I favor subtle animation if at all. And I'm well tired with stupid transition animations, like zooming into a black hole or filling the screen with an explosion before the film starts.
However, the dumbest thing I can think of is having transitions when you select the chapters! On the Star Wars discs, you go from one set of chapters, through an animation to get to - another set of chapters! Why the hell don't the next bunch simply replace the first ones on the same screen!
The original X-Men I recall was similarly time-wasting.
Two good examples (in my eyes) are the Bond discs (except that you have to activate the menu) and the new release of Alice in Wonderland. Just the right amount of motion/action in both.
The only one I have that makes me say "enough already" is The Lion King. I don't think I've ever let the entire menu run before I hit the button.
exactly what I was going to say James. I don't mind the animation at all on the unrated Van Wilder menus. In fact, it would be nice to be able to play them in a loop.
Animated menus are great - as long as they also allow the user to press the chapter forward button to skip it, as many DVDs with animated menus do. It is the forced animated menus that can be quite annoying - just like forced trailers only worse as you can't fast forward through the animation.
Actually are there any DVDs with animated menus that do not allow you to skip past the animation? I personally can't think of any that I own that wont allow skipping, but then again it hasn't bothered me enough to make a note of it.
I like the live menu that repeats itself on "Saturday Night Fever"! Most the forced trailers are a pain in the arse, IMO. One of posters said "they're cool the first time" but then that cool IMO turns to hot for not allowing us to skip it, and view what we paid for!