Warner Archive Collection Blu-ray Discussion Thread

[dvdmrp]

Could the animated movie be Quest For Camelot from 1998? That hasn’t had a bluray yet. I’d love for a widescreen bluray of that and of Tom and Jerry the Movie.

[akaun6899]

Originally Posted by ukulelemonster

Oh good one! I don't believe Charlotte's Web has been released here in the states yet.

That's with Paramount, at least in the USA. According to a user in the Kino Lorber forum, WB has international rights (post #70667, page 3534).

Originally Posted by SpaceBlackKnight

Yes, they only own US distribution rights (International rights are with Warner as they own co-producer Hanna Barbera). Paramount reportedly completed a 4k remaster not long after they did a 4k HDR of the 2006 movie.

That's the first I've heard of WB having any ownership of Charlotte's Web, though. That said, it's high on my wishlist.

Originally Posted by dvdmrp

Could the animated movie be Quest For Camelot from 1998? That hasn’t had a bluray yet. I’d love for a widescreen bluray of that and of Tom and Jerry the Movie.

I asked the question about whether a streaming remaster would lead to a disc, and the latter is the film I was referring to; I was cagey about it because I know the movie isn't exactly a favorite among audiences and fans, but the HD version on HBO Max got my hopes up.

[Glorian]

Originally Posted by akaun6899

That's with Paramount, at least in the USA. According to a user in the Kino Lorber forum, WB has international rights (post #70667, page 3534).



That's the first I've heard of WB having any ownership of Charlotte's Web, though. That said, it's high on my wishlist.

I wasn't aware of a split in the rights; since WB has the Hanna-Barbera catalog, I just assumed it was with them. If Paramount does have U.S. rights, Charlotte's Web can probably be ruled out as a possibility.

[Leviathan]

Originally Posted by xochipilli

When George said an animated feature was being remastered from a 4K scan off the camera negative, I had a hard time thinking of older films they own that fit that category. I know of a few more recent ones, like Cats Don't Dance, but with them being so recent I would imagine they would go for a standard 2K restoration. Besides Gay Pur-ee, can some more knowledgeable animation fans here name some older animated films owned by WB which could be the one he's talking about?

Twice Upon a Time might be a possibility. That is WB-owned, and when the WAC put it out on DVD, it was treated as a big deal.

[Shanghai Express]

Disappointed about the precodes. After Mary Stevens and Ladies They Talk About I thought more were coming but I guess not. He didn’t say anything was in the pipeline.

[Areyakiddin]

I'd probably bet upon it being Gay Purr-ee since they seem to be actively trying to completely release everything WB owns staring Judy Garland (plus it's a Warner Bros. movie in time for the 100th).

It might be stretching the definition of a "feature", but I wonder if it could be one of the Rankin Bass specials? Other than The Year Without a Santa Claus and Flight of the Dragons, WB's part of the library is very under-represented on Blu-ray.

Originally Posted by ukulelemonster

I didn't listen to the podcast, but I think your Gay Pur-ee guess is a good one. If he's referring to an even older film, could he possibly be referencing Mr. Bug Goes To Town (1941)?

Mr. Bug Goes To Town is completely owned by Paramount.

[playingphysicist]

Originally Posted by Areyakiddin

It might be stretching the definition of a "feature", but I wonder if it could be one of the Rankin Bass specials? Other than The Year Without a Santa Claus and Flight of the Dragons, WB's part of the library is very under-represented on Blu-ray.

.

Oh god I'd love to see a proper release of The Hobbit and Return of the King. Hobbit's DVD releases have all been terrible - missing audio and sound effects.

Return of the King doesnt have audio problems, but hasnt been released on blu.

Technically, they were TV movies, not full feature films.

[ukulelemonster]

Originally Posted by Areyakiddin

Mr. Bug Goes To Town is completely owned by Paramount.

I don't know why I thought it was in the WB library. Maybe I'm mixing it up with another Fleischer film/property?

[Areyakiddin]

Originally Posted by ukulelemonster

I don't know why I thought it was in the WB library. Maybe I'm mixing it up with another Fleischer film/property?

Gulliver's Travels, the only other Fleischer film, is in the public domain. WB does own the Popeye cartoons and the negatives for their Superman series.

[whiteberry]

Originally Posted by Areyakiddin

It might be stretching the definition of a "feature", but I wonder if it could be one of the Rankin Bass specials? Other than The Year Without a Santa Claus and Flight of the Dragons, WB's part of the library is very under-represented on Blu-ray.

Yeah I've been wondering why they haven't released them on blu-ray. Many of them have been available in HD digitally for a few years now:

• The First Christmas: The Story Of The First Christmas Snow
• Frosty's Winter Wonderland
• Rudolph's Shiny New Year
• The Easter Bunny Is Comin' To Town
• The Hobbit
• Rudolph And Frosty's Christmas In July
• Jack Frost
• Pinocchio's Christmas

[playingphysicist]

Originally Posted by whiteberry

Yeah I've been wondering why they haven't released them on blu-ray. Many of them have been available in HD digitally for a few years now:

• The First Christmas: The Story Of The First Christmas Snow
• Frosty's Winter Wonderland
• Rudolph's Shiny New Year
• The Easter Bunny Is Comin' To Town
• The Hobbit
• Rudolph And Frosty's Christmas In July
• Jack Frost
• Pinocchio's Christmas

Hobbit would require some work because the master they used for the DVD is damaged it's missing some post-production sound effects. They foolishly released it as is on DVD twice and everyone hates it there are people that have dubbed in the audio from the VHS release just to have it so it's passable.

So they have to figure something out for the audio unless they're stupid enough to give us a higher resolution scan of a flawed Master with bad audio, it needs a proper restoration even if it's taken from a VHS master.

My understanding is that a vault fire is why it's missing, though it was fine for the VHS and betamax release.

[Starchild]

Does anyone know if Father’s Little Dividend is owned by WB? I realize it’s in the public domain, but I’ve often wondered why it hasn’t been given the Warner Archive treatment that Father of the Bride received.

[Mauve]

Would kill for some pre-code stuff. Anything really.

[BamaDullard]

Originally Posted by Mauve

Would kill for some pre-code stuff. Anything really.

Would love Blonde Crazy or Three On A Match.

Regarding the latter film, it’s hard to steal the show from Joan Blondell, Humphrey Bogart, and Bette Davis. But that’s what Ann Dvorak does.

[CineClassics]

Originally Posted by BamaDullard

Would love Blonde Crazy or Three On A Match.

Regarding the latter film, it’s hard to steal the show from Joan Blondell, Humphrey Bogart, and Bette Davis. But that’s what Ann Dvorak does.

I've been meaning to watch Three on a Match. I see it hasn't been released by WB on even dvd, much less blu-ray. Wonder why WB has yet to release a film with Bogart, Bette Davis and Joan Blondell on SD. Perhaps the OCN is lost and the surviving elements are in poor condition?

[abudgell]

I was delighted that Tim Millard asked my question about Raintree County on The Extras Podcast. George Feltenstein gave a very in-depth response, around seven minutes in length (beginning around the 21-minute mark), about the history of the film, the challenges of restoring it, and the approach that could potentially be taken to do so. He concludes with some encouraging words:

"There are some people who think it's a good film, there are some people who think it's not a good film. That's kind of irrelevant in the sense that we want to protect this film. Right now it isn't really properly protected to the degree that it should be. ... We're going to find a way to do it. I'm not the only person around here that is aware of this. The preservation and restoration team are very aware of it. It's going to be a monstrous project to take on but [that] doesn't mean it's impossible. ... The film is not being treated properly, the company is aware of it, and wants to do right by it so eventually it can happen."

[MillyD]

Originally Posted by EVOLVIST

Captains of the Clouds (1942) ~ First of all, hilariously enough, the movie has "Captains" in the title, yet all of the flyers are lieutenants. Whoops. But I get it.

Secondly, Jame Cagney's first Technicolor picture, and he's a prick the whole movie long. If Cagney wasn't Cagney, and we knew somebody like that, consult your mental healthcare professional. This guy's a loon. Ditto for Brenda Marshall, who likes dick more than air.

To match the neurotic nature of Cagney, the film, itself, suffers from schizophrenia; it displays multiple personalities, never quite settling for one. There's a charm to that, though, as everybody screws over whomever they can, and believe you, brothers and sisters, everybody can.

It was a fun watch, bolstered by a more earthen Technicolor pallette, slightly muted, compared to the saturated glow of 1948's The Pirate or 1939's Elizabeth and Essex. The restoration here is just a good as anything that WAC has done. It's beautiful, without a hint of matrice misalignment, and nary a sign of digital manipulation. There's some tough scenes to encode, too. Fog is prevelant. You might expect the image to breakup at any moment, but it never does. I think I caught a tiny whiff of posterization, but we're talking a second at the most.

A big draw for me is the aerial photography, which comprises about 35% of the picture. I'm just spitballing that number, but whatever it is, it's a lot. The aerial scenes were shot using Technicolor's new Monopack technology (introduced in 1941), which was essentially a joint effort between Technicolor and Eastman Kodachrome, to get better color PQ out if smaller cameras, when Technicolor's 500lb camera proved to be impractical. In 1937, aerial photography of New York's skyline was filmed for Selznick's Nothing Sacred, and while it looked a great, it was limited to static images, because those mammoth cameras were unwieldy when aloft. Monopack cured this ill, allowing for planes to perform extreme aerial feats without having to adjust for weight, especially in smaller, single prop planes. The resulting 35mm blowups were of much better quality than standard 16mm Kodachrome, and Captains of the Clouds demonstrates this. The aerial shots are just a smidge grainier than regular three-strip tech, yet I was surprised just how well they fit into the pocket with the standard three-strip footage. It's near seamless. In other words, if you're not looking for it, you're not going to see it.

Also, big props to WAC for not removing the wires holding up model airplanes. The little things mean a lot. It's a nigh perfect film. No discernable DNR. I would have preferred a little more saturated look, but this film is a product of a lot of natural lighting, so the colors follow suit.

This is probably one of the best mono mixes from the 1940s that I've heard. It sounds like it was recorded yesterday. There's nothing peaky about those high-mids that's typical of the era.

It's not a great film by any means. I thought that there would be a lot more combat. The action takes off only during the last 20 minutes of the movie. I'm glad I purchased it, though, as each restoration of this caliber is a minor miracle. That should never be underestimated nor taken lightly.

In this one, and also The Fighting 69th Cagney's character, to modern audiences, seems to act more sane when not being patriotic than when he is. The tone of the movies are all over the place. Clearly they were meant to be wartime propaganda films rather than strictly entertainment, but they way they were doing so was very odd.

[romuald121]

It might not be a fan favorite but would like to see Quest for Camelot 1998 on bluray. While most of its competitors titles like Prince of Egypt or Anastasia or Hercules by Disney, during the time it came out, had received a bluray edition, this one is stuck on streaming services or on low quality DVD.

[gudemameshiba]

Originally Posted by Shanghai Express

They should, though. Their social media presence is virtually nonexistent and there is no good reason for that. Some of these boutique labels are run by middle-aged loner nerds in their moms' basements and they still use Twitter and Facebook for announcements and news. It's obvious that the powers that be at WAC have made the decision not to engage with fans and collectors for the time being, George's infrequent podcast guest appearances notwithstanding.

Originally Posted by Mr. Thomsen

I believe George mentioned in a previous podcast episode that they were down to four people in total now, which means that they originally probably were between 30 and 40 employed at WAC. And I am not even sure those four people are fulltime.

Asked and answered basically, although it's worth keeping in mind that preservation is a different department.

Originally Posted by DavidRoylance

The German release of Zombie will be, like the Japanese one, taken from whatever RKO holdings Universal have as they (used to) have the European rights to the RKO library, and produced an awful lot of terrible dvds as a result.

Originally Posted by KHannersHM

Japan is one of the few places in the world where Warner doesn't control home video rights to RKO films, but the PQ and AQ of the company that does control them there has been distinctively subpar. Buyer beware.

I seem to recall that the IVC (Japanese) RKO Blu-rays are sourced from Lobster Films holdings licensed via MK2.

Originally Posted by CineClassics

I've been meaning to watch Three on a Match. I see it hasn't been released by WB on even dvd, much less blu-ray. Wonder why WB has yet to release a film with Bogart, Bette Davis and Joan Blondell on SD. Perhaps the OCN is lost and the surviving elements are in poor condition?

Three on a Match is on DVD in the Forbidden Hollywood Collection: Volume 2.

[OceanBlue]

On today's repeat of UK gameshow Pointless, in the final round the two contestants chose the category 'Judy Garland'. One of the three sub-categories was films the actress made during some or part of her MGM contract (the contestants have to come up with three answers, with at least one of them which no one else has thought of). When I first saw this edition I hadn't heard of The Clock. Inbetween first seeing it, and today's repeat, there had been the WAC announcement and subsequent (recent) Blu-ray release. Out of the answers which were Pointless, the only film I recognised was The Clock. Having had a quick look at the Blu-ray.com review, I'll be adding this recent WAC release to the list of WAC titles I'll (hopefully) eventually get.

The latter of the two sixth season Medical Center episodes I watched last night, "No Way Home", had a guest star cast which included Joseph Campanella and Cyd Charisse. Some clips were shown during the episode from films which starred Charisse (on studio sets, in one clip she was dancing at the top of a mountain). It did add a touch of class to what was already an interesting episode. Have checked the IMDb page for this episode of Medical Center, and in the trivia section it says the clips were from the films Sombrero, Deep in My Heart and Silk Stockings (have checked the Blu-ray.com database, and there are listings for WAC Blu-ray releases of Deep in My Heart and Silk Stockings. Musicals aren't normally my thing, but occasionly I see a film or TV clip which are enchanting, and the clips from these Cyd Charisse films were certainly that. I might get one of these WAC releases).