Worst DVD Covers...ever! (Part 4K)

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tenia
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Re: Worst DVD Covers...ever! (Part 4K)

#2101 Post by tenia » Fri Feb 09, 2024 12:04 pm

My issue with it is that the more I look at it, the more it looks like something a studio could have come upon within a whole line of repacking.
"Phase IV ? Why not ants forming a symbolic dead skull ?"

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DRW.mov
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Re: Worst DVD Covers...ever! (Part 4K)

#2102 Post by DRW.mov » Sat Feb 10, 2024 2:38 am

Gotta go to bat for this one, I think its gorgeous and really fun. It was also designed by Adam Maida, one of Criterion’s best designers.

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TechnicolorAcid
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Re: Worst DVD Covers...ever! (Part 4K)

#2103 Post by TechnicolorAcid » Sat Feb 10, 2024 2:55 am

For anyone bothered by the cover art for the Vinegar Syndrome release, the Limited Edition has Saul Bass' art featured in the slipcover and also I believe there are typically reversible cover options with the theatrical art on the other side.

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JSC
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Re: Worst DVD Covers...ever! (Part 4K)

#2104 Post by JSC » Thu Feb 15, 2024 7:52 pm

Um, huh.....?

Image

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Mr. Deltoid
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Re: Worst DVD Covers...ever! (Part 4K)

#2105 Post by Mr. Deltoid » Thu Feb 15, 2024 9:17 pm

JSC wrote:
Thu Feb 15, 2024 7:52 pm
Um, huh.....?

Image
Close this thread, we have a winner. What the actual fuck is that? I take it that this is from that piss-poor adaptation that aired on the BBC about five years ago, where the rabbits were inexplicably depicted as hares? Although I don't remember them as stoned-looking as that. Martin Rosen must be spinning in his warren!

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Randall Maysin Again
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Re: Worst DVD Covers...ever! (Part 4K)

#2106 Post by Randall Maysin Again » Thu Feb 15, 2024 9:37 pm

How incredibly bizarre is this cover. Just think--what emotion, what scene is it meant to convey? There's a small clearing with a LOT of carrots, okay, and then...what is the emotion or expression on this (ugly and grotty and not cute) rabbit's face supposed to be? What is he looking at? Stoned is right, I can't think of what the hell else he's supposed to be experiencing. What the fu*k? What exactly is this cover supposed to convey, either to people familiar with the book or random unfamiliar browsers? What the Fuck?
Last edited by Randall Maysin Again on Thu Feb 15, 2024 10:15 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Randall Maysin Again
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Re: Worst DVD Covers...ever! (Part 4K)

#2107 Post by Randall Maysin Again » Thu Feb 15, 2024 9:39 pm

Hmm, maybe he's looking at a really big carrot.

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Re: Worst DVD Covers...ever! (Part 4K)

#2108 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Feb 15, 2024 11:04 pm

Mr. Deltoid wrote:
Thu Feb 15, 2024 9:17 pm
Close this thread, we have a winner. What the actual fuck is that?
I still think the zoidberg hands overlapping on the Roman Holiday cover trumps all, but yeah, this is scraping the bottom of the barrel of taste. Unless the advertising strategy is simply getting people to pay attention, regardless of whether that thing is revolting or not, I don't get it either

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Randall Maysin Again
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Re: Worst DVD Covers...ever! (Part 4K)

#2109 Post by Randall Maysin Again » Thu Feb 15, 2024 11:17 pm

The only explanation is that the adaptors changed the film into some sort of repellent stoner comedy, where carrots are drugs, about rabbits on a quest for a really big carrot. It seems totally inappropriate to any faithful rendering of the source.

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TechnicolorAcid
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Re: Worst DVD Covers...ever! (Part 4K)

#2110 Post by TechnicolorAcid » Thu Feb 15, 2024 11:31 pm

Is it bad I think that a blank black background with the typography would have worked better than whatever this is?

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Worst DVD Covers...ever! (Part 4K)

#2111 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Feb 15, 2024 11:34 pm

I like that the facial expression, and only the facial expression (read: worst part of cover art) is cropped and pasted on the spine too, so you can't escape it

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pianocrash
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Re: Worst DVD Covers...ever! (Part 4K)

#2112 Post by pianocrash » Thu Feb 15, 2024 11:34 pm

Absolutely incredible once you see it, but
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Re: Worst DVD Covers...ever! (Part 4K)

#2113 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Feb 15, 2024 11:37 pm

jinx

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spectre
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Re: Worst DVD Covers...ever! (Part 4K)

#2114 Post by spectre » Fri Feb 16, 2024 2:31 am

Coincidentally, that was also my facial expression when I saw the cover.

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The Curious Sofa
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Re: Worst DVD Covers...ever! (Part 4K)

#2115 Post by The Curious Sofa » Fri Feb 16, 2024 4:12 am

It's a German Mediabook release, where you pay a fortune for the privilege to choose from four covers and if you are a completist you get suckered into buying all four:

https://collectors-junkies.com/watershi ... mber-2023/

Two of the covers correspond to the art of the original film, two emulate the whimsical style of the popular German painter Michael Sowa, which they probably thought would appeal to the German market. I actually think it's well executed, its comical style just doesn't fit the movie. It's still less offensive to the eye than the hideous 2018 Netflix series, where the CGI was so dated, it could have been made 20 years earlier.

As for this being a worst cover winner, even among German covers this has nothing on the one for Cronenberg's Crash, which looks like Rosanna Arquette's character sprays a motorway out of her ass:

https://criterionforum.org/forum/viewto ... 43#p772843

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TechnicolorAcid
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Re: Worst DVD Covers...ever! (Part 4K)

#2116 Post by TechnicolorAcid » Fri Feb 16, 2024 8:32 am

How in the HELL is this worst than the first one:
Image

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The Curious Sofa
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Re: Worst DVD Covers...ever! (Part 4K)

#2117 Post by The Curious Sofa » Fri Feb 16, 2024 1:42 pm

A little research reveals that these artworks were made 8 years ago and not as a commission for the 1978 film. This was early concept work for the Netflix show, so they must have considered going down an anthropomorphic route at some point.

I think the artist is really talented and the Blu-ray label is really lazy for not specially commissioning art and then charging a lot of money for this. I hate these German Mediabook releases, who in their right mind pays nearly 50 Euros for a cover?

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Oal4g

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spectre
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Re: Worst DVD Covers...ever! (Part 4K)

#2118 Post by spectre » Sat Feb 17, 2024 2:09 am

The Curious Sofa wrote:
Fri Feb 16, 2024 4:12 am
It's a German Mediabook release, where you pay a fortune for the privilege to choose from four covers and if you are a completist you get suckered into buying all four:

https://collectors-junkies.com/watershi ... mber-2023/

Two of the covers correspond to the art of the original film, two emulate the whimsical style of the popular German painter Michael Sowa, which they probably thought would appeal to the German market. I actually think it's well executed, its comical style just doesn't fit the movie. It's still less offensive to the eye than the hideous 2018 Netflix series, where the CGI was so dated, it could have been made 20 years earlier.

As for this being a worst cover winner, even among German covers this has nothing on the one for Cronenberg's Crash, which looks like Rosanna Arquette's character sprays a motorway out of her ass:

https://criterionforum.org/forum/viewto ... 43#p772843
Interesting context, thanks!

I guess if you have four choices, it makes some kind of sense to include a joke one for customers with a twisted sense of humour. But somehow I doubt that's what happened here...

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brundlefly
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Re: Worst DVD Covers...ever! (Part 4K)

#2119 Post by brundlefly » Tue Feb 27, 2024 2:28 pm

Image

Not a DVD cover, but Mondo-style fake movie poster art you can own for only £60 (plus shipping).

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JSC
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Re: Worst DVD Covers...ever! (Part 4K)

#2120 Post by JSC » Tue Feb 27, 2024 5:56 pm

Ooof... Magritte meets Ken Kesey. And why is the cuckoo pink?

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TechnicolorAcid
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Re: Worst DVD Covers...ever! (Part 4K)

#2121 Post by TechnicolorAcid » Tue Feb 27, 2024 6:21 pm

Image

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brundlefly
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Re: Worst DVD Covers...ever! (Part 4K)

#2122 Post by brundlefly » Tue Feb 27, 2024 6:22 pm

I cannot stop thinking about how this creature might eat. Does it chew its food by shrugging its shoulder? Is there some sort of baleen/krill situation where it traps digestible bits in its nostril hair?

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Worst DVD Covers...ever! (Part 4K)

#2123 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Feb 27, 2024 7:36 pm

Oof, way to ruin the end of the End of Eva

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knives
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Re: Worst DVD Covers...ever! (Part 4K)

#2124 Post by knives » Tue Feb 27, 2024 9:00 pm

That’s also the poster art.

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TechnicolorAcid
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Re: Worst DVD Covers...ever! (Part 4K)

#2125 Post by TechnicolorAcid » Tue Feb 27, 2024 9:18 pm

Also for 80 Pounds you get this blue variant:
Image

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