PICTURE & SOUND

Presented in Widescreen 2.35:1 Anamorphic with a choice between Dolby Digital 5.1 and dts soundtracks, the transfer is extremely good. The picture quality is superb through, bringing the storm to life before your eyes. The sound quality is also first rate, throwing you into the eye of the storm, so to speak. The inclusion of a dts sound track is also a much welcome bonus.

BONUS FEATURES

Disc One

Commentary by director/co-writer Roland Emmerich and producer Mark Gordon
This is a chatty and informative track from two people who are passionate about the project. The pair talks about the technical aspects of the movie, revealing many secrets about the production. They reveal that most of the film was shot in Montreal, with the Canadian city doubling for most of the locations in the film, also they disclose when scenes where removed or altered and what those scenes were actually like. This is a fine example of how a commentary track should be, two people talking enthusiastically about something they spent many years of their lives working on.

Commentary by co-writer Jeffrey Nachmanoff, cinematographer Ueli Steiger, editor David Brenner and production designer Barry Chusid
A more technical orientated but still chatty commentary from the crew of the movie. Co-writer Jeffrey Nachmanoff makes most of the conversation as he talks avidly about his script and the characters. The crew talk about how the shots where constructed revealing that many scenes ended up on the editor's floor and how real shots were combined with CG to produce the stunning visual effects. Again this is another fine example of a very informative commentary by people who know a lot about the film making process.

Inside Look
Go behind the scenes of the creature effects for the upcoming movie Aliens vs. Predator.

Trailers
Previews for I, Robot, Garfield: The Movie and The Simpson's on DVD

Disc Two

Inside The Day After Tomorrow

Pre-production

Previsualisation (5.08 mins)
Visual effects supervisor Karen Goulekas takes you behind the scenes of the storyboard and pre-vis processes used to block out the special effects sequences for the movie. This mini-featurette also includes comparisons between the final shots and the pre-vis computer mock ups.

Pre-Production Meeting (6.45 mins)
On November 2nd 2002, director Roland Emmerich and his crew got together to discuss how they are make the movie, mapping out the technical aspects of the shoot. This gives you an interesting insight into how a production gets started.

Storyboard Gallery
A montage of twelve storyboards from the biggest scenes in the movie and some deleted scenes. Concept Art Gallery Your chance to see concept art for the beach house, chopper, diner, ice shelf, India, I.S.S., LA Tornado, Library, Mall, Mexico, Natural History, N.O.A.A., New York City schematics, Tokyo, United Nations and the wolves.

Production

Eye of the Storm: Filming The Day After Tomorrow (1hr 08.44 mins)
Director Roland Emmerich, producer Mark Gordon, co-writer Jeffrey Nachmanoff, visual effects supervisor Karen Goulekas, production designer Barry Chusid, director of photography Ueli Steiger, special effects supervisor Neil Corbould and stars Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Sela Ward, Glen Plummer, Austin Nichols, Arjay Smith and Emmy Rossum take you behind the scenes of The Day After Tomorrow. Starting on the first day of production, 7th November 2002, this documentary covers the entire filming process. Here we find out how the production made the Montreal look like LA, New York, Tokyo and India. We also discover how the many special effects shots were created, both digitally and in real life, including the use of fake snow, weathering of the many sets and how they created fake snow fall on the real Mexican border. This is a fascinating documentary that covers every aspect of the production process. It shows you how much work goes into a huge movie like The Day After Tomorrow.

Post Production

Pushing the Envelope: Visual Effects (31.34 mins)
Director Roland Emmerich, visual effects supervisor Karen Goulekas and the members of the various special effects houses that were involved with the production talk about creating the 416 visual effects shots created for the movie. The featurette covers the creation of the opening ice sheet, the super storm cell, the LA Tornados, the helicopter crash, New York City storm tide, the wolves, the big freeze and the computer recreation of New York. This is a very interesting insight into how different FX Houses come together to produce the large amount of shots needed for a film of this magnitude.

Deleted Scenes (17.40 mins)
With optional commentary by director/co-writer Roland Emmerich and producer Mark Gordon, these ten deleted or extended scenes entitled "Scene 21: Kids Study", "Scene 25: Gary's shady deal/Taka dies", "Scenes 9-19 Hurricane Hunter/Kona Beach", "Scene 58A: Gary vs. Foster", "Scene 59: Tommy's big break", "Scene 100-103: Stock Market Crash", "Scene 156: Ask Mexico for help", "Scene 207A: Campbell & Co, last exit to Brooklyn", "Scene 200-206: Wolf Chase Part 2" and "Scene 209-210B: First version of Jack and Jason after Big Freeze" do add a bit more to the movie but the director and producer explain why they were removed.

Scoring (10.15 mins)
Go behind the scenes with composer Harald Kloser at the recording the score at the Newman Stage in LA. Here we hear the orchestra playing the music that accompanies the wolves sequence, the end of the storm, the big freeze and the freezing of New York City.

Audio Anatomy (1.44 mins)
This interactive special feature allows you to listen to each sound element that combines to make Helicopter crash scene so spectacular.

The Science of Tomorrow

The Force of Destiny: The Science and Politics of Climate Change (1hr 00.22 mins)
Director/co-writer Roland Emmerich, co-writer Jeffrey Nachmanoff, producer Mark Gordon and numerous scientists and climate experts discuss the effect humans are having on the planet. This documentary looks at the devastating effect that the burning of fossil fuels and population is having on the climate. Split into sections, the filmmakers and experts explain what is happening to the planet, showing evidence from Ice core samples, the increase in weather related phenomena such as forest fires, ice melting and flash floods. The documentary also reveals that the US contributes 25% of the world's greenhouse gases, with India and China the next biggest contributors and none of them making any roads to reduce their outputs. Succeeding in raising awareness of environmental issues and pointing out that the movie is an extreme version of what could happen, this is a very informative documentary that accompanies the movie extremely well.

Global Watch
Read about different weather patterns such as floods, tornadoes, storms, hail and other anomalies.

City Freeze
Your chance to see artistic impression of what major cities around the world like London, New York, Los Angeles, Sydney, Tokyo, Paris, Berlin and Moscow, would look like if a new ice age did happen.

OVERALL

Fox have done it again with another fabulous DVD treatment for one of their big summer blockbusters. The bonus material is first rate, with two extremely good commentary tracks and a plethora of behind the scenes material that covers every aspect of the production of the movie. The inclusion of an informative documentary only adds to the value. Couple all of this together with a superb picture transfer and the inclusion of a dts track and you have another example of how a DVD should be produced.

DVD