Direct to Video: Difference between revisions

In the United States, while there have been plenty of direct-to-video films and such since the advent of home video, they were usually things that were considered financially unsound to release in theaters, like instructional videos, specialized documentaries, films with controversial or niche subject matter ([[Heroic Bloodshed|including]] [[Wuxia|many]] [[Le Film Artistique|foreign]] [[Euroshlock|films]]), or [[Porn Tropes|pornography]]. The practice of creating and releasing regular fiction specifically for video didn't really take off until 1994 with [[Disney]]'s ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Return of Jafar]]'' and [[Universal|Universal Studios]]' ''[[The Land Before Time]] II'', neither of which was intended to hit theaters at any point in its production. <ref> The financial failure of ''[[The Rescuers Down Under]]'' was what caused Disney to decide to do this with their sequels. Ironically history repeated itself when in the mid 2000s they tried again with sequels for Peter Pan and The Jungle Book. Once again the failure of those films resumed their straight to DVD methods.</ref> Other studios started following suit, hardly limited to child-oriented animation. In particular, independent studios and filmmakers quickly picked up on this distribution model, due to its lower distribution costs and reduced censorship (video stores will often stock [[Unrated Edition|unrated]] films that theaters won't touch).

Internationally, many films that had a theatrical release may be released [['''Direct to Video]]''' in other countries .<ref> The ''[[Powerpuff Girls]]'' movie for example, after its flop in the U.S., was converted to direct to video for the European market (although it did get a British cinema release).</ref>. This may be due to several factors.

There is a distinct business model that drives the direct-to-video industry, particularly when it involves lower-quality films. One might think that churning out mediocre-to-bad movies on purpose would be a dumb idea, until one looks at the sales and rental figures. A cheap 70- to 90-minute film can be produced for as little as a few thousand dollars if you hire obscure actors, crew and writers (often non-[[Unions in Hollywood]], and barely getting minimum wage), [[California Doubling|everything gets shot around the studio]], and nothing is required that can't be obtained from the studio's stock wardrobe and props. The studio then usually makes about $3-53–5 million off this, most of it from sales to rental chains. It floods the market with tripe into which nobody put any true effort, but it still makes money in the long run. It's the modern equivalent of the [[B-Movie]]; in fact, many of these would be B movies if double features were still a regular thing. Some direct-to-video flicks will try to make lemonade of their lemons by claiming that their movie is "too intense", "too scary", "too well-written" or "too lavishly budgeted" for theaters, usually the viewers don't fall for it.

Sometimes, things that were originally intended to be Direct to Video end up getting retrofitted to show on television or in theaters. Usually, only some minimal editing is done to make it fit for theaters, but there have been cases where the project was intervened midway and beefed up to make it quite a bit better. An example of the former is ''[[Doug]]'s First Movie'', which was put into theaters after the success of ''The [[Rugrats]] Movie''. A famous example of the latter is ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]] 2'', on which [[Pixar]] expanded tremendously for its theatrical release, along with another Disney film, ''[[Recess: SchoolsSchool's Out]]''. More recently, ''Honey 2'' - intended as a [['''Direct to Video]]''' movie (which is still the case in North America) got a European theatrical release first... and no, [[Jessica Alba]] [[Captain Obvious|did not return]].

In Japan, [[OVA|OVAs]]s follow the same model of distribution, but have the opposite expectations in terms of their quality. With larger budgets and without [[Executive Meddling]] or the strict requirements of the [[Media Watchdog|Media Watchdogs]]s, OVAs are expected to be significantly better than television-based anime. Live-action direct-to-video, known as "V-cinema" overseas (although this is [[Brand Name Takeover|technically a trademark of Toei Company]]), also has a much better reputation in Japan. This is due mainly to the number of established filmmakers who use it for their more "experimental" or unusual work, enjoying the greater creative freedom and lack of censorship.

In a further expansion of the phenomenon, it has become increasingly common for [[Missing Episode|Missing Episodes]]s of shows that were [[Screwed Byby the Network|canceled early]] to first see the light of day on the home video release.

=== {{examples|Noteworthy direct-to-video releases (examples by source media) ===}}

* The American releases of the ''[[Pokémon (Filmfilm)|Pokémon]]'' movies, beginning with the sixth one.

* '' The Animatrix'' is probably the second best thing that ever happened to [[The Matrix]] franchise (with the sequels rarely on fans' favorite list, the video game adaptations fall victim to the [[The Problem Withwith Licensed Games|typical syndrome]] and the graphic novels largely forgetable). Most of its success can be credited to bold exploration into the Matrix mythos, a return to the cyberpunk theme (that was never revisited by the sequels) and the excel in both hand-drawn and CGI animation.

* All of the ''[[Puppet Master (Filmfilm)|Puppet Master]]'' franchise was released straight to video. This was because producer Charles Band thought he would make more money going this route instead of taking it to theaters. In fact, most of Full Moon Entertainment's works are direct-to-video.

* All of [[Ernest P. Worrell]]'s films after ''Ernest Rides Again''.

* The live-action ''[[Casper (Filmfilm)|Casper]]'' film produced several. They could hardly even really be called "sequels" seeing how they disregarded the continuity of the original movie so completely that the presence of Casper and his uncles was literally the only similarity to the feature film. They haunted a different house in a different town and all movie-based characters were dropped, all without explanation. And, of course, there was also the expected downgrade in the quality of the CGI.<ref>It should be noted that [[Steven Spielberg|Amblin]], ILM and Universal were not involved with the sequels, though Universal and Amblin did produce the better-received animated series.</ref> Incidentally, the ''Casper'' "sequels" gave a very young [[Hilary Duff]] her first acting role as Wendy in ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4DXSGhF-To Casper Meets Wendy]''.

* The first film version of ''[[The Punisher (Filmfilm)|The Punisher]]'' was planned for a US theatrical release by its makers New World Pictures, but the new owners decided to focus more on television and elected to sit on this, ''[[Warlock (comics)|Warlock]]'' and ''Meet The Applegates'' (although all three did open as planned outside the US through other distributors). The other two did get American theatrical release eventually, but ''The Punisher'' spent two years on the shelf before going to video.

* The pioneer of this for spin-offs of TV series was probably the ''[[Babylon Five5]]'' spin-off ''[[The Lost Tales]]'', which was intended to be the first of a series of DVDs until [[J. Michael Straczynski]] decided that he couldn't tolerate the artistic limitations created by the low budget (which many cynical people translated as "not even enough [[Crack is Cheaper|completist fans]] bought it for it to make any money").

* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' has had two very good direct-to-video sequel movies so far, ''Stargate: [[The Ark of Truth]]'' and ''[[Stargate: Continuum]]'', plans for a third and a ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' film is probably in [[Development Hell]].

* The annual [[Super Sentai]] [[Crossover|team-up films]] that started with ''[[Chouriki Sentai Ohranger|Ohranger]] vs. [[Ninja Sentai Kakuranger|Kakuranger]]'' were originally straight-to-video releases until ''[[Engine Sentai GoongerGo-onger|Go-onger]] vs. [[Juken Sentai Gekiranger|Gekiranger]]'', in which they started getting theatrical premieres instead.

** ''[[Samurai Sentai Shinkenger]]'' and ''[[Tensou Sentai Goseiger]]'' both had "Come Back!" specials that were released on home video after their respective finales were aired.

* ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' parodies this and [[Mockbuster|Mockbusters]]s in the SBEmail ''unlicensed''. One of the DVD examples is pictured above on this page.

* Starting in 1994 with ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|The Return of Jafar]]'', Disney released direct-to-video sequels, prequels, and interquels to a significant portion of the [[Disney Animated Canon]], animated by the company's various television animation units. At first they were follow-ups to [[The Renaissance Age of Animation]] titles, but they gradually shifted back to films from the [[The Golden Age of Animation|Golden]] and [[The Dark Age of Animation|Dark]] ages. There were also a few titles based on [[Classic Disney Shorts]] characters and Winnie-the-Pooh, while at least one film (''Atlantis: Milo's Return'') was a [[Compilation Movie]] consisting of the completed episodes of an aborted TV spinoff. In [[The New Tens]], Disney's only efforts in this vein are the ''[[Disney Fairies|Tinkerbell]]'' CGI films.

** Pixar is significant for averting this. Disney asked Pixar to produce a DTV sequel to ''[[Toy Story (Animationfranchise)|Toy Story]]'', which was turned over to a secondary production crew. Disney was so impressed with the work they were doing that they wanted to expand the runtime from the projected 60 minutes so it could be theatrically released, but John Lasseter didn't like the direction it was taking, and so had the script entirely rewritten and put the entire crew from the first film on the project in order to finish it within the 9 months left on their deadline.

*** Until recently with the coming of ''[[Planes (Animation)|Planes]]'', a spinoff to the ''[[Cars (Animation)|Cars]]'' franchise.

** The same studio also created sequels for ''[[Balto (Animation)|Balto]]'' and for ''[[An American Tail]]'' (see below).

* The travesty that is ''[[The Secret of NIMH (Film)|The Secret of NIMH]] II''.

* Humorously, in ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]: How I Spent My Summer Vacation'', the credits claim it went straight to video because "it's that darn good" (which is probably more true than they're joking, since the movie is basically an OVA, as it was done by [[T MsTMS]] in Japan).

* ''[[Animaniacs (Animation)|Animaniacs]]'' [[Alternate Universe]] film, ''[[Wakko's Wish (Film)|Wakkos Wish]]''.

** ''[[Recess: SchoolsSchool's Out]]'' was planned as this, but Disney wanted a theatrical release due to the show's popularity. With an expansion of the plot and an [[Animation Bump]], it turned out to be a success. In a few foreign areas, it ''was'' released as this, though.

* All of the ''[[Tom and Jerry (Animation)|Tom and Jerry]]'' films except for [[Tom and Jerry: The Movie|the first one]].

** DC now has a whole series of direct-to-DVD animated films, from Warner Premier.

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