C.H.U.D.

I reported a few weeks ago that MGM has jumped on the retardation bandwagon of wasting money ruining DVD covers with billingual packaging.

Well, another studio has jumped on as well, Fox, as we received our Day After Tomorrow DVD's yesterday and they all have billingual packaging, including the horrible looking spines.

The idiotic assimilation of bilingual cover stupidity is almost complete.

C.H.U.D.

Btw, if Fox has been making billingual covers before, and I didn't notice, I apologize. This is the first time I have noticed it on a Fox DVD.

mcharro3

I was just going to start this topic. Sigh...

Thanks, Quebec! You just cured me of my DVD buying habits. I see it now, it's only a matter of seconds before Warner and Sony (the last two holdouts) go Frenchy-french-french.

Say C.H.U.D., since you have a store, have you ever complained about this to your distributor? If so, what has the reaction been? Is there any reason for me to wake up tomorrow? HELP!

darkside

Just do what Ann Coulter would. Attack Quebec kill their leaders and convert them to English speaking Christians.

Dazed

id rather just kill the idiots who make the decison for Bilingual covers. I quite like the fact Quebec speaks french, just dont want it on my dvd covers

Jackskeleton

Forget Billingual, talk about being screwed in R1 with a one disc version of the film.

WojtekZ

Wow, people really take these covers seriosly, I could have sworn that the movie inside had some value, damn.

Adrenaline

Well we are talking about The Day After Tomorrow

marty888

What? You mean you actually tear your eyes away from the damned cover and look at the movie? Some people are simply too weird ....

darkside

BizRodian

Stupid business decision. I know in Quebec they prefer to have either the English version of the movie, or the all French version (and such titles do exist BTW, I saw a totally French Punch Drunk Love the other day in stores.)

No one wants these bilingual DVDs.

ENDContra

I bought the Canadian released of Good Will Hunting for the anamorphic transfer, and it has a reversible cover, one side in English, the other in French. What a great idea, yet for some reason this must never even enter the minds of the ad wizards at the big studios.

Pressplay

Amen.

I am from Montréal, Quebec, speak French, and I do hate the billingual covers. The box for my copy of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind also says Du Soleil Plein La tête (yikes!) and it sucks! I know tons of people who go out of their way to find DVDs with non-billingual covers. But some people don't understand English and need the French dubbing (re-yikes!) and those mainly come in billingual covers. I even have a friend who, for one title that was really important to him, bought both the DVD with the English cover (on amazon.com) and the one with the billingual one (in a local shop), put the disc with the French soundtrack in the English case and trashed the other. Take that, Régie du Cinéma!

I don't get some of the titles they come up with, either. My copy of Hud is billingual and the French title is "Hud : Le Plus Sauvage d'Entre Tous". That means "Hud: the most savage of them all". Why bother? It's a freaking NAME! Why add all the other stuff just to "French it up"?

OK, Mamma needs to go breath in a papar bag for a while.

BizRodian

They used to do this... except both sides would have English and French... one would just be bigger on one side! This makes no sense at all, it's terrible.

I might have mentioned this already... but my fav is Blade II. It says "Blade II", then right under, in 'French' it says... "Blade II"

C.H.U.D.

I've noticed that as well. If there is no French spelling for the title, they put the name of the movie on the DVD spine TWICE in English. I can't believe some moron is paid thousands of dollars to come up with logic like that.

ChristianB

I am also shocked to see Fox give in and resort to only releasing DVDs with bilingual packaging (when there's a French track of course). I guess it's a lot easier for them and less of a headache producing TWO DVDs (one widescreen, one full screen with bilingual packaging), and not four.

I just love how the rest of Canada suffers because of Quebec. I'm sure they're really nice people but by god, the extent our government goes (and spends money on) to protect the French language/culture/heritage is unbelievable. I'm sure there's more important things to worry about.

Hey, anyone else notice that Fox botched the packaging anyway? Although my copy of The Day After Tomorrow is widescreen, the box stating specifications says:

FULLSCREEN - modified to fit your screen 1.33:1

oh well... what can you do? Number the days before Warner and Sony jump into the same boat.

I think the best idea is one side bilingual and the other side English - so the consumer has a choice. Buy a copy and flip it to whatever side makes you happy. Makes more sense than what Universal Alliance Atlantis presently does (reversible bilingual). I just hate not having a choice here.

Christian

BizRodian

This has nothing to do with protecting or catering to Quebec, as most people in Quebec would rather have an all french disc (if they wouldn't rather have an all English disc.) Think they're happy with the crappy stereo channel french track?

This is a business decision, pure and simple, and a poor one.

Bill Needle

I think the poster was referring to the government mandates regarding bilingual signage, not that popular will demands it.

Oh, le singe est là-bas. Regarde! Il est sur une bicyclette, il joue au banjo, il fume une pipe. Maintenant il arrête, il lit un journau, il lit un journau…I see…et maintenant il est dans l'autobus, dans l’autobus…il conduit l'autobus, and et Sandra Bullock est dans l'autobus. Il y a une bombe dans l'autobus. Il faut conduire l'autobus plus de cinquante kilomètres par l'heure, et Keanu Reeves, il arrive dans la voiture…il n'a pas de cheveux, et Jeff Daniels est déjà mort. Et regarde! Il essaie à se jette dans l'autobus. Et Dennis Hopper, oh, Dennis Hopper, quel méchant!

That was the film "Speed" in French. Which in France was called “La Vitesse!” Or at least it should have been but in fact it was called "*Speed*"
--Eddie Izzard

BizRodian

Yeah... and then I said that this has nothing to do with that.

smoke67

I remember when all of this started a couple of years ago, it was all because a group of nine people...yes, you heard me right, nine people...complained to Quebec's 'language police' about there not being bilingual covers.

I agree that the 'flipable' one side english, one side french makes the most sense.

It's not that those of us here in english Canada are opposed to french or anything like that. It's just that with putting 2 languages on a cover the have to shrink everything to make it all fit and it makes it very, very, difficult to read. When you have a large collection of movies displayed with the spines out to see the titles it becomes even more frustrating. This is because, once again, the writing is so small that you literally have to go right up to within 6 inches of the title just to be able to read which one it is.

English speaking Canada does not want these covers. French speaking Canada does not want these covers. 9 people in Quebec do. This is a ridiculous 'politically correct' reaction to a small special interest group with no regard to what the obvious majority wants. It looks like I'll be getting most of my movies online from the US now, seeing as the studios have gone after the 'replacement cover' sites now and have either shut them down or made them remove their covers. So that is not even an option anymore. This type of stupidity is just beyond comprehension.

DVD Polizei

For those who don't mind the bi-lingy covers, wait until your favorite flick has FORCED subtitles for handicapped people who can't push the subtitle button.

taronga

So, is this happening with DVDs sold in the US too or just Canada?

movielib

I don't give a merde.

eXcentris

Maybe Michael Moore could do a movie about oppressed English Canadians.

P.S. I don't like bilingual covers either.

Shimmer35

Billingual French and English covers in Canada

Billingual Klingon and English covers in the US