Fleisher's "Gulliver's Travels" (1 Viewer)

[Patrick McCart]

Koch didn't restore anything, just "remaster" the film. UCLA has not only the original nitrate successive exposure negatives, but backup positives, optical soundtrack negatives, isolated elements (main titles, music-only). UCLA is also the home of literally tons of film materials for the Republic library wonderfully preserved to be left untouched by the current rights holders.

It's completely surreal that such a treasure chest of prime film materials would not be utilized by rights holders.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Especially when you've got such half-assed attempts by other companies proving that they think there's a market out there that will pay $$$ for them.

 

[Charlie O.]

So which release is currently the best version out there? I have the one Image put out.

 

[John Sparks]

Yes, the Hal Roach/Image version is far and above the best out there!

 

[sestamuch]

Hmmm fishy it is...

 

[Patrick McCart]

Max Fleischer's Gulliver's Travels Blu-ray

Guess who gets "Worst BluRay" this year!

 

[Mike Frezon]

Thanks, Patrick, for the link.

 

[RolandL]

Its been stretched. Check the original DVD on youtube - YouTube - Gulliver's Travels Part 1

 

[Oliver_A]

This release is just plain unacceptable. It looks like an old VHS bootleg tape. Very efficient way to seriously damage one's reputation as a Blu Ray content provider.

 

[Robert Floto]

So just to clear things up, is the Image release the same as the Winstar release? Or if not, which is better.

And more importantly, are either still available?

 

[Patrick McCart]

Heh, from looking at the YouTube video from the Winstar master, it's obvious that Koch stole their transfer source from it. Exact same color timing and streaks.

 

[WadeM]

No, they're not the same. Hal Roach's version was mastered from the ORIGINAL 35mm NITRATE TECHNICOLOR MASTER, but that's looong out of print and insanely expensive. Winstar's is a "restored" version of a public domain print--the best version not to use original materials--but also out of print, but a lot cheaper.

 

[WadeM]

That's really too bad.

 

[Rodney]

This is just plain sad. This film truly deserves a better release. I hope they lose their shirt on this one, and whoever made the decision to create a non-oar release should be forced to pay back anyone that purchased this! It just upsets me that this is out there, for some parents will buy this and not even care of the lack of quality. This could have been a great release and a big win for Koch. For shame.

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

The best part about this is some bonehead from the company posting on the Cartoon Brew blog last month insisting that if Max Fleischer were around today, he would approve of their tampering with the film since he was such a forward thinking innovator, then offering to send out review copies as everyone would surely be blown away and proven wrong once seeing the quality and effort they put in! Ha!!!

 

[Doug Bull]

This release is an absolute disgrace.
Even if compared to VHS standards it is nothing more than utter sewerage.

I have the 1988 Laservision version on Laserdisc.
It is quite a respectable transfer and it was taken from an original 35mm nitrate Technicolor print. ( I'd say from a private collector looking at the wear at the beginning and end )
It has the Paramount logo, which, I'm not sure the Hal Roach release had.
It was released by Laservision Associates Inc.

 

[MatthewA]

Reminds me of another animator from this time period.

Seriously, where's the negative on this being held? Anyone could pony up the dough for a good transfer if they wanted to.

 

[Jason_V]

I've been communicating with someone allegedly over at North Hampton Partners (Peter Rosenberg) and he is adamant the problem is my TV is not set to full screen mode. I've pointed out the folly of creating a 1.78:1 transfer from a 1.33:1 original, not to mention the small pillarboxing I see in my DVD copy (and DVDTalk and DVDBeaver have in their screenshots). I'm going to play around with full screen mode tonight, but I assume what that will do is simply zoom the picture to fill the screen.

Oy vey...

 

[jonmayo15]

This release is truly a travesty. Steve Stanchfield of Thunderbean apparently is thinking about doing a version of this. Now that would be a must-have. It seems like Fleischer material always has a hard time getting good releases.

 

[Tom M]

There is NO way to play this movie in the proper AR. Period. I've tried my projector's vertical stretch mode and it just distorts the image the other way, full screen just zooms and crops the image.

If you can get the DigiView $1 DVD, the transfer is excellent.