trailers

As i've talked about before, Christy and I often have movie parties at our house. Usually these things are scheduled to start around X:00, but people are usually late, and we never have the turnout we hope for. As a result, we usually end up starting the movies around X:30. This isn't any big problem, but sometimes it leads to awkward time periods of sitting around. Especially since the people that show up on time are frequently people we know less well, as well as the fact that these parties mix our 'friend groups' so people there don't always know each other.

As a solution to this, i have sometimes played little short movies while we wait. Just funny things that are somehow topically appropriate or whatever. However, i'm starting to run out of things to play (believe it or not). As a solution to that i have recently begun ripping and collecting movie trailers for other movies we own or might watch. It's really been a lot of fun. It's really interesting to notice the changes in the way trailers we done through the decades. I've done movies from just about every time period and genre, and its interesting to observe the differences. A lot of trailers from the 70's and 80's really don't make me want to see the movie (Back to the Future's teaser and Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark are particularly poor).

It's also funny to see how some movies are very mis-represented by their trailers (The Day The Earth Stood Still). Still others tell you nothing about the movie and assume you already know story/pitch from its fabulous run on Broadway, so of course you'll come see the movie (My Fair Lady and Harvey).

One other interesting problem i have run into though - not all movie studios elect to put the trailers on the DVDs. I'd never really noticed this before. It does make sense that if i own a movie, and don't need to be sold into seeing it. However, it seems that a simple 2 minutes of footage doesn't take that long to encode and doesn't take up much space on the disk. Disney seems particularly bad about this. None of the recent Pixar movies have them (The Incredibles, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, etc), nor does The Pirates of the Caribbean, or the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, even though they all have 2-disc sets. Its seems they'd be dying to find more content to fill the discs with. What Pixar did do is put the a teaser on each disk for the next Pixar movie. So i can get the teaser trailer for Finding Nemo off the Monsters Inc DVD, the one for Incredibles off the Finding Nemo DVD, etc. But no where can i get the true theatrical trailer for any of them. There are many other movies that have elected not to include them. The most surprising of which is The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I have 12 discs full of content about those movies. TWELVE. And none of them have a single teaser, trailer, or 'sneak peek' for the movies themselves.

So, here's the deal. I need your help. I've been able to find trailers online for a lot of the more recent movies. Quicktime's site in particular has a great selection of 1080p HD/surroundsound trailers. However, for older movies, and a few specific ones - i can't find trailers.

So here's the list. If any of you know where to find downloadable trailers for any of these movies (good quality. low-res fuzzy YouTube videos don't count) please let me know.

A Bug's Life
Back to the Future
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
Explorers
Hook
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
Monsters Inc
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

And that's just the short list for now...
Thanks!