Here is the petition text I've written. Please, correct any mistake you see, and tell me if you don't agree on any point.
Balto Special-Edition DVD
Balto is an overlooked animated film, a 1995 classic and amazing film for the whole family, which deserves a better treatment on DVD.
It is also a franchise that has a big potential. A franchise which the owners, Universal Pictures, never really made an effort to promote.
Particularly, the current DVD version of the film is very disappointing : no widescreen format, no picture improvement, no deleted scenes, no commentaries, not a single interesting bonus, an underwhelming cover with mistakes on the characters' colors, a documentary mentioned on the cover but which can't be found anywhere in the disk... This dreadful DVD does not give any justice to the greatness of the film.
It is not too late! The growing community of fans strongly think that the best hope for getting Balto more popular would be to release a good Special-Edition DVD, similarly to the ones released by other companies such as Disney, Dreamworks or 20th century Fox. Nowadays, even films less popular than Balto get Special-Edition DVDs. Why does Balto has to be always the one everyone forget?
Please help us by signing this petition! We need to show them that there are enough willing consumers to go and buy a Special Edition of this wonderful film, based on a true story.
This petition is affiliated to the fansite Balto Source :
http://baltosource.timduru.org/balto.html
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Dear Universal,
We've already got in touch with you some months ago with the desire to help the Balto franchise, but nothing has changed. Not a single thing Balto-related has been released since then...
The whole Balto fan community agree on the fact that there is a great need for a new Balto DVD. It hasn't been difficult for us to list many reasons for this :
- Customers will be more interested in buying the sequels if they own the first Balto. So, releasing the first Balto on DVD will boost the sequels sales, too.
- All of the animated classics films now have a special edition DVD, even less popular films- why not Balto?
- Balto has always made good sales on videos, the same would be sure to happen with a new DVD release.
- The current DVD release does not respect the film in any way : the cover is not appealing at all (such a cheap cover can even turn out people by thinking it's not the "true" Balto film), there are no real extras (where are the deleted scenes? the commentaries? things that BOTH kids and adults like...) As a reference, the cover for the VHS versions and the theatrical release was much better.
And the film ratio was transfered into a bad span-and-scan 4/3 format instead of the original theatrical widescreen format, which means a great part of the original image is cut. Also, most of the TV sets sold in the market now are widescreen, and most people don't like watching full screen DVDs on them.
- We've encountered lots of people who want to buy the film, but the current DVD cannot be found in local stores. The only way to find it is by ordering on web shops, which does not seem a good way to sell films to children. How do you expect that people will buy something they can't find? Also, you never released any DVD pack with the Balto films, so releasing Balto 1 as a single shouldn't be a problem.
- Balto is clearly a "sleeper hit" : a film which most people in the world don't know about, but which everyone who has seen it once liked immediately. Balto has never been promoted properly, as a result many people who could be interested in it just don't know about it. If they saw some advertisement for the film (for the occasion of the release of this SE DVD), they would be immediately attracted and would pick it up.
- Special Editions DVDs released for other animated films have always made good to top sales.
- Releasing a DVD costs much less than making a new sequel. Also, this will boost and revive the popularity of the Balto franchise by a lot, and it could bring more opportunities for this franchise in the future.
- Both the fans and "regular" people would be interested in such a DVD, which is not the case when you release a sequel.
- Balto fits very well the current brand of franchises you're currently developing : a simple and clean film for the whole family.
- It is the perfect time to release special edition DVDs : almost everyone own DVD players now, including children.
- All Balto fans are waiting for such a DVD eagerly, and the Balto fan community is growing bigger and bigger...
We would like to suggest this Special Edition DVD to be spanned on 2 discs.
If possible, the first disc should contain the film in its original widescreen format, and audio commentaries from one of the Balto film creators. Of course, there should be subtitles for all the languages included.
The second disc should contains extras : deleted scenes, making of, interviews (Steven Spielberg, Simon Wells, James Horner, the voice actors such as Kevin Bacon...), pictures gallery (paintings, sketches, storyboards...), bloopers, documentaries on the film or the true story, trailers for the two direct-to-video sequels, interesting games like trivia games...
Please consider this as both a suggestion and a very strong will from us. And, the most important : please don't forget Balto!!!
