40m study of Gollum, from the earliest concep- tual sketches of the character to the radical revisions that occurred once Andy Serkis arrived on location to play the part. Hired with the in- tention merely to provide the voice for Gollum, the filmmakers quickly real- ized that Serkis was bringing an entirely new dynamic to the charac- ter, and quickly reas- sessed what was to be an entirely CGI-generated character. Andy Serkis’ contribution cannot be underestimated. For those unfamiliar with Tolkien’s work, Part 3 happily includes studies of “The Peoples of
Éomur (Karl Urban) arrives to curb Wormtongue.
Middle-earth” and “The Realms of Middle-earth,” which helps sort out the different countries, places, and relationships among characters. Part 4 contains eight different technical docu- mentaries covering various subjects, including the filming of THE TWO TOWERS, the special visual effects, editing, scoring the film, stunts, fight train- ing, “animatic” sequences, and a tour of WETA Digital Studios that vaguely smacked of an ad- vertisement. The disc also includes an interactive sound demonstration of the Battle of Helm’s Deep, allowing the viewer to watch a sequence from the battle with eight tracks isolated for individual playback. Also included are literally hundreds of character sketches (both used and discarded), costume designs, artwork, set designs, footage of miniature sets, set construction—on and on. Each of the major sets and locations are ex- plored in detail, from the early design stages to the building and decorating of them. There are interviews with actors, technicians, artists and crew, and the requisite behind-the-scenes foot- age. We can’t imagine what has been left out, but even as the Appendices range from the trivial to the insightful, they serve to enlarge one’s ap- preciation of the film’s accomplishment. We must, however, admit to growing weary with the supplements. We studied literally hundreds of artist’s sketches (including discarded ideas) but threw in the towel when we realized there were over 1,500 such sketches!
Filmed in Super 35, New Line’s widescreen DVD issue is acceptably matted at 2.32:1 with 16:9 enhancement. The picture is crisp and col- ors are acceptably saturated, with excellent con- trasts and deep blacks. Soundtracks are available in both DD EX 5.1 and DTS ES 6.1 We found the DTS soundtrack had better presence: the direc- tional effects are more precisely detailed and the subwoofer provides a more thunderous bass. The film is closed-captioned, and is subtitled in both English and Spanish. Audio tracks in languages other than English were apparently sacrificed for the sake of the numerous audio commentaries by the actors and crew.
Incidentally, the “hidden” supplement is well worth taking the time to find and watch. It can be accessed by choosing scenes 29-30 on the scene selection menu on Disc 1, then pressing the remote’s down arrow twice. A small golden ring appears; press “enter.” Peter Jackson introduces a 2m 52s segment excerpted from the 2003 MTV Movie Awards for Best Virtual Performance, dur- ing which Gollum interrupts Andy Serkis’ accep- tance speech by snatching the award from his hands and claiming “the precious” that rightfully belongs to him. Gollum tries to attack as many members of the production crew as he can, re- serving one of his more saucy invectives for Jack- son himself, using his best Wicked Witch of the West voice: “Peter Jackson, my precious, who do you think you are, you fucking hack?”
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