FotR DVD Easter Egg

[Nupraptor]

Just came across this, and no one has mentioned it yet, soooo...

On the first DVD, go to the scene selection. Go to the very last chapter, the Council of Elrond. Select that chapter, so that the little preview is playing at the top. Then go down to where it says "New Scene". To the left, a Ring should appear. Click on the Ring to get an "alternate" version of the Council of Elrond.

This is the MTV parody that was aired before.

Note: Some people in Ireland and England may not be able to view this, as I hear it was removed for those versions.

Edit ~ And I just found another one!

The second easter egg is the 4 minute preview of TTT that was shown in theaters at the end of FotR towards the end of its run.

Go to the Scene Selection menu on the second disc. On the right hand side, scroll down to 48, the fan credits. Then go down one more, and there'll be a little icon of the Two Towers. Select it and you're off.

[Recea Letikk]

Very cool, I can't wait to get a copy.

[Nupraptor]

For all of you Brits who didn't get the MTV easter egg with your FotR DVD: I ripped and encoded this sequence into a 23mb avi file. If you're interested in seeing this, you can IM me (via AIM) at Lord Nupraptor, and I'll be glad to send it your way.

[Darth Viscera]

And if you have the DVD, it's very easy to just copy the MTV scene to your hard drive and view it from there. It takes 15 seconds. Here's a screenshot of me doing just that in Smartripper, which you can download free of charge from Doom9 (http://www.doom9.org/software.htm#rippers).

[Nupraptor]

I was mostly putting the offer up to those who do not have the easter egg on their DVD, since it was apparently cut from several localizations of the movie. :)
Everyone seems to have been able to play the second Easter Egg fine. However, a number have had issues with the MTV clip. These people all seem to live in the UK and Ireland.

Nevertheless, a (not insignificant) number have not had trouble with it. This includes people in Sweden, Finland, Germany, Norway, France and the Netherlands. No-one in the UK or Ireland has been able to play the MTV clip so far.

Conclusions:

It could be that the MTV was the bit that fell victim to the axe of the BBFC (British Board of Film Classifications). Although, Mad_Iguana points out that BBFC has no jurisdiction in Ireland, so what's going on still remains somewhat of a mystery. We shall continue to investigate.

Thank you to the dozens of people who wrote in and helped contribute to this report.

Update: I followed this up with the BBFC. They wrote back saying that they had never passed the MTV Spoof and that it was not included on the UK R2 release.

The full reply is below.

"Thank you for your e.mail.

Two DVD extras for THE LORD OF THE RINGS caused the BBFC difficulties. The first was a 'behind the scenes' documentary in which bad language and offensive hand gestures were used by members of the cast. These would have been unacceptable at the 'PG' level so the bad language was dubbed out and the hand gestures removed, allowing the documentary to receive a 'PG'. These cuts are reflected in the website record you mention (1 minute 16 seconds cut).

The second extra that caused us problems was the MTV spoof you refer to. Unlike the above documentary, however, the entire sequence was a problem at 'PG' and could not be saved by cutting.

We gave the distributors the option of removing this sequence entirely so that the disc could retain its 'PG' or, alternatively, accept a '12' certificate - in which case the whole box set would have to become a '12'. The distributors decided they did not want to raise the box set to a '12' so they did not proceed any further with this particular sequence. This is why there is no formal record for the MTV sequence on our website - the work was simply never passed by us in any version.

We hope this clarifies the situation." **(From theonering.net)

[Darth Viscera]

I was putting my screenshot up for those who do have the easter egg on their DVD, but can't figure out how to access it, like DT and Yog.

[ReaperFett]

Such a dumb group. We get more Halle Berry in Die ANother Day, but less in documentaries? Jeez

[Darth Viscera]

How much more Halle Berry do you get?

[ReaperFett]

Dont know specifics, but I believe we get 2 mins longer, and one thing you get cut is some of her.


You dont see anything :)