On Sept. 17, 2001 Europeans were treated to something the citizens of the United States may never be treated to - a widescreen release of "The Karate Kid" on DVD, featuring Academy-Award nominee Noriyuka "Pat" Morita. In fact, the Europeans (recipients of the Region 2 label) not only got the original "Karate Kid" in widescreen, but it was also packaged as a box set with its two sequels. Score one for the Euro.
Equally conspicuous as the absence of "Karate Kid" in the widescreen format in the U.S. is the existence of the latter two thirds of the trilogy in anamorphic widescreen. The marketing wizards at Columbia Pictures managed to release two undeniably inferior karate-made-easy movies in widescreen, while neglecting the original masterpiece.
In addition to being shown the wildly inferior full-screen edition, owners of the original Columbia Pictures "Karate Kid" DVD are treated to not-so special features. Simply a trailer for each "Karate Kid" movie is hardly enough, even when coupled with the standard scene selection (which is best to get to the Bananarama "Cruel Summer"-bike-to-school montage).
No deleted scenes, no commentary, nothing. Just imagine the possibilities of what could be on a nice double disc set. Scratch that, three disc set. It would have been great to hear William Zabka (Johnny Lawrence) and the rest of the Cobra Kai crew give a little insightful commentary during the final fight sequence. Or hear joint audio commentary from Ralph Macchio and Elizabeth Shue (although Shue may be too big for the "Karate Kid" britches now) during the Golf 'N Stuff montage. These are things Columbia Pictures certainly did not take into account when they pedaled their mediocre full-screen DVD release in the United States.
Everyone in the world wants to see more Dutch (Chad McQueen, son of Steve McQueen) versus Daniel, after all, Dutch was one of few actual martial artists in "The Karate Kid."
Unfortunately, the debauchery of DVD releases is not limited to the best American martial arts film ever made. In an industry driven by the dollar, dozens of DVD companies have turned to the release of DVDs with anemic features in order to cut down on those pesky production costs.
Cameron Crowe's semi-autobiographical-rockumentary flick "Almost Famous" saw an extremely thin first DVD hit shelves. Subsequently, Dreamworks announced a special edition "Untitled" cut of the movie and a host of special features even before the first one was released. This sad trend forces movie aficionados to shell out their hard earned cash not once, but twice.
"The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" is a DVD release with a similar, but much improved story than the "Untitled" version of "Almost Famous." The initial "Lord of the Rings" DVD was announced simultaneously with the special edition DVD. The marketing wizards decided to pack the initial "Lord of the Rings" DVD with extras, several featurettes, a mouth-watering "Two Towers" teaser and even a preview of their upcoming special edition version of the fantasy film. Where the genius comes in, is that the initial two-disc release will be the only DVD to offer the theatrical release. Instead of a special edition featuring just a slew of extras, like so many DVDs do, the four-disc "Lord of the Rings" will feature an extended cut of the film (30 minutes more) along with completely new DVD features.
Even worse are those DVDs that initially release a bare bones edition, only to wait years for a special edition that is still lacking. The special edition of Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs" is one such recent disappointment. Fans eagerly awaited the arrival of Tarantino's debut film in a feature laden set, but were instead given worthless extras with unflattering picture quality. Who knows how long it will be until the "Reservoir Dogs: Super deluxe special edition DVD" will be released.
The DVD industry grows everyday with greater sales and profit margins. What started off as a medium for film buffs and technophiles has spawned into a media for the masses, forgetting the customers who helped the technology get off the ground. More and more companies are ditching the preferred widescreen format in favor of fullscreen, and many big retailers add fuel the fire by not even carrying the widescreen editions. It is always sad when a business once dedicated to its customers changes its products for the worse in favor of the all mighty dollar.