DVD Diggers - 10/31/04

By Rafe Telsch: 2004-10-31 00:00:00

Welcome to this week’s DVD Diggers, now back on Sunday nights!

It’s interesting that even though Christmas has started to appear in stores and on DVD, big releases are still pretty much staying elusive. It means things will be slowing down a bit on the Cinema Blend DVD section for the next couple of weeks, which is okay, because we DVD critics get to sit back and take a breath while the theatrical side goes nuts with all the holiday season pictures coming out. Of course as there are no strictly “DVD Critics” it’ll pretty much just be me kicking back, and as I alluded to last week, my schedule is too full to permit that. Still, there are a couple of DVDs coming out worth mentioning, especially as one is a giant rip off, so let’s move to that.

Yeah... Pirate!

I’m a huge fan of Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl so it’s no question that I picked up the DVD the second it came out, especially since there was no sign of double dipping in the future. Well, apparently our crystal balls didn’t see far enough into the future, as this week sees the release of a three disc set of PotC.

We rip you off yo ho!

The problem with this goes beyond typical double dipping. For this release the first two discs are exactly the same as the current release, and when I say “exactly” I mean “exactly”. It’s the same discs, the same extras, the same packaging! What Disney has done is create a new package that the old DVD release goes into, and next to it is a third disc with new extras.

Now I’m fine with new extras for the movie, but why make me buy the same release I have all over again just to have this third disc? Why not pull a Matrix: Revisited and put that disc out on its own, or offer those of us who have already purchased the DVD an opportunity to purchase the third disc separately. I’m not about to go out and buy the same set over again just for some new featurettes. The new material containing interviews with Johnny Depp just isn’t enough of a selling point to make me buy this.... however that may not hold true for many of the female members of the movie’s audience, so I guess it makes sense that that’s how they’re marketing the extra disc.

More cheap tactics from the Mouse House that Uncle Walt never would have approved of.

The Big Giant Ogre

Get in mah belly

On the other hand you have Dreamworks, who is ultra-marketing their upcoming release of Shrek 2. There are almost a dozen different ways to buy the movie listed on Amazon right now. You can get just the film itself, either widescreen or fullscreen. You can get the movie and the soundtrack in a combo, or the movie and the X-Box game, or the movie and the Game Boy Advance game, or an “Essential Pack” that has the movie, the soundtrack, and a book. Finally there’s a set called “The Story So Far”, which includes Shrek, Shrek 2, Shrek 3D, and a fourth bonus “The Story So Far” disc that includes even more extras.

Now this is the kind of marketing I can get behind: offering multiple choices of how to purchase a movie. Since Shrek 2 is the number three grossing movie of all time, you know people will buy the DVD too, so giving them options is a great move to increase the amount of money Dreamworks will make. Releasing all the options at the same time keeps critics who would accuse Dreamworks of double dipping at bay. It’s a smart decision from a company that created the first Shrek as a way to dig at Disney.

In fact, the only bad move I could possibly accuse Dreamworks of making is picking a Friday release date. I don’t understand this move - new DVD releases always come out on Tuesday. New theatrical releases come out on Friday. Shrek 2 came out on a Wednesday, and now the DVD comes out on Friday, so Dreamworks just isn’t playing by the rules on either one. A Wednesday theatrical release made sense, beating the weekend by coming out a few days early. A Friday DVD release puts Shrek 2 three days later than this week’s competition, which doesn’t make sense... unless you look at what else is going on Friday.

Friday is the release date of the next Disney/Pixar venture - The Incredibles, which would be Shrek 2’s main competition this year as far as animated films go. This means Dreamworks is sacrificing its direct DVD release competition to go head to head with Disney. Again, knowing the film is one of the highest grossing of all time, Dreamworks knows people will buy the movie. The question is will more people buy the DVD, or go to the theater and see The Incredibles. It’ll be interesting to see where things stand in a week.

All this talk about money is starting to make me sound like Michael Brody, so I think I’ll end things there. See you next week, and Happy Halloween everybody!