Brings me back to the old days before studios caught on that people will buy the same movies over and over again.

I would say Universal's releases of 12 Monkeys and Out of Sight were both top notch.

He said "first time out of the gate"...

That shouldn't count. Both Toy Story 1 & 2 had been previously released.



VVVVV
Se7en definitely doesn't fit this thread. The 2-disc set was not the original release. The first release was letterboxed, extra-free and a flipper.

"Donnie Darko" for sure! It's now at bargain-bin prices, but is packed with great features.

I was going to say "Moulin Rouge" but the sound is messed up on a few songs.

The original release "Se7en" sucked, but the secondly-released SE was good, which doesn't have anything to do with this thread.

"Fight Club" rocked, like others had mentioned.

I would say the "Rocky Horror Picture Show", but some of the audience participation tracks are a mess.

I don't think people are understanding the topic at hand

I would throw in most of Universals early collectors edition output. I remember buying a couple of these disc, that had no extras listed on the back, only to discover 2 hour documentaries, deleted scenes, scripts and so on. I was not expecting a full blown documentary on The Flintstones and Field of Dreams.

The Godfather Trilogy

Aside from the omission of the Tracey Ullman shorts and maybe some deleted material from earlier seasons, the first ten seasons of The Simpsons on DVD are everything I could've hoped for.

Freaks and Geeks: The Complete Series - Now THAT's how you do a TV show on DVD folks. And they spent the time and care to keep all of the music cues intact, that rocks.

Also pretty much any Criterion DVD applies here (aside from Seven Samurai and some of the earlier non-anamorphic efforts).

They definitely arent.
This is evidenced by several people claiming that the original release of "Seven" was a great disc. It wasn't. First of all, it was a single dual sided flipper. Second of all there were not many, if any, extras to speak of. Third, I don't remember the audio and video quality being that good, but it has been a while.

ooops... I didn't realize there was a "Se7en" version 1.0.
I've edited my post.

'The Grand Illusion'...

'Finding Nemo'...

'Monsters Inc.'...

'Bob Le Flambeur'...

'The Good Thief'...

'Army Of Shadows'...

'Open Range'...

'Le Samourai'...

'Wyatt Earp'...

'Rififi'...

'Ugetsu'...

'Hara Kiri'...

there's a few...

Cleopatra
The French Connection
Citizen Kane
Doctor Zhivago
The Bridge on the River Kwai
American Graffiti
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
North by Northwest
Yankee Doodle Dandy
Rashomon
Valley Girl
Unbreakable
Superman
The Perfect Storm
Jackie Brown
Beverly Hills Cop
The Hills Have Eyes
E.T.
Enter the Dragon
Dracula
Frankenstein
Bride of Frankenstein
The Wolf Man
The Mummy
The Invisible Man
The Creature from the Black Lagoon
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Big Trouble in Little China

You can't be serious. All it had was a trailer, excerpts from the original theatrical program and the Destruction of the Kurtz Compound segment with optional commentary. No Hearts of Darkness, no Redux cut, no featurettes, no commentary, no other deleted footage, no other proper making-of docs...plus the transfer was a bit soft. I'd hardly call that "getting it right."

It was put to shame by the 30th Anniversary Edition.

From what I remember, any Pixar flick before Cars. Also, Fight Club, Terminator 2, Men in Black...

Fantasia, the first DVD I ever purchased.

Evil Dead

(I keeeed! I keeeeed!)

If TV counts, The Young Ones-Every Stoopid Episode. Maybe because I loved the show so much, but I loved everything about this release. The one area for improvement would be getting the rights to the song Subterreanean Homesick Blues so they wouldn't have had to clip those few minutes out of the episode.
Was the 2disk Abyss the first release? If so, that was a darn good one.

Definitely disagree, as Valley Girl's music got screwed with badly, Superman and Jackie Brown both left lots of stuff out they could have included and there were a few changes to the music on Superman as well...

Dancer In The Dark
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
The Princess and The Warrior
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
Insomnia (Christopher Nolan version)
The Life Aquatic (2-disk Criterion)

The excessive, Die Hard 3 levels of edge-enhancement are enough to warrant an entirely new transfer-somebody really messed up on this one. Extras and audio-wise, the set is fantastic, though.

and with the holo-foil cover of course!

The first Terminator disk was an ugly, non-anamorphic affair. Though I do dig the wonderfully chintzy (snapper, sadly) cover.

For me, I'd have to say The Matrix. I am also 99.9% positive this was my first dvd. I think I actually bought a ps2, and soon after bought the Matrix to watch it on the ps2. I know it is in a snapper, but I still like the artwork of the dvd, it is one of the few snappers that has a fold out cover, and it is the one that got me into dvd's in the first place. I actually prefer to look at the snapper case cover of this one than one that is behind plastic; the artwork is on thicker material, and there is no plastic to get all dull. My copy is still in mint condition, but I can see why some hate snappers because of the ease of getting the covers torn, ripped, damaged, etc, and the snapper enclosure is not the best enclosure out there.

Some other notables that I agree with also are The Fight Club and The Godfather Set. I'm not sure if Gladiator Signature Edition counts, because it might have came out a few months after the single disc (according to DVD Profiler), but if they came out at the same time, then that would definately be one they got right the first time out.

Seventh Seal: Criterion
Contact
Adventures of Robin Hood
Bambi
Mickey Mouse in Living Color Vol. 1
The Red Shoes - but I hear a new restoration may improve it
The Grapes of Wrath