In early August we first
reported that
Lizzie McGuire was headed to DVD, according to a pair of co-stars of the show, who had reported on their websites that they had done extras for the first season set.
Then, a few weeks later, we got the
heads-up from retailers that Buena Vista had set a
November 23rd release date, and a $49.99 SRP cost for what retailers were told was a 4-DVD set.
Two weeks ago today we
posted cover art for
Lizzie, taken from a two-page ad of Buena Vista TV-DVD releases that was aimed at retailers to entice them into buying the product. The cover art showed star Hilary Duff as well as two co-stars, with the wording "Volume One" making it clear that this wasn't a season set after all. A burst placed upon the art in the ad proclaimed that this was indeed a 4-Disc set.
All along the way, you may notice that none of this info was coming from Disney/Buena Vista straight to the press; no formal announcement to the media outlets had been made yet. Until yesterday that is, when the cover art was sent over to news folk like ourselves. And surprise! It's not the same art that the studio showed retailers in the ad the other week!
Instead, the box has shifted to focus only on Hilary Duff, with a distinct design shift which seems to be aimed at mainly appealing to her young female fan base. It also proclaims that this set contains "The First 22 Episodes From The Hit Disney Channel Series," which decisively will demonstrate that this is not a season set (since the first season was 31 episodes in all). The price remains $49.99 SRP, and here's that new art:
The cover art was accompanied by a title that describes this as the
"Lizzie McGuire DVD-Box Set DVD 2-Pack - DVD". We're not sure what to make of the term "2-Pack" here; could it signal a change from a 4 disc set to a 2 disc set? We also don't know which 22 episodes will be included in the set, because Disney hasn't indicated if this will be using airdate order or production order for this release (there's a noticable difference between the two...the pilot aired third, for instance, and the 17th produced episode aired 30th). Also, the studio hasn't mentioned a word of the extras that the co-stars reported recording two months ago.
We're still waiting on an official press release from Buena Vista; hopefully when we get it the answers to all these questions will be in there. Stay tuned, and we'll let you know what they say!
