Whenever the studios start supporting a new home video format, they tend to give movies' releases on it the most bonus features, with releases on older formats having little to no extras by comparison. Justified in cases when the older mediums don't have enough memory for a ton of bonus features. Inverted for most Ultra HD Blu-ray releases; the UHD disc usually contains fewer extras than the 1080p disc or the 4K digital copy.
If a franchise's box set relegates most of the bonus features to a separate disc from any of the movies, it often results in the movies boasting little to no extras when sold individually.
Warner Archive is an on-demand version of this. The collection consists of a large archive of films and TV shows from Warner Bros., MGM, and RKO, that haven't been published on mass-market DVD but are made available on a made-to-order basis. If you order a DVD of a film from Warner Archive, you will receive a DVD of the film and nothing else — sometimes not even chapter breaks — but most of the titles wouldn't make it out of Keep Circulating the Tapes territory otherwise.
Likewise, Fox, Sony, MGM, and Universal all have similar services that operate the exact same way. However, Fox's service in particular sometimes doesn't even format films properly, going with old-fashioned "full frame" releases in The New '10s… which at least makes sense if the films were made in full-frame to begin with, but if they weren't and are pan-&-scan…
It's sad to be a fan of animated movies not made by Disney. MGM, Universal, and Fox are all guilty of placing their animated films in the five dollar bin at grocery stores and changing the original cover art to appeal to the Animation Age Ghetto, even if the films weren't financial bombs to begin with. If they have any special features at all they'll be DVD games for very young children.
Said DVD games usually are not ported over to the films' Blu-ray releases, meaning that those versions of the films are even more bare.
Around the late 2010s, Universal began to rerelease every movie in DreamWorks Animation's back catalogue, reprinting already-existing Blu-rays and giving all their films from Antz to Flushed Away, which hadn't been put on the format before, this treatment. While relatively nice-looking visually and stocked up well on bonus features, having most of them brought over from the original DVDs, these Blu-ray releases suffer from generic cover art and the same basic template being used for the menus, with a random shot picked either from the movie or stock art as a backdrop.
The management of studio libraries under Shout! Entertainment have been suffering from this treatment. It applies mostly to the MGM and Universal libraries.
The original Blu-ray release of Total Recall (1990) is almost completely bare bones and completely devoid of Arnold Schwarzenegger's infamous commentary track.
The Criterion Collection usually has the most packed discs anywhere, but there have been a few barebones releases in the main line. In the Laserdisc days, CLV versions of CAV Criterion titles (denoted by the letter A after the spine number) often had no extras. The company also runs a separate entity called Eclipse, which releases film-only themed collections of mostly-obscure films that have artistic and/or historic merit but won't attract big sales. And Criterion's Essential Art House budget line consists of movie-only editions of Janus Films titles that have already received a proper Criterion release.
The extended cuts of The Lord of the Rings films scheduled to be released on DVD later on. If you were smart and patient, you waited for the boxed set that included both cuts of all three films. In fairness, it must be said the theatrical cut releases weren't barren, they came with short, half-hour long making-of documentaries and a few other short pieces.
The initial 4K release of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit Trilogy have no bonus features whatsoever.
The file name for the single-disc DVD release of Transformers (2007) is allegedly named "Transformers_Vanilla".
The ADV Films release of the Godzilla film Destroy All Monsters (considered one of the best in the series) does not have menus or scene selections. The movie just starts. And it is just the English dub. Then when they released the film again in 2004 it was an exact copy of the first release with a soundtrack included. Fortunately, Media Blasters released the film on DVD and Blu-ray in 2011, though there now seems to be some sort of problem with Toho regarding the extras.
Colossus: The Forbin Project has so far only been released on one DVD. It has no special features. It has no menu; it just loops when it's over. Worst of all, the aspect ratio was cut down from 2.35:1 (47:20) to 1.33:1 (4:3), meaning you can't see half the screen.
The original release of Blade Runner on DVD. It was so lightweight, Warner touted "scene selection" as a bonus feature (granted, it was the second title ever released on DVD after Twister). The scene select menu only allows you to select only every fifth scene bookmark. The rest you can only get to after starting the movie.
The landmark March 25, 1997note Blade Runner was released the day after release of Twister also has comparatively paltry extras by today's standards (the back of the box literally touts "language selection" and "interactive menus" as special features), but at least it had the theatrical trailer.
Warner Bros. was notorious for treating most of its catalog titles this way for the first few years of the format. While some of them were revisited later with more elaborate editions, others never have been. A good example of this is 1981's Arthur (1981), which never received a region 1 widescreen DVD release, even though the poorly-regarded sequel did (a region 2 widescreen DVD eventually was released). While the 2011 Blu-ray disc finally offers up the film in its proper aspect ratio, it's still vanilla otherwise, sharing disc space with said sequel. Likewise, True Stories got a Pan and Scan DVD release in 1999, and eventually got a widescreen Blu-ray Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition (and DVD reissue) via The Criterion Collection nearly twenty years later.
One release of Lake Placid on DVD saw it with "scene selection" as the only bonus feature. There were only two scenes listed - the beginning of the film and just before the credits.
The first eight Disney Animated Canon movies that Disney released on DVD came in what was called the Limited Issue collection. The most packed entry, Mulan, contained nothing more than a partially-colored trailer and some music videos, while fans of the other movies released in this collection would have probably considered themselves lucky if they got so much as an old trailer. The Limited Issue DVDs featured so few bonus features, Disney tried to pad out the "special features" boxes on the back covers by boasting◊ that the DVDs have labels with "full color character artwork." (This boast would become ironic when Disney started using gray and silver DVD labels for most of their movies.) Disney would gradually give these movies more-loaded 2-Disc DVDs, except for Hercules, which had the same minuscule number of extras on its next DVD.
The first DVD release of Who Framed Roger Rabbit from 1999 was basically the widescreen Laserdisc edition ported to DVD, with the audio commentary removed. The packaging also notes that the theatrical trailer is included as a special feature, but it is not on the actual disc! Fortunately for the film's 15th anniversary in 2003, it got a two-disc release in the "Vista Series", with tons of special features but was censored in scenes.
The "20th Anniversary" Blu-ray of The Rocketeer caused some frustration for containing no bonus features, except for the original trailer, which is presented in pan and scan to boot. It should also be noted that The Rocketeer is but one of a large amount of live-action Disney movies that came to DVD with no bonus features.
Cars launched a new era of home entertainment for Pixar. Each of the preceding movies got 2-disc Collector's Edition DVDs with hours of bonus features. By contrast, Cars got a DVD containing nothing more than three shorts, some deleted scenes, and a short interview with the director as bonus features. Nearly every Pixar movie onward received similarly lightweight platters on DVD. Fans would have to buy the Blu-ray discs for more comprehensive extras. Eventually, Cars 2 became Pixar's first movie to come to 3-D Blu-ray. As a result, both the DVD and the Blu-ray received paltry selections of bonus features, with consumers having to buy the 3D version to get all the extras! Fortunately, Brave and Finding Nemo each have 2D and 3D Blu-rays with identical or nearly-identical amounts of extras, giving this trend a quick death.
The rental-only release of Up takes this to new extremes: even the most bare-bones retail DVD of the movie has interactive menus and subtitles, but the rental disc doesn't even have that because Disney considered them bonus features. (Clearly, deaf people and non-native speakers aren't supposed to rent movies...) Have fun when the used copies start floating around, since the cases are otherwise indistinguishable (and the rental version's case flat-out lies about the disc's features!).
Disney has made the bonus discs for a few of their films retailer exclusives in the UK, making the wide releases a case of this and the two-disc versions difficult to get hold of after their initial release. Monsters University's bonus disc was exclusive to Sainsburys and the bonus disc for Inside Out was exclusive to Zavvi's 3D steelbook.
A notable example of the opposite was the international releases of The Incredibles, which have a single disc with only a small fraction of the features available on the North American and Japanese releases.
Made worse by a bit of (possibly) unintentional Very False Advertising. The UK's Tangled Blu-ray and DVD features a trailer for The Incredibles's Blu-ray, but uses the same North American trailer, showing the "2-Disc Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy" cover and bragging that it contains a ton of bonus features when actually the international Blu-ray releases contain even less features than the original DVD release.
Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase Two movies almost always have drastically smaller amounts of Blu-ray bonus features compared to Phase One pictures, apparently because Marvel planned to withhold certain extras for a box set of the whole phase—which includes a bonus disc containing 166 minutes of exclusive extras. The Avengers, the first MCU Blu-ray released through Disney instead of Paramount or Universal, also feels lacking in the bonus department, despite capping off Phase One. The DVDs for all phases have even less content, and no box sets.
Disney released Blu-ray Discs of some of their least marketable live-action movies exclusively through the Disney Movie Club. The discs don't usually include any bonus features; sometimes even a title that contained extras on LaserDisc or DVD lost all of them on Blu-ray. Animated DMC Exclusive Blu-ray Discs also contained no bonus features, unless the movie either belongs to the Disney Animated Canonnote except for Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros, which the DMC sold as a barebones 2-Movie Collection, or previously received a wide BD release with extras.
The first time Toy Story and Toy Story 2 came to DVD, fans could decide between a "2-Pack" containing the movies and three shorts, or the 3-Disc "Ultimate Toy Box" that added audio commentaries and five hours of extras. When the movies became available individually, copies from the 2-Packs were used.
For some reason, the UK version of Jurassic World 3D didn't include the 2D disc like the rest of the world did, the problem being that not only is the 3D disc locked to only play with 3D equipment, but it doesn't have any of the extras from the 2D disc. Universal did offer to send those who had complained a free 2D disc though.
Most of MGM's DVDs hardly contain bonus features. Their releases of their most well-known films usually avert this.
The Rocky series falls victim to the MGM curse as well. The first movie has a nice two-disc DVD set and Rocky Balboa at least has a commentary and a few deleted scenes, but Rocky II, III, IV and V have nothing.
The 1997 DVDs of The Wizard of Oz and Singin' in the Rain, among others, just have the theatrical trailers and production notes as bonus features, even though they both previously had VHS and especially LaserDisc releases with larger amounts of extras (at least some of which fortunately turned up on Warner's DVD re-releases).
The Vanilla Edition of Sin City was never intended to be released. Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller intended the Extended version, with about 20 minutes more footage in the film, as well as loads of bonus features (including Rodriguez's famous cooking school video), and even a pocket-sized copy of the first Sin City story (The Hard Goodbye) to be released with the theatrical cut in one package. The initial release did come with one bonus feature: a ten minute 'behind the scenes' that was most likely made to promote the film on movie channels in between programs.
When Titanic was first released on DVD in 1999, the only special feature was the theatrical trailer. Granted, DVD was just starting out so the idea of special features was a novel concept. It wasn't until 2005 that a comprehensive special edition was released (in fact, that edition had so much special features, the film had to be separated onto two discs like on its VHS release!).
Fox released a bare-bones, zero-features DVD/Blu-ray release of Avatar for Earth Day (April 2010), followed by a 'special edition' in 4Q 2010, and then a 3D Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition. Part of their justification for the Vanilla Edition was that with Avatar being so amazing visually, they wanted to use ALL the available space on the Blu-ray (and on DVD) to avoid compromising on quality in the basic edition (the collector's editions were three disks). Cameron once joked that he had an unwritten contract with Fox where "any time one of [his] movies makes more than a billion dollars we leave all the crap trailers off. I can't stand them any more than you can."
One common practice by studios is re-releasing a movie on DVD with the second (occasionally 3rd or 4th) disc removed, giving a movie which once had a Super Special Awesome Edition a vanilla release. One example is The Abyss. When first released on DVD, it was a 2-disc set packed with extras. An hour-long documentary, textual commentary, trailers (including hidden trailers for Aliens and True Lies), a promotional featurette, the original story treatment and complete shooting script, clips involving the visual effects, and the highly informative and extensive LaserDisc supplemental pages. Then, a few years later, the DVD was rereleased with no second disc, with the only features being cast bios and the text commentary. The worst part: this is the most widely available version of the DVD.
The Man from Earth is of the 'likely won't sell well' variety, as it features little action to speak of and is very cerebral. The DVD is also generally only available online and features four brief featurettes and two commentaries. The Blu-ray release is worse; no extras at all!
The live-action Super Mario Bros. movie has only had three releases in the United States: one on VHS and two on DVD. The first DVD was released in 2003 and features nothing other than the movie and a horrible transfer taken from the Laserdisc master. The second DVD release came in 2010 and is the same exact movie, just with the logos re-arranged on the packaging. The UK release at least has the theatrical trailer.
Pathe, who owns the rights to the film outside North America, licensed the rights to Second Sight in 2014 for a Blu-ray release, it got a far better transfer from the original camera negative, and actually boasts plenty of extras such as deleted scenes and some behind-the-scenes featurettes. Too bad there's only a region B release currently available, and is unplayable on other different region-coded players. North American fans still have to deal with Disney's DVD release for the moment.
Warner Bros. and Fox, among other companies, are known for releasing alternate "rental" editions of their movies which lack bonus features and come with long previews you can't skip. For one example, the Blockbuster rental copy of Cop Out just has "play movie" and "language selection" The only way you can tell them apart is if the cover says "Rental" or "Rental Exclusive".
Fans are especially upset over the DVD releases of the first live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990); it's been released twice the second time for the 25th anniversary of the franchise, both have no special features except for a maze game in the original release, however the release in Germany features a few deleted scenes and a commentary by the director Steve Barron.
Both 1-disc and 2-disc editions of Go West! A Lucky Luke Adventure were released in Canada, but while both editions included an English language option for the main film, the features came in French only with no subtitles.
The Australian Blu-ray release of Heathers is the movie and nothing else. No menu, no credits page, nothing.
The 2011 DVD release by Image Entertainment only contains the movie, the theatrical trailer, and, strangely, a reel of trailers for other Lakeshore Entertainment titles presumably licensed to Image. Their Blu-ray is similarly barebones. The original DVD and Blu-ray releases, by Anchor Bay, included commentary and two featurettes, as well as the trailer.
The DVD release of the film Magicians didn't even have a menu. It was basically a VHS tape burned onto a DVD and then released.
With the last two Harry Potter films, Warner Bros. has opted to put all the bonus features on the Blu-ray version while the DVD version only has a few deleted scenes. Apparently, Warner Bros. really wants you to buy a Blu-ray player. There's something ironically "full circle" about this: The first Harry Potter film was released on DVD and VHS at a time when DVD was the new format and VHS was dying; the last Harry Potter film was released on DVD and Blu-ray at a time when Blu-ray is the new format and DVD is (possibly) dying.
To confuse matters, single-disc Blu-ray versions of those movies also exist. Like the DVDs, they contain no bonus features other than deleted scenes. You want some interviews and behind-the-scenes footage as well? You'll have to opt for the three-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo packs, then wonder what to do with two copies of each movie. Some non-Harry Potter films also have releases like this.
The "Superbit" DVDs released by Sony Pictures' Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment division were designed to have above-average picture and sound quality, but at the cost of any bonus features.note One notable exception was the Superbit edition of Spider-Man, which had an exclusive DVD Commentary with Tobey Maguire and J. K. Simmons that was not on the standard DVD and has since been included on later Blu-ray versions of the film. They would later release deluxe editions of Superbit titles (including The Fifth Element and Hollow Man, to name a few), which included a second disc with all the relevant bonus features. Similarly, Sony has their line of "Mastered in 4K" Blu-ray releases that feature better video quality, but no bonus features.
Taken to an extreme with the DVD release of The Wizard. The only subtitles are in English, and there isn't even a chapter selection screen. One can jump to scenes in the movie, but the jumps are at random.
The 2004 Garfield movie was first released on DVD with an absolute lack of bonus features, with only an audio commentary, trailers at the beginning of the DVD and the Inside Look featurette as the bonus features. A two-disc special edition, dubbed The Purr-fect Collectors' Edition, was released on DVD two years later.
The Follow-Along DVDs by Fox lack not only bonus features, but animation from the menu. The only bonus feature on the DVD is the kids' captioning.
A vanilla version of Coraline exists on Blu-ray, containing the movie and nothing else. It doesn't even have a menu; it just has a static card before the movie saying that the movie is about to start. If one waits until the end of the credits, the disc just starts at the beginning with said screen.
A 50/50 example with The Dark Knight Trilogy. To coincide with the home video release of The Dark Knight Rises, a "limited edition giftset" of the entire trilogy was put out in time for Christmas 2012. It contained only the DVD/Blu-ray releases of all three movies (with The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises retaining their special features discs on the Blu-ray set, though) and a book excerpt featuring production art and stills. No collectibles or exclusives whatsoever. Warner also went out of their way to announce an "ultimate collector's edition" on Blu-ray for release the following year on the set's digital codes that came with each unit, which seriously pissed off those who did buy it rather than wait as they felt Warner had duped them.
The standard DVD of Horton Hears a Who! (2008) only has trailers different on each side, a commentary from the directors and the Ice Age short "Surviving Sid". The DVD bundled with the digital copy has special features, while the Blu-Ray has all that plus the option to watch the movie with a Who.
The DVD releases of the Ernest P. Worrell films have no special features, probably because by the time they were released Jim Varney had passed away.
Woody Allen just doesn't do supplements - he never really has. Mostofhisfilms that are on Blu-ray will only have an HD trailer for the film because of this.
A Brazilian blog on the home video market describes them as "Simplex", and is a Berserk Button of theirs (along with, for instance, changing the aspect ratio, not providing the best sound and image quality, not bringing bonus content seen in foreign releases, and abusive prices - all fairly common practices of Brazilian distributors!), particularly regarding boxes which only put back previously released movies in a nice package, but no new content.
Zig-zagged with A Goofy Movie. The North American 2000 release was full-screen and had some bonus features (including a Goof Troop episode without its opening sequence, a trivia game, a storybook, an episode of Disneyland anthology series from 1955 focusing on Goofy, the fullscreen trailer and the "Disney's Mambo No. 5" music video), while the 1999 European release despite not having any bonus features (like many Disney movies released by Warner Home Video at the time) features the movie in its original widescreen ratio and seven additional language tracks besides the original English (depending on country those were German, Spanish (Spain), Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish and Portuguese (European) or French, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Czech, Hungarian and Hebrew).
The 20th anniversary Blu-Ray release exclusive to Disney Movie Club plays this straight, as it only contains the film and the option to select scenes. With none of the bonus features from the North American release or even the different language tracks from the European releases being retained. Likewise, the same thing applies to the Blu-Ray release of An Extremely Goofy Movie, which also lacks the bonus features from its earlier DVD releases.
Made all the more annoying with Battleship since the disc menus are the same for the rental and full versions, but selecting any of the Special Features entries brings up a warning box informing you that your copy is a Rental version and to use a Full version to access those features.
Iron Man originally came to home video as a one-disc DVD, a two-disc DVD set, and a two-disc Blu-ray set. A few years later, Paramount/Marvel Studios unexpectedly stopped selling the Blu-ray with the second disc. In another surprising move, the two-disc DVD did not go out of print at the same time this happened. The Iron Man Ultra HD Blu-ray, released on the same day that Avengers: Endgame hit physical media, also lacks the original BD's bonus disc, despite the end of the Infinity Saga marking a prime opportunity to go all-out on the first installment's 4K debut. The Iron Man 2 UHD also lacks the bonus disc included with its Blu-ray/DVD/Digital combo pack, although that pack remained in print for longer than the 2-Disc Iron Man BD did.note Disney's MCU boxsets also lack the Iron Man and IM2 bonus discs, though some boxsets do contain extras not included on either movie's individual releases.
Although more a case of the 20th Century Fox executives simply not caring about the film than a quest for more sales, all three releases of Wing Commander (non-anamorphic DVD in 1999, anamorphic DVD in 2011, and Blu-ray in 2013) have nothing more than a fairly barebones menu and the theatrical trailer included.
Matilda first came to DVD with Pan and Scan picture and no bonus features. The so-called "Special Edition" added some extras, but still no widescreen option (although the United Kingdom got the "Special Edition" with the widescreen option). Fans who didn't get to buy the LaserDisc had to wait until the movie's Blu-ray release to own it in its original aspect ratio. (Happily, the Blu-ray retains all of the Special Edition bonus features except for some set-top games.)
If you are lucky enough to own a DVD created by Studio 100 including Bonus Features, expect it to be a music video of the corresponding movie or TV series. An exception is the K3 Loves You DVD, which includes a music video and a complete documentary about the new K3 formation.
When the 20th Century Fox-distributed and/or produced Rodgers and Hammerstein movie adaptations first came to DVD, only The Sound of Music received a two-disc set. The other four had to settle for non-anamorphic DVDs with only a few bonus features. To make matters worse, the UK DVD of Oklahoma! from this line is in Pan and Scan. Eventually, Fox re-released all five of them with remastered picture and more extras.
The Lionsgate DVD of Mumfie's Quest has no bonus features but previews for DVDs of Leap Frog and Lalaloopsy, while the previous release from 2012 contains early storyboards and a deleted scene.
Every edition of Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie until Shout! Factory's Blu-ray/DVD release (which included a fair amount of bonus features) was a vanilla edition, containing the movie and nothing else, really.
The original South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut DVD contained only the film and some trailers, while some other editions had a Music Video for "What Would Brian Boitano Do?" The Blu-ray release is similarly bare-bones, having all the extras from the DVD ported, but there's at least a commentary track from Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
The Iron Giant initially received this kind of release, with the only special features it had being trailers and publicity material (at least the VHS came with a plastic toy). A proper Special Edition happened years later in 2004.
After Warner premiered the 2015 Recut Signature Edition, it reached digital and DVD months before it did Blu-ray, because the studio needed extra time to prepare exclusive bonus features (the DVD mostly just cherry-picked extras from the two previous discs).
The Disney Movie Club DVD of Doug's 1st Movie had a pretty bad case. Not only did the DVD leave out any bonus features (including the one on the video release back in 1999) and had picture quality similar to the VHS release, but Disney decided to use the Toon Disney edit with commercial fade-outs and sped-up credits instead of the original master!
The earlier Fantastic Planet DVD doesn't even have a menu; it just launches straight into the movie. If you want subtitles, you'll have to use your TV remote.
The back cover for the first 10 Things I Hate About You DVD instructs viewers to press the enter button on their remote to access special features. The disc, however, contained nothing of the like, until Touchstone re-released the movie as a 10th Anniversary Edition.
Captain America: Civil War marks the first time a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie or TV show has a DVD containing no bonus features at all. The Blu-ray and Digital HD versions make up for it with over an hour of extras.
Wes Anderson movies often receive this when they're first released to home video. The studios have an exclusivity window to issue such a release, but Anderson himself prefers to work with The Criterion Collection, and they release a much improved and expanded set once that window expires. Most of his fans tend to skip the initial DVD or Blu-ray release of one of his films, because they know a Criterion will eventually be coming out in a few years.
The Miracle on 34th Street double pack containing both the 1947 and 1994 films is the epitome of a Vanilla Edition. Its menu is literally two lines of white text on a black background and the only menu options are one button for each film. That's right, not even a scene selection or subtitles screen!
In the early days of the format quite a few catalog titles were shoveled out as double features that slapped two movies on one disc with few if any extras beyond trailers. In 2000, Fox released both the 1958 and 1986 versions of The Fly as double features with their respective sequels. A few years later the two films were given proper standalone packages; as for the sequels, The Fly II warranted a 2-disc set of its own.
Most TGG Direct DVDs are this trope. The only option on their double-feature release of Sudden Death and The Questis to play the movies. Even their packaging — DVDs sealed in cardboard you have to tear open to access the disc inside — is ultra-vanilla.
Universal's 4-pack releases have to be a record in vanilla-ness. Four flop films in one package (one example: McHale's Navy, The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle, Josie and the Pussycats (2001), and Thunderbirds) — not, as you might expect, two flipper discs with one movie on each side (as Warner Bros. have done; this allowed for reusing of feature-laden releases) — instead, you get two movies stuffed onto one disc each. All you get is a basic menu allowing you to pick which movie you want to watch. There isn't even a chapter selection screen.
They did a similar thing with their trilogy of Canada-exclusive "Movies on the Go" packs, released in 2006 and intended for family travel viewing (one had more kid-skewing movies such as Casper and The Little Rascals, and two were aimed at older kids and included such movies as The Mummy (1999), Bring It On, Liar Liar, and the aforementioned Josie and the Pussycats). These ones did have flipper discs, but with the same two movies on each side, one with the English versions, and one with the French dubs.
Ishtar got a Blu-ray release in this fashion in 2013, after years of avoiding a DVD release. You only get the movie (in okay visual and mediocre audio quality to boot) without any sort of special features beyond trailers—something that's rather disappointing given the film's reputation and history.
The Blu-Ray of Tenet only contains one bonus feature about the making of the movie. This is odd for a Christopher Nolan film, considering his films usually get two-disc sets.
The American home video release of Playmobil: The Movie not only came out only on DVD, but has no bonus features whatsoever. The HD release on iTunes does have a few bonus features.
Disney seems to have little appreciation for non-franchise titles, as many of them are stuck on bare-bones DVD with nothing in regards to extras, and the few titles that do get a Blu-ray release get transfers that are decent at best. A noteworthy example of this is The Joy Luck Club, where all of its home video releases are zilch for extras. Even the Blu-ray, which has a surprisingly good transfer, lacks anything beyond a French and Spanish audio track (and the Spanish track is in stereo, to boot). Mind you, this film would go on to be inducted into the National Film Registry, and stars future Disney Legend Ming-Na Wen in her first of many gigs for the Mouse House. You'd expect Disney to give it much more respect.
The The Mask and Son of the Mask double feature DVD gives the option to select a movie, and from there Play Movie, Set Up, Select A Scene, and Switch Movie.
The DVD of Tank may be the most Vanilla on this list. It doesn't have anything but the movie. No menu, no scene selections, no alternate languages, nothing. The movie plays and that's all.
Beginning in 2021, MGM began reissuing movies on DVD primarily in stores such as Dollar Tree, and all of them are like Tank above: no menus, no scene selections (there's chapters for every 30 minutes of a movie), and no alternate languages.
The DVD release of the direct-to-VHS movie Baby Huey's Great Easter Adventure has a menu with only two options: to play the movie, or to play the short film that was featured at the end of the VHS release. And all that's shown before the menu appears are the copyright warning and the Sony Wonder logo, while the VHS release from Columbia Tristar Home Video has previews.
The Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie DVD distributed by Lionsgate in the early 2010's is basically a reprint of disc one of the 2003 2-disc collector's edition of the film, which only contains the film, the commentaries, and the Spanish dub.
is an on-demand version of this. The collection consists of a large archive of films and TV shows from Warner Bros., MGM, and RKO, that haven't been published on mass-market DVD but are made available on a made-to-order basis. If you order a DVD of a film from Warner Archive, you will receive a DVD of the film and nothing else — sometimes not even chapter breaks — but most of the titles wouldn't make it out of Keep Circulating the Tapes territory otherwise.
