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Patrick McCart
- Patrick J. McCart
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Re: Betty Boop
The Betty Boop cartoons, along with the Fleischer Color Classics, surviving Kokos, Stone Age, Gabby, Gulliver's Travels, Hoppity Goes to Town, and all other Fleischer material except for Popeye are owned by Republic, part of Paramount. The Republic library was licensed to Lionsgate (a second time, after it initially expired).
I'm fairly sure the UCLA Film and Television Archive restored all of the cartoons years ago. So, they're ready to be remastered in HD and released on DVD. Lionsgate did nothing with them from 1997-2005 (when the contract ended), so I'm not hopeful now. They deserve the same attention WB is giving to their theatrical cartoons.
This would be a neat project for Criterion to try since they've never released animation on DVD before. They'd at least be able to meet Warner's standards.
I never thought we'd see Popeye cartoons on DVD before Betty Boop...
Tell The Weinstein Company to release Richard Williams' animated masterpiece
The Thief and the Cobbler on DVD in Panavision widescreen and uncut! See and hear what you're missing from their
Bitsy Award winner of Worst Standard Edition DVD of 2006 on
YouTube!
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Russell G
- Russell Grant
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Re: Betty Boop
I recently tranfered all my VHS copies to DVD, that said, I would a collectors set of these!
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Eric Peterson
- Eric Peterson
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Re: Betty Boop
| Someone who deals in cartoons said that Viacom has the rights to Betty Boop and isn't that still a Paramount holding? |
This is true, but Paramount has licensed certain items in it's catalog to outside companies. It is believed that these are in the control of Lion's Gate right now. I am not sure if there is concrete proof of this or not.
"Shoot a few scenes out of focus. I want to win the foreign film award."
Billy Wilder
"This business has come a long way in the last 30 years, but why should I depress you"
I.A.L. Diamond on the Movie Business (1986)
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Patrick McCart
- Patrick J. McCart
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Re: Betty Boop
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Originally Posted by BarryR
I'm like others here--over the years I've taped Boop off TV and other sources, all of it variable print quality, and have now put them on DVD, but something more complete and archival (with added documentaries etc.) would be wonderful. I'm sure Warners is aware of Boop's appeal, but are probably stymied by legalities. Boop is such an iconic animation figure, and some of the shorts featuring jazz legends as Cab Calloway border on greatness. It's an incredible situation that this can't be remedied properly (much like the prime Laurel & Hardy output from Roach, but that's another story!).
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The Laurel & Hardy films (except for those owned by Turner and Fox, all of which are on DVD now) are owned by RHI, apparently split from Hallmark. However, they're licensed to Lionsgate just like the Republic library (including Betty Boop). There's a tenetative huge box set coming out later this year with all the silents (plus tons of silent Charley Chase, Our Gang, and solo L&H shorts - plus tons of extras) - all remastered from prime materials with new transfers. It's silly to think that the Hallmark/RHI (licensed to Lionsgate) L&H films have received the worst treatment, despite being largely the most popular.
(Also, WB doesn't have legal issues with Betty Boop because they don't own them - unfortunately)
Tell The Weinstein Company to release Richard Williams' animated masterpiece
The Thief and the Cobbler on DVD in Panavision widescreen and uncut! See and hear what you're missing from their
Bitsy Award winner of Worst Standard Edition DVD of 2006 on
YouTube!
