Tips on How to Find Easter Eggs on DVDs

Tips on How to Find Easter Eggs on DVDs
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The Easter egg hunt is a well-known tradition in the western world but when it comes to movies, games, software, books or web pages the term Easter egg is not referring to a chocolate treat. Easter eggs can be hidden messages, references, features, objects or in-jokes. These secret goodies were first popularized in software and games and they have become increasingly common on DVDs.

Hidden Options

The majority of Easter eggs on DVDs are hidden options within the menu of the disc. Often an extra click down, or to the left or right, on a specific menu can reveal an extra item which has been deliberately hidden away. These are generally things like deleted scenes, outtakes, concept art or sometimes even an alternative ending.

The term can also be used to describe subtle references within a movie. Perhaps the best example of this is the cameo appearances made by Alfred Hitchcock in his films. A more recent example is the trailer for the film 300 in which director Zack Snyder placed a test shot of Rorschach from his upcoming Watchmen movie. Another great movie Easter egg appeared in Predator 2 during the scene where Danny Glover is searching the Predator’s trophy room there is the head of an Alien. This was long before the Alien vs. Predator movies came out.

How Do You Find Them?

So now that you know there are hidden DVD Easter eggs lurking, how do you find them? Well, for movie references you just need to watch closely and see if you can spot anything. When it comes to DVD Easter eggs you should navigate through the various menus and press every direction on each option until you unlock something hidden. Sometimes Easter eggs are revealed by just leaving the DVD on a particular menu.

Naturally this approach is going to be time consuming and because not every DVD contains an Easter egg you could waste hours searching for something that isn’t there. Fear not, there is a shortcut to find hidden DVD Easter eggs.

Easter Egg Websites

Why do the hard work yourself when you can take a shortcut? The fastest and easiest way to find those DVD Easter eggs is to search the web. There are loads of websites out there dedicated to Easter eggs on DVDs and games. If you have a specific movie in mind, let’s say Zombieland for example, simply type “Zombieland Easter eggs” into Google and check out the results.

If you would prefer just to browse through a collection of Easter eggs on DVDs then these websites are good places to start:

  • Hidden DVD Easter Eggs
  • Movie Mistakes
  • The Easter Egg Archive
  • DVD Easter Eggs

It is also worth checking out The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) for all sorts of great trivia on your favorite movies. Now that you know how to find Easter eggs on DVDs you can get hunting. If you have any special favorites why not post a comment and let us know about them?

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