Hi,

I am trying to work out which Life Aquatic DVD to order.

On this site, I read reviews of the two-disc Criterion. I also saw mention of a single disk edition.

I am in Canada. Chapters shows only two DVD release for Life Aquatic:
A two-disc:
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/item.a...ion=dvd&zxac=1
and a one disc:
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/item.a...ion=dvd&zxac=1

Neither of them appear to be the Criterion. So what is the two-disc in Canada? Details on DVD features are sketchy. If the two-disc has all the stuff the Criterion would have, I'll order it. Otherwise, I'd prefer to get the Criterion, but its not listed on Chapters yet.

Can anyone shed some light?

Robin

I checked out Amazon.ca and found this

Life Aquatic Criterion

Hope this helps.

I don't see any reason why that wouldn't be the criterion version.

There has been a history of differences between Canadian and American Criterion releases when it comes to the more mainstream movies. With Chasing Amy, Traffic and Royal Tenenbaums there have been slight changes to the artwork but the DVD itself is the same. Although these all said Criterion Collection on them.

It is weird because Futurshop has the also has the same artwork shown as Chapters. Maybe Criterion wouldn't let Alliance Atlantis do joint release like they did in the past so AA is releasing there own version without the Criterion logos.

All the promo artwork we have up at Future Shop in store is the Criterion cover...plus you get a free Red "team zissou" touque when you buy the disc....so rest assured, in Canada, you'll get the Criterion edition same as the US.

MATT

A Team Zissou touque! Cool. I'd wear that. Do they look like they are of a decent quality? I may have to buy this from FS if that's the case...

they also have this at suncoast...they look pretty good....and its free

Why does the Criterion website show a different/better looking cover than the ones being shown here??

The licensing agreement between Criterion and Touchstone/Buena Vista (T/BV) calls for the latter to market and distribute the DVDs for this film. As such, T/BV gets to choose the retail cover art, which in this case is a drawing of the ship that highlights the major characters. The T/BV art is for the cardboard slipcase. Criterion chose to use Wes Anderson's brother Eric's artwork for the inner keepcase (as they did on Rushmore and The Royal Tennenbaums). So both are official artwork. On the 1-disc edition (which doesn't have a slipcase), the keepcase artwork is reversible.

Just got back from Best Buy and I was really scratching my head after seeing the one disc version of Life Aquatic when I just got the two disc this weekend. Has Criterion ever relased two versions of the same title besides this and Fanny and Alexander?

I believe Criterion only produced the DVD and Buena Vista is releasing it, so it was BV's release plan.

the one disc isn't Criterion.

Huh? How do you figure?

-JP

Absolutely it is. I had it in my hand at Target 1 hour ago.

i WAS LOOKING AT THIS TODAY AT BLOCKBUSTER...ONE DISC, CRITERION COLLECTION, SPINE NUMBER (300), REVERSIBLE ARTWORK...

Yeah, hence my confusion with his post. It's got the Criterion logo, the spine number, the works.

For the record, this release offered two things that I've never seen from Criterion: two different releases (a 1-disc, and a 2-disc) for the exact same movie, and a release with a regular cardboard slipcover. Only discs I can recall seeing from them with a slipcover were the Tenenbaums and Fear and Loathing releases...but even those were the kind with only one open side (not the generic kind with the open top and bottom, like we got with The Life Aquatic).

-JP

k...i take it back.

Go ahead and pick up the 2 disc set since it is only a few dollars more. At the store I purchased it from they wanted 19.96 for the 1-discer and 21.96 for the 2-discer.

That's the thing that really confused me about this release. At Wal*Mart, the 1-Disc was $19.96 and the 2-Disc was $21.96. What's the point of releasing two different versions if the price difference is $2?

At BB today, the 1 disc was 19.99 and the 2 disc 24.99, not 2 dollars, but still not enough to justify 2 versions, I'd think.

Course, I didn't have to toil over which to get, as I only paid 9.99 after some price-match kung-fu.

Yeah, I was confused too, I was at Costco and saw the 2 disc set for about $19-20 and a set with What About Bob? for $22. I would have definately picked up that, but sadly it was the 1 disc version in the bundle. Studios piss me off with these stupid multiple releases.

Now here's the burning question:

Do Criterion Completionists buy one of each version or are they content with one or the other?

Completists would buy the two version, as it has all the same stuff of the one disc plus one additional disc.

Wish I had known where to price match as I paid $24.99 at Best Buy. Hoop Dreams for $18 was nice though.

But do they buy the one discin addition to the 2 discin order to have each available criterion, even though it is a stripped down version of the 2 discer? I am positive there are some Criterion die-hards who have purchased both.

Circuit City has it for $22.99 and Walmart for $21.96