Animated Menus, I can't stand them but when they preview clips they are unbelievable! (1 Viewer)

I don't know if I'm alone here but I can't stand where you've got to sit through half a minute of animated menu before a film or every time you press your menu button.

They are usually much louder than the film too so if you have sensitive neighbors or family in bed & you've got the volume just right for the movie, the menu comes on & blasts you out of your seat disturbing the others in the process.

I put The Musketeer in a couple of nights ago & couldn't believe all the action highlights from the film were in the menu so that when that scene came along, I knew what was coming next spoiling that scene for me.

I wish people would think more about these menus (and about placing of layer changes too but that's another story).

I'm with you 100%!
Kill the bloody menus. Too loud, too long, too pointless.
But I believe DVD authoring programs are at fault for layer changes - I'm sure someone in the industry posted here to say you're pretty lucky if you get to choose its position. :frowning:

Don't kill the menus! They one of my favorite things about DVD! The Requiem for A Dream Menus rule!

I don't mind animated menus, in fact I usually enjoy them a lot. However, when they use major previews/spoilers in them that's different (like Matrix).
I hate that. I'm getting ready to watch it so don't show me now.
Instead go with the Requiem for a Dream approach and put the viewer in the mood without actually showing them the film.
Another menu like this that actually hints at the entire film in a clever way but without spoiling anything is the animated menu for The Anniversary Party. That's great work there and a great example of how animated menus can enhance the viewing rather than ruining it.

I hate when they use clips from the film! A growing percentage of my DVDs are films I've bought sight-unseen, and I'm getting to see stuff I shouldn't see. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon comes to mind.

I agree with Seth. If you're going to do it, do it in a way that doesn't spoil anything. Donnie Darko uses film clips, but does so in a way that sets the tone without revealing anything.

Agreed entirely! Even Star Trek: TNG did this, esp. with the last 3 discs in the set. Anyone seeing "Conspiracy" for the first time will get an acute spoiler if they watch the upper right corner for more than a couple of seconds while making their choice from the menu! Sheesh! :rolleyes
I could do without the animated menus entirely; I would not miss them. If they MUST be there, then they need to be screened at QA for spoilers. Any spoiler on a menu screen, whether or not it's animated, is an automatic QA fail...the DVD goes back to the production phase.
I don't mind some limited, non-spoiler animation on the go-to-a-chapter screen, but none of that replaces a good old easy-to-use (and descriptive!) chapter insert card in the keepcase, so I can jump where I want to be by direct use of the remote, instead of running up and down through menus...especially animated ones!

Putting spoilers in the menus is a no no for me. Kind of like The Matrix menu that basically shows you a lot of the action parts.

They need to create a "Laserdisc Mode" for all DVDs so you don't have to see any of that crap when you just want to play the movie. I don't even like how they go back to the menu when the movie ends; I like it better when it just goes into Stop mode. (Most discs will let you do this if you can hit Stop when the disc goes in and just program it to play Title 1.)

I HATE HATE HATE animated menus!!!

I prefer if the disc defaulted to the movie and if you want to watch the extras,you hit the "menu" button.

Don't like em' Don't need em' Don't want em'
I hate nothing more then having to jockey the remote for an extra five minutes to skip over all the previews and animated menus. I just want to start the damn movie!!! (after I select the DTS track of course )

I love animated menus, always gets me in the mood to watch the movie (love the hilarious Holy Grail one, the Bonds, Episode I's menus were incredible, and many more), animated menus are one of the things I love about DVDs, I even check some dvd websites to see what the menus will be like, but I agree that they shouldn't include long clips from the movie, and you should have the option to stop them from starting up.

What I DO hate is the copyright notices that you can't skip past, on vhs we used to just fast forward thru them (erm remember vhs?).

I like animated menus on the blockbuster-type releases as they can get one into the spirit of the movie. But most movies don't really benefit from them - would you really want to see snazzy animated menus on a release of Schindler's List? Um, no.

I think animated menus kick ass. There flashy, and just make the whole concept of 'dvd' better when they have them. i know to the haters out there i must sound crazy, but there's something lifeless about non-animated menu's to me. I mean, c'mon how cheezy does the menu for 'Blade Runner' look? Even 'Interview With The Vampire's menu is cheezy. Menu's like 'The Matrix', 'Saving Private Ryan', 'Fast Times At Ridgemont High', 'Memento' and countless others put a smile on my face.
I'm surprised to find so many of you out there don't get out to the movies all that much, because 95% of the dvd's i buy i'm buying cause i saw the movie and liked it.
i guess if most of you guys run out to best buy or where-ever every tuesday and buy 2 or 3 movies week sight-unseen you probably get a bunch of crap from time to time.
if you don't guys don't like animated menus then i suggest you stick with buying old warner catalog dvds or better yet maybe good old vhs would do the trick i'm sure. and the future looks even sweeter with d-vhs.
there's just too many angry nit-pickers on these boards lately....

Wow now I think I have begun to find this thread insulting.
I was going to stay out of it even though I think animated menus are the bane of DVD and really should be done away with but when someone suggests that if you don't like animated menus you should stick to old titles that is going a bit to far.
Hey Buddy I like movies, No I love movies. Everything about them, I have been into Home Theater Since well before the term was actually coined.
Animated menus suck for many of the reasons mentioned above.
When I buy a DVD it is because I want to see the movie, not some animated menu that gives away key plot points and plays way to loud when compared to the volume of the movie.
Animated Menus that force you to sit through long drawn out sequences before you can use the menu or everytime you move from one menu section to the next just delay my enjoyment of the movie and often ruin it by giving away scenes from the movie.
So for someone to suggest that there is something wrong with the people that don't feel like suffering through these insipid little things or worse yet that we should avoid certain movies is just flat out wrong.
It has been my suggestion that if they are going to include these things they should provide a choice at the begining of the DVD they could say something like this....
Click Here for speed menus
Click here if you would like an annoying delay before we allow you to do any setup choices or start the movie because you would rather see how great and creative we think we are becuase we don't make movies but need some way to prove how cool menu artists really are and don't get the creative outlet of making our own movies, and would rather bore you to death and spoil scenes and plot points from the real artists work, just so we can feel smart
Now which one of those choices would a movie lover pick?
I really don't see why you think it is fair to insult people that don't feel like suffering through those things. Hey but then they probably actually like movies far far more then you do any way which would explain their imapatince.
Max
BTW I have no problems with somesaying they prefer animated menus, my problem is with those that suggest that we who don't are angry nitpickers and should be silenced or something like that.

Hey Y'all!
Anyone notice that the menu for "What Lies Beneath" gives away almost the WHOLE flick????
My friend hadn't seen the Film and there was no way to skip the menu! I had to yell, "Damn! Close your Eyes!!!!
What if "alien" had had the chestburster scene???
:frowning: D

Max Y, thanks for beating me to the punch. I too found that unbelievably insulting! I love *movies*, not menus, dammit!
'Nuff said...Max already said it all! Grrr.

Another reason for me to like Superbit. No crappy animated menus. Those on the original release of Crouching Tiger were especially annoying.

I love animated menus, but it was rather insulting to say for someone who doesn't like animated menus to stick to older movies.
Animated menus put me in this awe-struck mode when I'm getting ready to watch a movie. On the other end of the spectrum, static menus really blow because they are rather unexciting and bland.
Compare Lawrence of Arabia with say Yojimbo. I loved the Lawrence of Arabia menus cause it puts you in the mood for some grand adventure. Yojimbo had some pale poop colored menu that was rather dull and didn't get you all that excited about it.