A Tree Of Palme

Release: 2006 Studio: Madman Region Code: 4 Format: DVD Type: Movie

Starting off my dvd reviewing journey, I decided to go with a more niche of a film many may not have heard off: A Tree of Palme. I wouldn't say this is a particularly good movie, but unlike other movies where I would forget them the day after watching them, I was thinking about this movie for WEEKS after my first viewing. It was just so... weird. And while the narative was a little clunkly, the art direction and music was definitely spectacular, so this was going into my collection of physical media for sure. And damn! For a movie that's kind of been floating under the radar for a few decades now, the physical release isn't too shabby! But then again, Madman's physical releases are usually pretty good.

Cover

Outside cover

Most of the Madman discs I've seen have their icon on the bottom, but this one is located at the top, encased in a glarring white box. Perhaps they switched it to a transparent background loacted at the bottom of the spine in later years...

The front cover is quite nice. I believe it's based off one of the original japanese posters, but framed inside a... frame of some sort? I prefer the full screen image personally, which we'll get to soon. There's also a block header at the top that I find to be a bit of an eyesore, but it blends in a little with the background so it's not as noticeable as it would have been.

The back cover is just nice all around. It suits the theming of the front cover. The silhouette of Palme in the middle is nice to bring something visually different, and a nice range of preview images, filled with all the information you might want to know about the disc.

Inside Cover

This physical release has a reversable cover. Overall it's similar to the outside cover but with a lot less noise for a cleaner look. The front cover is now it's original full poster image, along with the japanese title, and while the spine has the japanese title on it, it also has an english version as well. Japanese text looks good, and english text--for non-japanese speakers--makes it practical.

The new back cover keeps all of the imagery, but rearanged. Most of the information from the outside back cover is gone, replaced with scene selection names. If this was a series I wouldn't mind it as much, but as a movie, this information stands to be pretty useless. Overall I prever the original back cover, but I'm always a sucker for reversable covers! When scanning these images, I took the opportunity to swap the covers around and have the inside cover as my default.

Cover Score: 4 / 5

Disc Art

The disc has a satin finish, and the art is a screenshot of a scene from the movie--which is definitely nicer than a reframed image of the front cover. The screenshot is well picked as well--the framing works really nicely on the disc, with the horizon above the ring, and the characters are off to the side and well cropped. It's overall just a pretty nice disc.

Disc Art Score: 2.5 / 3

Case

The case is your usual clear, smooth dvd case. The push button for this disc is the perfectly ballanced and safe option of what I like to call the YinYang button.

Case Score: 2.5/3

Menu

Main Menu

I wasn't able to get the pre-video to work through my computer (I'm still trying to figure out how to get them to work properly) so I wasn't able to document it, but there's a short opening clip that transisions to the menu. It starts with a close up of Palme, some japanese audio from Palme. The image pans down to his "core" (egg thing?) and smoothly transitions to the main menu. The menu is made up of mainly two still images that fade in and out of each other, design to loop perfectly, along with a rotating texture and rotating symbols around the menu buttons. It helps it to stand out from the usual "still image" menus. Paired with the beautiful and hauting lullaby that plays at the start of the movie.

I think it does well creating that slightly eerie but kind of calming vibe the movie has. Maybe a little more calming than the movie actually is, but I think it does a pretty good job.

The buttons are also fit into a circular area, or Palme's "core." Which is nice from the usual horizontal or occassionaly vertical layout most menus have.

Other Menus

Uses edited still images that look a little like a collage, and something different for each menu screen. Really the only issue with these menus is that the "main menu" button blends in a little too much with the background, making it a bit difficult to see.

Menu Score: 3/5

Features

Pre-menu video

There's less than 15 seconds of warnings and a madman production logo. And the aforementioned transitioning clip that plays before the menu.

Subtitles and audio

This has the english dub with no [cc] subtitles, and original japanese audio with original english subtitles.

Extras

This disc features a few extras, the most noteworthy being the "behind the scenes" video. It opens with a narration of what happens in the movie, which I think goes on for a few minutes (and a few minutes too long,) but eventually it goes on for some words from the director, as well as from the music composer, accompanied still by the narrator.

There's also a couple extras that are basically just slideshows of pre-production art. I think these would have been served better as images you could flick through yourself in order to go at your own pace.

Which is an option they did have for the next extra, which is just screenshots from the movie. Nothing unique about them. I'm not really sure why those were there.

Finally, it also includes original trailers for the movie, as well as some trailers for other anime. One was about some vampire anime--fair enough. Eerie, dark, violent... But then there was also an anime for a harem. Seems to fit the mood less, if you ask me.

Oh, and I know I said "finally" but I lied--there's actually a credits menu! I didn't really notice it at first because I thought it was just credits for the movie, which I found a bit odd. But it's actually credits for the physical release! So that's neat. I've never seen one of those on a disc before--or at the very least, haven't noticed them. We'll see if I come across any more in my reviewing journey on this website.

You can see the dvd credits here

Final Thoughts

The AU release of A Tree of Palme has all the features you want in a physical release. The front cover is nice, has a reverse cover giving you an alternative if you want it; disc art is nice, and the menu is servicable; and of course, includes beloved bonus features. It isn't ground breaking, and by design and art alone it's just "good", but having the extra bonus features and an alternative cover you can use breaks it on just above average.

FINAL SCORE: 6.5 / 10