Thursday, October 28, 2004
Over Protective On the Front Lines
Last year I was completely overjoyed when rare Disney wartime footage finally became available on DVD in the form of On the Front Lines, the War Years. I looked forward to being able to share Education For Death, Victory Through Air Power, and Der Feuhrer`s Face with my students.
The problem is that I couldn`t. I think that there is a slight touch of corporate paranoia going on over at the Mouse House legal department about anything that might even in the slightest be seen a maybe somehow tarnishing the Disney image.
Because somebody sure decided that it was very important to make the DVD user interface almost unusable by ramming disclaimer after disclaimer down everybody`s throats before thinking of letting us watch the treasures that we paid for.
Somebody made sure that we would all know that these films were made during a war and that they make fun of our war time enemies using rascal stereo types. Like the people that buy this DVD wouldn`t know that? I don`t think anybody is going to confuse this with a babysitter video.
Don`t get me wrong. I love Leonard Maltin and respect his writings and great contributions to animation. I just didn`t want to be forced to watch him giving corporate spin doctoring under the guise of introductions over and over and over again.
Did you know that if you dare to try to skip the intro the DVD locks up and then you get to watch the intros all over again?
I wanted to show my class Education For Death, Victory Through Air Power, and Der Feuhrer`s Face. What I got to show them was 3 introductions by Leonard Maltin, a lot of frustration and Education For Death.
Think guys, who are your audience for this product? We are not 5 year olds that are going to be traumatized out by seeing Donald Duck in a swastika cap. We are not going to stop coming to Disneyland because of our reactions to 60 year old propaganda films.
Most of us are mature adults and a fair share of us are educators trying to use your DVD`s to teach students. If you were trying to avoid bad will you sure picked the wrong way to go about it!
larry@agni-animation.com
¶ 11:36 AM
The problem is that I couldn`t. I think that there is a slight touch of corporate paranoia going on over at the Mouse House legal department about anything that might even in the slightest be seen a maybe somehow tarnishing the Disney image.
Because somebody sure decided that it was very important to make the DVD user interface almost unusable by ramming disclaimer after disclaimer down everybody`s throats before thinking of letting us watch the treasures that we paid for.
Somebody made sure that we would all know that these films were made during a war and that they make fun of our war time enemies using rascal stereo types. Like the people that buy this DVD wouldn`t know that? I don`t think anybody is going to confuse this with a babysitter video.
Don`t get me wrong. I love Leonard Maltin and respect his writings and great contributions to animation. I just didn`t want to be forced to watch him giving corporate spin doctoring under the guise of introductions over and over and over again.
Did you know that if you dare to try to skip the intro the DVD locks up and then you get to watch the intros all over again?
I wanted to show my class Education For Death, Victory Through Air Power, and Der Feuhrer`s Face. What I got to show them was 3 introductions by Leonard Maltin, a lot of frustration and Education For Death.
Think guys, who are your audience for this product? We are not 5 year olds that are going to be traumatized out by seeing Donald Duck in a swastika cap. We are not going to stop coming to Disneyland because of our reactions to 60 year old propaganda films.
Most of us are mature adults and a fair share of us are educators trying to use your DVD`s to teach students. If you were trying to avoid bad will you sure picked the wrong way to go about it!
larry@agni-animation.com
¶ 11:36 AM
