Warner Bros on releasing uncut ROTJ, TAS, and more

[saintmick]

From the Home Theater Forum chat, Warner Bros says this:

BATMAN & MR. FREEZE: SUBZERO
BATMAN BEYOND: ROTJ ORIGINAL CUT
THE BATMAN/SUPERMAN MOVIE
BATMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES
are all in our Family Group's plans for next year.

[Tim Drake]

YAY!!! Rejoice!!!

[Failure]

BB: ROTJ, the original cut? Seriously!? That's the best news I've heard all day!

[Bird Boy]

eh...for real? Not to sound suspicious or anything, but this is your first post on this board, and it just seems weird that you announce somthing this big...can anybody confirm this?

-BB

[James Harvey]

I can confirm this becuase I read the chat transcript. This is happening, folks!

[Bird Boy]

Originally posted by Dick Grayson
I can confirm this becuase I read the chat transcript. This is happening, folks!

awww sweet then...sorry I doubted you saintmick..but..I've been screwed over more times than I can count by WB, and I wanted to make sure WB officially said this, that way, when they don't release it, I have some cold hard proof to complain about.. :)

-BB

[James Harvey]

I just put up a new sstory about this at this link:

http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10509

Enjoy! I think this wil help confim it. :)

[Blight]

That's great news! But will ROTJ uncut also be released on VHS? I don't have a DVD player, so i'll have to kill myself if they don't (or I can just get a DVD player :D)! So if WB has released any info on this, please let me know.

See ya!
Blight

[Calhoun07]

Oh, my...and the series too? It will be quite an expensive year!

[Maxie Zeus]

In fact, lots of good stuff down in that transcript for a film buff such as myself.

[James Harvey]

There are alot of good releases coming from WB. It looks like they have a good slate coming. I do like the nname they have for the ROTJ Uncut DVD - THE ORIGINAL CUT. That just sounds so cool.

[Calhoun07]

Personally, I would think "Director's Cut" would sound a bit better, letting it sound like Timm and Dini had a say so in the cut. Original Cut gets the point across, yes, but Director's Cut would just clarify things a little more.

[optimal321]

Yeah!!! One of these days i'm going to get myself a DVD player...:p

[James Harvey]

Originally posted by calhoun07
Personally, I would think "Director's Cut" would sound a bit better, letting it sound like Timm and Dini had a say so in the cut. Original Cut gets the point across, yes, but Director's Cut would just clarify things a little more.

Director's Cut does sound good, but it's not really a directgor's cut becuase Curt Geda directed the movie. The cuts that were made were for content and Geda had nothing to do with them. That's probably why it's called Original Cut.

[superfreak]

About time WB did something good even tough they're late by two years.

[The Mad Hatter]

Oh please, don't let this fall through...

[Calhoun07]

So....is this going to be released thru normal venues or will it be thru Direct Currents only, as previously stated?

[DerekPowers]

anyone know what extras we can expect?? i know the edited rotj dvd had a voice over track by dini and timm, making no reference what so ever to the cuts during the edited scenes. i'd love to have a REAL voice over track, w/ dini and the gang commenting on the cuts or just on the original version. thoughts....

[Calhoun07]

I just want to see some kind of behind the scenes featurette. And not some 15 minute commercial for the DVD, but an indepth special, kinda like ROTJ: The True Hollywood Story kind of documentary, but not just about ROTJ but something about Timm's creative team as a whole. Alot of great talent there that needs to be recognized. And if that was the only bonus feature we had on the DVD, I would be happy.

[James Harvey]

I'd like to see more voice acting stuff as well as a indepth look at how some scenes were created, the special effects. I definatly wanan see a behind the scenes look on the cool laser seqeunce.

[Calhoun07]

You know, one thing I liked about the Toy Story DVD set was that they included "outtakes," animation the animators created in their spare time that were funny. I'd just love to see some of this throw away animation the Batman animators came up with that has never seen the light of day before! At least as an easter egg!

[James Harvey]

That'd be nice! I'd like to see some joke dialogue come out, too. Like when voice actors do redubbing after the animaiton is done and they mess up. Ming-Na did alot for Final Fantasy and Mulan 2. I'd like to hear Conroy cracking some jokes as Bruce. This disc should be primarily for the fans!

[Calhoun07]

Yeah, but we know that WB doesn't like to put too much fun stuff in their animated DVD relases! I wish they would do like Fox did and set up a site where we could vote for the bonus features we wanted!

[James Harvey]

When all is said and done - I just wanna see some nice extras. It doesn't have to be anything too fancy, just some really enjoyable indepth extras.

[Calhoun07]

What they need to do is put screen shot comparisons on the uncut DVD so fans who maybe won't watch their edited version again or never did watch it in the first place can have the comparisons on one package.

[Bird Boy]

I like interviews..I gotta say, I loved the Adam West and Burt Ward thing on the Batman: The Movie DVD. Both the commentary, and the little 15min extra of just them talking.

I'd love to have a couple commentarys on ROTJ....one w/ the creative team and maybe another w/ the voice actors.

My kind of extras are usually deleted sceenes, commentarys and some cool featurettes (making of, behind the sceenes..etc. ).

But, I'd be happy w/ just a naked DVD.

Man..if 20th Century Fox owned Batman Beyond or any of the batman series..you know how they would treat us? Just look at the Simpsons DVD... *drools at the thought of a batman beyond version*

-BB

[Shriek]

HOLY COW! This is the greatest thing I've heard all day! Besides failing 2 tests and embarassing myself... This makes my day a 10!

[Calhoun07]

I don't know how a commentary with the voice actors would quite work out on an animted movie, since alot of times the voice actors don't work directly with the other actors involved in the show, or I don't see how much insight they would have into shot by shot the background of the movie. I would be satisfied with more specific commentaries by the voice actors, the way they did the commentaries on the Freddy Got Fingered DVD, or perhaps a behind the scenes interviews with the voice actors would suffice.

I just want an alternate audio track of the WB execs explaining why they thought editing it was such a hot idea in the first place.

[James Harvey]

Originally posted by Bird_Boy
I like interviews..I gotta say, I loved the Adam West and Burt Ward thing on the Batman: The Movie DVD. Both the commentary, and the little 15min extra of just them talking.

I'd love to have a couple commentarys on ROTJ....one w/ the creative team and maybe another w/ the voice actors.

My kind of extras are usually deleted sceenes, commentarys and some cool featurettes (making of, behind the sceenes..etc. ).

But, I'd be happy w/ just a naked DVD.

Man..if 20th Century Fox owned Batman Beyond or any of the batman series..you know how they would treat us? Just look at the Simpsons DVD... *drools at the thought of a batman beyond version*

-BB

Fox still owns the rigfhts to the Batman 1960s series. I'd love to see a box season set of those camp classics.

As for ROTJ TOC I just want to see the editing process, how they redit those scenes and the comparisons, etc...A commentary would be a dream. I could totally see a commentary with Mark Hammill, Kevin Conroy, and WIll Freidle being very entertaining and information. But a new commentary with Timm, Dini, Murakami, and Geda would be very, very nice! And maybe they could take a hint from Lucas and finish animating those 2 deleted scenes...

[Calhoun07]

It was pretty easy for Lucas to finish his scenes because his team is still together, but I doubt we could see any new or finished animation by the team that brought us ROTJ. Haven't many of them gone their separate ways?

[James]

I'm not so interested in having the complete series of BB on DVD, but the unedited ROTJ seems an essential. Commentary, musical score only option and interviews would do me dandy.

For whatever reason they have now decided to release this film, I welcome it appearence on the market.

Only question is, when?

[James Harvey]

It would be hard to pull off animating the two deleted scenes. A pipedream I suppose. I'd like to see it widescreen. Every BATMAN BEYOND episode was storyboarded in widescreen as was the movie. I'd like to see this in widescreen. That would make this version even more better.

An isolated score would be another goodie I'd like to see also. The music on that movie is amazing, and they don't have all of it on the soundtrack. I think it's work nicely.

But I really, really want an interview. And an easter egg of a BB or TNBA episode would be a nice treat, also...

[Calhoun07]

How about an easter egg of the last episode of Batman Beyond?

[James Harvey]

How perfect would that be It would make sense, too. Since the episode is considered to controversial to air on TV, the ROTJ TOC DVD would be ideal.

[Failure]

Originally posted by Dick Grayson
[B]It would be hard to pull off animating the two deleted scenes. A pipedream I suppose. I'd like to see it widescreen. Every BATMAN BEYOND episode was storyboarded in widescreen as was the movie. I'd like to see this in widescreen. That would make this version even more better. [B]

Every BB ep was storyboarded in widescreen? whoa. How come they didnt wind up showing the show in widescreen like they're planning to do in JL?

[James Harvey]

Yup. And they thing is, they were storyboarded in widescreen incase the episodes were collected on DVD. Yet the 6 eps of BB on DVD are full frame. KWB's logic just confuses me...

[Adam Tyner]

And they thing is, they were storyboarded in widescreen incase the episodes were collected on DVD.Cool. Were they animated at a wider aspect ratio, or did they just frame to where cropping to 1.78:1 wouldn't negatively impact the composition? I flip over widescreen animation...

[James Harvey]

To my knowledge, they were animated full screen, but had spaces at the bottom and top that could be croped out. This would defeat the purpose I think. I'd rathar see the full screen version and see everything, then get the widescrren vefrsion with the cropped out space at the top and bottom.

[Adam Tyner]

I guess they did it that way so the series will still be viable in syndication after 16x9 becomes dominant.

If BB is composed for 4x3, that's how I want to see it... Whenever possible, I avoid watching movies and the like if their original aspect ratio has been compromised in any way.

[James Harvey]

The original presentation is usually the best way. Sometimes minor change simprove the product, but the original is always better. I'm eager to see the format that WB will release this movie in.

[Bobby Boy]

What "2 deleted scenes" is everybdy talking about????

[James Harvey]

They are featured on the DVD. They were storyboarded and voice recorded but never animated. One of them was Bruce going to Arkham, another is a face off between Price and Wayne. They were cut becuase they did not advance the plot.