not only were they easy and fairly quick to navigate, but had a little extra flair in them as well. Sometimes menus that just sit there get more tedious than the ones that add a little umph into them.

Clortho

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I am the Keymaster
clortho@hotmail.com

[indiephantom]

I agree with Clortho. I like the menus like ALIEN and HALLOWEEN that add something unique to the disc.

But I do agree that some menus can get out of hand and annoying. Such was the case with DETROIT ROCK CITY. Although they are clever the first time through, I usually just use the standard menu option, because it was just getting too slow. But New Line was good enough to allow that option.

I look forward to more creative menus this year, and I still haven't seen THE ABYSS disc yet!

indie

[Sid]

Alien
Aliens
Abyss is very good, but takes a little time to get used to.
Ghostbusters
Armageddon and Robocop (Criterion) I just really like the look of these menus for some reason

Well Brian, I'm sorry that you have a hard time navigating the menus we've mentioned so far but I personally don't have any problem whatsoever moving around these discs.

Now Detroit Rock City(& The Abyss to a much lesser extent) is very laborious to move around I agree!


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-Dougpirana
"all right you primitive screw heads Listen up! "