It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

[Tom Monahan]

Originally Posted by Elvis

I just hope its in color and has a good grain cleaning! It needs to look like it was just shot yesterday!

Now that is funny.

[ScarredLungs]

Originally Posted by Clark Kent

If George Bailey had never lived I hear HD DVD would have won the format war.

Originally Posted by JadedRaverLA

Every time someone buys a Blu-ray player, an angel gets its wings. And everytime someone bought an HD DVD player, an angel was mauled to death by a centaur. It was a messy war.

That is the funniest thing I have read all day

[MovieBuff0815]

Just in time for Christmas!! Can't wait to see it in Blu!!

[Rob9874]

Pre-ordered today

[BPHusker]

Any reviews for this yet?

[rezpekt]

DVDBeaver's review. Audio is lossy... "good job", Paramount.

[STARSCREAM]

Originally Posted by rezpekt

DVDBeaver's review. Audio is lossy... "good job", Paramount.

They have been listening to Warner.

Wonder what is up with the audio pops?

[steve_dave]

Its lossy 2.0 mono.

What you were really expecting Crterion quality PCM 2.0 mono?

Even Warner presents the original mono tracks for The Wizard of Oz, Casblanca, and Gone With The Wind in lossy DD mono. Hell, Fox even did that with Young Frankenstein's original mono presentation.

Could Paramount have done up a gimmicky 5.1 mix just for lossles? Sure. But then you'd have the same problem as the color version of the film, it just doesn't feel right.

At least according to the review, the BD "fixes" the audio pops from the DVD. Although I also am unsure of what that means.

[andyman1970]

Originally Posted by rezpekt

DVDBeaver's review. Audio is lossy... "good job", Paramount.

I don't think it would have made a difference for this dialogue heavy movie that is 63 years old. I wouldn't have expected a lossless HD sound track 5.1 or even 2.0 for this movie.

[Steve]

I wouldn't have expected a lossless track on this one either.

I'm glad it's going to include both the colorized and B&W versions. While I prefer the black and white, I'm curious to give the colorized version a watch and see how far they've come with that. I'm also glad to hear about the $10 coupon included with the movie since I already own it on DVD.

[reginaroadie]

Yeah. I'm looking to pick this one up as an upgrade. I'm always more excited for older films to be released on Blu-Ray, because the restoration that goes into them are more jaw dropping than more recent releases. And while IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE isn't exactly a visually dynamic film (although there's some great lighting and shadow play that would be at home in a film noir) it would be great to see it cleaned up and look nice.

As for the colorized version of the film, while I'll agree that the technology behind it has grown leaps and bounds, I could barely sit through it. With the multi-angle feature on the previous disc, I flipped back and forth and it just felt wrong. It's weird to see it in color when the version you fell in love with was in B&W. It would be like seeing GONE WITH THE WIND in B&W. It would just feel odd and unnatural.

And it's strange that while we associate the film with being relentlessly cheery and optimistic, if you look closer at it, there's some pretty relentlessly bleak stuff that would make even Lars von Trier himself sit up and go "That is some harsh shit right there." I guess the reason the ending is so memorable is because it's been earned after seeing George first go through the worst day in his life and then literally going through Hell. And even though there are some stuff that's MST3K laughably bad (I love Evil Bert shooting at George wildly into a crowd) 30 seconds later, your heart is breaking when George is going "I wanna live again. I wanna live again."

[Adam_ME]

Originally Posted by steve_dave

Its lossy 2.0 mono.

What you were really expecting Crterion quality PCM 2.0 mono?

Well that would've been nice. Even WB has started offering Dolby TrueHD mixes for their 2.0 releases(Creepshow for example).

[Grand Bob]

Originally Posted by nycomet

I want the original THE TEN COMMANDMENTS on Blu

Count me in on that one - we watch it every year. Now that It's A Wonderful Life is coming, I hope White Christmas isn't far behind.

[steve_dave]

Originally Posted by Adam_ME

Well that would've been nice. Even WB has started offering Dolby TrueHD mixes for their 2.0 releases(Creepshow for example).

But if Warner is offering both a remix and the original mix then the remix gets the lossless audiio.

Wizard of Oz and Gone With The Wind list TrueHD audio but just for the 5.1 remixes. The original mono tracks are lossy DD and both Casablanca and The Adventures of Robin Hood only include lossy DD mono tracks.

And even then its not a guarantee that Warner will provide lossless on every release. Warner's TV on BD releases are still DD only.

[tommyboy81]

Originally Posted by Elvis

I just hope its in color and has a good grain cleaning! It needs to look like it was just shot yesterday!

ok. I like to see the green clothes with the green walls. If not then I don't want.

For those not knowing what I'm talking about alot of stuff that was in black and white had a lot of different color greens on clothes, wall, etc.... Well from the tv shows that went from black and white to color.

[gregmasciola]

At first I wasn't too sure if this movie would look much better on Blu than on DVD, but after looking at those DVD Beaver screen caps, I know I'll buy it right away. I can already see so much more detail in their clothes and hair. Nov. 3rd will be an expensive day!

[ScarredLungs]

Originally Posted by reginaroadie

Yeah. I'm looking to pick this one up as an upgrade. I'm always more excited for older films to be released on Blu-Ray, because the restoration that goes into them are more jaw dropping than more recent releases. And while IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE isn't exactly a visually dynamic film (although there's some great lighting and shadow play that would be at home in a film noir) it would be great to see it cleaned up and look nice.

As for the colorized version of the film, while I'll agree that the technology behind it has grown leaps and bounds, I could barely sit through it. With the multi-angle feature on the previous disc, I flipped back and forth and it just felt wrong. It's weird to see it in color when the version you fell in love with was in B&W. It would be like seeing GONE WITH THE WIND in B&W. It would just feel odd and unnatural.

And it's strange that while we associate the film with being relentlessly cheery and optimistic, if you look closer at it, there's some pretty relentlessly bleak stuff that would make even Lars von Trier himself sit up and go "That is some harsh shit right there." I guess the reason the ending is so memorable is because it's been earned after seeing George first go through the worst day in his life and then literally going through Hell. And even though there are some stuff that's MST3K laughably bad (I love Evil Bert shooting at George wildly into a crowd) 30 seconds later, your heart is breaking when George is going "I wanna live again. I wanna live again."

Does the blu-ray come with both B&W and color version?

[koontz1973]

Originally Posted by cvm

Does the blu-ray come with both B&W and color version?

yes!

[ScarredLungs]

Originally Posted by koontz1973

yes!

Oh okay, Thanks. I have never seen the color version of the film. For those of you who have seen it, which do you prefer, the Color or B&W?

[PRO-630HD]

But I have to say there would have been nothing wrong with a 2.0 True HD track. Warner has used them to good effect. 192 kbps audio is slightly unacceptable for bluray.