Looney Tunes Censored 11 comes to Warner Archive in 2011! (1 Viewer)

[Essanay Paul]

Speaking of which...has anyone ever confirmed one way or the other whether the repeated cartoons from the two Super Stars DVDs which ended up on those two "three cartoons on one DVD" releases were cropped for widescreen or released in full frame? I have read arguments that WB probably wouldn't make the effort to remaster them for a budget release (and I agree), but some were on the Platinum Blu-Rays in full frame, right? I don't remember off the top of my head which ones they are and whether they were on the Blu-Rays or not -- did anyone buy those two DVDs (Unleashed and Best Of Bugs Bunny)?

A reply to my Amazon review of those 3-cartoon DVD releases says that they are still the cropped wide-screen versions from the Super Stars DVD releases. The person replying actually bought the DVDs. Ian Neumann says: I got this DVD. And I should have read the warning on the Bugs Bunny Video Guide Website: http://www.dohtem.com/bugs/news/ The following cartoons are still in widescreen: The Million Hare (1963) Napoleon Bunny-Part (1956) Apes of Wrath (1959) Stork Naked (1955) And they're just like the ones from the first two Looney Tunes Super Stars DVDs!

 

[JoeDoakes]

Warner Brothers commissions restoration experts to do the restoration work. Here is the amount of work done by each division. Warner Archive: The best currently available video transfer is used, no restoration. Warner Family Entertainment Division: New film to video Hi-Resolution transfers are created, but no additional digital restoration work is done (including the replacement of original titles from other film sources). Warner Classics: New film to video Hi-Definition transfers are created. Various film sources may be used to restore missing or altered footage. Full digital restoration is performed on the new Hi-Definition transfers. Just compare the first Tom & Jerry DVD transfers (Family Division) to the new Blu-ray transfers (Classic Division). Unfortunately the packaging rarely tells you which division is creating the discs. In general all Looney Tunes releases EXCEPT "GOLDEN COLLECTION", "SPOTLIGHT COLLECTION", and "PLATINUM COLLECTION" come from the Family Entertainment Division. There are a few one-off exceptions like 'THE ESSENTIAL BUGS BUNNY"', "MOUSE CHRONICLES", and I believe "THE ACADEMY AWARD COLLECTION".

Thanks. You seem to know more about this than I do. From what you write, it still seems any restoration is done with a specific release in mind. It would be nice if WB would look on the restoring the Looney Tunes as a capital investment. BTW: When Warner Archives says a title is remastered, what happened with that?

 

[Essanay Paul]

Thanks. You seem to know more about this than I do. From what you write, it still seems any restoration is done with a specific release in mind. It would be nice if WB would look on the restoring the Looney Tunes as a capital investment. BTW: When Warner Archives says a title is remastered, what happened with that?

When the Warner Archive says a title has been "Re-mastered", that means a new video master of that film had been created (usually for TCM or another cable network). This new film to video transfer would be superior to the previous video master that The Warner Archive had used for their MOD DVD-Rs of that title. So The Warner Archive is telling their fans that they should buy the title again, because now it looks better. On a few rare occasions, The Warner Archive only had access to "Pan & Scan" TV video tapes of some widescreen movies. These are being replaced by new 16x9 transfers as the Cable Networks request that format. The Warner Archive Thread here at the Home Theater Forum has been discussing this. http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/293104/warner-archive-discussion-thread-the-announcements-the-films/3810

 

[KHH256]

When the Warner Archive says a title has been "Re-mastered", that means a new video master of that film had been created (usually for TCM or another cable network). This new film to video transfer would be superior to the previous video master that The Warner Archive had used for their MOD DVD-Rs of that title. So The Warner Archive is telling their fans that they should buy the title again, because now it looks better. On a few rare occasions, The Warner Archive only had access to "Pan & Scan" TV video tapes of some widescreen movies. These are being replaced by new 16x9 transfers as the Cable Networks request that format. The Warner Archive Thread here at the Home Theater Forum has been discussing this. http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/293104/warner-archive-discussion-thread-the-announcements-the-films/3810

Actually, the converse of what is stated above is the actuality, as I understand it. Warner Archives has NEVER released a 'pan and scan' title to my knowledge. While it is accurate to say that their initial releases years ago used 'existing sources', that has been less and less the case in recent years. It is fairly well established that they began to do their own remastering and have done so for hundreds of features and several TV series in the last few years. They are the ones remastering films in 16x9 when nothing else is available, while TV airings often continue to be from an older source. Of course remastering and restoration are two totally different issues (and restoration is really what is relevant to this thread about classic animation), although Warner Archives has indicated some photochemical restorations were sourced for several of the new remastered titles that they have issued. Again, relating to feature films, just to clarify.