Thursday, March 27, 2008

Another Story from the Video Store

One of the interesting things about video stores is how people assume the people who work in the store have real connections to the entertainment industry.

And by real connections, I mean people think they can come and complain about contemporary films and somehow, the video store people will fix it.

Back when The Hunchback of Notre Dame was in theaters, one guy decided to come into the store to let us know exactly what was wrong with this film so we could magically command Disney to take it back and pretend it never happened.

"You don't understand!" he told me after 30 minutes of harassing my employees. "The Hunchback of Notre Dame is NOT a kid's story. It is a serious examination of French society and religious hypocrisy! It is SERIOUS LITERATURE! It does does not need talking gargoyles or musical numbers! It's disgusting what Disney is doing! Absolutely DISGUSTING!"

And to prove his point, he waved one of our Hunchback dolls for emphasis.

"You heard about Disney's next cartoon, haven't you?" I asked.

"What?"

"Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. Raskolnikov is this guy who can talk to the street rats. One rat gets on each shoulder and they sing a song about the nature of good and evil with one 'evil' rat whispering in one ear and a 'good' rat whispering in another. We're selling the T-shirts in about a month. It should be really exciting to see how they pull it off."

I am sad to report that we permanently lost a customer that day.

5 comments:

Cyber D said...

I am particularly excited about Disney's 2009 release of "The Scarlet Letter" Early rumor is that it will be a marvelous extravaganza of music and artistry!

Nate said...

Did you lose him as a customer because you took him out back and shot him?

Tera said...

I am sure that one customer will make a world of difference to your bottom line profit and overall sustainability...you should seriously consider a corrective action plan to get him back.

InvisibleMarketing said...

Hi Sweetie -
In general, I dislike it when events conspire to remind you of your time in retail. Those were dark days.

However, it's hard to love you more than I love you when you recount this triumphant story of literature and loss.

Love
C

Courtney said...

OMG, I really want to see Disney's Crime and Punishment. Genius.