“It was sealed in the package, just like any DVD,” the woman, who asked for anonymity, told reporters. “I opened it, put it in the player and went into the kitchen. I heard my son scream, and when I went to check on him, instead of Batman the screen had three men on it, one of whom had no pants on.”
The woman said she recalled seeing the words “Titan Man” or something similar on the screen before turning it off. When she took the disc out of the player, she noticed that the disc had no graphics and was blank, suggesting it was burned on a home computer.
"We believe that this is an isolated incident," Target spokesman Joshua Thomas told XBIZ. "We are investigating what happened."
According to the woman, when her husband returned the disc a store manager told him it was the third time since Christmas a disc had been returned for the same reason.
The mother said she would be more diligent in the future.
“You can bet I’ll look at the next DVD I buy before I put it on to play,” she said.
Titan Media representatives were surprised at the news.
“We are appalled and outraged that a DVD with our content would end up in the hands of children,” Keith Webb, vice president of Titan Media, told XBIZ. “We are 100 percent committed to ensuring our content only ends up in the hands of adults specifically wishing to view our content.
"We are convinced that the disk in question did not come from a legitimate Titan Media vendor or replicator." Webb said. "We believe the disk in question may have come from a pirated source. The DVD in question did not have a printed faceplate and appeared to have been burned, all of which point to a pirated source of manufacture. We only manufacture our DVDs in two tightly controlled USA factories, neither of which produce cartoon DVDs sold at Target. Our attorney is contacting Target’s counsel to try and obtain a copy of the disk in question in an effort to track down who made the disk. If, as we suspect, the DVD was from an unauthorized source we will vigorously pursue a copyright infringement investigation.”
