The Corner Penthouse

A few years ago, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the The Librarian Movie Trilogy DVD set, which collects the three television movies starring Noah Wyle: The Librarian: Quest for the Spear (2004), The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines (2006), and The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice (2008). I blindly purchased it over the three individual DVD releases, as I assumed it would contain the same three discs. I assumed wrong. Read on to find out more...

Looking at the case, there is nothing to indicate how many discs are inside, and what special features (if any) there may be. At the very bottom are two notes regarding special features. The one on the left states that "some of the information in the above listing may not apply to Special Features"; while on the right it states that "Special Features are not rated and may not be subtitled or closed-captioned." Reading that, it would be reasonable to assume that all three movies have special features, and thus would be the same three discs sold individually. (The first two images can be enlarged.)


Imagine my surprise when I opened up the DVD set and saw only TWO discs inside! As with Escape Plan, when I saw that the first two movies were crammed on one disc, I knew it would be bad.


Just how bad? This is the main menu:


Yes, that's Sony's standard plain "we put little effort into this" menu, which I first saw in their Ghostbusters Collection - Includes All Three Films DVD. By comparison, here are the main menus for the two individual movie DVDs. (For more menus from the second movie, visit DVDMovieMenus.com.)



Sony jettisoned all of these special features from each of those discs.

THE LIBRARIAN: QUEST FOR THE SPEAR (2004)
* Introduction by Noah Wyle (2:58)
* The Librarian: Behind the Scenes (2:02)
* Visual Efx Commentary by Director Peter Winther on Select Scenes (4:53)
* Photo Gallery (16 images)
* Trailer (0:58) (listed as a TV Spot on the back of the case)
* Easter Eggs - All can be found on the Special Features menu by highlighting an item in the menu, pressing RIGHT to reveal a hidden star, and pressing ENTER.
   - Noah Talks About Hitler and the Spear (0:46) - Highlight "Introduction by Noah Wyle".
   - Bob Newhart's Fight Scene (0:48) - Highlight "Photo Gallery".
   - Dean Devlin on Noah (0:54) - Highlight "Pirates of Silicon Valley".

THE LIBRARIAN: RETURN TO KING SOLOMON'S MINES (2006)
* In The Den with the Librarians Special Effects Artists (12:37)

Thankfully, the original disc is included for the third film, so we get a nice looking menu...


...and lots of special features:

* Deleted Scenes (7:09) - Includes "Swordfight", "Daggerman", and "Hitching a Ride".
* Visual Effects Deconstruction Sequences (6:55) - Includes "Library Exterior", "Library Interior", "Excalibur #1", "Excalibur #2", "Monastery Exterior", "Window Exterior #1", "Window Exterior #2", "The Pride", "Vampires", "Defeating Professor Lazio", and "Simone".
* A Look Behind The Monastery Scene (2:35)

That's all I have to say about this one. I really wish the studios would give the full details on the cases, especially how many discs are inside, whether they're single or dual sided, what the special features are, and so forth. Most stores won't take back videos once they're opened, even if they're in like new condition - though Walmart and Target have no qualms about taking back used headphones, vacuum cleaners, and the such - and you can't tell what you're buying with videos like this until AFTER you open the case and see what's inside. That's why it's very important that the studios be extremely complete and truthful with the information on the case.

If you really don't care about special features, go right ahead and pick up the The Librarian Movie Trilogy DVD set. If you want a more complete set, pick up the three movies individually - Quest for the Spear, Return to King Solomon's Mines, and The Curse of the Judas Chalice - or find someone selling them together in a bundle.

The movie series was spun-off into a television series that lasted four seasons. Of course, The Librarians: The Complete Series DVD set is not without its issues. The studio got cheap and put all 12 discs in a one-inch-thick case in which they all sit on a spindle atop each other. That is horrible. It would have been better if they just put the four individual 4-disc Season cases inside a slipbox. So, if you buy the Complete Series set, you'd be best advised to also buy a 12-disc case from Sleeve City for about $6.50 more (with Media Mail shipping), though the case will be a half-inch thicker than the original, so the case artwork won't be a perfect fit. Otherwise, you can spend a little more and buy the four individual sets: Season 1, Season 2, Season 3, and Season 4 (or bundled together)

Yeah, sometimes I wonder if the studios really hate all of us dinosaurs who still collect physical media.

This item was purchased using my own money. It was NOT provided by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.