Anyone bothered when studios redesign BR artwork?

Back in the day it was standard that the artwork on the home video release (VHS, DVD) would be the film's poster. Lately, studios rarely use the movie poster as the main design but instead scrap it completely for a new redesigned cover. This is especially common in re-releases of old movies. Frankly, most of these redesigns look much worse than the movie poster--but that's just me. Sometimes I wish they would stick to the movie posters since some of them were true classic images.

Feel free to post your favorite ones you like or ones you hated that they changed.

 

Gremlins. Why they can't keep the original artwork baffles me. Instead, you have a 2 minute lasso tool job with Gizmo paste in front of a white background. Artsy stuff!

 

Having the poster art used to be the norm? Not in my experience. I know it happened sometimes, but...rarely. Do you live in the UK or Europe by any chance? I only ask because in the US it was never that common. Unless I wasn't paying enough attention, which admittedly could be a possibility.

 

I think a lot of the time, the studio staff (or the freelance company they hire) is trying to justify their phony-baloney jobs. It's not unusual for those departments to dummy up four or five different packages and then let the home video execs make a decision on which one to use for retail. There are meetings and discussions about it. One can make an argument that poster art doesn't always translate well if the image is now only 6" high and viewed on a shelf 10 feet away, vs. a 27" x 41" movie poster on a wall.

 

jerol

 

I prefer it, except for a few cases where the BR is genuinely inferior.

If I see the same packaging, then I assume it's the same release, just upgraded. If it's different, I tend to assume it's a different master with different extras, etc. Not always correctly,

 

The cover of Soldier Blue is ludicrous. That cowboy isn't even in the film!

 

I never really thought about it. A lot of the films I am after are hard to find so when I do come across one, I am just happy I got a copy.

 

Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs original poster:




US DVD cover adds gratuitous 'Sexy Asian Lady' who isn't even in the film:

 

Nothing beats the original poster.

Unfortunately, not even the first video releases of the Disney animated films, after they started releasing them following their screenings in theaters, used the original posters.

 

I look forward to what Criterion does.

 

No, I'm in the US. It was my experience in the late 80's and 90's that most of the time the cover on the VHS was the movie poster.

 

This has been common place since long before blu-ray. It goes back to VHS. I prefer having the original poster artwork as well, but I think the rationale is that artwork meant to be displayed at 36x48" (or whatever the standard size is) doesn't always translate well to 5x7".

 

Thanks, was hoping to get your take on this. You raise a good point about how the poster won't necessarily work on a BR cover. It does seem that the artwork is really aimed for the Wal-Mart/Costco/Target/BestBuy crowd today; making the artwork so accessible that it cuts through and grabs your attention as your going down from aisle to aisle.

Speaking about the general style of these new designs, I'd like to pick the brain of the designers and those in the marketing department on what makes a good cover by today's standards. There is something so over-the-top and explicit about these designs that rubs me the wrong way. They all look like covers of a magazine.

 

Great example! The movie poster looks way better, imo. Looking at these two different covers---it looks like two very different movies! Some of these redesigns really change the image of the movie. Funny how studios don't care if it does.

 

Most of these re-designs look cheap and tacky, and the trend you're referring to has bothered me for a long time. You can find film buff forums on the net where people share their own home-grown replacement BR inserts that restore original poster art.

 

Wow amazing that people are actually doing that. Most of the designs really cheapens the tone of the movie. This looks like the cover of Entertainment Weekly instad of the cover art:

 

Nope. Only concerned with the quality of the disc.

 

I've noticed that my iTunes movie purchases regularly automatically update their image in my library to something more modern. Many started out with their classic poster images, but it's gradually devolved into simpler and simpler pictures. It's gotten so I can't even recognize them and have to read the title to figure out what the movie it.

Apparently the norm now is a giant face of the main character.

 

If the disc is cheap and film good I don't care what the cover is. If it's nice, great. Criterions I'm paying a premium so some thought and nothing garish is expected

 

Really, why do you say that?

 

Whoa! Never knew it was a real issue! Thanks for posting.

 

Wow, the US cover is absolutely ridiculous (and doesn't fit the film at all). At least the cover of my German DVD is based on the original artwork:

 

I remember going to the movies to see Road to Perdition and really digging the poster, then later the DVD came out and being horrified by the terrible art.