I just received my copy of The Prestige on DVD. The film was just as enjoyable the second time and I stayed up too late Wednesday night watching it. "Just 30 minutes," I told myself. That didn't work.
But enough about the movie, let's talk about the packaging. Like many DVDs I've bought recently, The Prestige came in a sleeve. A pointless, redundant, wasteful, and superfluous sleeve. Let's take a look at this thing. In both of these pictures, the item on the left is the sleeve and the item on the right is the DVD case:
It is like one of those "Find the Difference" games I used to play in the paper when I was six, only pointless. Seriously, what is the point? The packaging is almost identical and the only material addition to the sleeve is a sticker advertising an in depth interview with the director. Uhh...thanks.
Another befuddling choice in the packing is something I have seen more an more on DVD cases - fail safe claps:
Safety claps are a good idea. I'm very happy that designers have seen fit to add safety clasps to many things. Prescription medicine, cigarette lighters, table saws, handguns, and even expensive watches all benefit from solid implementations. But DVD cases? Is there a rash of DVD cases popping open that I'm not aware of?
Of course I shouldn't judge; there may be someone reading this right now thinking, "Eureka! My days of being plagued by DVD cases spontaneously popping open are over." Not so fast - this has been patented.
That's right, US Patent #6,719,133 says you need to back the fuck off this gold mine. The seven (!) guys that "invented" the Security Storage Container assigned it to the Panasonic Disc Manufacturing Corporation of America. So if you want to use this method to put an end to DVDs dangerously flying all over your home and viciously slicing up your loved ones, you'll need to talk to them. Sorry.
Speical to John: This is number 31. You could respond but it appears you don't even pay your bills.
<voice value="governator">
You've been disintermediated
</voice>
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