Spider-Man

Submitted by Iain Cash, Alex Robertson and Miguel Pineda

Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment has hidden a good number of interesting and exciting features on their release of Sam Raimi’s mega-hit “Spider-Man.”

If you’re like me and think the DVD’s menus are extremely tedious and hard to navigate, you will especially like the first feature. On the Main Menu simply press the “Up” arrow key on your remote control to highlight the webbing on top of the button. If you press “Enter” now you will be presented with a much more comprehensive Quick Menu that gives you access to all the features on the disc. This can also be achieved on most submenus by simply highlighting the Spiderman symbol inside the Main Menu button on each screen.

Insert the first disc of the set and from the Main Menu go to the “Special Features.” There select “Character Files” and then select any of the principal cast members. On the second page of each cast member’s biography, press the “Up” arrow key on your remote control. This will highlight the cast member’s name. If you press “Enter” now you will see some additional background info on the characters the actor is playing in respect to the comics. Also keep an eye on those illustrations on these pages, as the are comic book illustrations of scenes from the movie.

Now go to the “Commentaries” section and highlight the “Special Features” menu entry at the bottom of the screen. Press the “Left” arrow key on your remote control to highlight a Spiderman symbol. If you press “Enter” now you will be treated to 3-minutes of test footage called “CGI Bloopers.”

Now it’s time to insert the second disc of the set. Select “The Web of Spider-Man” from the Main Menu and there select the “DVD-ROM” menu entry. Once there, press the “Up” arrow on your remote control to highlight Spiderman’s mask. Press “Enter” and you will be treated to “A New Twist On The Webs,” a segment in which Todd McFarlane explains his approach to drawing Spiderman’s webbings in the comic books.

Go back to the main menu and select the menu entry called “The Evolution Of Spider-Man.” Then highlight the “Artists Gallery” menu entry and press the “Right” arrow key on your remote control. This will highlight “The Romitas” on the screen. Press “Enter” and you will get to watch a 4-minute featurette on comic book artists John Romita and his son John Romita Jr., both of which have worked on Spider-Man comic books.

Now enter the “Artist Gallery” section. As you browse the gallery, look for the one done by Terry Dodson (it’s a black and white drawing). Highlight the camera that is used for navigating and press up. You’ll see Terry Dodson’s signature on the spider-man drawing. Press there and you’ll be taken to another gallery that contains famous spider-man comic book covers, except that they are re-drawn with the spider-man movie costumes and faces.

Now, back on the Main Menu, select “Rogue’s Gallery” and on that screen press the “Up” arrow key until you highlight Spider-Man at the top of the screen. Press “Enter” and you will get some information of “The Sinister Six” complete with 3D renderings.

Still in the “Rogue’s Gallery”, when you take a look at the information Elektro, Venom or Scorpion, highlight the Spider-Man icon at the bottom of the screen and then press the “Down” arrow key on your remote control. This will highlight a hidden Spider-Man silhouette. Press “Enter” and you will get to see rotating fullscreen 3D renderings of these characters.