Culturedog's Snapper Case DVDs - Part 1

"Back in our day, we didn't have these fancy DVD keep cases with artwork safely tucked behind clear protective pockets, we had cardboard! Exposed to the elements and held together with hopes, dreams, and weak, plastic skeletons. And weee..." Well, actually, we hated them.

But years later, those fragile little mutated digipaks known as Ivy Hill snap cases have become the favorite DVD packaging choice for many a collector. As bewildered as he is by this shocking turn of events, Culture Dog Sam Hatch has decided to snap into his classic collection of such titles and see if he has any nostalgia for them now.

Listen to "Culture Dogs" Sunday nights at 8pm EST on WWUH, 91.3 FM in CT. Also streaming live (and then archived via StreamRewind) on:

WNPR:

96.5 TIC FM:

Intro music: "Anger Mgmt." by Sever the Drama.

[DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader]

Count me as one who is now strangely nostalgic for these. It sucks when the hubs break and I still chuckle when I find used DVDs where someone ripped out the art and shoved it in a keepcase. I have my old ones and a number of newer purchased ones. Snappers to me mean early Warner LD master rush jobs, music DVDs, or Warner DVDs they didn’t care to reissue. Many OOP titles are snappers as well. My first snapper purchased new was the remastered 2001.

You’ll love DC animated Justice League which is darn near definitive. Definitely get the whole series. I missed the powerpuff girls complete set which is apparently now OOP. Warner animated titles are hit and miss in terms of printing but they sure loved to crank out those four episode snapper DVDs for kids!!!

I thought I was the only one with the random selection of Cusack titles! Real happenstance for me: Why do you have Must Love Dogs? —Because it’s the Cusack and there’s the one scene where he correctly moans about how romance in the real world isn’t like Dr. Zhivago...

[UltraDTA]

Ah, the snapper case. From consumer indifference, to loathed, to nostalgic all in 20 years.

[theshadowman]

Love those cases, but damn they are hard to replace when the disc holder breaks. The cool thing is that cart board sometimes folds out in sort of a gatefold with extra movie info which looks pretty sweet.

[vintagevhstreasures]

Two things:

1. In addition to Image, there were a bunch of Universal titles that were released by GoodTimes in snapper cases such as Earthquake and Jaws The Revenge. There were also some MGM titles released in snappers including Poltergeist and a few of the Bond films including Dr. No and Goldeneye.

2. Remember when Universal and Columbia/TriStar used CD jewel cases for their early DVDs?

[StefanHomberger]

I still have the first DVD I ever bought (and the only one I owned for a long time) when I bought my Playstation 2, the 'snapper case' release of 'Rush Hour'.

[Eva-jyqupur]

I like how some of these snapper case DVD's are actually Laserdisc ports. One that comes to mind is the Batman Subzero snapper case which is the exact master of the Laserdisc.

[jamesmiller]

Wow, Sam!
Just came across this No.1 episode from No.2! (At C-D's, there's always something new!)
Long ago I spied-out these case types as being a design way-better than the vinyl standard ones. They seemed far more logically designed and appearing improved, as the graphics were now covering the whole of the standard area available. The first I ever obtained for examination was "DARK CITY." I was baffled as to how to open it, the 'snap' feature being not obvious. Now I learn, compliments of yourself -- the great Dog of Culture -- that these cases have now become, in-and-of-themselves, 'a thing.'
Examination revealed that they are 0.25" wider but, of the identical height to the normals. Also, that any surface texturing & or embossing might now could be exploited, sans an additional outside slip-case, thus saving $$$ and, dispensing with an additional 'thing' for handling/assembling.
Just recently I acquired a mint-condition snapper of "FREQUENCY." This features a double fold-out. Somewhere in my pile I've a triple! (Cannot recall the title.) Now these would have required some deeper dadoing at top-and-bottom-front, to accommodate for the two extra thicknesses involved, so there would have been three designs of case necessary, I think.
To close, we are all looking forward maximally, to your long-promised . . .
 
Classical and Operatic Spotlight Show

up-coming. Maybe you could engineer Mad Maxeen into it somehow, this so as to provide some extra undoubted luster to the natural polish and special uplift of the subject generally? We will require however pre-warning of the event, this in order to be dressed as-befitting and, to prepare Brandy and Cigars as-appropriate.
. : .

[specwarseabee]

I see "One Crazy Summer" such an awesome 80's flick that no ever talks about these days despite being constantly played on premium cable back in the day.

[stg]

I love snapper cases. My first movie on DVD was The Matrix... They released those type of case here in Brazil with the same artwork but translated to portuguese. I have some movies with this cases and they are so cool. Greetings from Brazil!

[theshadowman]

Cool, have one crazy summer on Laserdisc

[williamlowery]

Our family got a DVD player in the early 2000's (2002, I believe), and one of the first DVD's we got was the 'snapper case' release of Pee Wee's Big Adventure. The DVD player is long gone, but I still own this classic.

[LeeDarkParadox]

I'm loving the idea of a snapper case review video Sam 👍👍

[NickMichalak]

The DVDs I still have with snapper cases: Zero Effect, Valentine, Freejack, The Last Boy Scout, Lethal Weapon 1-3 (the supposed Director's Cuts), Gremlins, Out For Justice, Hard to Kill, On Deadly Ground, The Glimmer Man, Exit Wounds, Interview With The Vampire, The Hitcher, Empire Records, and recent pick ups from the last few years include Deep Cover and Pacific Heights. There might be more, but in the early 2000s I was part of a graphic design community that put together custom DVD cover art. Much of it was to replace the snappers with keep cases.

[Franniiv]

Warner USA album issued some CD singles in a similar CD sized snapper type case. Made by 'FLP' in USA, they don't snap at the top and bottom, but it has the snap flap at the rightbside.

[LKH_Productions]

Things I never thought I'd get nostalgic for... Snapper Case DVD's... Damn it man! LOL Immediately after your video I searched ebay and started going down the rabbit hole.... I can proudly say I refrained from purchasing any lots of discs like I might have done with some of my past obsession kick offs... I guess it's just nice to know I have a new little precious relic to keep my eyes peeled for at Goodwill and Savers... Because lets face it... we all know you NEVER find any Laserdiscs in those piles of dusty Polka Records. Hahaha! Rock on man! Love your content!!

[DerrickMims]

I agree that we hated this box design back in the 90s. They were fragile and didn't stack well. And I also agree that I am now nostalgic for them. In fact, I just got a 1997 Amadeus DVD, and the snapper case is pristine. I think it's at least partly because the basic plastic black case became common and is still in use -- even in a slightly modified form on Blu. The snapper cases are unusual and attractive compared to the boring black plastic cases. Much more interesting to collect.

[austinwillcut]

The Pledge starts out good but has a very stupid ending lol. I like how the snappers had a gatefold cover just like LD and some early DVDs were not dual layer so you had to flip them like LD. A lot of HBO licensed stuff is still stuck in snapper DVD land like The Hitcher, turbulence, Ricochet and a bunch of HBO original for some reason HBO won't convert to blu ray with those older films. I have a Deep Blue Sea snapper that is kinda warped looking now lol. These DVDs are from that weird transition era where most people still haven't moved on to widescreen tvs and full screen versions were still necessary but the widescreen tv people still needed a widescreen version so the studios had to compromise with having both it was an awkward time! I remember EVERYONE bitching about the black bars on the 4:3 tvs and just not understanding that what they were seeing was the complete theatrical picture that was shot and they weren't missing anything with the black bars they just didn't get it lol. That's why they catered out 4:3 cropped versions to quit their bitchin'. I have some Anchor Bay Hellraiser DVDs that actually have an open matte version as the 4:3 version and you do see more on the top and bottoms than the widescreen and those early 2000's releases are the only way to get the open matte versions on DVD. I'm just glad everyone has moved on the widescreen tvs and widescreen is the I do not miss the 4:3 world AT ALL.

[donadoma]

Great channel! Guess i only have badlands with this dvd cases..

[OldmovieMike]

that's funny I recently acquired all the image Marx brothers snappers and charlie chaplin image snapper cases just got them to further my collection. great post.

[austinwillcut]

Those early DVDs always used that metallic looking disc with no artwork but just the logo, it looks so cheap and bootleg now but back then it looked high tech lol.