Info & Requests: Flash Gordon - Greatest adventure of all & GI Joe: A real American hero

-Reason for Flash Gordon - There hasn’t been a single word about a DVD release of this rare animated movie by Filmation. Only this VHS TV recording is available to general public:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGDOmOj-5Ow

A DVD release could be created by taking the english audio track from a Japanese Laserdic release and video (because the Laserdisc has unremovable subtitles) could be taken from a Bulgarian VHS release.

-Reason for G.I. Joe: A real American hero animated series - the DVD releases were sourced from test prints that featured animation errors that weren’t present in the broadcast version:

http://www.cartoonreviewsite.com/changes/joe/s1.htm

http://www.cartoonreviewsite.com/changes/joe/s2.htm

A proper DVD release could be created with the use of Family Home Entertainment VHS/BETA releases. This being a series would be very tough to do. So perhaps only the proper DVDs of 5 part episodes could be made?

Anyway, just throwing these ideas out on the table. If it’s possible, sweet. If not, oh well…  😃

Here's what happened.

The Rhino versions were remastered from the original 35mm negatives. The negatives were the versions originally sent to the U.S. from Japan, and sometimes there would be scenes with animation errors, coloring errors, or things which the American directors judged to need improvement. They would then order "retakes" of those scenes to fix the errors. However, these retakes were on separate pieces of film, and some of them were never edited into the master negatives. The retakes were instead cut into the episode after the film was transferred to videotape.

Rhino went back to the negatives for better image quality than the 1980s video masters, and consequently reintroduced errors and rejected takes. Sometimes, they tried to fix coloring errors by digitally repainting them, or did other digital tricks. Unfortunately, being done at SD resolution, they looked like crud and didn't really improve anything. Sometimes, they changed things that were on the final aired versions.

Eventually, Rhino's license expired, and a few years later, Hasbro re-licensed the Sunbow cartoons to Shout! Factory. For Transformers, they dug up the original broadcast masters to reinstate most of the retakes, but according to that site, it seems they just for G.I. Joe they just reused the Rhino remasters and synched them up with the original mono soundtracks.

Here's that site's review of Shout's Transformers season 1 DVD set, maybe it'll be more concise than my version: http://www.cartoonreviewsite.com/eds/ed7.html

I hope I explained it well enough; anybody else, feel free to add anything.

I have yet to find the Flash Gordon Greatest Adventure LD on Yahoo Japan auction or anywhere. This cool movie needs to be preserved.

A possible video improvement could be done by using the more recent Flash Gordon TV Series DVD video with the 1st 10 minutes of the LD spliced on.

Wikipedia has a little information on the Flash Gordon Cartoon movie.

LD released by "VAP Video in Japan (catalog #67019-128), c. 1983"

SilverWook said:

There's a Japanese LD of the animated Flash Gordon movie?

Yep.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_Gordon#Flash_Gordon:_The_Greatest_Adventure_of_All_.281982.29

 The only known commercial releases were by VAP Video in Japan (catalog #67019-128), c. 1983, in both laser disc and NTSC VHS videotape formats and in Bulgaria, where it was released on VHS "Van Chris" and "Drakar".

Asaki said:

TServo2049 said:

I hope I explained it well enough; anybody else, feel free to add anything.

Still kind of weird that a lot of shots look worse in the retakes, but I skimmed down a little further, and Lady Jaye does look better.

Eh? Which retakes look worse? 

I looked around the internet for Flash Gordon the greatest adventure vhs.

Yahoo japan auction does not list any animated Flash Gordon LDs for sale.

Then I found that the only Flash Gordon animated movie videos on sale are the bootleg VHS to DVD copies on ioffer.  I would rather buy an official DVD, LD or VHS.

Someone put together a very nice custom DVD cover for their Flash Gordon animated movie bootleg. 

http://www.cdcovers.cc/view/296852/front/flash-gordon---the-greatest-adventure-of-all---animated-custom

And I found a blog that posts a magazine article about the Flash Gordon animated movie.

http://starlogged.blogspot.ca/2012/07/1978-filmations-flash-gordon-in-future.html

Joral said:

 

 

Asaki said:

TServo2049 said:

I hope I explained it well enough; anybody else, feel free to add anything.

Still kind of weird that a lot of shots look worse in the retakes, but I skimmed down a little further, and Lady Jaye does look better.

 

 

Eh? Which retakes look worse? 

I second that question. What do you mean, look worse? The retakes are on the top, the DVD versions are on the bottom.