Captain Planet - The Complete Franchise DVD Collection

[spookcentral]

Thanks for the pillarbox warning. I hate that, too. I even wrote an article about it on my website in which I point out that the practice takes an already low resolution image and makes it an even LOWER resolution image. I will avoid this set due to the pillarboxing and hope that said pillarboxing is an indication that 16:9 HD masters were used, which could mean a Blu-ray set is in production.

[Regulas314]

We need to let WBD know this sort of formatting isn’t acceptable.

[pleaserecycle]

I don’t think pillarboxing would have much impact on the image quality. If we’re discussing an uncompressed stream of images, then it would use about 15% of the space, but that’s not the case here. The repeating, same-colored pixels added by pillarboxing are ideal candidates for compression.

If you want to watch Captain Planet, then I suggest buying and enjoying this set. The intersection of home media enthusiasts and Captain Planet fans (or most any other shows) is shrinking; there’s no guarantee we will see another release.

[Sillydillo]

Originally Posted by pleaserecycle

If you want to watch Captain Planet, then I suggest buying and enjoying this set. The intersection of home media enthusiasts and Captain Planet fans (or most any other shows) is shrinking; there’s no guarantee we will see another release.

Well said! This is absolutely the mentality I hold when a show I like gets an imperfect release. It can be a bit disappointing to see flaws or exclusions, but I'd much rather support shows I like being released on disc than let small flaws and nitpicks stop me from buying them. Can't let perfect be the enemy of good, after all.

[GP Legend]

Itunes just put out the complete set for this, and it is listed in HD! Anyone know how it looks in HD?

[pferreira]

Originally Posted by Bubbles-11

This sounds like it's likely another Warner animated release coming from the crop of MeTV Toons remasters being done in partnership with Weigel Broadcasting, like w/ Archive's release of Top Cat The Complete Series and the Superstars 10 set

Were the negatives found or are did they just do a cheap AI upscale from video masters?

Originally Posted by Chaz05

Just picked this up and the re-release of the ‘87 TMNT at my local Walmart.

Now that was a complete disaster of a release.

Originally Posted by Sillydillo

Well said! This is absolutely the mentality I hold when a show I like gets an imperfect release.

No extras which is a bit of a shame but this is better than nothing.

Originally Posted by SpaceBlackKnight

These look to be from the remasters instead of ports from 30+ yr old betacam tapes. It's a miracle most of the film elements from the DiC produced portions were kept and survived (since DiC scrapped film negs to most of their later edited on tape productions after the transferred the footage to tape).

Begs the question what else survived in terms of negatives for cartoons. What else could they have negatives for? Has there been any confirmation of any other negatives from DIC cartoons that survived?

[SpaceBlackKnight]

Originally Posted by pferreira

Were the negatives found or are did they just do a cheap AI upscale from video masters?

Begs the question what else survived in terms of negatives for cartoons. What else could they have negatives for? Has there been any confirmation of any other negatives from DIC cartoons that survived?

For Captain Planet, the DIC co-produced seasons are mostly native HD from OCN trims found in the Turner archives. Things like credits and on screen texts were rebuilt digitally while some random shots here and there are AI upscaled from video masters (think Rescue Rangers' HD masters). These are no doubt due to missing trims or having alternate takes that didn't match but were originally fixed via analog means after transfer to tape. The Hanna Barbera seasons fare much better (being they were one of the few studios who kept film elements to productions edited/finished on tape unlike several others).

As for other DIC owned stuff, it's well known the film elements to almost all their edited on tape series post-1987 were hauled away and mostly discarded. Some of their co-productions had the film elements and finished masters stored with the co-producer, which was how this series restoration became possible and that others like Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater (co-produced with MGM and Sanrio) might also have a chance.

Some folks found random OCN trims to shows like Captain N: The Game Master (which Kineko Video had scanned and uploaded to their channel) through facility dumpster dives, and a few former DIC employees were given trims to The Ghostbusters series plus the rare pilot that were obtained by avid collectors.

Most productions prior to approx. 1986 were finished on film and those remain intact in the Wild Brain archives. Keep in mind there was a period where series that began finished on film transitioned to tape and may not have all the elements. Inspector Gadget was one of these and Wild Brain remastered it for some NFT promotion. It looked like all of it was native HD, but I wonder what they did for the last season and a half which was def finished on tape and may have not had elements left.

[pferreira]

Originally Posted by SpaceBlackKnight

Most productions prior to approx. 1986 were finished on film and those remain intact in the Wild Brain archives. Keep in mind there was a period where series that began finished on film transitioned to tape and may not have all the elements. Inspector Gadget was one of these and Wild Brain remastered it for some NFT promotion. It looked like all of it was native HD, but I wonder what they did for the last season and a half which was def finished on tape and may have not had elements left.

Wow, how did you find all this out?

Surprised Captain Planet survives since as you say it is within this period. Wait, so Inspector Gadget is in HD? Do you think The Real Ghostbusters is completely lost then? Also any chance Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, MASK, Heathcliff, Pole Position, The Littles and Dennis the Menace or 90's series like Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, The Legend of Zelda, Where on Earth is Carmen Santiago or The Hurricanes?

[SpaceBlackKnight]

Originally Posted by pferreira

Wow, how did you find all this out?

Surprised Captain Planet survives since as you say it is within this period. Wait, so Inspector Gadget is in HD? Do you think The Real Ghostbusters is completely lost then? Also any chance Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, MASK, Heathcliff, Pole Position, The Littles and Dennis the Menace or 90's series like Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, The Legend of Zelda, Where on Earth is Carmen Santiago or The Hurricanes?

I talk with a few people who worked at several places back in the day and some that do archival intern work for some companies time to time. Many of them were astounded as to what they have and what got destruction notices. This is in general for film, but once you go deeper into smaller studios with edited on tape stuff it gets really messy and depressing.

The following DIC titles on your list were (mostly) finished on film and should be in existence:

Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, MASK, Heathcliff, The Littles

Almost all DIC controlled series post-1986 were edited/finished on tape after transferring from film negs. These reportedly had their film elements sent off for destruction but various trims were found in dumpster dives and from former DIC employees. By aprox. 1996 DIC fully transitioned to digipaint with series that started cels work on film eventually switching over.

The Columbia Television co-productions might have film elements within Sony's archives, but the former has been seriously neglecting it's lesser TV output for some time now.

As for Inspector Gadget HD, someone ripped ending credits from Ep 7 which is hosted on a place called Gamisodes https://gamisodes.com/. It appears to be native HD with redone text.

[Kirben]

Inspector Gadget is been released on Blu-ray by Birnenblatt in Germany soon, but only in SD format, so it seems unlikely a HD remaster of the complete series exists.

[SpaceBlackKnight]

Originally Posted by Kirben

Inspector Gadget is been released on Blu-ray by Birnenblatt in Germany soon, but only in SD format, so it seems unlikely a HD remaster of the complete series exists.

I heard the HD masters have timed exclusivities with the place that did the anniversary NFTs (of which the entire series was accessible via purchase of a pricey NFT package) and Gameisodes with episode 7. As the German BDs were planned long before info of the restorations got out, I assume they were given SD masters WildBrain only had available.

[pferreira]

Originally Posted by SpaceBlackKnight

Almost all DIC controlled series post-1986 were edited/finished on tape after transferring from film negs. These reportedly had their film elements sent off for destruction but various trims were found in dumpster dives and from former DIC employees. By aprox. 1996 DIC fully transitioned to digipaint with series that started cels work on film eventually switching over.

The Columbia Television co-productions might have film elements within Sony's archives, but the former has been seriously neglecting it's lesser TV output for some time now.

It's bizarre Captain Planet was spared considering it falls within that timeframe of destruction.

I know this isn't DIC but what's the likelihood of Fred Wolf TMNT surviving?

[bongozoid]

Originally Posted by pferreira

It's bizarre Captain Planet was spared considering it falls within that timeframe of destruction.

I know this isn't DIC but what's the likelihood of Fred Wolf TMNT surviving?

Zero. Possibly minus zero.

[SpaceBlackKnight]

Originally Posted by pferreira

It's bizarre Captain Planet was spared considering it falls within that timeframe of destruction.

I know this isn't DIC but what's the likelihood of Fred Wolf TMNT surviving?

Zero. It was confirmed by one of the show producers that the negs were immeditely discarded back in the day after being transferred to tape. This was an industry practace most animation studios took to reduce storage costs on productions finished on videotape. The same company that produced TMNT, Murkami-Wolf Animation, also produced shows like Toxic Avengers of which the same thing happened and were all left with finished tape masters.

[pferreira]

Originally Posted by SpaceBlackKnight

Zero. It was confirmed by one of the show producers that the negs were immeditely discarded back in the day after being transferred to tape.

Do you have a link to where this was mentioned? A shame if this was true for the entire series.

Also do you know a website or forum where it lists all cartoons from the 80's and 90's that survive via negatives? I just wanted to avoid constantly asking you about blah blah cartoon.

[SpaceBlackKnight]

Originally Posted by pferreira

Do you have a link to where this was mentioned? A shame if this was true for the entire series.

Also do you know a website or forum where it lists all cartoons from the 80's and 90's that survive via negatives? I just wanted to avoid constantly asking you about blah blah cartoon.

Someone way back in the TMNT DVD release thread mentioned the producers tidbit about the negs getting scrapped way back during production.

As for a list of what survives, there were threads on one of the big cartoon fourms and on HTF. Not sure if theyre still up as the one on HTF got deleted due to mass bickering and mods auto banning ppl.

[excelsiorlef]

Originally Posted by GP Legend

Itunes just put out the complete set for this, and it is listed in HD! Anyone know how it looks in HD?

Just bought it today and it looks pretty damn good.

[pferreira]

Originally Posted by SpaceBlackKnight

As for a list of what survives, there were threads on one of the big cartoon fourms and on HTF. Not sure if theyre still up as the one on HTF got deleted due to mass bickering and mods auto banning ppl.

If you do find a link to a forum about this please could you let me know? It's difficult finding people with specific knowledge of this stuff.

[SpaceBlackKnight]

Originally Posted by pferreira

If you do find a link to a forum about this please could you let me know? It's difficult finding people with specific knowledge of this stuff.

Sure will.

[meremortal]

I'd love a remastered Captain N set but at least have the dvd set. It was a show I watched so many times as a kid. Captain Planet was one I did watch but wasn't quite as into and frankly just can't really remember anything about. The Don Cheadle parodies were hilarious, though.