Curious to Find More Info on This Obscure B:MoL Release

[TheRocketRacer]

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, I came across this image of a Russian release for Bionicle: Mask of Light, however, it is quite different from the other ones…

This release that I’m bringing up is specifically the films’ Russian Special Edition DVD release. However, one of the elements that makes this interesting compared to the other releases, however, is the fact that this seems to be the only one I could find that contains Disney DVD branding on it.

I tried to look up more information on it, but didn’t get very far. I’m assuming that this release is incredibly obscure because I could only find one other listing for it, with the other retailer site having a lower-quality image of the cover.

However here is the front and back covers of the DVD:

I’m posting this here because I’m super curious about this regional release in particular and am hoping that maybe somebody could provide me some more information about it…

[LegoDavid]

So… Disney actually does know about Bionicle, don’t they?

[Toa-of-Snow]

I WAS RIGHT TAKANUVA IS MAUI CONFIRMED

I wonder why a Russian release would result in Disney DVD branding for a movie they otherwise didn’t seem to have any involvement in… is this a common sort of thing to happen with direct-to-dvd stuff? Seems odd.

[TheRocketRacer]

I was reading an interview with Terry Shakespeare, and he kept referring to “Disney” sort of as if they were indirectly involved with it…

[Makutros]

Doesn’t Miramax belong to Disney?

[TheRocketRacer]

Used to, they sold it to another company, and now it’s being ran by Qatar and Paramount. They owned the company while the original Bionicle films were in production and upon their release.

This is still strange though seeing a film released by Disney under the Miramax label have Disney DVD-branding in a different regional copy. It’s very rare to see a Miramax release with Disney-branding on it…

[TheRocketRacer]

Oh ok, so I found the interview and will be providing some examples here:

EF: Was there any serious consideration about giving “Bionicle 2” a theatrical release since the first movie was such a big seller on DVD?
TS & DM: I’m sure that the Disney people thought about it, though nothing was declared for sure. Lego is probably open to the possibility of showing a future “Bionicle” movie in theatres.

EF: Did Buena Vista consider your company a “logical” choice because you’ve worked on other Disney projects?
TS & DM: Not directly. Ultimately, Lego made the decision, though Disney probably recommended us when Lego asked about animation partners.

Here is the link to the interview:
https://web.archive.org/web/20070928051350/http://www.dvdtown.com/article/bionicle2screeningandinterview/961/

Also, here is also something rather interesting…

EF: By the way, I did Shakespeare Studies as an undergrad, so I have to ask…are you related to the William Shakespeare, Terry?
TS: Yes, I am. We’re related through his brother. My sister actually traced the family tree back to those times.

[Makutros]

Is that also on the US release? (Without the “Schweiz”)

[TheRocketRacer]

Woah, I have never seen that on there before, thanks for sharing that!

And I’m pretty sure it’s not on the US release, but I’m gonna double check just to make sure…

[TheRocketRacer]

Yup, I was right, Walt Disney Studios isn’t mentioned in the US release.

[Makutros]

Just to clear that up: it’s a list of the product providers, not the creators. I just wanted to check wether that wasn’t mentioned in the US release. It possibly just means that Buena Vista and Miramax were directly supported by Disney in some countries to sell the movie. That could explain why it ended up as a Disney DVD in Russia.

[Toa-of-Snow]

@TheRocketRacer

EF: By the way, I did Shakespeare Studies as an undergrad, so I have to ask…are you related to the William Shakespeare, Terry?
TS: Yes, I am. We’re related through his brother. My sister actually traced the family tree back to those times.

I’ve always wondered this - that’s awesome.

[TheRocketRacer]

Yup, or in simpler terms, Disney’s legal entity, Buena Vista (which owned Miramax at the time) released the film with either Miramax or Disney branding and through their labels.

[TheRocketRacer]

Sorry to bump this thread, but the movie was also part of a series of trading card games in a collaboration between The Walt Disney Company and the company TokeZone.

However, all of the games that were on it have since went lost, including the one for B:MoL.

Here’s a link with some more additional information if anybody is curious in checking it out.

Walt Disney Pictures TokenZone

Oh, and one last thing to point out before I forget. There was a section for Disney TokenZone on the old maskoflight.com website page specifically for the webgame.

Edit: I additionally found out that the tagline of the Russian Special Edition on the DVD cover is “the hero will show his face”.

[DoctorUmbra]

I remember seeing a massive amount of Disney trailers on the Finnish Bionicle film dvds. But makes sense because Miramax

[TheRocketRacer]

I want to give everyone a heads-up warning here just in-case, however Bionicle is a forbidden topic to add on the unofficial Disney Wiki. If your like me, you would find that out the hard way.

I wanted to be sure to let you all know since the administration on there doesn’t want to see anything else about it, even if Disney was involved in any of the media released.

For future reference, if your adding this release to any Disney fan-sites, make sure to ask the people running those sites if they’ll allow it.