Jason and the Argonauts (1963) Premium Collection HMV Exclusive

[UncleBuckWild]

JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS (HMV Exclusive)

Release Date: March 13, 2017

Jason And The Argonauts (1963) - Trailer - YouTube

[ravenus]

Wonder if this will be a newer transfer than their US release. That was one of their most packed discs.

[figrin_dan]

I reckon this could be really cleaned up by using the original rear projected elements. But it's not what Harryhausen did so I guess it would be considered revisionist.

[Geoff D]

I thought it looked terrific on Blu-ray, all things considered, so it'll be interesting to see what this new release comes up with.

Was the movie ever released on Blu in the UK? If not then I doubt this'll be anything other than a repackage of the US disc.

[rapta]

I thought this would come from Indicator? They said they had five Harryhausen films, and this is the most obvious one they would've got...

[Fnord Prefect]

Expected this to be one of the forthcoming Indicator/Powerhouse Ray Harryhausen titles so I'm surprised to see this coming from Sony UK.

Definitely interested in this release though, especially as it'll no doubt settle at around the £13 - £14 mark come release day.

Sod it, don't want to forget this is coming so I've pre-ordered from Amazon UK though I'll no doubt end up cancelling when HMV.com inevitably uncut them.

EDIT: Nice to see it's 1.66:1 which no doubt is more accurate than the DVDs choices of 4:3 and 1.85:1 (actually, was that only certain Sinbad titles? I'm too lazy to go upstairs and check )

[DavidGallow]

Originally Posted by rapta

I thought this would come from Indicator? They said they had five Harryhausen films, and this is the most obvious one they would've got...

Who cares if this matches the US set? Indicator won't beat that.

[rapta]

Originally Posted by DavidGallow

Who cares if this matches the US set? Indicator won't beat that.

I didn't say I cared - I will still buy this release - just a little surprised that Sony turned them down for Jason and the Argonauts only to release it themselves. Given their recent collaboration with UK labels and their lack of catalogue releases of late, it's slightly surprising this is one they've decided to release themselves rather than sub-license it to another label (especially seeing as Indicator probably have a box set lined up). More of a side-note than a complaint, though there will no doubt be a few less extras, and probably no booklet either.

[IanSchultz23]

Could be a placeholder for the powerhouse disc

[CinemaScope]

About time! I imported the US release years ago, I think it looks great.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by CinemaScope

About time! I imported the US release years ago, I think it looks great.

It does indeed and FWIW, this was on the leaked list of Sony 4K scans revealed by the hack: 4K scan for a 2K finish.

Caps here: http://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?d1=6037&d2=6041&c=2460. The opticals and dupes are what they are, but anything that's camera original looks gorgeous.

[ravenus]

It's region free and very reasonably priced too (and I got mine for a criminally low 8$ a few months after release)

[CinemaScope]

It's all coming back to me now. Sony released Jason (a great release full of extras) & then had an online vote as what should be the next one (I voted Mysterious Island), & then...nothing, I can only assume that sales of Jason were very disappointing. The next thing was that Twilight Time released Mysterious Island, which I bought (very expensive!). They're coming thick & fast now, from Indicator in the UK & they're being released in Germany as well.

[bellyflop]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Was the movie ever released on Blu in the UK? If not then I doubt this'll be anything other than a repackage of the US disc.

It's never had a UK release but the whole Harryhausen catalogue has had an odd set of US/UK releases from Sony in the early days.

Can't recall the specifics but of the titles released by Sony there was the odd one that didn't get a UK release and there was one that we did get that (for a time at least) was only available in the US as part of a boxset. When some were available here for peanuts they seemed to be OOP in the US and sold for mega bucks.

Argonauts must be his best known and most commercial so not releasing it always seemed strange.

I sold the US disc when I got the Australian set of 4 movies

[MechaGodzilla]

Well this is a surprise. Not only is it coming from Sony themselves (I expected Indicator, like many others), look at all those languages:

Subtitles: Czech, German, Hindi, French, Portuguese, Finnish, Polish, Swedish, Arabic, Italian, Dutch, Hebrew, Norwegian, Hungarian, Icelandic, English, Danish, Greek, Turkish, Spanish
Dubbed: French, German, Italian, Spanish

Not just for the UK (or a simple repackage), if this info is correct.

[malcy30]

Originally Posted by MechaGodzilla

Well this is a surprise. Not only is it coming from Sony themselves (I expected Indicator, like many others), look at all those languages:

Not just for the UK (or a simple repackage), if this info is correct.

It looks as you say from the subtitles listed as if Sony have made a new BD to set throughout Europe. Both the US (Sony) and Australian (Via Vision) BDs only had English and English HoH subtitles.

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by bellyflop

Argonauts must be his best known and most commercial so not releasing it always seemed strange.

The film was a flop when it came out (it apparently just about broke even after being reissued on the kids matinee circuit) and the DVD sales outside the US were reportedly disappointing even though it had done reasonably well on VHS - but the Harryhausen films that tended to do best on home video in the past weren't necessarily the ones the fans love the most (First Men in the Moon, another box-office flop, apparently overperformed on home video in some territories and did atrociously in others). Since most majors work on historic sales figures for previous formats when deciding what to put out on BD (which is why Warners in particular have so many WTF? Bluray backcatalogue titles), often because they don't employ that many people who have any real knowledge of their older titles, a lot of major titles slip through the cracks. Of the Harryhausen titles Jason was the most glaring.

It's not a recent problem either: look how few Universal horrors or Hammer classics were available on VHS in the UK until the mid-90s. Even at the peak of the VHS retail boom you couldn't even own a complete set of Bond films in widescreen on video until they finally got around to releasing OHMSS in 1995 a couple of years after they'd released widescreen versions of the other Bond films.

Harryhausen's recollections of some of the problems making the film:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...ardianreview16

[bellyflop]

Originally Posted by Aclea

It's not a recent problem either: look how few Universal horrors or Hammer classics were available on VHS in the UK until the mid-90s. Even at the peak of the VHS retail boom you couldn't even own a complete set of Bond films in widescreen on video until they finally got around to releasing OHMSS in 1995 a couple of years after they'd released widescreen versions of the other Bond films.

Harryhausen's recollections of some of the problems making the film:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...ardianreview16

MY recollection of OHMSS on VHS was that the widescreen versions were released in batches and while OHMSS was not part of the first batch I don't recall it coming out any later than the remaining ones.
The only difference was that they thankfully realised OHMSS was a fan favourite and released it in it's own special boxset with a mini version of an issue of 007 magazine. I'm sure the standard wide version was released at the same time as I bought them both for some reason.

The wide versions were intended to be part of the 30th Anniversary celebration and I had always recalled it that way. The only thing that made me wonder if that was not the case was when I tried to find a release date for the OHMSS box and I could only find a reference on a site somewhere that mentions 1995 - but I was almost certain that was wrong because I was into Laserdisc by then and one of my first purchases on LD was most of the Bonds films. In fact Goldeneye came out in 1995 on LD so it was thrilling to see a new Bond is superior quality. I can't see any way I would have purchased movies on VHS by 1995 specially if I already had the LD but the box states "package design 1995" so it must have been early in the year before I got into LD

[rapta]

Originally Posted by IanSchultz23

Could be a placeholder for the powerhouse disc

Just asked them, and it wasn't offered to them so obvious now that Sony had already been planning to release this themselves when Indicator were starting up.

However, they are releasing Mysterious Island, First Men in the Moon, and the Sinbad trilogy in March.

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by bellyflop

MY recollection of OHMSS on VHS was that the widescreen versions were released in batches and while OHMSS was not part of the first batch I don't recall it coming out any later than the remaining ones.

I was editing a magazine at the time and we covered the remastered releases as they came out. It was a standalone release, and the last of the widescreen releases. They released the widescreen Connery films (minus NSNA) first in one batch, then the Moore films (both around early Autumn 1993) and finally the two Daltons a year later (July/August 1994). OHMSS came out in Spring 1995, and in a slightly cut version (although the Gebruder Gumbold sequence that was missing from the panned-and-scanned VHS was in it a few shots were missing and weren't restored until the DVD release). That was apparently released because bootleg PAL VHS conversions of the laserdisc - at the time the only way to see the film in widescreen - were so widespread among collectors at the time made it clear that if they didn't release it, they'd lose out.