DVD extra text - a Menu style Society bent on interactivity

When we buy a DVD we know that we are going to get those special features that put each of us a step closer to the original movie by giving us theatrical trailers and actors/directors opinions and viewpoints on the script and shots and so on and so forth. Very often we also have soundtrack and music video options for the hit song in the movie (this is true of the American Pie 2 DVD). When we buy re-release DVD's which have previously come out on video cassette we also naturally expect to find extra features that we didn't know about the movie originally all the way back in say 1986 and it brings viewers back to the theatre essentially, and even to the production process itself. However my point is that all these special features, whether offered on the DVD or not are presented in an interactive menu-style way. This is perhaps what society is coming to expect from everything. We can identify with menus from our home PC's and cellphones. We expect things to be packaged easily so we can find them in an interactive format which we can access easily and decipher quickly. Afterall the DVD is essentially a file that we are able to navigate around through the use of such menus. As consumers we are increasingly demanding more out of entertainment packages, hardware and software and we expect to be able to interact with a movie in ways we never previously could. Way back in the 1930s right through to the 1980s, actors used to tour the country with the studio publicity department to promote a film and concert halls were packed so as the public could 'interact' with the star (e.g. part of the movie package). Now that interaction comes through simply pushing buttons and skimming through menus. It makes the consumer complacent with the product and stimulates the market for which it is meant by offering this new level of activity. It is an attractive package for the consumer in terms of this interactive process, it helps to re-sell old movies, it helps to boost sales of new movies and is something that most people can easily interact with through its easily-recognizable menu format. Indeed the theatre is re-mediated interactively.