This popped up around April Fool’s Day and while I picked it up as an obvious trick, I have to really applaud the hard work put in here. Someone spent a lot of time creating an 80s-style commercial for a “Rogue One VHS” and included period-appropriate type, packaging, and even put in special effects that mimic the problems that an old or overplayed tape would have.
Even with all the filters and software we have today, this still took time and it shows real commitment to the process.
It made me think, though, that Disney really should actually produce a VHS version of the movie, as a collectible. I don’t know if there are any places doing VHS mastering anymore, and I’m sure it’s not exactly a growing field. Unlike vinyl, there’s no one out there who will say with a straight face that the VHS experience is better than the digital experience. VHS was a great transitional format because it got a lot of people into home video at a time when your choices boiled down to “watch it live in the theater, or watch it live at home.” But compared to today’s technology, it’s downright archaic.
Still, I can’t help thinking that a short run of VHS tapes in that classic white clamshell case would find some buyers. I know that I can’t be the only one who still has the original trilogy on VHS somewhere in a box, and I fondly remember those days spent watching those films on a blurry, tiny standard definition TV over and over. If anyone could pull this off, it would be Disney, since they were more or less the king of kids’ video in the 1990s, with parents dreading every single replay of The Little Mermaid or Aladdin. Those Disney clamshell cases filled late 20th century bookshelves, mine included, and sometimes it’s just fun to look back and think about how simple things were then.
Watch the video, then… be kind and rewind.
