The Decline of DVD Commentaries

[Princeton]

I know that DVD audio commentaries are an acquired taste for some but I thoroughly enjoy listening to them and I've found that in the past two years, there has been a major decline in the quality of DVD audio commentaries and I was wondering if anyone else has picked up on this. I'll give you some examples of the more awkward commentaries I've heard in the past couple years. If anyone else has any examples or awkward or just plain lackluster commentaries, I'd love to hear them.
-Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates: This DVD just came out yesterday and already I can say this is the most awkward commentary I've ever listened to. Literally the entire thing is the director arguing with and insulting the recording engineer.
-Ted 2: One of the writers frequently prompts the director for things to discuss and the director shots every prompt down in the name of 'keeping it light'.
-Inside Out: Around the last third, the director calls the composer, gets his voicemail and says "I guess he's not answering because I still owe him money".
-The Good Dinosaur: Talk about a shameless puff piece. It's so obvious that the panel wants to avoid talking about what a disaster the film is, which for a film like this seems dishonest. I think the 'bluntly honest' approach would have been the best one to take for this film. It would have been uncomfortable to listen to but at least it would have been real. As it stands, they talk about how beautiful the animation is, which I think at this point for Pixar that goes without saying and shouldn't even be a viable opinion of their films anymore (even if it's the only good thing you can say about it, like Good Dinosaur and Finding Dory).

 

[D'Snowth]

I haven't seen recent Pixar movies on DVD, but I'm surprised by your disclaimer, because Pixar has been notorious in the past for having very, very chatty commentaries, to the point where it's like they never even take a breath, they just keep talking and talking and talking and talking.

The KSY DVD has a really lackluster audio commentary by Kermit and Horace D'Fly: they give decent commentary for about the first third of the movie, then they pretty much just stop after that and reserve maybe a couple of passing comments for the rest of the movie (such as the mythology gags in the pet store like Salmon Friends fish food, and Goelz Guppies shipments and such).

I can take or leave audio commentaries, but I like them in moderation: for instance, I don't mind if an audio commentary has up to two people who share insightful notes about the making of the movie throughout the commentary, but as I mentioned, I don't care for commentaries where there's a bunch of people talking over each other and going on like motormouths throughout the entire thing - that can be annoying. Conversely, if there's lackluster commentary like we're talking about in this thread, then why even bother?

Now, as for particularly awkward commentary, THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, for being a cheesy disaster flick, has an awkward DVD commentary: Roland Emmerich isn't bad, but his co-producer who does the commentary with him acts like a middle schooler throughout the whole thing, making silly comments about certain things like the exciting music, or even imitating the characters' lines throughout like he's trying to turn them into memes or something . . . and Emmerich just laughs it off.

It should also be noted that sometimes kid movies can have relatively kid unfriendly commentary, such as THE CAT IN THE HAT commentary with Bo Welch and Alec Baldwin - but I guess they figure kids wouldn't listen to commentaries anyway, because they use quite a bit of adult language throughout.

 

[MuppetSpot]

I think the reason why DVD commentaries are so lackluster now is the DVD market is dying as of late. My theory is who's doing the commentary just puts in half the effort because, not a lot of people are going to listen to it.

 

[Princeton]

I haven't seen recent Pixar movies on DVD, but I'm surprised by your disclaimer, because Pixar has been notorious in the past for having very, very chatty commentaries, to the point where it's like they never even take a breath, they just keep talking and talking and talking and talking.

The KSY DVD has a really lackluster audio commentary by Kermit and Horace D'Fly: they give decent commentary for about the first third of the movie, then they pretty much just stop after that and reserve maybe a couple of passing comments for the rest of the movie (such as the mythology gags in the pet store like Salmon Friends fish food, and Goelz Guppies shipments and such).

I can take or leave audio commentaries, but I like them in moderation: for instance, I don't mind if an audio commentary has up to two people who share insightful notes about the making of the movie throughout the commentary, but as I mentioned, I don't care for commentaries where there's a bunch of people talking over each other and going on like motormouths throughout the entire thing - that can be annoying. Conversely, if there's lackluster commentary like we're talking about in this thread, then why even bother?

Now, as for particularly awkward commentary, THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, for being a cheesy disaster flick, has an awkward DVD commentary: Roland Emmerich isn't bad, but his co-producer who does the commentary with him acts like a middle schooler throughout the whole thing, making silly comments about certain things like the exciting music, or even imitating the characters' lines throughout like he's trying to turn them into memes or something . . . and Emmerich just laughs it off.

It should also be noted that sometimes kid movies can have relatively kid unfriendly commentary, such as THE CAT IN THE HAT commentary with Bo Welch and Alec Baldwin - but I guess they figure kids wouldn't listen to commentaries anyway, because they use quite a bit of adult language throughout.

Cat in the Hat: I remember you mentioning that before and in fact I knew you'd bring it up here lol. I've heard that commentary before and didn't pick up on ant bad language.
Pixar: I totally agree with you about how high quality their commentaries usually are. In fact, I have a similar problem with Brave as I do with Good Dinosaur, yet I adore the Brave commentary (even though there are definitely some things I disagree with the director about).

 

[Oscarfan]

It could also be there's not much worth talking about on those films; they aren't exactly asking for information about them.

That said, I used to really love the Simpsons DVD commentaries; those were great. However, around the early teen seasons, they become a lot more meandering and focus less on the episodes. One of the show runners mentions them switching to digital coloring on almost every episode around the time the shift happened.

 

[D'Snowth]

I'm suddenly remembering that Chris Columbus and Mac Culkin did a commentary track for a special edition release of HOME ALONE, and at one point were talking about how John Hughes really needed to do a commentary of his own - that would have been sweet, but now it will never happen.

That being said, I know I (and a bunch of others out there) were so hoping that we'd also eventually get a similar special edition release of the sequel - with a bunch of bonus features - like the first one got, but that never happened. The closest thing we got to special releases afterward was a "complete" set of the first four movies, prior to them doing a fifth one that was also a horrific made-for-TV movie without John Hughes' involvement, much like the fourth.

 

[Princeton]

Another thing I'm finding is that more often than not it's Oscar bait films that get commentaries (ex. Moonlight, Room).

 

[D'Snowth]

Michael Lembeck gives an interesting commentary for THE SANTA CLAUSE 2: I almost feel as though he actually recorded with kids listening in mind, because he actually talks about the characters (the elves, other fantasy figures, what have you) like they're real and not being played by kids or actors in make-up and prosthetics.

 

[LittleJerry92]

I was honestly never into DVD commentaries.

And this is coming from a guy who loves Mst3k.

 

[Princeton]

Michael Lembeck gives an interesting commentary for THE SANTA CLAUSE 2: I almost feel as though he actually recorded with kids listening in mind, because he actually talks about the characters (the elves, other fantasy figures, what have you) like they're real and not being played by kids or actors in make-up and prosthetics.

Is the commentary for Santa Clause 3 any different? Cuz it's the same director.

Another awkward commentary I have to mention from the past year is Moana. It had a very cryptic feeling all the way through. Topics would be brought up and then left open-ended or one director would start a new topic and then the other director would say "No, let's talk about something else."