The film, based on the acclaimed Broadway show, unrolls a straightforward revenge tale. A corrupt judge (Alan Rickman) has the hots for a barber's wife so he falsely imprisons the barber (Johnny Depp) to clear the way to get his groove on. The innocent man—now going by Sweeney Todd—escapes from prison years later and arrives home to find his wife dead and his daughter adopted by the judge. Suffice to say Todd desires to cut the judge a new neck vent. But first he teams up with Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), the owner of the worst pie shop in London, to slice up high society, creating a new recipe for her meat pies.

Unlike much of Burton's work, the characters and storytelling aren't wobbly scaffolding for his visual quirk. Burton gives Sweeney Todd's characters and narrative the same weight as his production design; although much of this stems from Stephen Sondheim's and Hugh Wheeler's operatic, character-driven music. It also helps that Burton has great actors like Depp, Carter and Rickman under his command—all of whom deliver solid performances despite being serviceable singers at best.

Even though Sweeney Todd exhibits solid filmmaking, it's a movie I respect more than love. During both my theatrical and DVD viewings, I was left emotionally indifferent. Not so much a flaw on Burton's and company's part, it's just one of those films that didn't tingle that exact spot on my spine for whatever reason (location of spot: unknown to even me).

However, the 2-Disc Collector's DVD contains the type of bonus material that does tap that mysterious spot on the spine. I'm a fan of DVDs that extend beyond documenting the filmmaking and grab onto tangents skimming across the film's peripheral. Sweeney Todd's collector's edition contains three interesting featurettes of this ilk. "Sweeney's London" documents the filthy horror show that was London during the 18th and 19th centuries. "Grand Guignol: A Theatrical Edition" focuses on a French theatre that spawned a genre of stage shows (and eventually torture-porn horror flicks) centering on the macabre and depiction of gory violence. The most enlightening of these featurettes is "Sweeney Todd is Alive: The Real History of the Demon Barber." I'd always been under the misimpression Sweeney Todd was a '70s brainchild of Sondheim (before the film my sole experience with Sweeney Todd was the climax of Kevin Smith's Jersey Girl). When in fact, Sweeney Todd is a British urban legend that's been around for over 150 years with several stories, plays, and movies produced during that time. This is why I suck at Trivial Pursuit.

In terms of dealing directly with the film, the DVD dishes out some decent featurettes on the film's gore, the Broadway source material, and the set and costume design. The featurette on disc 1 is "Burton + Depp + Carter = Todd." And while it doesn't break any new ground in how these "making ofs" are done, it does contain some fantastic interviews with the cast and Tim Burton (essentially Carter steals the show with her hilarious wit). Yet, this featurette does render disc 2's "The Making of Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" redundant since it's cobbled together from the same interviews and behind-the-scenes footage. Another surprising piece of bonus material is the "Sweeney Todd Press Conference, November 2007." Again, it's the personalities involved that buoy this material above expectations.

The only noticeable extras not present are deleted scenes and audio commentaries. Yet, if you don't demand those bonus materials, then the Sweeney Todd Collector's Edition is worth picking up now. It's one of the few 2-disc DVDs in which the second disc is more than extra weight in the packaging.