Prince Planet (1 Viewer)

I see Prince Planet is coming out in mid-May. It is 47 episodes, not sure what is up with the missing 5 other episodes to make a total of 52. MGM has them on HULU and it is the same 47 episodes. I am hoping that the quality is as good as it is on HULU. Another great 1960's Japanese animated series. Does anyone have any information about this release?

This clearly gives one the idea of what a mess some parts of the AIP library is!

Makes you wonder where the heck are the SINBAD,Jr shows are!

TGG probably just licensed this from MGM, and those 47 are all MGM have. Trawling the net it appears that the ones in MGM and the known ones to be in "private collections" togther make up the complete series; MGM possess the ones that are missing from the private collections.

It's just a damn shame that this wasn't taken onboard by a label like Shout Factory, who would probably have gone to great lengths to secure the entire series. As it is is rather smacks of "buy it cheapo from MGM and slap it onto disc"

The fact that it is 47 episodes crammed onto five discs speaks volumes. Not that Shout aren't above doing this either; look at their Movies4You releases; four films, one disc.

Nebiroth said:

The fact that it is 47 episodes crammed onto five discs speaks volumes. Not that Shout aren't above doing this either; look at their Movies4You releases; four films, one disc.

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Warner Archive's release of Marine Boy isn't much better either.

Fortunately animation tend to compress exceptionally well because the images are much more simplified. But I agree, I think Warner cheapskated a bit on Marine Boy too.

Quality releases generally stick to two hours or so even on a dual-layer disc.

The release date just got pushed back 2 months to July 15th. I am not sure if that is a good or bad thing? No one can compare to the Prince who wears a medalion on his chest......

dhammer said:

The release date just got pushed back 2 months to July 15th. I am not sure if that is a good or bad thing? No one can compare to the Prince who wears a medalion on his chest......

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Maybe Metro is going to make an effort to check the vaults to see if the other 5 are there?

It would be really nice to think they've had messages from people complaining about the release being incomplete - and some offering to supply the missing episodes.

Collectors can be a weird bunch but if I happened to hold one or more of these episodes I'd happily offer it to be used so that a complete series could be released for all to enjoy.

That would be worth waiting a few months for. I really never expected this release in the first place, and if it is as good as it appears on HULU I will be happy with that. I can remember when Astro Boy was being prepared for release and they were looking for good copies from collectors.

If you think that's bad try Amazing Three! All the English dubbed episodes for that show are lost except a few off airs.

I kind of want to get this because I'm something of a completist when it comes to early Japanese animation, but the few episodes of Prince Planet that I've seen were simply not very good. I did buy Marine Boy, but I was somewhat disappointed in that also. The best early anime series I've bought recently was "Cutie Honey" (1973).

Lord Dalek said:

If you think that's bad try Amazing Three! All the English dubbed episodes for that show are lost except a few off airs.

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That's bad, but the main pain here is that the Prince Planet episodes that are missing from this release, according to the pre-release listings, are not truly lost: they are just ones that MGM don't happen to hold.

According to various anime forums, the MGM holdings include six episodes that are generally regarded as missing from private collections, whilst the five that are absent from MHM (and thus Hulu and this forthcoming DVD release) are known to be in those private collections.

Collectively (hur hur) speaking, the series is complete. Of course, whether that means that they are all the English dub editions is another question, but in the 21st century, original Japanese tracks with English subs are not only perfectly acceptable but indeed often seen as preferable.

Whether such a budget release would ever have the budget to do a "proper" job of tracking down obscure missing parts of doing English subs is qnother question.

According to Wiki the series was also broadcast in Australia and Brazil. Prior to a definitive release the broadcasters there would also surely be checked.

Nebiroth said:

That's bad, but the main pain here is that the Prince Planet episodes that are missing from this release, according to the pre-release listings, are not truly lost: they are just ones that MGM don't happen to hold.

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The question is, how did MGM lose them? The AIP Library hasn't gone through too many hands since the Filmways purchase in the mid 1970's. Their assets management team should have done a better job with the library.

I wonder if it will be released tomorrow or our we looking at a second delay. Amazon is now saying they need more time to say when it will be shipped or delivered. Digital Bits took it off their release schedule.

Just thought I'd mention, there is a Chicago TV station, WOCH "The Works," which is channel 40 on AT&T Uverse (at least where I'm at) which is running Prince Planet as well as Johnny Sokko and Science Fiction Theatre. I just checked Amazon and it's listed as "currently unavailable." I looked at TV.com and they only list the 48 episodes with Hulu links. Odd thing is the missing ones appear to be random and the TV.com list just skips them.