ALL THINGS 'GODZILLA' ON DVD AND BLU-RAY!!!!! (1 Viewer)

[Lord Dalek]

Sony's releases of the Heisei Godzillas have always had some sort of deficiency. From being pan and scan only to dub only to dubtitles and so on and so forth. I will be completely surprised if something does not go wrong with this.

 

[JeffT.]

A lot of this Heisei Era (1984-1995) Godzilla stuff specifically distributed by Sony was pre-2000 when the thinking was still not really (abstractly) in anticipation of widescreen television. Of course that's all there is nowadays widescreen television monitors. At least for the present presumably these will be high definition anamorphic widescreen remasters otherwise there would be no point in making them available in the superior (and in some cases expensive) bluray format.

There are several (or many) early non-anamorphic letterbox widescreen "standard" DVD feature film releases that I would like to see made available in vastly improved upon upgrades but the companies (at present) have not done anything about it. They release these things once and that tends to be that (as far as they are concerned). But that is another battle to be addressed (in another discussion thread)!

(As I previously intimated) One would think with all the (vocal) Godzilla experts and Daikaiju online information-news websites at large that they would be influencing these major distributors in what direction to go by making the G-fans' wants and expectations known (in addition to offering their services for audio commentaries and supplemental documentaries).

Anyway, we will just have to maintain a weary eye on this latest Sony Home Entertainment bluray batch which makes this (particular) discussion thread an invaluable tool in keeping people updated and well informed.

Once again my (sincere) thanks to everyone who has participated-contributed!

Jeff T.

 

[TheSteig]

Sony's releases of the Heisei Godzillas have always had some sort of deficiency. From being pan and scan only to dub only to dubtitles and so on and so forth. I will be completely surprised if something does not go wrong with this.

That was the Columbia Sony division not Sony Sony who did Gigan, Hedorah, Son of,, Ebirah etc

 

[Tony J Case]

On May 06th, 2014 Sony Home Entertainment plans to release on bluray three Heisei (1984-1995) and Millennium (1999-2013) Era(s) megablockbuster doublebills:

See, here's where I'm eager to spend my money. The original DVDs were pretty shit. Pan and scan, no extras, pretty crappy encoding. Just getting widescreen is a huge step up for me, so I'll buy these ones for sure!

 

[Tony J Case]

So, doing more research on the Godzilla 6th Luvin', I found this about King v G:

As part of the deals to make the King Kong films, Toho signed away any rights in the territories controlled by their American partners. Therefore, Toho cannot offer the Japanese versions of either film to distributors in North America, the United Kingdom, Australia, etc. When Universal bought the movies from their American producers they acquired permanent ownership — including the rights to the Japanese versions — in North America. But the studio received the Americanized versions from John Beck and Rankin/Bass and do not have Japanese materials for either film.

With home video, satellite television and streaming there’s now a market for alternate versions of movies that didn’t exist when KING KONG VS GODZILLA and KING KONG ESCAPES were made. If Universal wanted to exercise their rights to the Japanese versions, they would need to purchase new interpositives or clones of the HD masters from Toho. To date, Universal has not pursued this option, believing the potential sales for the titles do not justify the additional expense.

In other words why pay more money for a product they already own? Meanwhile Toho cant release their version here either. So it sucks all around and the fans get screwed.

Source: http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2014/02/07/king-kong-vs-godzilla-and-king-kong-escapes-on-blu-ray-from-universal/

And more news:

UPDATED (Tuesday, March 4th): The "rumor" I posted on Friday, February 28th, that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will be issuing four double-feature Blu-ray releases of their Heisei and Millennium Godzilla titles on May 6th is spot-on! All of the titles, below, have now appeared on Amazon.com on March 1st. SPHE is taking advantage of the frenzy created by the release of the upcoming Gareth Edwards re-imagining of the original creature feature opening on May 16th.

On Monday, March 3rd, the first Amazon.com listings were changed from DVD (as reported on March 1st), to Blu-ray — as per the original story I posted on February 28th, according to an industry insider. Also intimated by an insider at SHPE that these will be a significant upgrade from previous, barebones DVD releases (Amazon, as of today, is currently listing specs as "AC-3, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen"). No doubt that these will be subject to change.

And now, they have:

On Tuesday, March 4th, these specs appeared on the listing for the double feature of GODZILLA FINAL WARS & GODZILLA: TOKYO SOS at Movies Unlimited, indicating (as per my original informant) that this will be a two-disc set. The specs listed include Widescreen, Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1, English Dolby Digital 5.1, English (SDH) and French Subtitles. All of the details originally leaked to me have now been confirmed, so I am now posting it (but we'll have to wait and see if the originally-reported UltraViolent Digital Copies also materialize).

The unchanging MSRP for each of these double features is $19.95. According to an anonymous source this past Friday, these are the titles dropping, which are all still currently listed on Amazon:

GODZILLA VS. KING GHIDORAH (1991) & GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA (1992), GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA II (1993) & GODZILLA VS. SPACE GODZILLA (1994), GODZILLA VS. DESTOROYAH (1995) & GODZILLA VS. MEGAGUIRUS (2000), GODZILLA FINAL WARS (2004) & GODZILLA: TOKYO SOS (2003).

Conspicuously missing are GODZILLA 2000 (1999), GIANT MONSTERS ALL-OUT ATTACK (2001), and GODZILLA AGAINST MECHAGODZILLA (2002). It's unknown at this time if these will follow — I'll keep checking on sources... Stay tuned! But for now, in the words of the immortal Henry Silva, "NOT bullshit!"

Source: http://augustragone.blogspot.com/2014/03/sony-unleashing-heisei-millennium-big.html

Mind you, we're still missing Godzilla 1985. Ah well, cant have everything!

 

[John Sparks]

post deleted

 

[moviebuff75]

Was the 1954 copyright notice at the end of the first film added for the Criterion blu? Did any other releases have the same notice plastered over the film?

 

[Michael Elliott]

I guess this is the best place to ask....

I watched GODZILLA 1985 probably two decades ago but I got the Japanese version as well as the American edit. Is there a reason to watch both or should I just stick to the original version?

 

[JeffT.]

The trend-practice for many of the Godzilla DVD releases has been to feature both the U.S. and Japanese versions which gives the purchaser-collector-fan some measured choice. Generally the Japanese versions tend to be longer and not burdened with additional undistinguished U.S. shot extra footage (ie. KING KONG VS. GODZILLA).

I checked the running times for GODZILLA 1985 (1984) and the U.S. version runs 91 minutes while the Japanese version clocks in at 103 minutes. This pretty much fits the pattern that I have just related.

We have yet to see a stateside DVD or bluray release of GODZILLA 1985 (1984).

 

[Michael Elliott]

Thank you. I guess I'll start with the Japanese one then flip through the other just to see the differences.

 

[Tony J Case]

Well, I'd like to think that I'm strong enough not to buy G v Kong next week, but I know when I'm at the video store dropping off this weeks rentals that I'll be sucked into the siren song of that disc.

Anyone seen any reviews for this yet? How is it?

 

[John Sparks]

If they released these 2 with the Japanese cuts, then they would be worth double dipping for, so I'm waiting too.

 

[JeffT.]

Don't forget that the Toho Studios produced KING KONG ESCAPES (1968) is also jointly coming out in the bluray medium along with KING KONG VS. GODZILLA (1963).

With the first half of the year well covered in Godzilla bluray releases that leaves the second half and I am still anxiously awaiting a release of DESTROY ALL MONSTERS (1968) in bluray.

Technically speaking the earlier Heisei Era classics like GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN (1955) aka GIGANTIS THE FIRE MONSTER (1959), GODZILLA VS. THE THING (1964) and GHIDRAH THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER (1964) have never really been made available in fully restored and digitally remastered condition so there is a lot of ground that (yet) has to be covered in this franchise.

 

[Vic Pardo]

With the first half of the year well covered in Godzilla bluray releases that leaves the second half and I am still anxiously awaiting a release of DESTROY ALL MONSTERS (1968) in bluray.

I bought a Blu-ray of DESTROY ALL MONSTERS two years ago. It was released by Tokyo Shock and had the original AIP English dub in addition to the Japanese language track.

 

[Brandon Conway]

Tokyo Shock/Media Blasters has both Destroy All Monsters and Godzilla vs. Megalon slated for Blu-ray release on 7/22/14.

http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2014/03/07/destroy-all-monsters-and-godzilla-vs-megalon-return-on-blu-ray-and-dvd/

DAM should basically be the same thing as the recalled 2011 disc but with all the Toho unapproved bonus material dropped.

 

[JeffT.]

That's great news! I wonder why Toho objected to the extras in the original bluray release and are restricting their inclusion this time around?!
Thank you Brandon for the much appreciated confirmation and informative weblink.Jeff T.

 

[Vic Pardo]

Tokyo Shock/Media Blasters has both Destroy All Monsters and Godzilla vs. Megalon slated for Blu-ray release on 7/22/14.

http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2014/03/07/destroy-all-monsters-and-godzilla-vs-megalon-return-on-blu-ray-and-dvd/

DAM should basically be the same thing as the recalled 2011 disc but with all the Toho unapproved bonus material dropped.

Hmmm...if it was recalled in 2011, how was I able to purchase it from Amazon in February 2012? Was it recalled later than that?

 

[Brandon Conway]

Don't know when it got pulled exactly.Sent from my VS920 4G using Tapatalk

 

[Tony J Case]

Well, I was at Scarecrow today, both Kongs in my hand. . . . and I just couldn't pull the trigger, If they had done some remastering on them, or included a trailer or done anything new to them at all, I would have probably picked them up. But hell, they didn't even change the back of the box from the DVD versions. So the only thing my 30 bucks would have gotten me was about a 1/4 of an inch on my DVD shelf from a slimmer blue box.

Sorry Universal. I'm a huge Godzilla/Toho fan, but I'm not a STUPID fan. No sale.

 

[Tony J Case]

Oh, by the way - found this when looking for K v G reviews:

Q: What is the source for the transfers Sony is using for their Godzilla Blu-rays?
A: The majority of the HD masters for these releases were recently acquired from Toho.

Q: Which versions of the films will be included? The original Japanese cuts, Toho’s international English versions (which usually featured complete English credits and title overlays), or Sony’s DVD versions (some of which were missing the end credits)?
A: The Blu-rays will have the uncut Japanese versions with Japanese and English audio tracks.

Q: Will the film have proper English subtitles or “dubtitles”? Several of the Sony Godzilla DVDs used subtitles that matched the English dubbing rather than the Japanese audio track.
A: The subtitles were created from the original Japanese audio tracks.

Q: Sony’s press release stated that there would be featurettes on the GODZILLA: TOKYO S.O.S. + GODZILLA: FINAL WARS Blu-rays, but these features aren’t listed on the back cover art for this set. Will the featurettes be included?
A: The info about bonus features in the press release is correct. It’s the same added value that was on the earlier DVD releases.

Q: Does Sony still have North American rights to GODZILLA 2000, GODZILLA, MOTHRA AND KING GHIDORAH: GIANT MONSTERS ALL-OUT ATTACK and GODZILLA AGAINST MECHAGODZILLA? These movies were not included among May’s Blu-ray releases.
A: Yes, these films are still licensed to Sony and will be for many years to come.

Q: Is Sony working on Blu-rays for those three films? What about their other Toho titles: THE H-MAN, BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE, MOTHRA and the REBIRTH OF MOTHRA trilogy?
A: We don’t currently have plans to bring them out on Blu-ray, but that could change based on the consumer response to these 8 titles.

Q: GODZILLA 2000 is the only film among Sony’s Godzilla titles to get a North American theatrical release and have distinct Japanese and American versions. If Sony decides to release this movie on Blu-ray would both edits be included? What about the Toho international English dub?
A: We would determine the release strategy for GODZILLA 2000 at the point we decide to bring it out on Blu-ray.

(Source: http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2014/04/01/sony-provides-new-details-for-toho-godzilla-collection-blu-rays/ )