That would seem to imply that those who made the menus thought that their menu version would be at least close to the final version, or that the movie actually looked, at some time during the recoloring, like they were portraying it.

It's not as if they just pulled the 97 special edition coloring, as that is much more orange. It seems strange to me to use a coloring which is very different from practically every release and then release something that is again wildly different than that.