Tons of Toons Shipped!

[Steve Stanchfield]

YIPES!    Don't be TOO hard on him. he's a member of the forum for sure and a cartoony person...he bought the set just for that cartoon, so, even though I was surprised, I kind of understand....

[Thad Komorowski]

A disc of high-def rarities and he complains about the "lack of color" on an IB Tech. That guy needs to be in a straightjacket.

[ryanhoek]

You are simply too kind and generous,Steve.

YIPES!    Don't be TOO hard on him. he's a member of the forum for sure and a cartoony person...he bought the set just for that cartoon, so, even though I was surprised, I kind of understand....

[Retro00064]

Something must not have been configured right on his end. This transfer has much better color than the old Turner TV transfer of the cartoon, and much better audio as well. Some of the reds (such as  's red coat) are so saturated that if the brightness, contrast/gain, or color saturation is set a little too high (either in the settings for your display or if the player is pumping it up) then the red overtakes the lines.

As for the "too many scratches" comment, that's just indicative of the typical "film" buff mentality.

Attached are a few frames from the transfer, taken from the Blu-ray. Other than having been resized from 1080p to 540p, these screenshots are accurate to the video encoded on the Blu-ray. How are they "lacking in color"?

[Professor Bluteau]

Just arrived this morning here in the UK - what a pleasant surprise! Given the time of year, I wasn't expecting it to get to me until early in 2015. I'll be watching it later tonight. 

Thanks as always, Steve!

[Steve Stanchfield]

When I put together the disc, I did think the reds were a little too hot- you want to stay accurate to the prints but still deal with the best look for HD... I'm  thinking I should have toned them all down just a bit! Gulliver was especially hard to get the color timing good on... it was all over the place color timing-wise shot for shot...

When you do a telecine transfer, you do a basic color adjustment and lots and lots of other adjustments. Pat and I have a bunch of settings that we've saved in the Telecine suite, so when we do an IB tech print, we pull up all the other IB tech prints we've done for settings, looking for ones that are close to the color content of the actual print. Most of the films transferred in this session were based on the color timing of a print of Texas Tom. The Blue-tracks were timed based on a blu-track transfer of a cartoon, and the Popeye was timed based on one of the Noveltoons transfer sessions, with little adjustment...

To me, these discs are the next best thing to the old screening parties we'd have showing old cartoons.. miss those days!

[NicKramer]

Honestly, from the screenshots posted, the transfer looks very good.  I mean, sure, the colors are a little bright, but this is what I would expect the restored print would look like had Warners went ahead and release it on Blu-Ray.  I don't see why that one guy complained about it lacking color. 

[Retro00064]

Well Steve, Mouse Cleaning and Clown of the Jungle are the only two on the set in which I noticed red that bright (the color in Bubble Bee actually seems a little less strong than I would expect from the average Technicolor print, though I'm totally fine with it if that's what the print looks like). If the red on those two prints is as bright as (or brighter than) in the transfers then I can't say I have a problem with them.

I love these special sets for three reasons: 1. The rarities (including rare original prints) that you put on them (EDIT: I like the high-quality transfers of the other prints also, but especially the 35mm prints, high-quality 16mm prints, and prints with rare footage like original titles); 2. I like being able to see these prints in their actual state (i.e. unrestored) (aside from base scratches being hidden in the case of wet-gate transfers, which is perfectly fine with me); (3) and because of that, NO modern-day revisionism: any flaws that have always been a part of the picture are there and the original reel change cues from the camera negative are intact (if the negative had them and the frames containing them are intact on the print).

On another note, here's the photos of the 35mm print of The Office Boy from the eBay listing for the print from back in August. Thought I'd post them because it's cool to see what the physical film strip looks like and you rarely get to see that. What you see in the photos is an extremely rare antique item!

[Paul Penna]

On the images of the film strips, it's interesting to see a vintage example of the pre-Academy Ratio sound-on-film aspect ratio. And on the strip with the opening title card: note how the artwork, particularly of the elephant, extends beyond the dark vertical "frame" line at the left. The process that led to this would be interesting to delve into.

[Tom Stathes]

And on the strip with the opening title card: note how the artwork, particularly of the elephant, extends beyond the dark vertical "frame" line at the left. The process that led to this would be interesting to delve into.

I could be wrong, but looks to be like the picture was printed on the film first and then the soundtrack area, with a misalignment, hence the overlapping. Lots of interesting things to see when actually handling or looking at the original prints 

[Treadwell]

I noticed that, too. Also, I might have seen one, but never taken notice before of a unilateral optical track.

[Leviathan]

Steve, please check your PM's. Please. It's Important.

Nice set, BTW. Zero complaints.

[Retro00064]

Yeah, the vertical "line" is apparently simply the right side of the track area, and when the print was made, a little too much of the picture was printed widthwise, considerably overlapping the track. The sliver of picture that extends past the "line" is where it is overlapping the clear part of the track that represents the audio.

[duck dodgers]

Waiting for me, hoping to get it soon.

[duck dodgers]

Got it todat, terrific! You're great, Steve! Another marvellous disc of classic theatrical animated goodies!