Of the Sith. On DVD.

Naturally, I was there bright and early to buy a copy today. I’ve since watched the film again and most of the extra materials.

The movie is awesome. The picture quality is awesome. The sound is awesome. The documentaries are awesome.

You know what’s not awesome though? This.

What in the hell is this for?

You know, I’ve kept my mouth shut about this issue for too bloody long, but this… this is the last straw. Over the past few years, the big movie studios have taken to releasing their films on DVD in Canada with different covers then in the US, featuring French text. They didn’t use to do this, and I have no idea what brought about this change, but I’m sick of it. Some times the French just adds clutter and looks ugly. Some times it’s just redundant. But what ticks me off the most about it with this particular situation is that none of the other Star Wars DVDs have any French on their packaging at all. Now the spines don’t line up and there’s this one entry in the series that’s going to look like the odd one out on the shelf.

I care about this sort of thing. Maybe some people don’t, but I do. I’m actively aware of things like graphic design and composition. I buy a lot of DVDs and I take great pains in maintaining the condition of their packaging for display purposes. I want the DVDs I buy to have attractively designed covers, on the front and on the spine. I don’t want French text on my DVD covers. I don’t need it. It just looks bad. And it especially looks bad here, when I want to have all the films in a series lined up in a row.

I could understand if this were this bilingual cover was only released in Quebec and other areas of the country where French is the predominant language. I’d be fine with there being an option to display an English or French design via a reversible cover. But no, they have to be “politically correct” and be all inclusive at the expense of good design. Bah.

Seriously, if this DVD did not have any French on the cover, would any French speaking person living in Canada pick up a copy and say “What is this?” Well, obviously not, they’d say that in French, but you understand my point. Would they really not know what they were looking at? It’s freaking Star Wars! How could you not know what you were getting into? Is this extraneous French text really necessary? Is my life, and the lives of all Canadians, that much more enriched knowing that “Revenge of the Sith” is “La Revanche Des Sith“?

I say NO!

I am taking up arms over this issue. I will be writing to 20th Century Fox, Lucasfilm, or whoever else I need to yell at, in order to obtain that which I desire. I will kindly request to be sent a replacement cover featuring the English-only design, and suggest that future DVD releases feature a reversible English/French or English/Bilingual cover.I urge that all other Canadian DVD collectors do the same. Together, we can effect change, so that both English and French speaking DVD buyers can proudly display their collections without being horribly embarrassed.

I will have my Revenge.

Sayonara.