Joe Clark: Media access

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DVDs with audio description → Listings → Region 2

Updated 2004.11.04

DVDs with audio description

Listings have now moved

Listings have now been moved to Wikipedia. You can not only read the listings there, you can edit them yourself.

For historical completeness, here are the old, outdated lists.

Region 1

Region 1 includes Canada and the United States.

Eventually I’ll list these in reverse chronological order.

  1. Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided (known in the trade as Lincolns; 2001.10.11)
  2. Basic Instinct (2001.10.08)
  3. Bollywood/Hollywood (2003.04.07)
    • Description provider: AudioVision Canada
  4. Chicago: City of the Century (2003.04.07)
  5. Daredevil (2003.08.08)
  6. Dinosaur (2001.10.08)
  7. Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2001.11.21)
    • Official site
    • Press release
    • Like Lincolns, the DVD features audiovisual menus
    • Unlike Lincolns, absolutely the whole disc is described, including every single extra feature. It’s pretty sharp!
    • Treatment of description addition is rather subtle. It’s the last “special feature” listed on the case, and contains a reference to a footnote reading “This DVD includes an audible menu navigation feature that can be turned on or off from any menu screen by pressing 1 and Select/Enter on your DVD remote control.” I guess, in a fully-accessible world, full accessibility is merely one of many capacities. It is expected; it is no big deal
    • Description provider: DVS
  8. Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind (2002.03.20)
    • Press release
    • Third DVD with captioning, “subtitling for the deaf and hard-of-hearing,” description, and audiovisual menus (The Grinch and Lincolns are the others)
    • This shop.pbs.org link may work. (There’s apparently no such thing as a permanent link at that site)
  9. Moulin Rouge (2001.12.26)
    • No mention of description at official site
    • Amazon listing has no mention of description
    • In any event, it’s there. Liner notes mention it, and it’s a menu option under “Audio for the visually impaired” (yet another synonym)
    • Description provider: IADA Ltd., that is, International Audio Description Agency (no Web site). Who runs IADA? Carol McGregor. Who is Carol McGregor? Mom of the lovely and talented Ewan McGregor, star of Moulin Rouge. An inside job!
    • “This audio description by IADA Ltd. was commissioned by Fox International. The script was written by Patrick Mulcane and narrated by Dennis Lawson. It was produced by Carol McGregor of IADA Ltd. at Murricane & Murricane Studios in Glasgow, Scotland, July 2001”
    • Lawson – get this – has a Scottish accent. Very nice. He speaks much too slowly and inaudibly at many points (quite simply, he mutters), and the description’s audio ducking and restoring are poor – indisputable flaws that make the description all too hard to understand at repeated points. Lawson, who sounds uniformly bored, dispassionate, or “objective” in a riotously colourful, kitschy, and emotional film, also calls Nicole Kidman “Nickel” Kidman
    • Apparently the A.D. track appears on all English-language discs worldwide. On balance, this is a good thing
    • NEW! Fun new fact sent in by Aleta M. Ringlero: “Your comments regarding the audio description for Moulin Rouge with narration by Dennis Lawson (a Scot!) failed to acknowledge he is the uncle of the beautiful and talented star of the film, Ewan McGregor, and brother of the producer, Carol McGregor, Ewan’s mother. Long live nepotism. Frankly, I liked Lawson’s narration of the film”
  10. Masterpiece Theatre: “The Blackheath Poisonings” (2003.12.30)
    • Description provider: DVS
  11. Masterpiece Theatre: “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” (2003.12.30)
    • Description provider: DVS
  12. Masterpiece Theatre: “Warrior Queen” (2003.12.30)
    • Description provider: DVS
  13. Mystery: “The Inspector Lynley Mysteries” set (2003.12.30)
    • Description provider: DVS
  14. Mystery: The Inspector Lynley Mysteries: “A Great Deliverance” (2003.12.30)
    • Description provider: DVS
  15. Mystery: “Second Sight 2” (2003.12.30)
    • Description provider: DVS
  16. Mystery: “Touching Evil 3” (2003.12.30)
    • Description provider: DVS
  17. Mystery: “Mrs. Bradley Mysteries” set (2003.12.30)
    • Description provider: DVS
  18. Mystery: “Mrs. Bradley Mysteries”: “Speedy Death” (2003.12.30)
    • Description provider: DVS
  19. Nova: “Battle of the X-Planes” (2003.12.30)
    • Description provider: DVS
  20. Nova: “The Elegant Universe” (2003.12.30)
    • Description provider: DVS
  21. Nova: “Infinite Secrets” (2003.12.30)
    • Description provider: DVS
  22. Nova: “Magnetic Storm” (2003.12.30)
    • Description provider: DVS
  23. Nova: “Volcano Above the Clouds” (2003.12.30)
    • Description provider: DVS
  24. Nova: “Who Killed the Red Baron?” (2003.12.30)
    • Description provider: DVS
  25. Nova: “Wright Brothers’ Flying Machine” (2003.12.30)
    • Description provider: DVS
  26. Partners of the Heart (2003.04.07)
  27. Pocahontas (2001.10.08)
  28. Road to Perdition (2003.04.07)
    • On the widescreen version only
    • Description provider: DVS
  29. Tarzan (2001.10.08)
  30. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (2001.10.08)
    • IMDB listing
    • Not the same as the Ultimate Edition (no room on the disc for audio description after all other geegaws were added)
    • Comments: Based on the DVS Home Video version, obviously. As is now the custom, end credits are read in their entirety, meaning the described videotape is actually longer than the original by several minutes. (Black video is added to the end of the original.) The DVD lacks that feature; reading of end credits comes to a halt when the end credits do.
    • Description provider: DVS
  31. Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion (2003.12.30)
    • No mention at CBC Educational page (and retail pricing is lower)
    • Description provider: Inevitably AudioVision Canada, but not verified
  32. Trudeau (2003.04.07)
    • Description provider: AudioVision Canada