Fans of Frank Miller’s 300 will be able to create a montage of their favorite decapitations and sex-slave oracle scenes from the movie.

The most talked about feature on the new 300 HD DVD is “Make Your own Movie”, which will allow you to save a medley of scenes you love the most.

This is the first time next generation optical disc users have ever had this feature available. And it’s available only on the HD DVD version of the film.

See the HD DVD movie review of Frank Miller’s 300 here. What follows is a closeup look at all of its special features.

300 Special Features

You can get lost on the special features screen on this HD DVD there are so many options. It’s stacked with historical information about ancient Greece, not to mention the artwork of Frank Miller.

Of particular interest are multiple appearances by Bettany Hughes, who I don’t mind watching one bit. She’s the noted author, historian and expert on Ancient Greek civilization who appears on the Discovery Channel.

Special features on DVDs usually only provide boring, self adulation to everyone involved in the production. How many times have you wanted to see more information about the real world inside the movie instead?

They consistently miss the opportunity to inspire viewers to explore the inspirations of the writers, directors and actors. The special features on the 300 disc includes plenty of self gratification but also give us the opportunity to learn more.

Another refreshing aspect of the special features is that none are very long. These are quick info snapshots you can watch in no more than five minutes and most appear in high definition.

Even though the movie itself is light on historical facts and details, the special features really let you get your Classical Civ on!

Speacial Features Menu Selections

Fun and Games: A trap! Don’t do it. If I want to play games, I’ll pop a disc into my Xbox 360. I started it and found the “What’s Your Greek Name” pretty funny. However, it looks like a knock off of a turn-based strategy game. It’s a challenge to navigate your way out of it if you make the mistake of clicking into it.

Blue Screen Picture in Picture: An alternate way to view the movie and listen to the director’s commentary. There’s a cartoon blood ringed mini-picture box inside the main movie that shows how each scene was shot. The mini-picture corresponds with the main and shows you a very clean depiction of exactly what the camera recorded before the effects were added. In many cases, you can even see how cleanly-shot images of people were muddied up with digital effects in post production.

Pick Your Favorite Scenes: The feature many next-gen disc format fans were waiting for! And I was thoroughly under-whelmed. It’s interesting at first, I’ll give it that. But, unfortunately, it’s not interesting long enough for me to actually assemble my own version of the movie. I’ll wait until someone with real patience puts together something clever. I’m sure in the future we might see something funny made from it.

The Manage Scenes screen is easy enough to navigate and allows you to edit the order, so you can put the end at the beginning – no wait, the movie already does that. Nevermind.

The Manage Scenes screen will require the use of a C button on your remote control to ‘record’. If you’re using the HD DVD player connected to the Xbox 360, the C button function is handled by the X button.

Transitions between your disjointed scenes are surprisingly smooth. But, personally, I’d rather just watch the movie.

300 Fact or Fiction (24 minutes/HD): This documentary unleashes Bettany Hughes on some of the historic ambiguities of the movie. Overall, she is a good sport and seems to feel the film has some historical value – more  people may start asking about ancient Greek history. This documentary explains a lot about Spartan culture.

Who were the Spartans? (4:32 HD): Another quick historical look at the film. The basic takeaway from the short documentary is that Frank Miller wanted less detailed history and more legendary, bigger-than-life imagery. Bet Hughes makes an appearance in this documentary, too.

Preparing for Battle: Test Footage (6:42 HD): This feature gives you a brief look at the ramping up to the making of this film. Of course, Frank Miller acts coyly nonplussed about making a movie based on his comic. However, director Zack Snyder turns out to be the man for the job.

Here’s the premise of the feature: Nobody will fund the enterprise because it’s an outlandish idea for a film. A production company turns over a small amount of cash for a concept trailer. Snyder makes a short battle scene with lots of blood and 3D-camera panning. You get to see the whole thing in HD. It’s definitely a cool watch!

Frank Miller Tapes (14:42 HD): This one focuses on Frank Miller’s comic history and artwork. It turns out, not surprisingly, that Zack Snyder was a huge Frank Miller fan. If he wasn’t before, he sure is now!

Making of 300 in Pictures (5:50 not in HD): It’s nice to see Making of… featurettes divided up into little pieces like this. This one drives you through the basic idea that a lot of this movie was done before a blue screen.

Deleted Scenes: Only three minutes of scenes in HD are included, although they are visually not up to par with the main feature. Snyder briefly explains why the scenes were cut. For only three minutes of your time, it’s definitely worth the price of admission to see the giants carrying archer midgets on their back. I’d give an underused inner organ to have my own personal giant with mounted archer midget. Just think of the possibilities. 

Webisodes: There are 12 of these quick featurettes, ranging from one to 10 minutes in length. They focus on different aspects of the picture – everything from a quick interview with Rodrigo Santo (Xerxes) to a peek at stunt work in action or dialogue on adapting the graphic novel.

Web-Enabled Features: This lets you purchase content if you’re signed onto the Internet. It’s sad they feel the need to market digital swag after you just bought the disc. Would it have decapitated the producers to give away a free mobile desktop or ringtone? Okay, don’t answer that.

See the complete HD DVD review of Frank Miller’s 300