News related to the Release of the Region 1 DVDs/Videos
29 January 2004
- There is a review of the Season 3 DVD for Region 1 on tvshowsondvd.com which lists the various interviews
Anchor Bay Home Entertainment has provided us with a disc-by-disc breakdown of the nine-disc third season DVD release of the series, which is set to hit stores on February 10.
Disc one includes the episodes "The Furies" (with audio/video commentary by R.J. Stewart, Robert Tapert and Liz Friedman), "Been There, Done That" and "The Dirty Half Dozen";
Disk two features "The Deliverer," "Gabrielle's Hope" and "The Debt, Part 1" (with audio/video commentary by Lucy Lawless and Robert Tapert);
Disk three includes "The Debt, Part 2," "The King of Assassins" (with audio/video commentary by Ted Raimi);
Disk four has "The Quill Is Mightier," "Maternal Instincts" and "The Bitter Suite" (with audio/video commentary by Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor);
Disk five has "One Against Army" (with audio/video commentary by Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor), "Forgiven" and "King Con";
Disk six includes "When In Rome" (with audio/video commentary by Steve Sears), "Forget Me Not" and "Fins, Femmes & Gems";
Disk seven features "Tsunami," "Vanishing Act" and "Sacrifice, Part 1" (with audio/video commentary by Hudson Leick);
Disk eight includes the season finale "Sacrifice, Part 2" (with audio/video commentary by Hudson Leick) as well as bonus video material;
Ninth disc, a CD-ROM, includes screensavers, chronicles, trivia, bios, mythology and a timeline.
19 December 2003
More about what's in the Region 1 release of Season 3
- The Special Collector’s Edition Boxed Set includes 8 DVD discs re-mastered from state-of-the-art studio-quality digital video and upgraded with a totally cool blend of new and exciting supplemental material, and one CD-ROM with even more extras.
Season Three Bonus Material includes:
- Season 3 Photo Gallery Official Xena photographers shooting on set and on location created this spectacular gallery of action and portrait shots of all your favorite Xena characters, beasts and demons.
- Direct Access Scenes Gain instant access to your favorite battles, fights, love and hot tub scenes.
- Director and Actor Bios Get personal and career information on Lucy Lawless, Renee O’Connor, Kevin Smith, Executive Producer Rob Tapert, and the whole cast and crew!
- Xena Chronicles An interactive guidebook to all the characters of Xena with video clips, biographies, and photos.
- Series Trivia Xena mavens reveal a world of little known details, secrets and pranks from the cast and crew!
- Interactive Games Test your mettle in Xena’s world with these fun and challenging digital games.
- Interactive Animated Menu Screens
- Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
- Newly discovered alternative scenes
- Commentary with Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor
- Sacrifice - One and Two Retrospective featuring interviews with cast and crew
Over 700 Original productions sketches and drawing
Click here to order via Amazon.com - Price: $48.99 with free shipping in the US
- Newsday - 31 August 2003
XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS (six discs plus informational PC/Mac CD- ROM, $70 list price, Anchor Bay) looks perhaps too similar in its second-season set to its first, released in April. Each is a fold-out package lined with
dark photos from the syndicated action hit. This time, though, the 22-episode package also lists scene-by-scene chapter stops separately for each disc. And along with the Dolby 5.1 audio, there's commentary available on
three episodes from stars Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor as well as producer Rob Tapert. Like its "Hercules" sibling, the latest "Xena" set offers its commentary two ways - as audio underlying the entire chosen
episode, or as audio/video over a 20-minute digest of the hour. You can see how Lawless and O' Connor look now as they screen footage together in a studio. Both here and in a 36-minute "Warrior Tales" documentary, which
combines interviews with action clips, we get that behind-the-scenes feeling that was missing from the plain- Jane first release. Unfortunately, we still don't get closed-captions or a Spanish-language dialogue option.
*
The ancient world's baddest babe kicks some more butt as Xena (Lucy Lawless) and her little blond friend (Renee O'Connor) strive to make the land safe from warlords and
ill-tempered gods. The seven-disc set features 22 episodes, with interviews and commentary by Lawless and O'Connor, plus a CD-ROM disc packed with series background.
http://www.timesstar.com/Stories/0,1413,125~1549~1612788,00.html
The following is from the IGN.com site on it's review of the Season 2 DVD release
- In honor of the season two launch and to celebrate Lawless' participation, the publisher, Anchor Bay, is donating a portion of the proceeds from each DVD sold to
The Ovarian Cancer Research Fund
An update on the news about the commentary for Season 1 episodes by Lucy, Renee & Rob. Anchor Bay have indicated they won't be re-releasing Season 1 with the commentary (see below)
Sharon Delaney has responded to this by saying: that she was told by Rob that Lucy, Renee & Rob DID record the commentary. So at this point it's a wait and see job about whether we will
get to see/hear the commentaries for the three episodes of Season 1:
Sins Of The Past -- Lucy, Renee
Callisto -- Lucy, Renee, Rob
Is There A Doctor -- Lucy, Renee, Rob
What's interesting to note is that Anchor Bay is the distributer rather than the company creating these DVDs.
On the 14th August I added information from Creation that the Season 1 and Season 2 DVDS for Region 1 (US/Canada) will have commentary from Lucy, Renee and Rob. Since then Xena Torres has written to Anchor Bay and she received a reply from the President of the company
First and foremost, we appreciate your support of our release. While we would have liked to been able to include footage from Lucy, Renee and others in the first season release, we were unable to do so for various reasons. As both fans of the show and the distributor of the DVD series, we recognize the importance of including this material on the release and are pleased that we are working closely with the stars who have graciously agreed to participate in our upcoming season two. We are not planning on re-releasing Season One with additional content. I know the fans will be as excited as we are with the Season Two package and that has been where we have been focusing all of our efforts.
Again, we appreciate your email and support. Xena is not just one of our titles, it is one of our passions so we always welcome the suggestions and feedback from our fellow fans!
With best regards,
Dave Vasile
President, Anchor Bay Entertainment
The 14 August 2003 update said:
Sharon has released information about what episodes will
have commentary by Lucy, Renee & Rob.
XENA SEASON TWO DVD SET -- Season Two will have
commentary on three episodes. They will also be re-releasing Seaon One with
commentary on three episodes. On-camera interviews were also conducted. I
don't know how they will be released. Here are the episodes that will have running
commentary and who will be speaking on each.
Season 1
The version without the commentaries are still being sold.
Sins Of The Past -- Lucy, Renee
Callisto -- Lucy, Renee, Rob
Is There A Doctor -- Lucy, Renee, Rob
Season II
- Order from Amazon.com
Return of Callisto -- Lucy, Renee
A Day In The Life -- Lucy, Renee, Rob
Destiny -- Rob
-
Updated info about the Season 1 DVDs for Region 1 (US/ Canada)The Season One DVDs of Xena are going to have 5.1 Dolby Digital Suround Sound, unlike the 2.0 stereo sound on the Region 2/4 DVDs. The 24 episodes will be on six discs, while the seventh disc will contain Scripts. Screensaver, Xena Chronicles, Photo Gallery, Poster Gallery
Many thanks to Matt Savelkoul for submitting the following information.
Anchor Bay will be releasing the Xena season by season boxed sets, I called them up and spoke with Mike Felsher, the Film Information Manager with Anchor Bay. He confirmed that the Anchor Bay DVD releases will be different than the Davis/Panzer mail order releases.
Unlike the D/P releases, these releases are sporting newly remastered transfers of each episode, including brand new Dolby 5.1 surround tracks and bonus features yet to be determined. He gave me an April 2003 release for Xena season 1 and a June 2003 release for Hercules season 1.
Anchor Bay is committed to presenting the show in the original aspect ratio. He said, in part: "We will be presenting the show in the original screen format whatever it may be. If the show legitimately went to 16x9 in future seasons, then that is what will be released to DVD."
Starting with Xena Season 3, episode 3 (since the first two eps of season 3 were shot during the tail end of season 2 and held over), this will be the first time ANYWHERE that the 16x9 widescreen version of the show will be available. (The worldwide sets put out by Universal in regions 2 and 4 were pan and scan, not widescreen.)
Freelance Xena/Farscape music video artist for Creation Entertainment
Season 2 on DVD is now available to purchase
from the Official Xena & Herc online store. This brand new collection includes 7 discs
containing all 24 Season Two episodes remastered from studio-quality digital video. This
incredible DVD Collection will also include exciting supplemental material, including:
Screensaver, Xena Chronicles, Photo Gallery - Price $99 (US)
http://www.adarastore.com/cgi-bin/xena-herc/X1312?NvG4r6Sa;;2
Season 2 - Region 1 (US/Canada)
The following goodies are with the Season 2 DVDs from Anchor Bay.
Audio & Video Commentary With Lucy Lawless and Reneé O’Connor
Director and Actor Bios on CD-ROM
Series Trivia on CD-ROM
Season Two Photo Gallery
Xena Chronicles
Click here to order from Amazon.com