The Crime of Bi-Lingual DVD Cover Art? (1 Viewer)

[Brian Thibodeau]

And don't forget the Newfies! Don't get much more distinct than that.

 

[Niko Nykanen]

I bought 8 Mile from dvdsoon and noticed it had a reversible cover.
"Excellent!" I thought and put it on the shelf with it´s english cover.
Then I noticed that it had the title of the movie on it´s back both in english and french:

"8 Mile / 8 Mile"



Sold it pretty much instantly.

Way to go Universal!

 

[Dominique Boies]

As a French-speaking Quebecer, I am myself annoyed with bilingual covers -- studios should really do true reversible French / English covers.

However, it's too easy bashing Quebec for that. A very large percentage of French-speaking Quebecers do not speak English, or at least are not able to have a basic conversation in English. If Quebec government do not take steps to ensure service and products labelled in French, past experience has shown that it won't be the Federal government or the other provinces that will. If studios choose a short way to save money with bilingual covers, its their decisions.

A related topic discussed on the French-speaking DVD forums is increasing absence of French soundtrack on Canadian DVD while a Spanish dub is available. Since it's a French-related issue, you don't see it on these forums but in my opinion as important as the cover issue. Among others, a French cultural trait (also seen in France) is the dislike of subtitles in movies and a preference for dubbing. No French dubs = no sale for many in Quebec...

The "specifity" of Quebec is a highly debatable topic. But what many Canadians outside Quebec once again fail to understand is that because of that lack of English-speaking majority, people in Quebec care a lot more about's what happening over here than in the rest of Canada. Especially if has no direct bearing on Quebec. The Conservative leadership congress last week-end was a good example of that. There was only a few short articles in the French-speaking papers since despite being the second major political party in Canada it has no roots in Quebec. And even these articles were mainly targeted towards the Conservative Quebec policies.

I am also afraid that the sentiments towards Quebec that I too often read in threads like this one are shared the opposite ways by many French-speaking Quebecers. In fact, English-Canada bashing is far more widespread than generally acknowledged.

Dom

 

[Chris Bardon]

Not a big fan of the bilingual covers, but there's really not much you can do about it. Realistically-you're getting the same DVD inside. If it bugs you that much-import it from the states, or print your own cover.

Do I think the laws are stupid-yes. Do I think that reversible sleeves are a good idea-yes. Do I think that anything's going to change-not a chance.

Still have to love the Hulk DVD spine.

HULK/HULK(upside down)...

it's the same in both languages dammit!!!!

 

[Antonio Silva]

Count me in as another person who hates bilingual covers. I used to order my dvds from Canada and from European companies who got their stock from Canada. Now i'm forced to order directly from the USA and, let me tell you, customs here in Portugal love USA packages...

I also agree with SebastienLX when he states:



Couldn't agree more...

 

[Ray_R]

This is atrocious! Punishable by a $100 fine towards the numb-nuts company and a refund for $500 to the buyer for emotional stress. Stupid bi-lingual crapola! If the film was english and such, only release the cover with English! Or better yet, have a seperate French cover! EEEeeeerrgggg!

 

[CraigF]

Bilingual covers don't bother me at all since I never look at them again after making sure the contents seem satisfactory. But I do think the way the covers are implemented is totally stupid. Some companies do it much better than others, so obviously there are "legally" acceptable nice ways to do it.

I am much more offended by the recent U.S. DVD covers with big blotches of snippets of praise, stuff that obscures the cover art and is just plain ugly. Since I don't watch the covers I don't really care, except that it's my personal policy to not buy a product if I don't like their advertising or find it offensive to my intelligence, and I view that fractional review crap as advertising. By buying their product I am reinforcing their methods, that's how the advertising wonks think, and I sure don't want to do that. I would not accept paying my money to own any other product that is covered in advertising unless I was appropriately compensated...I believe that would be free product, at the least for cheap stuff, in most cases.

 

[Joe Isham]

So they didn't metricize it?

"8 Mile / 12.87 km"

 

[Cees Alons]

The consensus here seems to be something like:

(1) Use double-sided covers, with one language on each side.
(2) Pack and display them either with the English or French side shown (could depend on the area where sold).
(3) Preferably use a sticker on the outside plastic safety wrap in the 'other' language, saying "French (English) artwork version inside of this title 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'". Of course in the proper language.


This would be in accordance to the letter of the law (the merchandise has both titles displayed), to the vein of the law (you can buy and own either printed-language version) and also would severely satisfy both English-speaking and French-speaking Canadians in this matter, as expressed in this thread.

Cees

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Bilingual labelling exists on so many products here that it never even tweaked me when it's on DVDs.

Actually, I kinda of like them - uniquely Canadian.

I'm more concerned about what's on the inside rather than the outside anyhow.

 

[Rob T]

I really don't like bilingual covers.
DVDCoverArt.com has saved me lots of money from having to get them from the US.
Companies, like Warner, are great. They actually give us an all english alternative.

 

[JasonRH]

Put me down as another one who hates bi-lingual covers. It's nice to see some French Canadians expressing distaste for them as well. I expected some (many?) of them would dislike the covers too.

 

[Tony Whalen]

My favorite so far was the spine of "Blade II".

Blade II / Blade II

Good thing THAT was bi-lingual.

 

[Dominique Boies]

As strange as it may looks, you're right...

English language spines are written from top to bottom (facing left) while French language spines are written from bottom to top (facing right)...

I don't say it isn't stupid however...

 

[Paul_Stachniak]

Not that I don't fully agree with all of you - but I found an answer. It's called Amazon.com.

However, what bothers me even more is when they have to FORCE a french track onto a Canadian DVD, and as a result remove content to fit it. I talking about Monsters Inc and Finding Nemo. THE WORST... and I mean the worst, so far is The Running Man SE, where the French track forced them (I believe it was Alliance?) to remove the new DTS ES track!!!!! WTF! That's going WAY to far - now we Canadian's are losing features because of this bilingual crap!?!?!

As for the double names on the spine, I liked John Q./John Q., I think that really needed to be there. I think Paramount is the only company with intelligent people designing their covers, as Zoolander was only printed once on the spine, while the rest was Fringlish.

 

[Tom Tsai]

^ May I know what was changed in Finding Nemo?

 

[Paul_Stachniak]

I believe they removed the musical score track, or the FX only track.

 

[Tom Tsai]

^ I believe that's only for Monsters Inc. Finding Nemo is the same i think.

 

[Dominique Boies]

As I said before, people here in Quebec complains because there are not enough French tracks on DVD. No need to bash them because they want to be able to listen DVD movies in their own language. Blame the studios instead.

The easiest way would certainly to have specific releases for Quebec, with French dubs and French covers. They already do it when different companies own the distribution rights in and outside Quebec. And they do it all the time with VHS tapes, so why not with DVD as well.

 

[Tom Tsai]

^ I don't know...I mean I don't watch French movies in English dubs, I don't watch Cantonese movies in Mandarin dubs. How is this any different?