The Region 1 Pokemon DVDs are terrible and yet nobody cares

[Kirben]

It isn't just the Region 1 DVD releases from Viz Media, the English version of Pokemon lacks good DVD releases in general. The DVD releases by Beyond Home Entertainment (formerly Magna Pacific) in Australia aren't much better overall.

The DVD releases in Australia have many issues:
The initial DVD release of Pokemon season 1 (Super Wallet) was missing 4 episodes.
The DVD releases of older Pokemon seasons suffer video quality issues due to too much compression. It is worse in the action scenes, like the first image shown in comparisons above.
The DVD releases of Pokemon movies are just as bare bones, lack English SDH subtitles and still could have much better video quality.
The DVD releases for Pokemon DP: Galactic Battles, Pokemon DP: Sinnoh League Victors were cropped, even though produced for widescreen.
We gets all sorts of strange packaging which doesn't protect discs, won't last long term, and can be difficult to actually use.

The only real advantages are we get the Pokemon movies in widescreen and sooner in Australia, along with a few extra Pokemon titles (Pokemon Chronicles, Pokemon Origins) been released.

Only the Blu-Ray releases of the Pokemon movies in Australia actually offered good video quality, in my opinion. But Beyond Home Entertainment dropped the Blu-Ray releases of Pokemon movies, because they were not selling well enough. Beyond Home Entertainment have a really nasty habit of dropping any cartoon series they think isn't selling well enough, they have dropped so many cartoon series over the years, and are even worse than Viz Media in that way.

Beyond Home Entertainment frequently re-releases the Pokemon series on DVD in various new packaging, but they never actually change the content on the discs. The early seasons are still using the old discs originally released by Magna Pacific, with no attempts to improve the video quality at all. Beyond Home Entertainment and Viz Media are just as bad in that way, with Viz Media re-using older discs for their re-releases of the Indigo league on DVD too.

I don't think there is any hope for better releases of the Pokemon movies or series, unless other companies take over the English rights, which is very unlikely to happen.

 

[Yoshi1001]

Only the Blu-Ray releases of the Pokemon movies in Australia actually offered good video quality, in my opinion. But Beyond Home Entertainment dropped the Blu-Ray releases of Pokemon movies, because they were not selling well enough.

To be fair, they may have overextended themselves on the Keldeo movie-weren't there supposed to be 2 or 3 editions of that? I only remember ever seeing the base one for sale on eBay, but I think there was supposed to have one that included a poster.

 

[Kirben]

Only the Blu-Ray releases of the Pokemon movies in Australia actually offered good video quality, in my opinion. But Beyond Home Entertainment dropped the Blu-Ray releases of Pokemon movies, because they were not selling well enough.

To be fair, they may have overextended themselves on the Keldeo movie-weren't there supposed to be 2 or 3 editions of that? I only remember ever seeing the base one for sale on eBay, but I think there was supposed to have one that included a poster.

No, those type of bonuses are very common for DVD releases for children, and are often exclusive to specific stores. Beyond Home Entertainment often offer unique packaging (digipak) for the initial releases too, switching to standard cases when the initial stock has sold out.

I think the real problem was the Blu-Ray releases were usually not stocked by any of the major department stores, the only chance was JB Hi-Fi or ordering online.

 

[Rex Kamex]

One of my favorite English Pokemon DVD releases was that of Pokemon 4Ever. English and Japanese trailer, a commentary (while I didn't like all of 4Kids dub edits practices, I liked hearing what they had to say. Honestly, I still wish to hear stuff from 4Kids workers who edited their One Piece dub...), a Japanese trailer of the Lati@s movie, and more.

I think having movies in widescreen and having the colors look normal (that is, without oversaturated colors, or a blue tint on the picture that makes things somewhat darker) are really basic things that should be expected of DVD releases.

Exactly.

"Cropped to 4:3" was a stupid practice in the first place but it makes even less sense now because everybody has widescreen TVs. That crappy video transfer of the second movie that filled up your old Clinton-era TV set has black bars on both sides of the screen on your brand new HD TV. It's not "fullscreen" anymore.

I was fine with that 4:3 thing being an option for movies (when they were released all those years ago), but to have had that as an only choice meant that the one choice you'd have doesn't allow you to see the whole picture.

But yeah, if certain movies are still only available in 4:3 "full-screen", and you have a widescreen TV.... yeah, that's a good point.

I think you're absolutely right here.

There are plenty of Dragon Ball Z fans, for example, who buy the DVDs and Blu-rays and never touch the Japanese language track. They buy it for the English dub. Other fans buy those same discs and never touch the English language track. They buy it for the Japanese version. Some fans like to watch both. They have a choice.

I'm not stupid enough to think that there will ever be a day when we'll get the Japanese version of Pocket Monsters on DVD in the U.S. It absolutely should happen, and there's no good reason that it couldn't, but it won't. It's a problem that will never get fixed.

The video quality and the aspect ratio and the missing episodes, on the other hand, are things that can be fixed.

I think more Western fans care more about being close to the Japanese version when it comes to new TV dub episodes and making sure that releases are as cheap as possible. I don't know how many fans prefer that, especially compared to the whole Western fandom, but that's my theory. Their right, but... =/

I do wish more recent releases had more things on them besides episodes. The recent boxsets of the original Kanto saga- if any Pokemon DVDs released recently could've used special features, these would've been it. This is the saga that not only kids can watch, but people who were kids who watch the episodes when they premiered and now are in their twenties.

Commentaries, behind the scenes things, video material talking about Pokemon's origins (Japanese and American) and how the game series was adapted into a TV series, anything like that.

Some think this is the best saga of Ash's journey. Some think this is the only good saga of Ash's journey. So for this not to have special features...

 

[Yoshi1001]

I do wish more recent releases had more things on them besides episodes. The recent boxsets of the original Kanto saga- if any Pokemon DVDs released recently could've used special features, these would've been it. This is the saga that not only kids can watch, but people who were kids who watch the episodes when they premiered and now are in their twenties.

Commentaries, behind the scenes things, video material talking about Pokemon's origins (Japanese and American) and how the game series was adapted into a TV series, anything like that.

Some think this is the best saga of Ash's journey. Some think this is the only good saga of Ash's journey. So for this not to have special features...

Part of the problem, undoubtedly, is that there are different people involved with the show now than there were then. At the very least I can't imagine it helps.

To give a more constructive comment, one thing I've tried (which admittedly is pretty ambitious, and certainly not for everyone) is the "create your own special features" route. I'd like to see a special feature on the pop soundtrack to Pokemon: The First Movie (it was double platinum, after all). A Blu-Ray where they could do something like that doesn't appear to be forthcoming, so I've decided to cover the album myself by finding people who worked on the songs and try to get interviews. I've gotten a fair number of "no response"s and dead ends, but I have been able to eke out some knowledge. It's similar with what the folks at smbmovie.com have done with the 1993 Mario movie, getting interviews with the cast and crew to shed more light on the work.

 

[Charmelizard]

One of my favorite English Pokemon DVD releases was that of Pokemon 4Ever. English and Japanese trailer, a commentary (while I didn't like all of 4Kids dub edits practices, I liked hearing what they had to say. Honestly, I still wish to hear stuff from 4Kids workers who edited their One Piece dub...), a Japanese trailer of the Lati@s movie, and more.

I think having movies in widescreen and having the colors look normal (that is, without oversaturated colors, or a blue tint on the picture that makes things somewhat darker) are really basic things that should be expected of DVD releases.

Exactly.

"Cropped to 4:3" was a stupid practice in the first place but it makes even less sense now because everybody has widescreen TVs. That crappy video transfer of the second movie that filled up your old Clinton-era TV set has black bars on both sides of the screen on your brand new HD TV. It's not "fullscreen" anymore.

I was fine with that 4:3 thing being an option for movies (when they were released all those years ago), but to have had that as an only choice meant that the one choice you'd have doesn't allow you to see the whole picture.

But yeah, if certain movies are still only available in 4:3 "full-screen", and you have a widescreen TV.... yeah, that's a good point.

I feel the same way about the DVDs for Mewtwo Strikes Back and Spell of the Unown, commentary-wise. The commentaries on them were actually really interesting to listen to, and I liked hearing what the 4Kids guys had to say (except for some of the jokes they made on the MSB commentary). The commentary for Celebi, while interesting, just didn't catch me as much (It was nice hearing the voice actors, though).

Back when I first got the "First Three Movies" DVD set, I didn't really care whether I was watching in Widescreen or not. Now, if fullscreen's the only option, I'll settle, but I would of course prefer a widescreen version of the first three films, and the Lucario movie (I have 4-7 on Blu-ray).

 

[Dogasu]

Back when I first got the "First Three Movies" DVD set, I didn't really care whether I was watching in Widescreen or not. Now, if fullscreen's the only option, I'll settle, but I would of course prefer a widescreen version of the first three films, and the Lucario movie (I have 4-7 on Blu-ray).

At the very least you should have the option to choose between "cropped to 4:3" and "uncropped." The fact that we don't have that, in the year 2014, is completely unacceptable.

 

[Yoshi1001]

To give credit where credit is due, however, when movies 2 & 3 were on iTunes, they were in 480p widescreen (buy or rent), and you could rent them in HD (at the time, WB didn't sell HD versions of their movies on iTunes-they only rented them).

 

[Kirben]

Looking over English releases of the Pokemon movies, and many still lack decent releases.

The best options at the moment are:
Pokémon: The First Movie - DVD release in Japan for widescreen, and the complete movie.
Pokémon: The Movie 2000 - DVD release in Japan for widescreen, and Yadoking's Day short.
Pokémon 3: The Movie - DVD release in Japan for widescreen, on a single sided disc.
Pokémon 4Ever - No decent DVD release, DVD release in Australia is widescreen but lack shorts, initial DVD release in USA is cropped (and later DVD releases lack the short too).
- Did a widescreen release in Canada actually exist? the only Canadian DVD release I can find is cropped, judging by back cover art.
Pokémon Heroes: Latios and Latias - Blu-Ray in the USA offers best quality, but still suffers from blue tint
Jirachi Wish Maker - Blu-Ray in the USA offers best quality
Destiny Deoxys - Blu-Ray in the USA offers best quality
Lucario and the Mystery of Mew - DVD release in Australia offers widescreen
Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea - DVD release in the USA offers the Pikachu's Island Adventure short.
The Rise of Darkrai - DVD release in the USA offers English SDH subtitles
Giratina and the Sky Warrior - DVD release in the USA offers English SDH subtitles
Arceus and the Jewel of Life - Blu-Ray release in Australia for best quality
Zoroark: Master of Illusions - Blu-Ray release in Australia for best quality
Victini and the Black Hero: Zekrom / Black—Victini and Reshiram - Blu-Ray release in Australia for best quality
Kyurem vs. the Sword of Justice - Blu-Ray release in Australia for best quality
Genesect And The Legend - DVD release in the USA offers English SDH subtitles

The main problem with the DVD releases in the USA is the cropping of older movies, while the Blu-Ray/DVD releases in Australia always lacks English SDH subtitles and any extras (especially the shorts) at all.

The other Blu-Ray and DVD releases from Japan would be much better, if only English subtitle scripts were available to use with them.

 

[ThePokeman92]

While we're on the subject of DVDs, I want my US Johto box set Viz! I'm sick of waiting...My Johto VHS tapes are all but worn out and the resolution sucks, plus I was only able to find about half of them. They have all the episodes, I know they do since they rotate it on Pokemon TV, why not just release it already?

 

[Charmelizard]

At the very least you should have the option to choose between "cropped to 4:3" and "uncropped." The fact that we don't have that, in the year 2014, is completely unacceptable.

I think that in some cases, the fullscreen version is the only print available to master the DVDs, not regarding the first three and eighth movies, but lots of older films based on unrelated cartoons that were popular at the time and even more beforehand. You said elsewhere that even though the widescreen version of MSB does exist (and is becoming easier to find now), WB didn't necessarily have access to it when they held the rights.

 

[Moe]

That said, whoever has the rights now was able to put together the dub with the remastered vision to air it on Cartoon Network at the start of the year. Yet this still hasn't resulted in a new release on disc or even digitally.

 

[Charmelizard]

That said, whoever has the rights now was able to put together the dub with the remastered vision to air it on Cartoon Network at the start of the year. Yet this still hasn't resulted in a new release on disc or even digitally.

I know, right!? On a lesser note, I hope that if that version does eventually come out, the bits that were cut out for commercials get edited back in. When TPCi edits the newer films for CN and they release them on DVD, do whatever cuts that are made (not including sped-up credits) remain cut? Dumb question, I know, but I stopped watching the show regularly after the voice actors changed.

 

[Yoshi1001]

That said, whoever has the rights now was able to put together the dub with the remastered vision to air it on Cartoon Network at the start of the year. Yet this still hasn't resulted in a new release on disc or even digitally.

That must have been a one-time deal for getting it out there. Hopefully something comes of it eventually, but for now it looks like we're in for a wait.

 

[Yash]

Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea - No decent DVD release, DVD release in Australia is widescreen but lacks short, and DVD release in USA is cropped.

Is this true? I thought all of TPCI's movies were uncropped.

 

[Kirben]

Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea - No decent DVD release, DVD release in Australia is widescreen but lacks short, and DVD release in USA is cropped.

Is this true? I thought all of TPCI's movies were uncropped.

No, your are right, the review I used for reference (at DVD Talk) listed the incorrect aspect ratio for Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea. I will update my earlier message.

 

[Dogasu]

There really isn't any reason why Viz couldn't get better masters of the movies. They just won't because why bother? It's not like even the hardcore Pokemon fans even care about the DVD releases.

Remember when, at the very beginning of this thread, I asked this:

Show of hands: how many people here actually buy the DVDs as they come out?

So far nobody's said that they do. DVDs posted a few screenshots from the Season 14 DVD but does anyone else buy them as they come out? Is watching it on TV good enough?

I don't have the sales data for any of the DVD releases but I can't imagine they do much better than "just enough to keep themselves from getting canceled."

 

[Rex Kamex]

I'm sure it's a cycle.

TPCI/VIZ don't put this stuff on new Pokemon DVD releases --> not many people bother buying Pokemon DVDs --> TPCI/VIZ don't put this stuff on new Pokemon DVD releases --> not many people bother buying Pokemon DVDs --> TPCI/VIZ don't put this stuff on new Pokemon DVD releases --> etc.

I do wish more recent releases had more things on them besides episodes. The recent boxsets of the original Kanto saga- if any Pokemon DVDs released recently could've used special features, these would've been it. This is the saga that not only kids can watch, but people who were kids who watch the episodes when they premiered and now are in their twenties.

Commentaries, behind the scenes things, video material talking about Pokemon's origins (Japanese and American) and how the game series was adapted into a TV series, anything like that.

Some think this is the best saga of Ash's journey. Some think this is the only good saga of Ash's journey. So for this not to have special features...

Part of the problem, undoubtedly, is that there are different people involved with the show now than there were then. At the very least I can't imagine it helps.

I wouldn't be surprised if this was an issue. Although what I wonder is, was this a case of them trying to get features like this on these Kanto DVD boxsets but failing? Or was this a case of them not really trying at all? I have the feeling it's a case of them not really trying at all (based on other recent DVDs for Pokemon not really having anything, as far as I know, beyond the episodes/movies).

One thing that the DVDs could do to help make them worth buying is take a page out of FUNimation's book and provide two English dub audio tracks: one with the made-for-TV music and a second one with the Japanese score untouched. It'd be a win-win.

I'd like to entertain this idea, but... how would this happen? Would the DVDs say, "including the original Japanese soundtrack?" Or should they say, "including an alternate soundtrack" or something else?

They don't seem interested in currently mentioning anything that suggest these movies/episodes are from Japan (besides the credits). But hey, maybe that's something Pokemon DVDs should go back to doing? (It is nearly 2015...)

Rereleasing Pokemon: the First Movie but including the high definition, widescreen version of the movie (which I assume would include the scenes Cartoon Network cut out), and the alternate, original soundtrack (and the extra features the original release had) would be cool in my book. Maybe this is something people can ask VIZ/TPCI about.

Also, what episodes/movies would include the original soundtrack- episodes/movies that have cut scenes? Episodes that have Japanese songs playing in the background? I think the idea of having the original soundtrack and the current TV dub soundtrack should be explored (dubbers wouldn't be discouraged from changing music, keeping them happy), but...

 

[Dogasu]

TPCI/VIZ don't put this stuff on new Pokemon DVD releases --> not many people bother buying Pokemon DVDs --> TPCI/VIZ don't put this stuff on new Pokemon DVD releases --> not many people bother buying Pokemon DVDs --> TPCI/VIZ don't put this stuff on new Pokemon DVD releases --> etc.

Oh, I don't doubt that's true at all. Though in my opinion it's less the fans "we won't buy these DVDs because they're not good enough!" and more "we won't buy these DVDs because we can't be bothered and we don't want to spend the money and also watching it on TV / the Internet is good enough."

If the DVDs suddenly became a whole lot better would more people start buying them?

Part of the problem, undoubtedly, is that there are different people involved with the show now than there were then. At the very least I can't imagine it helps.

At the same time, though, these "different people" have been working on the show for more than half its lifetime at this point. There's no reason a re-release of the Battle Frontier season, for example, couldn't feature the voice actors looking back on how it was dubbing the show back then and comparing it to how things are now. Or why any of the movie DVDs from Manaphy onward couldn't feature a similar sort of thing.

I'd like to entertain this idea, but... how would this happen? Would the DVDs say, "including the original Japanese soundtrack?" Or should they say, "including an alternate soundtrack" or something else?

They don't seem interested in currently mentioning anything that suggest these movies/episodes are from Japan (besides the credits). But hey, maybe that's something Pokemon DVDs should go back to doing? (It is nearly 2015...)

Yeah, that's what they'd have to do. "Includes English voice track with original Japanese music (Dolby 5.1) and English voice track with TV broadcast music (Dolby 2.0)." Something like that.

Rereleasing Pokemon: the First Movie but including the high definition,

DVDs, by definition, cannot do high definition. Viz would probably have to have their contracts revised to allow them to release the movie on Blu-ray.

But before all that, Viz would have to get the rights to distribute Mewtwo Strikes Back in the first place. It's not impossible - other companies have overcome similar legal obstacles before - but it would require them to actually make the effort.

widescreen version of the movie (which I assume would include the scenes Cartoon Network cut out), and the alternate, original soundtrack (and the extra features the original release had) would be cool in my book. Maybe this is something people can ask VIZ/TPCI about.

A commentary from the still alive Philip Bartlett would be cool, too.

Also, what episodes/movies would include the original soundtrack- episodes/movies that have cut scenes?

Start with the movies as a way to help differentiate them from the TV episodes (that goes for including the Japanese audio track as well). Once they get the hang of doing those then start re-releasing the current seasons of the TV series that way as well. If those do well then go back and start doing the older seasons.

 

[Charmelizard]

Rereleasing Pokemon: the First Movie but including the high definition, widescreen version of the movie (which I assume would include the scenes Cartoon Network cut out), and the alternate, original soundtrack (and the extra features the original release had) would be cool in my book. Maybe this is something people can ask VIZ/TPCI about.

This is something I can agree with. For me it would include everything you mentioned, the HD (though downscaled) transfer, the deleted scenes, all of the bonus features, although I would do one thing differently. I would redo the opening credits so they match the font of the credits as they appeared in the movie previously. The remastered version retyped the credits in the same font that TPCi uses for the series opening credits, while the original credits were typed in an MS font.

This probably isn't a big deal, but it works with consistency. To compare, I recently got the Blu-ray of Princess Mononoke. Disney basically did what they do for all their Ghibli releases, and by extension, what TPCi did with the remastered version of the first movie. The opening title screen and the end credits were all redone digitally (no telecine wobble, no shaky end credits, etc.). However, where this differs is that the PM end credits were still in the same font as they were in the previous releases. The MSB opening credits differ, in that in the original release, they were that MS font, while the remastered credits were in the same blockish font used for the TPCi-intro credits. Again, this is not a huge deal, but it kind of sticks out when you are aware of previous editions.