The first thing a reviewer should ask is, "what was the intent of the artist?" Followed by, "was he/she successful in this aim?" With the special edition DVD of Fellowship of the Ring, the range and depth of the content is such that the intent could only be to create the mother of all DVDs. As for the second question, concerning whether or not they were successful, the answer is yes, they were. Simply put, this set is the reason why DVDs were made in the first place. It's as if the purpose was to vindicate all DVD players, even the ones that spend their existence in the purgatory of full screen versions of Merchant Ivory films.

The presentation is excellent, the sound is top notch, and it comes packed with more extra goodies than you'd find in a Wal-Mart run chocolate shop. Of the four discs, two contain the wide screen, extendo version of the film, and two are packed with endless documentaries covering everything from early storyboards to the final touches of postproduction.

Additional Footage
The movie itself is 30 minutes longer than the theatrical version. But rather than just edit in additional scenes, director Peter Jackson has tinkered with existing scenes to better incorporate the new material, also calling in composer Howard Shore to write more music for the new parts. The result is that the extra scenes are so integrated with the film that the movie takes on a completely different feel. The characters are more detailed and nuanced, the locations are explored more, and consequently, the story is given more time to breathe.

Of the additional footage, about 90% of it is dialogue driven, and of that, the better portion of it comes after the fellowship is created. Aragorn and Boromir are fleshed out further, Gandalf and Frodo have additional conversations about the ring, Gollum makes another appearance, and the entire gift-giving scene at Lothlorien is shown (the last of which shouldn't have been cut, in my opinion). The first half of the movie has an extended bit in The Shire, as well as more with Strider leading the hobbits to Rivendell. Of all the added footage only a few quick moments in the beginning seem to be a step in the wrong direction.

Commentaries
If just watching the movie isn't enough to satisfy your nerd thirst, there are four audio commentaries to listen to; one from Peter Jackson and the writing team, one from the design team, one from the post-production team, and one from a group of ten actors. The most revealing of these is the one with Peter Jackson and the writers. In it, they discuss why parts of the movie ended up being so different from the book, why certain characters never appeared in the movie, and why other, seemingly insignificant, characters from the book became major players in the movie. Their decisions, once justified, all make sense and should quiet the whiny critics who got pissed when it was Arwen and not Glorfindel who dragged Frodo to the Ford of Bruinen.

Documentaries
So, if you've logged in the 17 hours watching the movie and the commentaries, but still want more, feel free to put in the third disc, "From Book to Vision." This disc has over 50 sections that deal with the issues of making a book such as Fellowship into a movie. You've got costume design, storyboards, character sketches, and location sketches. It's too much to talk about in any detail, but suffice to say, it's all interesting, cool, and worthy.

The fourth disc, "From Vision to Reality," centers on the actual filming as well as the postproduction work. The filmmakers talk about how they did the special effects, the day-to-day filming, as well as all the sound and music. The cast shows up here with plenty of anecdotal stuff that reveals what life was like on the set and how they dealt with their roles. The documentary on scaling is the most interesting, but to some, it might reveal too much and turn subsequent viewings into three and a half hour games of "How Did They Shrink the Hobbits in this Scene?"

The bottom line is that it's great. The movie is great, the extra stuff is great, and the packaging is great (mine came with two Argonath bookends Woo-hoo!). Go out and buy it or put it on your Christmas list, it'll keep you busy for at least a few days.