The Phantom Menace UK DVD

My Phantom Menace DVD came from the UK, it came in a clear plastic DVD case with pictures on the opposite side of the cover insert. So when you open it up instead of seeing just the black plastic under and around your discs, you see the pictures from the back side of the insert.

The US never had any release like this, all three movies ony ever came packaged in the black cases. When The Phantom Menace first came out on DVD, I noticed some shops around England had it with a black case, and some had it with the transparent ones. I have been too England a few times since the other two films have been out on DVD, but I have never been bothered to step into any DVD stores to see what packaging they had.

So, I was just curious if anyone from the UK could tell me if the other two films were also released with transparent packaging, or if TPM was the only one. It is actually really cool looking. Doesn't even cause me any trouble with the fact that it can't play on my region 1 player, since I never care to watch it anyway :)

yeh, my UK AOTC & ROTS both came in the transparent case but our AOTC had the headbutting scene removed for some stupid reason

Oh yeah, I remember downloading the trailers and adds for it, and the UK version of the Jango Fett TV spot had the headbutt removed. My Goldeneye (James Bond) DVD is also a region 2, and at the end of the movie there is a fist fight that originally had a few headbutt in it that were removed. On the commentary track for Goldeneye the director actually mentioned how they had to be cut out for the European release, because a few countries had strict rules regarding headbutts, and the film would have had to jump up a rating had they left them in. So that also explains why AOTC had to have the headbutt removed. I guess in America we are more tolerant of violence, but less tolerant of sexual things. Funny stuff.

Were any of the OT movies release in clear cases? Are many other movies released in clear cases over there? Or is it pretty uncommon. In the states movies typically all come in the black cases, but on some rare occasions they will do something different to make them stand out. For example, Terminator 2 had a release that came in a metal slip case, the Lord of the Rings DVDs each came in a different colored DVD case instead of the standard black DVD case (FOTR green; TT red; ROTK blue), and many kid's movies (especially Disney) tend to be given white cases.

yeh, the 2004 OT DVD set had clear cases too so you could see the indside artwork but the 2006 set with the GOUT had black cases. It varies actually with releases over here. Some are clear and others are back or coloured.

adywan said:

yeh, my UK AOTC & ROTS both came in the transparent case but our AOTC had the headbutting scene removed for some stupid reason

Wasn't that scene back in the film when they showed it on Sky Movies?

HotRod said:

Wasn't that scene back in the film when they showed it on Sky Movies?

Yes it was.

adywan said:

HotRod said:

Wasn't that scene back in the film when they showed it on Sky Movies?

Yes it was.

Well, thats good. Congradulations guys! Welcome to the twenty first century, where violence is the answer and head butts are allowed on television. Might even get legalized firearms one day, you never know. ;)

I actually bought the Region 4 GOUT (took advantage of a glitch with CD WOW's site that let me order the DVDs with a massive discount). These discs come in clear cases, it's just a shame about the huge "PG" rating obscuring the cover artwork.

DVDs in clear cases are pretty common over here, and kids DVDs quite often come in yellow, blue or white. All Xbox games are in green cases, and Wii games have white cases.

Will stop now before you all slip into a coma. :)

Yeah, the large rating symbol on the front AND spine is annoying. But I guess if you are used to it, and all disc have it, it wouldn't be that bad...

Ah that's the Australian Ofiice of Film and Literature Classification for you.

Those huge colour coded ratings things were only implemented in around 2005. Pretty much around the time I stopped buying R4 dvds and only buy R1 or R2 dvds online.

Many collectors were not pleased with it as you have noticed it screws with the aesthetic of the cover art. Nor does it match the rest of ones collection. But what can you do it's the governemnt. They refuse to implement an 18+ video game rating, they're not going to worry about making dvds ugly.

In Germany some DVDs come in clear cases, too.

Disney releases tend to be in a beautiful blue Case. Aristocats has even a "Disney DVD" Symbol in the plastik of the case...

Over the Hedge came in an orange Case, some releases of Shrek came in a.. ogrish green Case...

Poorly that often Clear Cases are used to put some infos about other DVD releases into the Case, so there are no cool pictures, but some unrelevant DVDs info...

Regarding Classification Logo:

Since Auguts, i think, in German there will be huge rating logos on the Cover.. even bigger than the Australian.