This past September we first
reported Canadians could look forward to a pair of multi-disc DVD releases that would collect all 52 animated episodes of
Rocket Robin Hood, the 1966 series that's among Ralph Bakshi's earliest credits.
Then distributor Warner Home Video of Canada first delayed the release from late October to late November, then just weeks shy of the new ship date they pulled the releases from their schedule entirely. The notice characterized the releases as "canceled", and no reason was provided by Warner. However, our own Gord Lacey got in touch with show owner Seville Pictures, who
informed him that "
there was a problem with French tracks on 3 of the episodes," and that we could expect the DVDs to arrive sometime in the first half of 2008.
Since then we've been keeping an eye out for a re-announcement of these packages, but nothing has come through yet. However, we have gotten a separate notice from Warner Home Video of Canada...and it seems to apply to
Rocket Robin Hood, although it doesn't directly mention the two DVD titles for that show. However, it does speak to Warner's relationship with
RRH owner Seville Pictures, so it probably applies to
Robin:
Effective April 30, 2008, the Canadian distribution of Seville Pictures’s new release and catalogue DVD will change from Warner Home Video to Paradox Entertainment.
The notice is dated April 14th (one week ago today), and is addressed to retailers (the remainder of the notice gives details about how to return Warner/Canada-distributed product of Seville titles, mostly film titles, back to Warner for credit and about the transfer of those titles to the Paradox Entertainment Group.
Both Seville Pictures and the Paradox Entertainment Group are owned by Toronto-based Entertainment One, with Seville having been purchased in August 2007. Entertainment One also owns Koch Canada/Koch Vision, as well as U.K.-based Contender. It makes sense that Entertainment One would prefer to keep the distribution of Seville's titles "in the family," so to speak, and move that from an external distributor (Warner) to an internal distributor (Paradox).
Again,
Rocket Robin Hood wasn't specifically mentioned as part of this transition, but it is logical to assume that the distribution move is probably part of the reason for the continued delay in releasing those DVDs, and that we should look to Paradox Entertainment Group for information about this going forward. Hopefully we'll have a good update for you soon. Stay tuned!
