Product Details

• Actors: Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, James Franciscus, Kim Hunter, Don Murray
• Directors: David Comtois, Don Taylor, Franklin J. Schaffner, J. Lee Thompson, Kevin Burns
• Writers: David Comtois, Brian Anthony
• Format: AC-3, Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, THX, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 6
• Rated: G (General Audience)
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• DVD Release Date: March 28, 2006
• Run Time: 605 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (88 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000E6ESEY
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,791 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
  • #47 in Movies & TV > DVD > Science Fiction
  • #50 in Movies & TV > DVD > Documentary
• For more information about "Planet of the Apes: The Legacy Collection (Planet of the Apes / Beneath the / Escape from the / Conquest of the / Battle for the)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Planet of the Apes
Billed as a "reimagining" of the original 1968 film, Tim Burton's extraordinary Planet of the Apes constantly borders on greatness, adhering to the spirit of Pierre Boulle's original novel while exploring fresh and inventive ideas and paying honorable tribute to the '68 sci-fi classic. Burton's gifts for eccentric inspiration and visual ingenuity make this a movie that's as entertaining as it is provocative, beginning with Rick Baker's best-ever ape makeup (hand that man an Oscar®!), and continuing through the surprisingly nuanced performances and breathtaking production design. Add to all this an intelligent screenplay that turns Boulle's speculative reversal--the dominance of apes over humans--into a provocative study of civil rights and civil war. The film finally goes too far with a woefully misguided ending that pays weak homage to the original, but everything preceding that misfire is astonishingly right.

While attempting the space-pod retrieval of a chimpanzee test pilot, Major Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg) enters a magnetic storm that propels him into the distant future, where he crash-lands on the ape-ruled planet. Among the primitively civilized apes, treatment of enslaved humans is a divisive issue: senator's daughter Ari (Helena Bonham Carter) advocates equality while the ruthless General Thade (Tim Roth) promotes extermination. While Davidson ignites a human rebellion, this conflict is explored with admirable depth and emotion, and sharp dialogue allows Burton's exceptional cast to bring remarkable expressiveness to their embattled ape characters, most notably in the comic relief of orangutan slave trader Limbo (played to perfection by Paul Giamatti). Classic lines from the original film are cleverly reversed (including an unbilled cameo for Charlton Heston, in ape regalia as Thade's dying father), and while this tale of interspecies warfare leads to an ironic conclusion that's not altogether satisfying, it still bears the ripe fruit of a timeless what-if idea. --Jeff Shannon

Beneath the Planet of the Apes
The second--and most horrifying--of the five Planet of the Apes movies, this film goes where few end-of-the-world movies ever dare tread. It's the far future. The mass of humanity has descended into speechless savagery, kept as captive animals by the talking apes who have inherited the world. Two astronauts from our time have landed here, retracing the path of their lost comrade, Captain Taylor (Charlton Heston). Unfortunately, they've landed in the middle of a grim situation. Warlike gorillas are preparing to eliminate the last shards of shattered human civilization, a degenerate, subterranean cult worshipping the greatest of all human achievements--the cobalt bomb. As well as rescuing Taylor, the two men have to stop the gorillas from wiping out humanity ... and stop humanity from fulfilling their self-appointed, self-destructive destiny. This is both thrill-a-minute science fiction and a surprisingly deep reflection on the human condition. Plus, it's got lots of guys in really keen ape suits. --Grant Balfour

Product Description

Disk 1: *Planet of the Apes ('68)

Disk 2: *Escape from the Planet of the Apes

Disk 3: *Conquest for the Planet of the Apes

Disk 4: *Battle for the Planet of the Apes

Disk 5: *Beneath the Planet of the Apes

Disk 6: *Behind the Planet of the Apes (bonus disc) *Documentary Â"Behind the Planet of the ApesÂ" *Planet of the Apes trailer *Beneath the Planet of the Apes trailer *Escape from the Planet of the Apes trailer *Conquest of the Planet of the Apes trailer *Battle for the Planet of the Apes trailer *Planet of the Apes Cross Promotion trailer *TV Spot for Behind the Planet of the Apes *Fox Interactive Presents: Behind the Scenes of the Planet of the Apes game

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

118 of 123 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THX Goes Ape!, April 9, 2006

By 

R. Monteith (Ft. Lauderdale, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Planet of the Apes: The Legacy Collection (Planet of the Apes / Beneath the / Escape from the / Conquest of the / Battle for the) (DVD)

This upgrade of the August 21, 2000, Fox "Evolution" APES boxed set is a significant improvement over that release. All of the films are now available in 16x9 anamorphic transfers, but more importantly each film has been remastered with improved picture and sound quality.

The first, and best, film PLANET OF THE APES (1968) is here actually a reissue of Disc 1 of the 2-Disc "35th Anniversary Edition" Fox released on February 3, 2004 (the extras-loaded 2nd disc has not been included in this set), with the same menu screens and sparse commentary tracks (thankfully one from the late, great Jerry Goldsmith), but it's a fine picture transfer of this important film, with the original 4-channel stereo soundtrack elements remixed in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS, and sound is very good for recordings that are over thirty-five years old. (The DVD picture upgrade from Fox's original non-anamorphic one isn't perfect though, with some flicker and scratches visible. Hopefully Fox will do another improvement from archival restored elements before this title comes to High Definition DVD.)

The picture quality of the four sequels to the original SF classic have been vastly improved with these THX-mastered anamorphic transfers. The images on all are much brighter and sharper, with truer color fidelity, and just as importantly, their new Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks feature much better stereo separation and directionality than the previous DVD release. (All the sequels were originally released theatrically in mono sound only.)

Still disappointing is the lack of extras for the sequels. No commentary tracks, little if any still and poster galleries. (There are Easter Eggs of behind-the-scenes footage on the discs for ESCAPE and CONQUEST, though, that have been lifted from the 2nd Disc of the Anniversary edition for the original.) The trailers for all of the films are still non-anamorphic, though, and that doesn't seem right. Could it be that Fox is holding off on such things until the inevitable High Definition DVD release, possibly in time for the 40th Anniversary of the 1968 original in 2008? Let's hope so.

Also disappointing here is the egregious cover art for each film, which I think is an effort to try and link these films to the ill-conceived 2001 "reimagining" of the franchise. Fox should have stuck with something based on the original theatrical ad and poster campaigns. This is usually what fans desire, but for some reason the people working for these home video companies don't seem to know it.

Finally, the disc of "Behind the Planet of the Apes," the 1998 documentary on the making of the APES franchise, has been included once again here. It's the exact same thing as found in the original DVD release with no enhancements. Clips from the films are still non-anamorphic. While this documentary was fine for its day, it's now nearly a decade old and should be retired. Hopefully it won't reappear in any future High Definition release (new making-of featurettes should be produced).

So, if you're an APES fan and care about seeing these films in the best possible quality -- but don't care about paying over $100 for a "Collector's Head" -- this "Legacy" boxed set is an excellent buy... that is, until HD and Blu-ray DVDs.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Concepts, Great Characters, Classic Moments, Chilling Possibilities, January 27, 2007

By 

Stephen B. O'Blenis (Nova Scotia, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Planet of the Apes: The Legacy Collection (Planet of the Apes / Beneath the / Escape from the / Conquest of the / Battle for the) (DVD)

I rank the original "Planet Of The Apes" series very high among the plentiful output of science fiction movies of their era. Although the special effects are not brilliant by today's standards (compensated for somewhat by the quality designs of what they were trying to capture, even if the execution seems somewhat hampered in retrospect) and the action sequences are occasionnally rather low-impact, the strengths of the series - a great, thought-provoking and memorable story that weaves through all five movies; solid and impressive characters among both human and ape; a nice job on the photography; and mind-blowing endings to most of the movies; make up for any shortcomings.

The endings have become legendary, especially the finale to the first movie (which I'm certainly not going to give away here, in case anyone reading this is among the 22 or so people on the planet who don't yet know it; they even used to have the final shot on the Cover of one of the editions of the boxed set, for crying out loud). The secrets of the conclusions to "Beneath The Planet Of The Apes" and "Escape From The Planet Of The Apes", however, aren't nearly as well-known by people who haven't seen the movies yet, which is good, because it gives one a chance to have some of the surprises unhampered by foreknowledge. The end moments of "Escape", in particular, are haunting, the kind of thing that can give one chills just remembering it.

It's hard to talk to much about the latter movies in the saga without giving away far too much. The original, "Planet Of The Apes" has Earth astronauts making an emergency crash-landing on an unknown world, where it turns out that apes, not humans, are the dominant species. Captured, the humans - indigineous to the planet but very primitive, in addition to the more scientifically advanced spacefarers - find themselves imprisoned in wooden cages (rudimentary equivelents to the barren metal cages of old, pre-'simulated natural habitat' zoos?). The apes of the world are diverse - there are some who view the human population as mindless beasts without rights, while others are sympathetic to the humans's plight. There is also considerable friction between the three races of apes - gorillas, orangitans, and chimpanzees (notice quite a few real-world parralells yet?).

The series - which continues through "Beneath...", "Escape...", "Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes" and "Battle For The Planet Of The Apes" (disc 6 in the collection is a behind-the-scenes documentary) has some recurring characters, continues to introduce new ones, introduces new concepts and layers and twists to the concept. By the 4th and 5th entries, the series is admittedly losing some steam, but judged on their own each of those is still a good movie. Great price, too. Any fan of adventure movies, science fiction, or movies that offer volumes of fodder for thought and dream, should consider picking this set of classics up.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hard to rate a mixed bag, but these films are fun nevertheless, June 7, 2007

By 

Steven Hedge "Movie Fan" (Somewhere "East of Eden") - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Planet of the Apes: The Legacy Collection (Planet of the Apes / Beneath the / Escape from the / Conquest of the / Battle for the) (DVD)

Like the Airport Terminal Pack (Airport/Airport '75/Airport '77/Airport '79 - The Concord) the "Planet of the Apes" film series widely ranges in quality. ALL of them are fun enough to watch, however, the last two are extremely campy and very poorly made.

Back in the day when producers made sequels, prior to the VCR/DVD era, the films consistently earned less money with each sequel; therefore, less money was spent on each sequel as the expected turnout and revenues would be less. That is not the case today with the VCR/DVD generation wherein if people missed a film in the theaters, they could rent or purchase it later. This meant a larger audience for a film as it would have, in a sense, multiple releases: first would be the actual theater release, then the plain first edition on VCR/DVD within about six months, then followed by a "special edition" the next year, and then a "director's cut", and "special extended version" followed, and so on. This allows for a film to get a larger following; therefore, sequels and prequels have become big business. This means producers put more money into these films now than they did before to pull in not only the established fans of the film series, but also new fans who may have just caught up with the series by renting or purchasing the prior films.

With that having been said it should be no surprise at all that these films range widely in quality and effort as they were before the VCR/DVD era. Below are my ratings for each film and in the correct order of their release (the disk order is NOT correct in the package):

***** Planet of the Apes: An absolute classic sci-fi film with good special effects and set designs (even by today's standards) and solid performances by all, most notably Roddy McDowell who was in all the films and the short-lived TV series, Kim Hunter, and Maurice Evans who had to portray emotions with their voice, eyes and hand gestures moreso than other actors because of the heavy make-up they wear which is outstanding.

*** Beneath the Planet of the Apes: The effects and make-up are still very good and so is the acting, but the storyline is rather bizarre, convoluted, and just doesn't seem to fit with the Apes series real well.

****Escape From the Planet of the Apes: I loved this sequel which reverses the storyline by having the intelligent talking apes back in our present day rather than in their future world. Naturally, this saved the producers lots of money by only having to put make up on only two actors rather than many. The performances are top-notch by McDowell and Hunter who continue their roles from the first two ape films.

Both the "The Conquest of" and final entry "The Battle for the Planet of the Apes" are cinematic disasters for which I give them both **. The make up had been reduced to laughable rubber masks and the special effects consisted of terrible paintings, obvious minatures, and flimsy cardboard sets. Roddy McDowell's performance had become somewhat pedestrian in the title role by these two final films, but his voice and delivery was always pleasant to the ear. These two films do, however, continue the storyline which ends up explaining how Earth eventually became The Planet of the Apes. To me, that's an important part of any sequel and why I gave these films two stars and not one or zero.

The bonus disk on looking over the "Apes" series is hosted by McDowell, who always looked great for his age, and sadly he died shortly thereafter from cancer. This special was done to re-introduce the "Ape" films to a new generation just prior to the release of the Ape films on tape/DVD and the planned release of the remake by Tim Burton (Planet of the Apes (Special Edition) which was surprisingly original and in many ways superior to the original film with Charlten Heston who has a cameo in the remake.

In any event and in spite of the wide ranging quality of these films the entire series is worth owning and the sequels do build on each other and tell a coherent story (not counting the silly second entry into the series even though the third film still builds upon it). I highly recommend this set and the remake by Burton as well.