Editorial - Warner Home Video and the Ever Changing Logos

As another of these topics that sit in the wastelands of my head waiting to bear fruit and escape to a place beyond that vermin on machines, this editorial is not aimed at the studio in question, but a particular trend of theirs.

Which is replacing their older logos with the newer one; I know what you’re thinking straight away: “why is it such a big deal?” well I’ll tell you why punk, it’s a practice I find totally despicable as well as condescending and insulting to younger film fans like myself who were not even born when some of these films were made.

And there are two examples I would like to use for this editorial: Mad Max 2 and Christmas Vacation, now Mad Max 2 the DVD version opened with the original logo the studio used at that time but specially modified to fit within the prologue of the film which was in 4:3 window box before opening the film to widescreen, for the Blu-Ray restoration, this logo was replaced with the modern day logo used by the studio and already in widescreen, which in my eyes, broke the illusion and feel that director George Miller wanted to create with the opening of the film.

The next example: Christmas Vacation, once the still frame Warner Communications logo came up, the song started almost immediately after it, again it creates a mood and feel intended by the filmmakers but once again, a modern day logo takes it place and like in Mad Max 2, the mood and feel is broken because of it.

Now this won’t be all that bad as the recently released Dirty Harry collection is said to contain the original logos from the time of their release, as I only own the original Dirty Harry which does contain the original logo, I sincerely hope that it’s a step in the right direction for the studio.

In closing, this is not an attack on Warner Home Video itself, as the company has produced some great releases for its vintage films, its just one practice of theirs that I find very insulting to younger film fans like myself and also breaks a mood and feel that the filmmakers have in mind, hopefully starting with the Dirty Harry collection, this trend will see its way out but as a wise man once said: Only time will tell.