The back of the Fox Video VHS Box

I pulled out my old widescreen boxset the other day, its the one with the hologram picture. Anyway, I was reading the back of the box for ANH and somethings just hit me as odd or funny.
It says

What? Empire take over? Is The Emperor, Vader and Tarkin trying to take over the Empire? I thought they already took power and started the Empire. They are the Empire.

Again..What?? Restore justice in the Empire? The EMPIRE it's self is evil. Who wrote this? It's like they believe Vader and company are trying to take over the Empire. This is the back of the VHS box. You think they would do a better job.

 

Talk about nostalgia. I used to scratch my head over this too.

No idea how they mucked up the description so badly.

 

What year was this boxset from?

 

Sounds like it was translated from Engrish.

 

Oh man, i remember this! I have this VHS too! I think it's the 1989=1990 trilogy boxset.

It used to confuse the hell out of me when I was young!

Just goes to show that many people never thought about, or payed too much attention to the plot and story of Star Wars. It was more of a summer blockbuster special effects action fest, sadly, we know SW is much much more.

 

I have that text on the VHS rental edition 1982(U.K)and the first sell through edition.

 

That's pretty bad... I wonder how some of the higher ups would let that slide.

They totally got the roles switched, like Vader and the stormtroopers are the rebels are something. Star wars in Bizzaro world.

 

speaking of odd speeches about the plot of the movies on the back of the old VHS tape boxes... Ever seen the old version of Halloween 5 on VHS? The text was making a big deal about Myers being unmasked for the first time

 

This was also on the trailer and all the TV spots back during the release. It is why I went to see it. And he was unmasked in a dark room for about 3seconds

 

Probably back before Lucasfilm had as much control over the marketing, etc. and FOX/CBS had their own departments writing that sort of copy. They would be less familiar with the nuances of the story and characters.

 

I just looked at my copies and saw this for the first time! Nice observation & thanks for a good laugh, FirstStarWars!

BTW, the Halloween 5 thing was so dumb, considering that you see Myers' face for just as long in the original film!

Peace out, everyone!

 

lol it says it on mine too^_^, i have so many copy's of the o.t. on vhs,i think i have them all and it sez it on two diffrent releases of a new hope.

 

In fact I still have some of movies from the 80s in their old Fox/CBS VHS boxes. The text summaries of the movies are interesting to read now and then. Platoon's old box is pretty accurate with the plot of the movie I guess.

I just cant stand the text summary on the old Halloween 5 movie box.

Anyone else know of other old movies that have some funny and interesting text summaries on the back of the covers?

 

Well, I have another Star Wars cover anecdote. On the back of the Swedish edition of TPM it says that it comes with two CD's. Guess us Swedes were a little late to catch up with the technology.
Oh, and then it is nice enough to reveal that Anakin is the future Darth Vader, effectively neutralising any need to watch it (well, almost).

 

It was revealed in ROTJ(1983) that Vader's original name was Anakin. I don't see why Anakin's future would be considered a mystery during TPM.

 

I guess it's for the 1-6 watchers and SW virgins who want to see Anakin become Vader without actually knowing it's going to happen.

What a crazy way to watch SW.

 

1980

 

If you think that's bad, you should see some of the atrocious descriptions that Kenner used to put on the Star Wars toys back in the day. Do a search for Debo's Christmas memories thread. He found pictures and descriptions of toys that I forgot even existed! Some of the descriptions were clearly written by people who had no clue what the movies were about!

 

Man I still love the old crappy Fox VHS box covers for movies like Star Wars and horror flicks like Halloween 5.

I still have the original VHS tape of Halloween 5 and the text summary written by whoever overhyped the unmasking of Micheal Myers.

 

Yeah, mistakes were fairly common back in the old days.
Spelling errors were also pretty funny... such as:

The back of one of the old MGM/UA VHS boxes for "Ewoks: The Battle for Endor" says: "After taking on the infamous Darth Vador, the Ewoks have returned..."

And on the box of one of the VHS versions of "Conan the Barbarian" it calls James Earl Jones's character "Thulsa Boom"! (Instead of Thulsa Doom).

 

Mistakes are not uncommon on the backs of VHS boxes. Sometimes they even misspell the names badly.