Godzilla KOTM... from the Criterion Collection!?!?!

[lhb412]

^ I've seen people say it wasn't cleared by Toho for inclusion, but I haven't seen anything official about it one way or another.

[canofhumdingers]

[lhb412]

^ Yeah, we all know about that. We know about the Champion Festival and the 2008 transfers and the lack of AIP and UPA versions. It's not that they're not legitimate criticisms, it's that two months of constant harping and reiteration that, in the end, aren't going to help anything, is maddening. It only serves importance in its ability to inform, and we've been informed.

[kiryugoji04]

[canofhumdingers]

That’s a very fair point, and one of which I am keenly aware. As such, I’ve tried to keep my posts more informative than just negative or bitter sounding. Perhaps I’ve not always been successful in that aim.

And while there may be plenty of dead-horse-beating, I think the conversation is still important to keep going. For one, new information does continue to eek out through the course of discussion and I’ve continued to learn new things each week. But perhaps more importantly, I think it’s crucial not to let the banner fall on this crusade. As long as there are fans who feel this passionately frustrated by the current situation, there will be the drive to improve it (whether that improvement comes from official sources or elsewhere). As an example, we wouldn’t have projects like 4K77, 4K83, and the upcoming 4K80 if the Star Wars fans let the fire go out of their passionate rebellion against the official Lucasfilm stance regarding the theatrical cuts.

Edit: so I guess I do disagree that it’s “only importance is to inform”. It serves more than that for some of us and the results are often things that many of us end up getting to enjoy, even if the process isn’t always pleasant.

[SeaHawk]

[Jinzo Ningen]

[lhb412]

Anyone know the runtime for the unused effects doc and the Honda/Banno interview?

[canofhumdingers]

Hmm, not sure. I used to have a bootleg vhs of the unused effects laserdisc (I’m assuming it’s the same product?) and I remember it being at least an hour. But I remember it had lots of footage from tsuburaya’s war films and other non-Godzilla stuff included. Plus I have no idea if my memory of it’s length is anywhere remotely near accurate.

[kiryugoji04]

None of us wishing people would stop griping so loudly about the Criterion set that can no longer be changed are saying that fan restorations need to stop. In fact we're encouraging just that BECAUSE there's no changing this set at this point, so chastising us is completely asinine.

[canofhumdingers]

Who’s chastising? I see points and counter points in a civil discussion, but I fail to see any chastising.

Going back to the special effects doc, do we know if it’s the same one that was on laser disc way back when? The one that features all the bloopers of the tanks and giant foot from monster zero messing up, the “fight” between Godzilla and Manda in DAM, etc.? Is it that one? Because that’s the one I had on vhs and I’d enjoy having it again.

[H-Man]

I hope it's that one. In addition to all the special effects outtakes there are interviews with Ishiro Honda and Tomoyuki Tanaka, as well as Nakano, Shue Matsubayashi (IIRC), and it's narrated by Kumi Mizuno.

[lhb412]

I'm looking forward to seeing interview footage of people no longer with us.

[Heiseigodzilla425]

[lhb412]

Review sites are getting early copies of the set, but they are lacking the final two discs with the two Mechagodzilla films, the Japanese version of King Kong vs. Godzilla, and the new extra features.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film7/blu-ray_ ... lu-ray.htm


Don't want to sound like a broken record here, but even with the dated transfers the films look pretty good! Tweaking the contrast and color levels has largely dealt with the washed-out look. And look at those word balloons in Godzilla vs. Gigan!

[canofhumdingers]

[H-Man]

[lhb412]

^ I was delighted when the balloons showed up on Syfy Channel's airing of the film in the early 2000s, but was disappointed when Sony's DVD came out and they were gone again!

[Baltan II]

When I was young, the only VHS I ever owned of Godzilla vs. Gigan didn't include the word balloons. I knew of them much later on due to the fandom, but never saw them on any other copy.

[kiryugoji04]

I've known about the word balloons for ages but I've never actually seen the film with them intact.

[jellydonut25]

[Heiseigodzilla425]

Godzilla's Revenge was shown this year at G-Fest, and they used another fan's reconstruction of the movie. It looked really well done, so if anyone has any idea who made it, shoot me a PM.

[canofhumdingers]

@jelly: Awesome! That’s good news. Thanks!

@Heiseigodzilla425: I was there with my kids and I’m almost certain it was just the classic media SD dvd. There were clear as day aliasing and compression artifacts. I will agree with you that it looked surprisingly good for a DVD projection on such a large screen, but I don’t believe it was a reconstruction. As far as I know, no such fan project yet exists? I can only assume that whoever calibrated the projection equipment knew what they were doing and did an excellent job maximizing the picture quality from even a rather lackluster source. But it certainly didn’t look like an HD source.

[lhb412]

If we're mentioning unofficial sources, yeah; thankfully there are some real great folks working on fan restorations. Shades of Star Wars' "despecialized" editions.

[Heiseigodzilla425]