well, today i got my copy of 'the beast with a billion backs' in the mail. while i didn't expect the packaging to be any less shitty than the one for 'bender's big score', my temper rose again as i extracted a totally squashed 'case' from the envelope.

there are several reasons for my anger:

why, oh why, is it OK to package a product that is most likely going to be kept by customers for several years in a flimsy cardboard-only piece of shit, when every plastic water bottle with a purchase-to-trash time of 15 minutes contains almost as much plastic as a dvd case?!

not only is the 'case' non-standard sized but the dvd (which is the meat of the purchase) is kept in a shitty slit in the cardboard, where even a tiny grain of sand will scratch it on insertion? not even a small glued on hub!?
the only thing glued on is the stupid anti-theft device, which naturally tears a big hole in the artwork should you decide to remove it.

and the hypocracy of it all! i have to let one of the most evil global corporations in the world lecture me on 'saving the planet' when a thousand of us couldn't do as much damage in 10 lifetimes as they have inflicted on the planet.

no, the real reason for the 'carbon neutral' packaging is not an altruistic one (corporations are incapable of that), but what else - PROFIT!

corporate drone #1: damn, those plastic dvd cases are getting more and more expensive, with high oil prices and whatnot. we are seriously at risk of dropping our profit margin below 1000% - any ideas?

corporate drone #2: hey, how about if we use the cheapest cardboard available, and print it in nice colors?

corporate drone #1: hm, customers wouldn't be too happy about the loss in quality while paying the same price...

corporate drone #3: hey, how about if we call it 'carbon neutral'? no one can check these things anyway and the customers won't make too much noise - after all, if you're not with the planet, you're against it!

corporate drone #1: brilliant idea! have another $10 million bonus and a private jet!


fuck it - if the next movie is in this type of 'crapper-case' again, i'll "rent" it, no matter how much i want to support the futurama team.

Mod note: I know this statement was made out of frustration but please remember DVDtalk does not support the discussion of piracy even if it is just in passing.


sorry, had to get this off my chest.
thanks for reading.



edit: changed 1 word to comply with forum rules

Discussing piracy is against DVDtalk rules.

i've held off buying these simply because of the shitty packaging...hopefully they'll release all 4 movies in slimpaks in a box set once they've all had individual releases. another option is to purchase it cheap at a rental shop (normally they have keepcase versions of oddly packaged releases).

If scratching the DVD is of concern, you can easily remedy it by gluing a digipak tray to the foldout. I've done it successfully on both BBS and TBWABB.

Is there a place where you can buy an extra digipak tray?

I believe Walmart carries them. Don't know if they have the double overlapping ones, though, cause I'd like to get one for "There Will Be Blood".

I like these packages - they're unique.

As far as being flimsy and not holding up over time - that's all up to you and how you treat them. I have vinyl records that have packaging that is just as "flimsy" that are almost 40 years old, and have been listened to way more than this movie will be watched, and besides some outer wear, they're fine. I see no reason why these packages will wear out any sooner.

Unless it's music, in which case our previous leader bean made at least one thread on doing it

I don't like these types of cases or cardboard ones in general since they can get damaged over time easily. I keep my movies on a shelf but you still get small things happening to them in addition to the mouth breathers that molested them at the store before you buy them.

I don't have a problem with the cases...at all.

not really.
my location means that in order to get english movies (=non-translated packaging) i can only order them via mail. (suits me since i hate 'physical' shopping)
and this particular packaging was flat as a pancake when it go here - somebody must have put a small feather on it, because that's all it takes to flatten it.

The problem is that a record is held in an envelope that only touches at the edges of the record if it is slightly opened. The Futurama case forces you to slide the disk halfway into a slot, and it's going to scratch the DVD if you use it a lot.

I put mine in plastic cases imported from 10,000 miles away using oil imported 10,000 miles away from there. With covers I made using toxic inks on virgin paper. By using a computer that uses coal powered electricity. Ohhhh yeah.....

I wait until you can get them used at Blockbuster or Movie Gallery because they come in normal cases then.