Please don't shoot the messenger, my fellow Canadians, but yes, it's true. Warner Brothers has adopted the dreaded bilingual packaging policy beginning with (oddly enough) "Batman Begins"...

Not sure if the Batman Anthology will have bilingual packaging, though. Anybody have a definitive answer?

are you serious??? What's the point of those stupid bilingual covers, I for one am a French speaker, and it really pisses me off to see both titles on the same artwork. Why not just make them reversible but for real, like an all English on one side, and an all French on the other side, leave the damn spine alone.

Gawddamnit!

I haven't seen "Batman Begins" but plan on getting it on Tuesday...and now this happens.

according to DVDSoon, the box is in English only, but they seem to have bad informations very often lately...

Glad i already ordered it from Amazon.com now It shipped a few days ago but I bet i still wont get it till a week after its in the shops, what with customs etc

Its getting harder and harder to buy my movies in canada nowdays.

If it's bilingual, I'll either order the import version through amazon.ca or I'll order directly from amazon.com. Whichever is cheapest. (This is a general statement, not referring to Batman Begins, which doesn't interest me)

Amazon is 48% off srp. Can't beat that

Plus the Cdn dollar is still very good against the US dollar...

No, no, no, no, NOOOOOOOO!!!!

Warner Canada
(416) 250-8385

Gord

Thanks for the number Gord.

There's no need to see Ebert & Roeper's quote in two languages.

not to sound like a patriot but..


French is one of our official languages... I'm disapointed more of us don't speak it fluently (and with the large amounts of immigrants we get, i bet you under 5% will be able to speak it in about 10 years)

instead of bitching about it, be happy we have 2 official languages

Wrong forum buddy.

Fine. We have two official languages. Doesn't mean we need cluttered DVD artwork shoving that fact in our collective face.

Isn't the U.S. English and Spanish (at least in some states) ?

Do they have bilingual packaging?

I ain't patriotic at all.

Sigh...this has ZERO to do with French as a language, official language, or its education or lack of it. Since this is a DVD forum, it's obviously ONLY to do with that. Bilingual covers are ugly eyesores, and I for one refuse to pony up my hard-earned money for something I consider unattractive. Nobody here has said anything even remotely anti-French, just anti-ugly packaging.

Additionally, keep in mind that by law, stuidios must provide French packaging on movies when a French audio track exists - and bilingual packaging is done more as a cost-cutting measure than a sensitive, outreached hand to Francophones. It's corporate greed and ugly graphics I'm against, AND NOTHING ELSE.

Okay?

Ugh, the plastered quote is bad enough, now multiply it by 2

Still no patriot, but I'm not against anyone either. I don't care what language is on it, it's ugly regardless.

I just wonder why this is occuring so often now when it wasn't a few years ago...what changed? Were complaints made, new laws put into effect?

The vast majority of people hate bilingual covers whether they speak english or french. I'm french speaking and, although I'm not that anal about covers so it won't prevent me from buying DVD's with bilingual covers, I'd much rather see reversible covers.

but if you only speak french...how would you know that was a batman movie

Really?

I don't see that many people complaining about Korean-English covers!!

It is the end of the world indeed.

Pro-B

As if someone wouldn't know what this movie was...

Wait, so in Canada, Batman likes guys too?

Great. I guess that means that Columbia and Disney are the only companies left that don't do this, but I'm sure that's only a matter of time too...

I Hate French writing on covers! I have nothing against having French in Canada but the covers are so poorly integrated it totally ruins the whole look of the cover. Most studios just recycle the US cover and add French wherever there is a empty space. No though is put into integrating better. Why dual sided covers are not printed is beyond me. Outside of Quebec or some areas of Manitoba and New Brunswick nobody speaks French. These covers are only appealing to less that 10% of a population. CD's don't have bilingual packaging why DVD's? VHS tapes never had french writing either.
Makes me turn to eBay and other e-tailers for purchases. Disney has had a ugly yellow but in the bottom left corner of the covers with "version francaise incluse" for years but that's as French as disney gets. Some rental outlets like Rogers get billingual disney covers. So ya Sony is the only major hold out along with Lions Gate which is funny because Lions Gate is Canadian! (side note: Lions Gate films are distributed in Quebec by Crystal Films with french dubs). I blame it all on Universal. They were the first. Fox and Paramount have EVERYTHING listed twice. French writing is pretty minimal on MGM, Universal and Alliance Atlantis (Miramax/New Line) releases but its still there lurking. Nothing is worse than having CUBE listed twice on a spine. One going in the "english" southward direction and the other going north for the French. Can't wait to see Titanic listed twice on the spine!

Thanks ebay!

Yesterday I received an email notifying me that Video One is the new distributor of Universal titles in Canada. I called the PR company to find out if that meant the bilingual packaging would be gone, since I believe it was Alliance Atlantis that was creating it. The person didn't know, but they're looking into it. We can cross our fingers and hope...

BTW - it's actually cheaper to order from the US now that the Canadian dollar is so high. Now we have an even bigger reason to order from the US.

Hey, does anyone know if that's the actual cover, or if it's a cardboard slip cover that goes over the DVD?

Gord