The Passage of Time
The first DVD I remember seeing was Dinosaur, at a friend’s house. (For those of the younger generation, a DVD is like a CD, except for movies. … okay, a CD is like a Frisbee, except it was small and thin, and you could put it into a stereo and play music. Anyway).
I distinctly remember being amazed, even awed, that you could skip directly to the meteor scene instead of fast-forwarding slowly through the relatively less exciting scenes of Aladar and his lemur friends frolicking around on their island before said meteor dropped in and torched the place. (I have a weird fascination for apocalyptic movies with meteor scenes, don’t judge).
I grew up with VCRs and all, so naturally DVD was new and nifty. Soon my family acquired a DVD player and eventually I acquired a miniature DVD player of my own. Also around this time came the advent of Redbox. Redbox had places in restaurants in stores where you could rent movies for a dollar a night, if I recall correctly, and usually you had a decent selection. Not always though, and never the classics or archives of TV seasons and the like. For that, you’d need the library or a video store like Blockbuster (see Captain Marvel).
Then came the DVD delivery services. I actually had Blockbuster first, since they had an arrangement where you could rent a DVD, return it to the store in person, and then rent a video for free. Then, I don’t remember exactly when, I was in the mood for one of my favorite films, The Bugs Bunny Road Runner Movie, a Looney Tunes compilation narrated by the aforementioned Bugs. It’s got the one with Marvin Martian and the disintegrating pistol, the one with Elmer Fudd and “Rabbit season! Duck season!” and of course “What’s Opera, Doc?” In short, a classic. The Blockbuster DVD service did not have it. I went searching for another service that did. Netflix had it, and I never looked back.
Eventually of course Blockbuster’s mail service stopped and its stores closed down, and so too DVDs became passé as streaming became a thing (I don’t remember the last time I watched one, myself). At the high point of Netflix I could have five DVDs out at a time plus maintain access to its streaming catalog. Then slowly it became four, than three, and I don’t know what it is now as I don’t have a DVD player anymore. We rely entirely on streaming through various and sundry services.
I can only imagine what my daughter will rely upon when she grows up. Holodecks, maybe?