They would have been better served by just using the RCA/Columbia-era artwork on a normal-sized Blu-ray box without the VHS tape sticking out. That gives away its selectivity in its attention to detail: those kind of boxes opened from the bottom, not the sides. If it opens at the side, that means you broke it. If they can't come up with better art than the original, then they might as well just use the original. Warner Bros. used original poster art for DVD covers for years, but they didn't make it look worn and torn.
Except they weren't the only game in town; there was also Betamax. The trade-off of less recording time meant better overall picture quality. After Betamax died, the quality of blank VHS tapes went down. You can tell the difference between holding one made in the 1970s or 1980s and one made after that in your hands and comparing which one has more weight to it.
Get nostalgic for laserdisc if you want to get nostalgic for analog video. You couldn't record on them, but they had zero copy protection and looked about as good as a pre-HD television broadcast. That format enabled many of the features on DVD, Blu-ray, and UHD that we take for granted today. And the sound could be quite good, even excellent. That had less market penetration than Betamax yet lasted a good decade longer.
There is a valid reason to own the original video release of The Little Mermaid that has nothing to do with the box art*: it's the only way to see the film as it was originally shown in 1989. Every version since then has altered the credits in some way. They also futzed with the shot order at the end of "Part of Your World" on some of the recent discs. And then there was the minister of the wedding and his knobby knees. Now you're making me wish Disney would do something like it with their catalog releases, such as they are these days.
*The laserdisc came out by the time they "fixed" it.
Except they weren't the only game in town; there was also Betamax. The trade-off of less recording time meant better overall picture quality. After Betamax died, the quality of blank VHS tapes went down. You can tell the difference between holding one made in the 1970s or 1980s and one made after that in your hands and comparing which one has more weight to it.
Get nostalgic for laserdisc if you want to get nostalgic for analog video. You couldn't record on them, but they had zero copy protection and looked about as good as a pre-HD television broadcast. That format enabled many of the features on DVD, Blu-ray, and UHD that we take for granted today. And the sound could be quite good, even excellent. That had less market penetration than Betamax yet lasted a good decade longer.
There is a valid reason to own the original video release of The Little Mermaid that has nothing to do with the box art*: it's the only way to see the film as it was originally shown in 1989. Every version since then has altered the credits in some way. They also futzed with the shot order at the end of "Part of Your World" on some of the recent discs. And then there was the minister of the wedding and his knobby knees. Now you're making me wish Disney would do something like it with their catalog releases, such as they are these days.
*The laserdisc came out by the time they "fixed" it.
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