New Cover for Dark Shadows Resurrected DVD Set. Same content?

[quentincollins]

While at Wal Mart today I noticed they had a new cover up for the Dark Shadows Resurrected dvd, this one had Barnabas and Josette on the cover. Does anybody know if this one acutally has the extended footage on it? It drives me crazy that my dvd set is edited! I doubt it's anything but a new cover intended to catch the eye of anyone buying Twilight dvds with the same edited episodes, but I live in hope for the series finally getting an uncut release.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Sadly, the content is exactly the same as the original DVD release.    All they did was rework the cover. And it is an improvement. But...

[Taeylor Collins]

....we are still stuck with the day for night shots "fixed!" Idiots!

[quentincollins]

Thta's what I expected, thanks for the info. For what it's worth the cover is an improvement, shame they can't be bothered to improve on the content.

[Gerard]

Sadly, it seems, that the film industry today "responds" to what it thinks will make a buck.  Letter-boxing things that were never letter-boxed is all the rage, while keeping cropped cinema that was letter-boxed is kept cropped, and scenes that are were never meant to be are "high-lighted" and those that should be high-lighted are left in the dark.  Cinema today has been Abercombieandfitched, trying to do what it can to make whatever buck it can make right now.  It's no different than any other industry.  It's all about the almighty dollar right now because it tries to respond what it thinks 19 - 24 year olds with no brains want, as if they have a lot of money to spend.  

Sorry for kvetching.  And sorry to anyone here who is between the ages of 19 and 24.  I know you ain't all like that but they think you are.

Gerard

[Cousin_Barnabas]

Well, the next time that they attempt to release this series, I would appreciate it if they would use one of the VERY DECENT looking 1991 print ads (posters) for the cover.  I don't care for this cover much at all.  In fact, I like it less than the original cover with the snow owl Barnabas.  At least that cover had an awesome spooky scene, albeit it had nothing really to do with Dark Shadows.   

[Mysterious Benefactor]

While at Wal Mart today I noticed they had a new cover up for the Dark Shadows Resurrected dvd, this one had Barnabas and Josette on the cover.

Wait a minute. Even though I read "Barnabas and Josette on the cover," I was thinking of this cover:

And I thought that was an improvement over the first cover:

But you're saying there's now a third cover - one featuring Barnabas and Josette!!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

How wild - I just found it:

Personally, I think that's the best representation of the series yet. And the product specifications do still say the running time is 592 minutes. But the VERY odd thing is that it says the company releasing the DVD is 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. I strongly suspect that's simply a mistake on Walmart's part. But if anyone happens to be in Walmart and comes across the set with this new cover, could you check the back of the box to see that it doesn't say Sony/MGM?

[Cousin_Barnabas]

I don't mind Josette and the house.  Those elements look decent, but Barnabas and the font just look all wrong to me.  And the fancied-up Dracula font wouldn't even be that bad if it weren't for the script below it, causing my brain to have to process three completely different, non-complimentary fonts on one cover.  It's really not that bad of a cover, but it just doesn't do the show justice.  It looks so Twilight/Vampire Diaries-esque, and this series was so much more mature than that.

The posters, in my opinion, give the show the respect it deserves.  But, I guess we shouldn't expect that if the company can't even bother to correct the errors it made in editing the show.  Three releases now and not a single correction...  *sigh*

[verusselle]

On the ones I've seen at Wal-Mart, the Barnabas and Josette artwork is actually just a card insert that is pasted to the front of the second version DVD case and then shrink wrapped to simulate a new cover.  The back of the DVD cover remains the same and the specifications such as manufacturer, running time and aspect ratio are also unchanged.

[Cousin_Barnabas]

Well, that is weird. 

[Taeylor Collins]

Ooh I love that cover!  Goregous! IF I had the extra moola I would buy for that only.

[quentincollins]

I have no doubt the new cover is intended to grab the Twilight/Vampire Diaries fans, I don't see anything wrong with that.  That's a big market, and a lot of those people are going to fall in love with the remake, and some of those fans will be motivated to check out the original series.
Maybe DS mania will hit hard with the Depp remake and we'll get the revival set finally done right, as well as tons of good merchandising, and hopefully the movie will actually be good.

[Gothick]

I love the new cover.  I wish it had been used for the CD.  I hate that shot of Ben Cross that they used for that.

Too bad the DVD content is still the same crap ...

G.

[Darren Gross]

If it says Fox on the back of the disc that would be correct.  Fox releases all MGM owned titles, as part of a deal that came about several years ago.  MGM itself has no home video department, as it were.  It's all farmed out to Fox who makes all decisions regarding content, format, extras, packaging etc.  For a brief period in 2005 Sony owned MGM which is why some will say Sony.  They all should have the MGM logo on there somewhere, though.

Bottom line, though is that all these releases are identical in content.  All the DVD releases of the 91 series were 16x9 1.78 across the board (despite an erroneous note on the UK discs), a decision made in the home video division.  MGM has HD masters for both the correct 4x3 1.33FF and the 16x9 1.78FF, and the 4x3 1.33FF ones are up on hulu if you wish to check them out. 

The expanded versions were all finished on video, as I recall, and would not be of high enough quality to integrate into the newer masters.  I will look into that when I have the chance, as there's a few facts I need to determine.