MISS PEACH

I am stuck with 3 titles from Warner that have these awful, clumsy, awkward, and uneven cardboard foldover envelope-type "snapper" cases, and I hate them so much that I refuse to buy another Warner title that has them! The first two I thought must have been some kind of fluke . . . but then I researched the following titles at DVD Empire and discovered to my horror that even Warner classics — like the SE of MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY and GYPSY — were given this shabby packaging treatment! I don't care how badly I want the titles, I won't buy them in this kind of packaging! God forbid I should ever accidentally spill something on these 3, they don't even stack properly because the plastic "flap" . . . oh, don't even get me started LOL.

So would someone verify that the following list of 15 Warner titles have "SNAPPER" cases — and specify if there are alternate versions (eg. BOXED, which I have no problem with) available?

SNAPCASE……WARNER……7 FACES OF DR. LAO
SNAPCASE……WARNER……BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES
SNAPCASE……WARNER……BONNIE & CLYDE
SNAPCASE……WARNER……CABARET
SNAPCASE……WARNER……CLASH OF THE TITANS
SNAPCASE……WARNER……GYPSY
SNAPCASE……WARNER……KLUTE
SNAPCASE……WARNER……KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE
SNAPCASE……WARNER……L.A. CONFIDENTIAL
SNAPCASE……WARNER……MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY
SNAPCASE……WARNER……NORTH BY NORTHWEST
SNAPCASE……WARNER……THE MALTESE FALCON
SNAPCASE……WARNER……THE TIME MACHINE (1960)
SNAPCASE……WARNER……THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN
SNAPCASE……WARNER……THIRTEEN GHOSTS: SPECIAL EDITION (2001)

MISS PEACH
Actually, my bank account does thank Warner because this eliminates 1/5 of the titles I was planning on getting LOL.

MISS PEACH

And add another. Warner is clueless tsk.

Easy

BONNIE & CLYDE
L.A. CONFIDENTIAL
NORTH BY NORTHWEST
THE MALTESE FALCON
All snappers. In fact, I would guesstimate 95% of Warner titles are snappers. I have more bad news... if you hate snappers you should detest digipacks and all studios use those. Enjoy your new hobby.

JoeyOhhhh

I believe all listed are snappers.

mdc3000

I think a shorter thread would be "Which Warner Titles AREN'T in Snappers"... because damn near all of them are (with the recent exception of a few 2 disc SEs in Keep Cases, and the digipaks that Warner uses)...

MATT

MISS PEACH

ARRRRGH!

And . . .
HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME
KISS ME KATE

And if that isn't bad enough, I suppose these three (if/when they are released) will get the cardboard treatment too:
GOODBYE MR. CHIPS (1969 Petula Clark, Peter O'Toole)
FINIAN'S RAINBOW (1968)
KING SOLOMON'S MINES Directed by Compton Bennett (1950, Stewart Granger & Deborah Kerr)

This is just inexcusable! Why is Warner doing this? Do they just want me to never buy their product?

PEACH

Mikael79

Warner's default packaging for EVERY release is the Snapper. Recently they have decided to use Amarays (keepcases) on a few select titles (Terminator 3, the new Matrix films, The Last Samurai) but everything else comes in Snappers. It's my opinion that in a year or so Warner will convert 100% to Amarays, but we'll have to wait and see what happens.

I am 100% on your side with this situation - I generally refuse to buy snappers at all. Here are a few options you have:

1. Print/buy customized covers that have been converted to fix keepcases. I've never tried this option, but several people have, and with good results.

2. Get a region-free DVD player and import the titles from another country (England, for example). This is what I do, and it costs a little more, but I'm dead serious about not wanting to add any more Snappers into my collection. North America is now the only place using Snappers, as England and Australia (who somewhat recently did use them) have now converted over to Amarays.

3. Wait for Warner to release a 2-Disc Special Edition of the title. Sure, the Digipaks are cardboard, but I really like their design, and I find them several times more sturdy. They look nice on display, and I always feel I've received my money's worth.

4. Don't buy any Warner titles, period. This is the most extreme, and worst option, simply due to the fact that Warner has a fantastic library of films.

rossi46

Its simple, really. Buy a stack of Amaray keepcases. I went through a site called SleeveCity and payed $.50 per case.

Then go to DVDCoverArt.com and dl replacement cover art ($.25). 99% of the time customs are better than the stock artwork. If you don't have a printer then hit up a Kinko's or OfficeMax and they can print out covers for about $1 each.

If you really want the movie, then this is what you have to do to get rid of the snappers. I've already done this with two titles of mine: "The Matrix" (Warner) and "Friday" (NewLine).

Low RG

Like Mikael mentioned, if you get a Region Free DVD player, you can purchase these titles from overseas in Amray cases.

I have close to 1000 DVD's in my collection with not one snapper! All of my Warner titles have been converted to Amray cases thanks to DVDcoverart.com or have been purchased from other regions where Amray's are the norm

MISS PEACH

Mikael79, rossi46, Low RG, everybody . . . I appreciate all the options you've provided. There are two reasons why I won't buy even one more Warner title in a snapper:

1. (Fortuitously) I am so new to DVD that my collection is only just beginning to be built. I can quite comfortably concentrate on other studios for the next, hell, five years if it came to that.

2. However modest my small protest, I have to believe thousands of other people are also holding off buying Warner titles because of their shoddy packaging. There is a principle involved here: It deeply offends me to give money to a company that is apparently so vain it thinks it can buck the overwhelming preponderance of durable, spill/dirtproof plastic DVD packaging and issue award-winning movie classics in the equivalent of a milkcarton. I will vote with my pocketbook, and simply not buy another Warner title that comes in a snapper (notwithstanding the replacement-case options).

Mikael, I am in agreement with you about the "Digipacks" that Easy mentioned earlier (sorry Easy, I didn't know what you were referring to LOL). They are cardboard, but they stack/sit straight, and they are aesthetically pleasing — trim, tidy, graceful to access, protective. Indeed, the only remaining other 4 Warner titles I own are:
A CHRISTMAS STORY (SE)
CITIZEN KANE (SE)
THE COLOR PURPLE (SE)
MY FAIR LADY (SE)

I take it these Special Editions are "Digipacks?"

MISS PEACH
One word: Plastic.

Mikael79

Yes, those are Digipaks.

Here is a bit of information that us Snapper-haters may find interesting....

Last night I was sitting in on the Warner Brothers chat on HTF, and Warner stated the following:

-----
[warnerbros] So, two hours & ten minutes, and no nasty comments about snappers? What's going on with you folks]?
-----

In my opinion, this says two things:

1. Warner fully realizes that everyone hates the fricken things. (Hopefully this has been clear to them for some time!)

2. The fact that they are able to joke about it shows that there is at least chance they may be thinking about dropping Snappers all together.

Of course, they may just enjoy watching us piss and moan about it, but personally - I view it as a good sign.

Again, I really love Warner's library, and the studio is far and away the best in regards to releasing classic films, at least out of the major studios. My fingers are crossed that they decide to give the people what they want - Amaray keepcases to go with the wonderful DVD releases.

MISS PEACH

Mikael . . . Do you mean to tell me that WARNER BROS. is posting to this forum? The Studio itself? How can you know that it is, in fact, someone from Warner and not . . . the watercooler guy?

I mean, that's great if the big gorilla is actually pretending to care. I'm still boycotting any of their movies in a snapper, but I am mystified why Warner would even subject themself to the randy environment of a chat forum.

PEACH

Mikael79

No, actually it was a live chat on Home Theater Forum (www.hometheaterforum.com), which is a respected message board (not that this one isn't!!) where many studios will participate in live chats with forum members. They usually last about 2-3 hours, and everything is moderated.

In recent times they've hosted Warner, Fox, and Criterion.

The studio execs don't post to the boards, at least they don't announce themselves as such, but everyone knows that studios do keep an eye on posts within HTF. In fact, there is an ongoing thread right now that Warner specifically asked for - a "Which 2-Disc Special Editions would you like to see Warner produce?", and I've already put my two cents in.

And......even the watercooler guy knows that Snappers are for the feckin' birds!

Johnny Zhivago

Boycotting WB releases because they are in snappers is silly... Yes, snappers suck. Most of us agree... However, WBs catalog of films is FAR too big to avoid them... You're going to be missing out on a LOT of your favorite films... You'll see.

Other than printing covers and switching them to keepcases, there's little you can do. WB owns the company that produces the snapper... So you see, it's in their best interest financially to keep using the dreaded snapper.

And, like Mikael79 said, that was a studio rep over at HTF... They have those chats every so often. Here at DVDTalk, we had a Paramount rep that would post every so often... Haven't seen him though since that whole Godfather re-release fiasco.

Mikael79

Well kids, we may finally be seeing some major sunlight here:

http://www.dvdanswers.com/index.php?...3625&n=1&burl=

As you can see....this is a single-disc Amaray for a Warner Home Video release. And if you browse today's (3-24) other Warner releases mentioned on DVDAnswers, you'll see they're all going to be released as Amaray keepcases as well.

Let's cross our fingers and hope this means Warner finally has given in to our requests!

TopHatCat64

Oddly enough Warner also released an amaray version of Friday a little while ago (I have no clue exactly when but it was at least a couple months ago during the summer when I bought it from Best Buy).

And then the boxset is coming for The Matrix series which I assume will have an amaray for the first matrix since the other 2 movies are in amarays.

rossi46

TopHatCat - it seems NewLine has learned the error of their ways and switched to keepcases. Warner (their parent company) still insists on snappers.

Mikael - I think that happened before (Matchstick Men). The pre-release pics were all keepcases and then when the DVD actually showed up it was a damn snapper

MISS PEACH

FOUND! A Warner movie in a Keep Case! LOL . . .

THE NAME OF THE ROSE

I didn't believe it until it actually arrived (from my BBV trade-ins) but yup, yup, it's in . . . A KEEP CASE! woo hoo!

PEACH

Lancelot

The whole reason I got into this custom cover community was to replace those thrice-damned "snapper" cases. Lothesome things.

It started with simply buying "regular" cases at Tower Records and doing 85% color copies of every snapper cardboard. Of course, I lost the inner sleve graphics, chapter meus, etc.

But that was a small price to pay.

Then I thought I might redo the Jonny Quest series (a beloved show), Just a little Photoshop reconfiguring of elements.

Right around then, a friend at work told me about THIS site. Little did I suspect that there was a huge custom cover community. (driven underground, right before I found it!) Many of the designs I saw were superior to the official releases.

THEN I found out about those slim single cases I liked from the Futurama releases were available at Sleve City. And they had slim double cases too.

Needless to say, from that moment, I was doomed to replace every cover in my collection (like 3K in number). Box sets included.

Watch out, dear. It's an addictive and slippery slope! Good luck to you!

Lance

MISS PEACH

By the way, I love your handle Lancelot! I'm a huge Anglophile, into just about anything that is Historical British Mystery/Fantasy. My favorite film interpretation of the Arthurian legend is The Mists of Avalon. I'm just a sucker for anything with knights and dragons (and, of course, Pendragon heh heh). Great name Lance.

Oh the loathesome, evil, orthopedic, clumsy, inexcusably and shamelessly cheap snapper! Ungh! LOL

The recent Blockbuster trade-in saw all but two of my snappers booted out of my house. Unlike you, Sir Lancelot, I only just got my first DVD player a year ago. I boast a modest 86 titles. But what was really interesting to me was the choice of the two Warner snappers I decided to keep — THE WIZARD OF OZ and CONTACT — and more particularly, CONTACT. I needed to trade 17 titles, and to reach that target it came down to a draw between 2001 and CONTACT. I was so prepared to return CONTACT but then decided to see it one last time before it made its exit from my humble collection . . . and recalled just how deeply its spiritual issues moved me. I surprised even myself, that I (appear to) prefer CONTACT over 2001. Very interesting.

I confess however that of the two, I think Kubrick's 2001 has a better shot at being given decent casing, and don't expect to be too long without our beloved Hal.

I'm not nearly as deep into collecting DVD's as most of the people here (I'm a reader, primarily — it's books that I collect, much to the dismay of my diminishing real estate to house them heh heh). But I'm glad in any event that Warner has finally got religion. I have so many Warner titles that I would truly love to own! See my list at the top of the thread. So in the meantime, I'm selectively picking off every other studio that is of interest to me, and can bide my time and wait.

PEACH

Lancelot

Hey again, Miss Peach.

First of all, Lancelot is my actual name (though I go by Lance). : )

Blame my mom who loved the Richard Harris / Robert Goulet musical, Camelot.

Secondly, there are some great custom covers for both 2001 and Contact.

Jupiter Prime did a fantastic cover on his site: Nova Station.
Dr. Zaius has two stunning 2001 customs on his site.

If you can't get them, drop me an e-mail with your E-mail address and I'll pass them along. From there, it's a simple matter of printing 'em out and putting them in readily available standard cases.

Cheers,

Lance

PS (cheap trivia) I have a drawing of Miss Peach done for me by the Late Great Mel Lazarus. He was a very nice and funny guy.

MISS PEACH

Aww. That's sweet, noble Lancelot! You should host that picture Lance. I'd like to see it.

PEACH

masterg

Time Machine although there is a custom on mine I forget where I got it.