Batman Anthology: Bilingual Packaging in Canada? (1 Viewer)

[Jeremy Brupaste]

Need a little help here, people! Warner Brothers has adopted bilingual packaging in Canada starting with 'Batman Begins', but does anyone know if the four-disk motion picture anthology will have this as well?

Please! Help!

 

[ChristianB]

Hi Jeremy,

Not sure of a new thread for this but I wrote over in there:



Christian

 

[Paul Sandhu]

I held the packaging in my hands... I work at Wal-Mart.

No French writing that I recall. $57.97 CDN for those wondering.

 

[Jim Harvey]

That's good to hear! Are your Batman Begins DVDs riddled with french writing?

 

[Rolando]

thanks for the info Paul, hope you don't mind if I quote you on the US VS CAN release post.

Hope to hear confirmation about the Batman Begins set.

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

What the bloody hell is this all about? They wait seven fucking years to finally pander to French-Canadians? I'll never understand bi-ling covers in Canada. You don't see 'Spanish-friendly' covers used in America by the Big Studios, do you? Maybe that says something about America's attitude towards Spanish-Americans, eh?

People praise Warner for using original artwork for their DVDs, but all that artistic credibility goes to pot when you have those absurd alternate French titles, the ones where it isn't even a translation of the original title, but a whole new title splayed across the cover, confusing my tiny grey sponge. Bastards!

 

[Nick Martin]

Damn...it's nice to know that we Canadians aren't the only ones pissed about this

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

Nicholas, my pernicious attention to trivialities in world of Avian Influenza, war and mass mental anguish is what makes me who I am! Ha-ha-ha!

 

[Rob T]

well I guess I'll be ordering Batman Begins from ddd.com.
I'd like to see this for myself first though.
If Warner Bros. has gone to the dark side, I'll be quite sad. They are (or were, at least) one of the last few not doing this kind of crap.

 

[Paul Sandhu]

Sure go ahead, and as much as I can recall... BB is english only. Not too sure about the back of the cover though.

 

[Jim Harvey]

That's so weird. So now I've heard that we're getting both bilingual and regular cover art, and I've seen ads with bilingual and regular cover art. This is pretty damn weird . . . but interesting.

 

[Jeremy Brupaste]

Here's a link to the back of the Canadian version of Batman Begins. Look at it and weep.

http://www.videomatica.com/x/store.a...i=b47787%2Ejpg

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

This is a big deal to European importers, as many of us either by from Canadian etailers, or from Play USA.com who import a lot of their stock from Canada. Does CD-WOW stock bi-ling editions? Either way, they do not stock every Big Studio, big-selling R1 title. I recently was stung with a bi-ling edition of The Fly: Special Edition or La Mouche. The spine looks SO cluttered and confusing.

I seem to ranting more than the Canadians here, eh? What a hoser, am I.

 

[Jeremy Brupaste]

La Mouche, ha ha ha.

I found a copy of 'The Fly' for sale THREE WEEKS before street date here in Canada, but because it had the above words on it, I passed.

The thing is, the studios think they're saving money by slapping both languages on the cover, but from the comments I've read here and on other boards, it seems like a nice little percentage of people stay clear of them altogether. Which means, I guess, that they're LOSING money, not SAVING it.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. Can't anyone confirm or deny if the Batman Anthology has bilingual packaging?!? It's getting close to zero hour here, fellas! HELP!

 

[Rob T]

That's confirmation enough for me. Time to order it from the states. :frowning:

 

[ChristianB]

Gordon McMurphy, Canada is an official "bilingual" country with two "official" languages: English and French. Practically everything bought and consumed here has bilingual packaging (just walk the aisles of your local supermarket). We have certain language laws that govern "consumer packaged goods." In some ways, Canadians are used to having bilingual packaging. The USA is officially English, and although the Spanish population there has exploded and is growing at a rapid pace, some studios are catering specifically to that market. However I don't expect DVDs there to have English and Spanish on them anytime soon or ever. The bottom line here is money

Think about it another way. Which is easiest for Warner to produce - three UPCs for Batman Begins (Fullscreen, Widescreen and the Deluxe Edition) or six? It's comes down to minimizing cost and maximizing sales. Less work for them. Unfortunately, this Tuesday, Batman Begins will still sell tons of copies here in Canada. It would be interesting to determine how many people would NOT buy Batman Begins, just because it has English and French on it. It's a mass produced piece of plastic

What puzzles me is why Warner threw in the towel now? Universal and Paramount have been producing bilingual packaging since early 2002. Well, since Fox started about a year ago and MGM recently, I'm not surprised. That leaves just Disney/Buena Vista and Sony left as giving us 'fans' a choice when it comes to packaging. Another strange thing is why MGM still produces bilingual when Sony bought them. I would assume it would stop? Guess not. We're a minority now, and we have to live with it. At least the Canadian dollar exchange rate continues to be excellent...it works out that buying my copy at Amazon.com is bilingual free and cheaper!



- Christian

 

[Nick Martin]

Exactly how much is it total with shipping in Canadian Dollars?

What about customs charges?

If the price is better than buying it here (Oshawa, Ontario) then I might consider it...

 

[ChristianB]

I don't ship just one DVD. I'll bundle it with a couple more releases. Amazon's heavy discounts off new releases (48% off Batman Begins for example) are hard to pass up. Combine that with the great exchange rate

My next Amazon order is nine pieces (a mix of DVD and CDs) - estimated shipping costs are $22, so about $2.44 each. Whether that's a good deal in your opinion, I'm not sure. It's all relative I guess. For my convenience, I think it is.

I doubt I'll pay any customs charges as I haven't all year. I've been buying a ton of books lately and surprisingly not been taxed.

- Christian

 

[Magnus T]

I don't know about Canada, but books in Norway are tax free no matter what. DVD's on the other hand... not so much.

 

[Nick Martin]

Thanks.

I guess I'll think about it- how much I want an english cover vs. how badly I want to see the movie itself- for the first time, since it's my first "blind buy".