Olive Films Blu-ray Release and Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[bigshot]

"[font="Arial;font-size:13px"]Perhaps if [/font]Olive[font="Arial;font-size:13px"] enjoys healthy sales with its first two Betty Boop releases, other Fleischer collections will follow. Wouldn’t that be nice?" = Leonard Maltin[/font]

 

[JoHud]

Guest Wife has a more usual Olive presentation. Reasonably detailed yet uneven source elements, with a variable amount of dirt and scratches throughout. In terms of video presentation it is satisfactory but not outstanding. The movie itself was fun and entertaining.

 

[JohnMor]

Not unless you consider Leonard Maltin an internetaspie too: http://blogs.indiewire.com/leonardmaltin/wanted-more-fleischer-cartoons?page=1#blogPostHeaderPanel

Well, it doesn't seem so bad if you take the first paragraph out of context and ignore the rest of the article.

??? I read the entire article and I don't find one instance of Maltin criticizing the BB release. Not sure what you are referring to here.

 

[Jack Theakston]

I read the whole article. He never says that there is anything wrong with the blurays. I own the blu rays. I have a hidef projection system with a ten foot screen. I've screened these disks and they look amazing. You don't know what you're talking about.

You sir, have no idea what you're talking about. A circle is a circle, not an oval. The transfers were done Movietone AR. Are they Movietone AR? No—because they were stretched out to 1.33-1.

As customers, there's a perfectly valid point about complaining about something like this so that it doesn't happen again on the next sets.

PS. Everyone should check out Thad Komorowski's blog about this on Cartoon Research: http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/thad-un-squashes-boop/

 

[Robert Crawford]

Let me step in here for one moment. If there is a problem with any video releases, please, don't take it out on other posters with personal comments addressed to them. There has been more than a few comments of that nature already in this thread. The studio or company releasing the product should be the target of your criticism and not each other. We are all in this together as video consumers whether we agree or disagree about a particular title. Thank you.

 

[bigshot]

How about internet experts who review blu rays without even owning a blu ray player or high definition TV? Are they fair game?

 

[Jack Theakston]

Remember when you used to have to post with your real name here? Your shots at others might be a bit bigger then, Mr. Bigshot.

 

[Robert Crawford]

How about internet experts who review blu rays without even owning a blu ray player or high definition TV? Are they fair game?

Use some other forum to grind your personal axe as the rest of us have little interest in such rhetoric. We're here to discuss HT-related topics without having to worry about being personally attacked.

 

[Ken_Martinez]

For the record, no one is complaining about the transfers themselves. MAR aside, they're very good for what they are, raw 35mm scans with no real restoration work. Also FTR, I own a blu-ray player (two, actually) and a High-def TV.

However, it's not hard to theorize that Olive's interest in Republic's cartoon holdings doesn't extend beyond Betty as a merchandising icon. Their aspect ratio woes and sloppy copyright research and absolute refusal to even answer questions about the releases vouch for that. There's so much potential here.

Leonard Maltin hopes that Olive will plumb the Inkwell Imps and other Max Fleischer cartoons Republic owns, but doesn't sound too optimistic. It's a plea that will likely fall on deaf ears like everything else directed Olive's way.

 

[ahollis]

Leonard Maltin hopes that Olive will plumb the Inkwell Imps and other Max Fleischer cartoons Republic owns, but doesn't sound too optimistic. It's a plea that will likely fall on deaf ears like everything else directed Olive's way.

I'm not sure that Olive has an ears at all. At one time there was a gentleman on this forum that had the last name of Olive and said he was that Olive. That was when the Paramount agreement was first announced. He quickly disappeared and has not been heard of since.

 

[bigshot]

For the record, no one is complaining about the transfers themselves. MAR aside, they're very good for what they are, raw 35mm scans with no real restoration work.

What more can you ask of a company licensing films that studios don't want to release? They don't own the library or the characters. They're just transferring films and releasing them on video. They did a remarkable job of that compared to the way these films have been bungled in the past.

 

[JoHud]

Leonard Maltin hopes that Olive will plumb the Inkwell Imps and other Max Fleischer cartoons Republic owns, but doesn't sound too optimistic. It's a plea that will likely fall on deaf ears like everything else directed Olive's way.

Sales of the Betty Boop blu-rays will probably be the only thing that would sway Olive into attempting those. It might even determine future releases from the entire Republic shorts library, cartoon or otherwise, since the Bettys are the only ones to emerge so far. I'm not all that optimistic either.

 

[ahollis]

What more can you ask of a company licensing films that studios don't want to release? They don't own the library or the characters. They're just transferring films and releasing them on video. They did a remarkable job of that compared to the way these films have been bungled in the past.

You can ask them to do it right. I have the first volume of the Betty Boop cartoons in Blu and watched it on a HD monitor and the "streched" cartoons were a problem for me. I am debating whether to buy the second volume or not. I would go with your "their just transferring" theory if they were not so insist that they are restoring these releases. There have been many posts about what their "work" on the titles involve. Ok they were bungled in the past. And some of the titles are bungled now. That does not make it right. If I'm spending my money on a Blu, I feel it should be right. Not perfect but right.

 

[JoHud]

I agree that the AR stretching is a valid complaint, especially considering how many cartoons will be affected if vol 3 and 4 have this same problem. My acceptance of a similar issue in the the recent Laurel & Hardy DVD collection kinda made me feel hypocritical to criticize the Betty collection for a similar issue but that one only had 2 or 3 shorts affected while the Betty shorts will have roughly a third with this problem.

For some reason I didn't notice it as much on vol 2 as I did in volume 1 (namely, Bamboo Isle). Part of it has to do with not really having watched much of these in the past and part of it as to how much of the '30-'32 shorts are less strictly on-model and more loose in terms of art and character designs at times compared to the later shorts. In other words I'm kinda ignorant on how each short is suppose to look in terms of proportion. I'm not even sure when the AR change to traditional academy ratio happens with these shorts (mid 1932?).

In terms of getting a correct AR for the affected shorts, are there any pro tech tip on there to force the correct AR for home viewing? I think I used a PC video player like VLC player for the L&H shorts, but not sure what to do about the Betty Boop blu-rays (and The Big Country)

 

[ThadK]

If it makes a difference, Olive didn't do the film scanning, nor the stretching. Paramount did both (two separate departments). Olive only made the title selections and mastered the discs.

 

[ahollis]

If it makes a difference, Olive didn't do the film scanning, nor the stretching. Paramount did both (two separate departments). Olive only made the title selections and mastered the discs.

. That's what I keep saying but a main supporter for Olive on this forum continues to put forth the idea that the reason Olive "only" are releasing the non PD titles are the costs they will incur in transferring the titles. I think we all know that due to some of the not so great transfers (Hurry Sundown, High Noon, The Big Combo, McClintock) that not much work is done on Olive's end. I will say that there have been some great transfers that were released by Olive such as It's In The Bag and others. So I am not completely negative and glad that forgotten titles are being released. I just don't give them a pass when they say they are responsible for transfers and it's not up to par. If they said they got the elements from Paramount and released as is, then I would be less vocal. Also if they would at least answer questions or reach out to experts for direction, that would be something else also.

 

[Keith Cobby]

I am a supporter of Olive (received another 4 blu-rays yesterday) and accept that they are not always in the condition we would like. All you can do is to make decisions based on reviews etc. Difficult to be too critical as none of us know the details of their contracts with the studios. I am just grateful that favourite films of mine like The Big Combo are released with an imperfect but better picture quality than the DVD. It is their money and their business and they can do what they want and engage with us or not as they choose.

 

[John Hermes]

I am a supporter of Olive (received another 4 blu-rays yesterday) and accept that they are not always in the condition we would like. All you can do is to make decisions based on reviews etc. Difficult to be too critical as none of us know the details of their contracts with the studios. I am just grateful that favourite films of mine like The Big Combo are released with an imperfect but better picture quality than the DVD. It is their money and their business and they can do what they want and engage with us or not as they choose.

Most of these films would not be out at all on BD without Olive. I'm very happy they're around too.

 

[Ken_Martinez]

That's very interesting, because Frank Tarzi tells a very different story in his interview (the one and only contact with any employee there).

s you may be aware, I also handle reviewing duties for another label that licenses product, in this case from Fox and Columbia-Sony, the niche label Twilight Time. In Twilight Time's case, they are provided with pre- existing HD masters from the studios' assets catalog. Did you know going in there were HD masters for your Paramount titles?

Well, here's the thing: Olive created HD masters for all our 2010 and 2011 releases.

Wow! Really? I had no idea. I just assumed you were being provided with HD masters.

Well, in some cases we are. But in many cases, we're not; we created the HD masters from the available film elements.

That's really interesting. That means, then, that you're really investing some significant capital in bringing these catalog titles to Blu-ray.

Absolutely. Now in a perfect world, everything would have pre-existing HD masters [laughs]. But for the first 25 or so titles, we did all the mastering ourselves. We were luckier with the second batch, 6 or 7 of the titles had pre-existing HD masters, but we did the rest ourselves.

Maybe Olive has stopped doing their own HD masters, or the Betty Boops are in the minority of films with pre-existing HD masters, or is some kind of special exception. Who really knows? Not like we can ask anybody.

I agree with ahollis, If they're not even doing the remastering and are just Blu-Ray replicators for hire, why are they so dead-set against a complete set?

 

[JoHud]

Even though its almost certain that Paramount does the majority of the legwork for making the transfers themselves (or Ignite, UCLA, etc), Olive is very likely the primary investor in paying for these transfers and essentially making them happen, at least for the stuff directly from the Paramount vaults--the Ignite and UCLA transfers were probably already done. From a short term accounting perspective, releasing PD material is (and always has been) somewhat of a gamble due to the existence of so much legally competing PD labels. It doesn't surprise me at all that Olive would take the safe route although it still disappoints me that they passed up a golden opportunity to do a comprehensive set.

It's kinda odd that even after being around two years, how things get done at Olive and Paramount regarding these releases is still pretty murky due to how little feedback comes from either end. That Tarzi statement of Olive creating the HD masters doesn't seem to be accurate. Or maybe there is someone on the Olive payroll working in the Paramount facilities. Who knows?