The Day After Tomorrow

The commentaries on Disc One are heavily weighted towards special effects, which is to be expected. Roland Emmerich, the director, comments throughout on all aspects of production, although focuses primarily on dumbing down the science element. Informative and fulfilling.

The Deleted Scenes are cleaned up prints of fairly lengthy footage. The CGI used is unfinished and quite funny to watch, although it's impossible to laugh when so many people are "dying". There is a large amount of cutting room material here, arranged helpfully by scene number. The optional commentary by Emmerich is as informative and insightful as his feature commentary.

The Science Of Tomorrow is a lengthy and thorough documentary on climate change. The science from the film is analysed honestly, accepting that the change the Earth undergoes is far more rapid than it would be in reality, but maintains and provides extensive evidence to prove that the principle of The Day After Tomorrow is basically correct. Footage from the film is used only to explain specific points, but the weight of information is provided by experts from many different areas of environmental concern. An informative and extensive documentary that adds tremendously to a DVD that could have lost its way and focussed only on the film.

The In Depth Look Behind the film is split into three categories: pre-production, production and post-production. These in turn are arranged into different segments. The "pre-viz" featurette is interesting for aspiring filmmakers, particularly those interested in CGI. Also available is the pre-production meeting, which has appalling sound and low picture quality, but gives you a taste of how a film's production is conceived - Emmerich himself is not present. The Filming of The Day After Tomorrow is a well made documentary in that a few interesting techniques are used that I have not seen before on a DVD extra. It opens with various voice-overs dissolving into each other and continues the style of the 'pre-viz' featurette by implementing split screen to its fullest capacity - lots of behind the scenes footage and lots of quality. The post-production menu gives you access to the audio editing and visual effects editing production, as well as the scoring of the film. Everything is covered. You couldn't ask for more.

The Global Watch extra is an interactive menu that allows you to explore brief information on natural disasters that have occurred around the world. Looks flashier than it is, but harmless fun for the more excitable DVD remote controller.

The City Freeze feature continues the trend set by Global Watch, allowing you to access a part of the world with a famous landmark - there are only a few to choose from - and show you what it looks like covered in snow. Again, harmless, taking full advantage of the posters that turned heads when the film was released.

This is a wonderful array of extras, the best being the epic documentary on climate change. Focus on actors and Emmerich is minimal and, although a refreshing change from the norm, there might have been a small featurette dedicated to the cast. The documentaries are well made and warranted, unlike most of what you see today.

A definite buy for any film fan.