Opened the box. The piece is gorgeous (heavy), but not a music box, as far as I can tell. And now, a new dilemma (or at least one I hadn't been thinking about for a while). Minas Morgul.

No music in Minas Tirith (at least the giftie version--the movie version has a few songs sung there!). My cat's been sniffing it rather suspiciously, and trying to nibble on the side of one of the houses. Very cool giftee!!

Movie is faboo, of course, except for one thing: the character assassination of Gimli. Boy, did they ruin him with the added footage!! I liked the TE-RotK Gimli, all morbid battle humor. Now, he's back to the TTT-era clown, this time adding farting to his repertoire. And, even worse IMO, he's not frightened at the Paths of the Dead, but treats the spectors as if they were a cloud of gnats. Considering his reaction was the reason the book Paths were so damn scary, that's blasphemy that I hadn't seen Jackson commit before. Very disappointing.

Most of the added scenes were great--loved the Mouth of Sauron, Houses of Healing, and the conversation between Faramir and Pippin, as well as a wonderful added beat to the Green Dragon song that Pippin and Merry sing at Edoras . Denethor is more vividly drawn as broken down by grief, not necessarily just an asshole.

I've seen the Cameras in Middle-Earth doc--make sure you have Kleenex at hand for the last scene of Elijah's final shoot in pickups. Jackson just loses it, which made me lose it, too !

Yay! Someone to talk with! Right when I should be going to bed!

I also loved the Faramir/Pippin scene. I thought Faramir probably did best out of the additional scenes. I loved all the 'wizard's pupil' bits. The extra shots of Merry fighting to get to Eowyn broke my heart, and also his little speech about his and Pippin's friendship. I am in violent agreement with you on the Gimli front. The drinking game was cringe-worthy.

I must watch the other extras.

will not...read..the whitefront...

There were copies of ROTK EE for ₤23, which is about $46. So naturally, I didn't buy it. (Especially as it wouldn't play on my computer anyway.) But I'll see it in January, when my friends bring it over from the States. Lord, though, I want it now.

Hi, Jars! I think that idea of the drinking game wasn't a bad one, in theory, but its execution sucked, big time, mostly due to the choice of both PJ and Rhys-Davies (from the Cameras doc, most of his stuff was ad-libbed) to make Gimli into an idiot. I just hated it.

Oh, and on the Cameras doc, after Elijah hugs PJ, I think the woman he's giving that huge embrace to (whose face we never see on screen) is Fran Walsh.

I think I'm going to go watch some more docs and maybe get in the Director/Writers commentary before going to bed. I have to go back to work for the first time since the 3rd tomorrow, so I have to be in bed by 11:00. Feh.

No package waiting for me.

It was really too much to hope for.

Maybe tomorrow.

That sucks, sumi!

I'm going to go through the docs and see if they manage to find a way to humiliate Rick Porras on this DVD, since they did so on the first two. Appearance report on interviewees that I've seen so far: Viggo looks great, Ordesky's lost a lot of hair on top, PJ was filmed before he lost weight (take a look at him on the King Kong set reports--it looks like he's dropped about 30 pounds), Billy's starting to look his age (he's getting the vertical creases next to his mouth), and Dom looks great as always.

Oh, and watch the Cameras doc for sure, especially the bit about Sam's wedding! Let's just say that Sam and Rosie weren't the only two kissing on set that day...

No package waiting for me.

I've been reading Joss-speak for so long I was parsing this as some kind of "slayage" construction...

will not...read..the whitefront...

I am SA. I'm trying desperately to wait until Christmas, 'cause I think it may be a gift, but I don't know if I can make it that long.

Hah! From the Easter egg link: a gag interview with Elijah Wood conducted by Dominica Monaghan . If only it were so. The tinhats would have a field day...