Looney Tunes & Iron Giant DVD Updates

[James Harvey]

http://www.thedigitalbits.com reports that the Iron Giant: Special Edition DVD is finally in production and is moving ahead. There are three possible deleted scenes that could appear on the disc:

1. Another scene of Hogarth at school.
2. A talk about the death of Hogarth's dad after the 'Power Station' scene between Hogarth and his mother in the truck.
3. A nightmare that the Giant has that have clues to his origin and the bump on his head.

Not only is WB working on that, but also some classic Looney Tunes charatcers could be heading to the digital realm. WB is currently remastering Looney Tunes shorts for the eventual DVD release!

Great news, hunh?

[Nftnat]

Yeah, if it ever happens. It might well be legit this time, but on the ng such rumors have been swirling for years. It's a "cried wolf" situation. Sorry if I sound cynical, 'cause I'm definitely not anything even remotely resemblling cynical. But I'll expect it when I see it.

[Sveven Dvorking]

The Looney Tunes DVDs will be released sometime in 2049 (as I stated on the good ol' TTTP)

I have no information about The Iron Giant DVD, though.

[James Harvey]

I'm pretty confident we'll get IRON GIANT: SE thisd year, and those Looney Tune DVD(s) next year, in 2002. Then again, I'm an optomist.

[Calhoun07]

This "news" is found on their rumor section, which is VERY hit and miss, mostly miss, from my personal experience. Last year, according to them on the rumor mill, I was supposed to have my Buckaroo Banzai DVD by now, my Wings of Desire DVD by now, my special edition of Princess Bride DVD by now, and other major disappointments. But, hey, they are only rumors, so they can't be viewed as news by any stretch of the imagination.

[Craig Crumpton]

Originally posted by calhoun07
This "news" is found on their rumor section, which is VERY hit and miss, mostly miss, from my personal experience. Last year, according to them on the rumor mill, I was supposed to have my Buckaroo Banzai DVD by now, my Wings of Desire DVD by now, my special edition of Princess Bride DVD by now, and other major disappointments. But, hey, they are only rumors, so they can't be viewed as news by any stretch of the imagination.

Well, the Princess Bride SE DVD is fact - there's already a release date for it: September 4th, to be precise.

MGM even went as far as to transcribe the first part of Rob Reiner's audio commentary as a special preview:

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articl...ommentary.html

I agree about the rumors though. I'll believe it when I see it on the rack at Best Buy.


Gookie
--DVD Junkie

[Bird Boy]

I was gonna buy the one out now for $15..guess I won't. I'll just wait.I love SE..

-BB

[James Harvey]

Weel, I know for a fact that The Iron Giant:SE is coming sooner or later. As fort Looney Tunes, well, I bet they will. I think they've done a good job on their rumors section. Then again, Ive only been visiting the site for a few months now.

[Calhoun07]

I might have more faith in the site if I actually had Twin Peaks on DVD by now. Ohhhh...I wait for that one every day!

[James Harvey]

Maybe so, but I'm sure it'll come eventually. As you said, everything will find it's way to DVD eventually. Besides, DVD production on DVDs are different from disc to disc, depending on the demand. That's why some of the movies haven't bene announced yet, likely.

[Patrick McCart]

Warner Bros. is having an online panel chat in October @ www.hometheaterforum.com

Also, The Digital Bits got the info about the remastering for the LT/MM's. Their rumor mill info is 99% of the time correct. (Except for their Lucasfilm movies info...)

2 years ago, WB stated they were going to release them as soon as they were restored and remastered. (This is straight from people at WB.)

I really think it's the real thing for a main reason: Rhino's 2-CD set of LT/MM music. Why would they stress that pre-1948 cartoon music would be on there? Why use old, scratchy, limited-fidelity mono tracks? I read somewhere that music was kept from the cartoons...can you say Dolby Digital 5.1?

[Brian Cruz]

I don't know if they could really make a good 5.1 track. At best, WB may have the original music score (almost certainly mono), and a few tracks of dialogue (ditto). Unless they do what the Cartoon Crazys DVDs did (God, I hope not!), I think the best they could do is stereo, or maybe a 2.0 surround track that sends the music to the surrounds.

[Patrick McCart]

You're right about it being hard for mono to 5.1 remixes.

WB's North By Northwest DVD features a 5.1 surround mix....while the film was released in mono!

They basically went back to the original music, sound effects, and dialogue recordings, digitally restored the sound, and remixed them digitally. Being that it was never meant for 5.1, dialogue usually stays in the center channel...with ambient sounds appearing in all speakers and sound effects coming from the correct sides (Really good in the cropduster scene...the sound flies over to the rear speakers.)

The music track was put into all 5 speakers (With low tones going through the .1 bass channel.)
WB's 5.1 remixes are 90% of the time excellent (You won't belive how good the Wizard of Oz 5.1 remix!)

Not all LT/MM's could benifit from this, but here's some examples of remix advantages:

Now Hear This: The sound effects could really envelope your viewing space.

Book Revue: Music could surround the theater and Daffy's singing would be center channeled.

If WB *did* remix the soundtracks, I would like to have the original mono tracks, but who wouldn't be a little curious to hear how a Roadrunner cartoon would sound like in surround sound?

I'm sure the "WHRRRRRR...BOOM!" airplanes from Lickety Splat would make good use of the subwoofer and surround channels.

[Sveven Dvorking]

I think no LT/MMs could benefit from a sound remix. I would like them released with the same sound that was originally used.


Although this next comment has nothing to do with me, it is the 1000th post for the DVD board!

[Joe Tully]

There are so many people out there that would buy a Looney Tunes set, I think that they will do it. I mean, consider all of the people who are trying to collect all of the Looney Tunes on tape who would love to have an complete set of them on high quality DVD! Plus lots of other big fans who would be interested even if they aren't going out of their way to collect them all (such as myself), plus the millions of other Looney Tunes fans, who maybe aren't quite as interested in it as the people here, but who enjoy watching them from time to time. Looney Tunes are incredibly popular (preaching to the converted ) and a DVD set of all of them would definitely rake in a lot of cash. If it's going to make WB money, they are going to do it, it's just a matter of them getting around to getting it done. This is getting even more likely with the recent increase in popularity of DVDs, I'd say it's probably going to be sometime in the next few years.

[Calhoun07]

I am not trying to get all the Looney Tunes cartoons on VHS, but I sure would buy any and all box sets they would put out on DVD! I grew up on those cartoons, and the value of them to me would be worth getting on DVD. The only reason I don't tape them now off of TV is that I am really tired of the VHS format as a whole, and it would just be such a daunting task to begin with.

[Joe Tully]

That's pretty much my feelings, Calhoun. I like to tape things that I really like a lot, but I try not to amass huge amounts of tapes, due to problems of both simply storage space (I'm a college student and would have real trouble trying to cart around tapes from dorms to home and so on) and the time and effort required to do something like collect all of the Looney Tunes. But if a set of relatively small DVDs came out with all of the Looney Tunes, then I'd definitely go for it.

Of course, I'd have to buy a DVD player first. But I'll get that done in due time.

[The Clown Prince]

The question is, in this re-mastering that WB is doing, will they leave in the racial slurs/jokes/everything else racial that was OK to talk about and joke about at the time? I don't think they will. They could always have a warning on the box or at the begining of the DVD's. It would be great to see, but I'm so sick and tired of censorship and being told what I can and can't watch. Eh.

The Clown Prince

[Calhoun07]

I want uncut versions. And you know, those "controversial" cartoons you're talking about where aired quite freely when I was a kid, and I didn't grow up with intolerances towards others for their skin or what have you because of cartoons. Kids learn that stuff from their parents and the environment they are raised in, not from Warner Brothers cartoons.

[Joe Tully]

To me, editing stuff out would be a real slap in the face. DVDs are all about having everything unedited (unless you're Disney) plus extras. If you don't want to deal with those problems, don't buy the set. I think that most people won't care if there's a few un-PC gags, and including usually edited cartoons and the Censored 11 would really increase sales a lot. Whether they will have the guts to do that...we'll have to see.

I will really have to consider whether I will want to buy any set that contains edited material, no matter how much I want it, or try to do the whole boycott thing.

For now, just wait and see...