Fleischer's Gulliver's Travels-- Trying to release new Blu-Ray release by Thunderbean Animation

I suppose I could draw some comparison here to how Mark Lewisohn ended up becoming EMI's go-to source for liners notes and vault expert, or how Joe Travers was a Zappa fan before he was Vaultmeister.
I could see Stanchfield getting tapped for a place on the team of some big future Disney vault project, if only to benefit the both of their reputations. Could happen somewhere down the road; Leonard Maltin
isn't gonna hog the spotlight forever. ya know....




Now playing on Ariel Stream: Boz Scaggs - Lowdown

 

Oh, and one more thing...I say, the only way to make some money out of PD material you have stashed in your vault...is to release the best-produced version of the product available...and let your PD nitrates earn their storage space value,
rather than you selfishly hold onto 'em just so others can't get at them.




Now playing on Ariel Stream: Beth Orton - Concrete Sky

 

Would love to take your word for it, but ...

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Sword-in-the-Stone-Blu-ray/44743/

 

Since they were donated to the UCLA archive, let UCLA do the restoration work in collaboration with Viacom, release a high def set, etc. somewhat like UCLA did with the Sherlock Holmes films.

If they release them as limited editions selling the high def to someplace like TNT or the Cartoon Network perhaps they would make their money back.

As it is, it isn't making money for anyone that owns the material and its just sitting there. Better to earn some money than nothing at all.

 

That Little Mermaid Blu-ray hasn't even been released yet! It's not out until October 1...

And really ... if the only issue with it is that two shots, that last a couple a seconds each, have been transposed ... then it's not exactly the end of the world. I read some of the comments on that YouTube page, suggesting it was "worse than Lucas" and things of that nature. Honestly, those commenters have no sense of perspective ... ceasing upon the tiniest error (in a product that hasn't even been released yet - this error may not even be on the Blu-ray) and acting like it's the end of the world.

And then there's the inevitable "I glad I kept my VHS copy from Nineteen Ought Six!" remarks - because we'd all much rather only watch Lawrence of Arabia on 8mm rather than 70mm if the 8mm copy has those extra elusive 2 seconds of footage of sand dunes...

 

Where do you draw the line? Either their allowed to make changes to color timing, transpose shots, redraw elements, smear the heck out of it with DNR, or they aren't. It's the cinematic equivalent to the Loudness War - Disney does this because they think that 21st century kids raised on computer animation don't want to watch dark and grainy hand-drawn films from 50 years ago.

I have a no-tolerance policy for this, and I wish more people did too. Once you let them change things in a misguided attempt to "modernize", and people like you argue "What's the big deal?", then it's a slippery slope to Disney announcing in 2018 that they're redrawing all of their old films from scratch with computers. Who doesn't want a CG Cinderella?

 

A correction - according to Jerry Beck, the new Betty Boop set DOES use original negatives and fine-grains. See his review:

http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/dvd-review-betty-boop-the-essential-collection-volume-1/

Derek

 

First, they're not "redrawing" anything. They're protecting the original animation bit, and recompositing each scene with a cleaned-up original background. It's not like some artist is re-animating the whole thing. It's a frame-by-frame recomposition. And furthermore - it's not like YOU would know what the color timing should be. It's highly unlikely you've ever SEEN the original color timing. Unless you have access to a 1937 print of "Snow White" with which to compare the digital restoration, you'll pretty much have to be content with the colors that the three of the Nine Old Men approved for the digital restoration. By and large, the Disney restorations are fantastic. I've seen tiny mistakes here and there, but the only restoration I personally can't stand is the new "Steamboat Willie" which has some serious contrast problems that washout the backgrounds.

Derek

 

You've missed my point. Regardless of what Disney did to the DVD/Blu-ray, the original negs have been preserved, and properly copied to safety film. That's a major accomplishment! I've read the complaints about the Blu-ray above, and there's seeming two different HD releases of the film. The Blu-ray seems to have been mastered by an idiot who cranked the dust and dirt software up to 11, removing the grain and fine detail. The HD transfer that's been showing on broadcast TV seems much sharper based on the screen caps I've seen. I'll have to check to see if Netflix still has the older HD transfer, which I believe they do.

And since "The Little Mermaid" blu-ray isn't out yet, how do I know someone hasn't tampered with the You Tube clip you linked to???

Derek

 

No DNR (I think you might mean DVNR from Digital Vision) was used on the Disney animated classics that were digitally restored using the Lowry Process. Non-realtime grain reduction is a totally different thing than temporal noise reduction.

I think there are a lot of self-styled critics on the net who have an ephemeral idea inside their own heads as to what a Disney restoration should look like. I also think they don't grasp how hard the people at Disney work on this stuff, and how many endless meetings and tests and discussions go on while these projects are underway. Comparisons to 1980s analog transfers and memories of what a Technicolor print looked like in the theater are nebulous at best.

 

I got an email the other day that my 24-frame strip of Gulliver's Travels is in the mail. Can't wait for it to arrive!

 

Please look at these screen shots from the already-released "The Sword in the Stone" Blu Ray, and tell me again that this is what a Disney restoration should look like. Or that "someone worked hard on it":

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Sword-in-the-Stone-Blu-ray/44743/#Review

 

Haven't seen it, so I can't say either way. I can only speak for the classic animated films restored by Lowry, which would include Snow White, Pinocchio, Fantasia, and so on.

If you wanna complain to Disney Home Video, start here:

http://studio.go.com/cgi-bin/gmail/generic_mail.cgi?template=video/dvd_feedback/feedback.tpl

Or here:

Buena Vista Home Entertainment
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521
818-560-1000

 

Many someone's worked hard on it, it was probably only one someone who cranked the NR up to 11 and ruined it. They just need to backup a step and remaster the blu-ray from the files prior to the NR. I agree with Vidiot that you should complain to Disney and see if they'll fix it.

Derek

 

I got my 24 frames of Gulliver's Travels from Steve S. today. He had water damaged reels that he pulled undamaged sections from to make repairs to the main source he used as needed. The unneeded extra portions were given out as a little bonus for pre-ordering.

Steve included a note saying that Gulliver would be out sometime in November.

 

Pre-ordered this too...should be getting my frames next week and am looking forward to this disc release in 2 months...

 

Steve has done great work preserving vintage animation. I highly recommend his Noveltoons collection -- it's like seeing them for the first time. Not Looney Tunes Golden Collection-level restored, but pretty impressive!

 

got my film strip today

 

Update from Steve S. via Jerry Beck's Cartoon Research site - looks like Gulliver is off to mastering (and hopefully be back soon): http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/mid-century-modern-volume-2-look-whos-driving/

 

Ooh, ooh - it appears that Thunderbean is shipping out copies of their long awaited Blu-Ray/DVD set of Gulliver's Travels - folks who ordered the pre-release are getting their copies processed first:
http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/cave-of-the-wobbly-wizard-1929/

 

Jerry Beck's Cartoon Research has his thoughts about the finished product of Thunderbean's restoration of Gulliver's Travels - here's a screen grab:
http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/gulliver-comes-to-bluray/



JBeck gives it a rave, and the trailer put together by Thunderbean has short clips that look really, really good - color isn't overcranked to gain that artificial glow some restorations have.

I'm supposed to be getting my copy anytime now, and I'll write up my impressions. Thunderbean will make the Blu-Ray/DVD combo available at Amazon in the next week or so - Steve S. needed to get all the pre-order folks taken care of first.

 

But if it was a Technicolor release, it WOULD actually glow like that! That's the most startling thing about seeing a genuine IB print, the colors glow!

Derek

 

Let me backpedal - the color isn't overly cranked to hyper intense levels like some of the early Golden Collection Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies that were restored for dvd. Maybe oversaturated would be a better term for what I meant. My copy arrived today, so I'll give it a look-see.

 

Kind of like how Universal totally ignored all their silents during the 100th anniversary just because they don't own the rights and in many if not all cases don't even own the prints anymore. Would have been nice if they could have thrown a few bucks at one of the restoration labels and included a nice transfer of the silent Phantom in the boxed set. Instead they threw a ton of money at restoring the horrible Technicolor version. Like they will ever get a return on that investment, but hey they own the rights to it.

Everything gets bootlegged anyway, not putting something out or investing in it just because you can't own it is shortsighted IMHO.

 

Quick watch of start of film - definitely superior to all the dvds of Gulliver out there. Original Paramount credits (no crappy NTA revisions), grain is there/not scrubbed out, color is vivid, occasional scratches/light print damage is apparent - Steve S. is basically on a budget that a studio probably spends on crew lunches for a couple days so don't expect a Disney restoration (which are sometimes too overly tidied). Soundtrack sounds fine (not dehissed to the point of distraction, not muffled).