Wednesday 24 August 2011

Dear Chris Fable, Harry Potter Would Like His Font Back

FYI, The Adventures Of Chris Fable is actually 2010's The Wylds, a loose adaptation of 17th century author John Bunyan's 'The Pilgrim's Progress'. On the IMDb it scores fewer stars out of ten than the amount of pounds it costs to buy, and its user reviews are split between God-fearing Christians who claim it's "a great movie for family and church" and idiots who bought it from Tesco thinking it might fill the aching void in their lives caused by the absence of any more Harry Potter films (sample review: "Scince [sic] when do cowboys happen to have two swords.").

I haven't seen it so I don't know which of those two groups of people to side with, but I am reasonably sure that there's nothing in the Bible advocating selling cheap tat by lying through your teeth with misleading DVD covers.

9 comments :

  1. Christopher Lloyd24 August 2011 at 08:19

    I saw this one in Asda. The famous Jack Hunter trilogy?
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jack-Hunter-Box-Set-DVD/dp/B00525QG9M/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1314170337&sr=1-1

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  2. Tony Cox24 August 2011 at 09:00

    Helpfully the trailer carries a warning with the spoken words "Look out for imposters." I think the story must have been adapted from 'The pedestrian's toe test' by John Bunion.

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  3. Brendon Connelly24 August 2011 at 13:50

    I don't know that building an association is lying as such. It might be a bit dishonest, but anybody who would see a font and/or basic layout and think "Oh... same as Harry Potter, must be Harry Potter related" needs a bit of a sit down, I think.

    It's like saying Saturday Night Primetime on BBC1 is the official TV schedule of Moby because they used his music as the bed for their continuity announcement.

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  4. The Incredible Suit24 August 2011 at 14:39

    Brendon, have a look at the IMDb user reviews. sample comments include "I was looking forward to a family action adventure film and got a low budget, new age Christian propaganda sermon in return" and "I bought it from Tesco thinking it would be a good children's fantasy adventure but when I started to watch it I realised it was the complete opposite".

    People may deserve what they get if they think they're getting Potteresque entertainment for £3, but does that make it OK to market it to them as such? Isn't it taking advantage of the less savvy? Is that the Christian thing to do?

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  5. Tony Cox24 August 2011 at 22:44

    The Incredible Astute has a sharp typographical eye for fontastic fontography, fake folio, half baked halftone, the gilded galley, impossible intaglio, lazy logo and loopy lithography and I agree that Tesco has taken a reglar product and packaged it in a way that fools you that you are getting a superior product at a bargain price. Remind me again. Which supermarket chain is the most profitable? How does it do that?

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  6. Tony Cox25 August 2011 at 06:10

    Oh, by the way, Mr. Jack Cohen ("Pile'em high sell'em cheap") founder of Tesco in 1919 was not exactly a Christian.

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    Replies
    1. Jason13 August 2012 at 05:03

      God created Christ but he's not a Christian either.

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  7. Tasha10 December 2011 at 18:42

    I just bought this DVD for my sister for Christmas... and i googled it now and boy, I'm regretting it a bit, I suppose it is only £3. But if I knew it was remotely christian based I would have put it down immediately to be honest.

    I knew it wouldn't be much special, the price for one thing and the LQ cover design. (The guys who made it clearly were not photoshop savvy as Chris's face is very very LQ!) and I scoffed a little at the Harry Potter font, but the blurb convinced me and I thought it would be fine, a bit of cheap harmless fun. I feel a bit ripped off that its Christian... meh, I guess we will have to wait for her to unwrap it and see what she thinks. Hopfully it will be alright, if not I may take it back and yell at Tesc for false advertising ;] :L

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  8. Pedro Benoliel11 August 2012 at 22:05

    I paid 75p for this at CEX and have been watching it for about 10/15m now. Not only is it Christian, it is a glorified high school play, filmed and then fancied up on After Effects by a 17-year-old AV student. I was expecting low-budget, but this...URGH.

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