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monkeyjb1988

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15-Jul-2008
Last activity
29-Jul-2023
Posts
82

Post History

Post
#1437149
Topic
<strong>Disney+</strong> streaming platform : <strong>Star Wars content</strong> &amp; various other info
Time

SilverWook said:

monkeyjb1988 said:

As for whether it and the Ewoks show are true HD or upscaled… I’ll take your words for it. I think they’re true HD but I’ve been often amazed at how close to true HD the Muppet Show looks and I KNOW that was SD.

The Muppet Show was shot on PAL video, as it was made in the UK, so there’s higher quality there than if it had been shot on NTSC in the U.S.

True point. Another reason I trust you guys when you say the cartoons are upscaled. That said, the episode of Ewoks I watched looks way better than the Droids episode I picked and WAY better than the Holiday Special cartoon.

I still argue the movies are true HD. They look WAY too good not to be.

Post
#1436226
Topic
<strong>Disney+</strong> streaming platform : <strong>Star Wars content</strong> &amp; various other info
Time

oojason said:

Star Wars: Droids’ is now up and available in the UK - and also in a few other countries too:-

www.disneyplus.com/en-gb/series/star-wars-vintage-droids/5q1WkH85QhgL
 

https://twitter.com/helisonsm/status/1405839632433127426 (with screenshots of audio and subtitle options in multiple languages)

 

 

As with the previous ‘Star Wars: Vintage Collection’ releases on Disney+… Star Wars: Droids appears to be upscaled to HD too.
 

Talk about a pleasant surprise. Glad to see The Great Heap there as well. I don’t know why… ok, maybe I DO know why Disney doesn’t advertise the Vintage shows (quality and canoncity) but it’s still wild Star Wars stuff gets added without fanfare (although, now that I think about it, The Bad Batch hasn’t been getting a ton of press after the premiere)

As for whether it and the Ewoks show are true HD or upscaled… I’ll take your words for it. I think they’re true HD but I’ve been often amazed at how close to true HD the Muppet Show looks and I KNOW that was SD.

That said, I’ll swear up and down the Ewok movies are true HD and willing to bet (a small amount) that the 2D Clone Wars series is. I’ve seen plenty of upscaled stuff and, while I’ve only gotten around to seeing the previews for the movies, they looked too good to even be the best upscaling I’ve seen.

I could be wrong but that’s where I’m laying my chips. In any case, I don’t care if I’m right or wrong; not counting the holiday special and shorts from the Resistance series, I think that’s everything film or TVStar Wars on Disney+

Post
#1428200
Topic
HD quality of the Star Wars 'Vintage Collection' on Disney+?
Time

Hello everyone. I just wanted to ask how everyone felt about the video quality of the various Star Wars spinoff material that came a few weeks ago on Disney+, especially since all of them are marked as being in HD. You all usually have decent opinions so I was just curious. I’ll start:

2D Clone Wars: Looks glorious. I don’t know if it’s an upscale or if it was made at 1080p or something close. I know it was made in a 4:3 aspect ratio due to WHEN it was made and the credits being partially cut off but nothing seemed off in the actual episodes. There were maybe 1-3 shots that looked off but otherwise, it’s definitely a visual treat.

Ewok movies: only watched the “trailers” (just 2 minute snippets of the films) so far but they look very good. No idea how the scenes with visual effects look but I doubt they’re an eyesore (or, if they were, at least not plentiful due to the smaller budgets).

Ewoks cartoon: only saw parts of the last episode (not ready to commit to a whole viewing and don’t want it in my continue watching bar). The opening doesn’t look great but the episode itself looks pretty good. The colors seem really dark but they and the line work’s pretty solid.

Story of the Faithful Wookie, ie the Holiday Special cartoon: HD? Hah! HD, my plump, Centari ah… oh, I forgot, this is a family forum 😄 (cookie if you got the reference 😉 )

The Holiday Special cartoon looks ok buy it SOOOO was not remastered in HD. It looks OK, but an OK 1970s tape master, maybe had some remastering work, but nothing like the others above got.

So what do you guys think? Decent enough to cancel fan restorations or as bad or worse than the 04 original trilogy transfers?

Post
#1428198
Topic
<strong>Clone Wars</strong> (2003 animated series by Genndy Tartakovsky) - a general discussion thread
Time

JakeRyan17 said:

I wish Genndy had cared more about the series. Lucas recruited him because he liked Samurai Jack, but Lucas wanted to go further than Genndy was interested in going, and Genndy didn’t want to stay glued to Star Wars.

Anakin was terribly cast, but the animation was beautiful.

The more I rewatch it, and the more I learn about that transition, the more I understand it. They parted ways, and Lucas sought out Filoni after his work on Avatar: The Last Airbender. This time, Lucas made clear his intentions: a long running series in 3D animation. Lucas pushed for nonlinear storytelling, and to aim it more for kids.

At the beginning, they were supposed to kinda follow continuity of the micro series, but Lucas quickly transitioned to allowing the new series to contradict it. There are still moments of continuity that were never re-adapted, such as Ventress’s introduction, Anakin becoming a Jedi Knight, or Grievous’ introduction. These impressive and minimalist stories were so well crafted that it’s difficult not to hold them dear.

I also loved Dirge and some of the other weirder elements and characters.

I will forever prefer the CG series but the 2D show was pretty good. The non linear-ness worked better in the CG series since they took a half hour per episode and 2D Anakin wasn’t great but, yeah, I think I liked the 2D series. The designs were awesome, especially the backgrounds and the the characters’ expressions trounced the CG characters’.

I felt the 2D show’s episodes would’ve worked well as full length stories in the 3D series. In fact, my personal head canon has that, whatever isn’t contradicted by the CG show or other stuff happened for realz. I mean, why not? 😃

Rodney-2187 said:

I can’t believe we will see a release of the Ewok movies before the unaltered theatrical original trilogy. If they put the Holiday Special up, that’d be insane.

shrug What can you do? I like the special editions ok so I don’t feel the pain as badly but, yeah, that happened. Who knows about the Holiday Special. I feel like it won’t only because they want to respect George Lucas (I mean, if they remastered the original cuts but aren’t releasing them yet, I feel it’s, at minimal, honoring Lucas’ requests)

Post
#1421530
Topic
King Kong vs. Godzilla - 4K Japanese Cut Restoration (Released)
Time

It’s a Japanese release and won’t have subtitles, but the 4K restoration is about to be released 😃

https://www.facebook.com/KaijuProductions1974/posts/1727064204142800

From the post:

NOT APRIL FOOL’S! “KING KONG VS GODZILLA” UHD BLU-RAY! Starting this coming May 14th, Toho Video is unleashing a lotta Kong! First up is a deluxe box set containing the incredible 4K Remaster of KING KONG VS GODZILLA on two discs. The first will be on a 4K Ultra High Definition Blu-ray disc for optimal picture and sound in 2160p with HDR. The second disc features the same 4K Remaster, but on a 1080p standard HD Blu-ray disc. No English Subtitles.
Special Features on Disc 1 are the Original Trailer and Teaser. Disc 2 boasts the Champion Festival version of the film (a shorter Kiddie Matinee cut), Trailer, Teaser, and Still Gallery. This Keepsake Box release will also feature two special booklets. A 28-page “Storybook” with 28 pages of original storyboards by Shigeru Komatsuzaki, and the “Unpublished Photo Book,” containing 116 pages of never-before-seen color photos taken by art director Akira Watanabe. MSRP: ¥14,850 JPN ($135.00 USD).

A stand-alone release of the 4K Remaster on 1080p Blu-ray will also be available with the same special features as Disc 2 from the box set and will retail for ¥5170 JPN ($47.00 USD) MSRP. Also dropping from Toho Video will be a new Blu-ray release for KING KONG ESCAPES, boasting a video interview with star Linda Miller, as well as the shorter Champion Festival cut of the film, Trailer, and a Still Gallery. MSRP: ¥5170 JPN ($47.00 USD). Toho Video will also be issuing 4K UHD Blu-rays of Legendary’s GODZILLA (2014) and GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS (2019). (poster’s note: clearly, 4Ks of Legendary’s films aren’t the big news story 😃 )

This information was released by Tower Records Japan and announced on FB by Linda Miller, herself. There are no Amazon Japan links, yet. For now, check out the listings on Tower Records Japan: tower.jp/article/feature_item/2021/04/01/2501 and CD Japan: cdjapan.co.jp/product/TBR-31162D

Post
#1418723
Topic
<strong>Disney+</strong> streaming platform : <strong>Star Wars content</strong> &amp; various other info
Time

I’m excited to see this material added as, not counting the 2nd Ewok movie YEARS ago and the HS cartoon, I never saw ANY of this stuff. Granted, I wasn’t a huge fan of the 2 things I’ve seen but at the worst, it’ll still be great to at least have these shows and films available 😀

SilverWook said:

I have never ever heard the HS animated segment called that before. Somebody had better produce some vintage documentation backing that up, or I’m calling bantha poodoo. 😉

And where the heck is Droids?

I MIGHT’VE heard it before but, quite frankly, I don’t care. I slightly doubt the Holiday Special will appear on D+ so if this is new, oh well.

It is a little disappointing Droids didn’t get included but I’m taking the same attitude as I did with several cut Muppet Show sketches: it stinks but what we are getting is too good to be down for long.

My fingers are crossed for these to get HD transfers. It won’t ruin my day if they don’t but it would be cool (all but Clone Wars SHOULD exist as film masters and I’m sure Clone Wars would upscale well).

Post
#1414920
Topic
Info: 4K remasters of Godzilla films coming to Japanese TV
Time

https://twitter.com/RagoneAugust/status/1367649508968992769

I’m hoping these become available on Torrent sites (or, even better, on Japanese UHDs or Japanese digital stores)
 

More information here - https://www.facebook.com/KaijuProductions1974/posts/1703827936466427

& https://www.nihon-eiga.com/osusume/godzilla4K_2021
 

The eight “Godzilla 4K Project” titles will be broadcast in chronological order, starting with…

• “Godzilla” (1954)
• “King Kong vs. Godzilla” (1962)
• “Mothra vs. Godzilla” (1964)
• “The Greatest Battle on Earth” (1964)
• “The Great Monster War” (1965)
• “Destroy All Monsters” (1968)
• “Godzilla vs. Hedorah” (1971)
• “Godzilla vs Biollante” (1989)

Post
#1382967
Topic
A difference in Mandolorians
Time

Just as a heads up, I absolutely love The Mandolorian (only 2 more days squee), The Clone Wars, and Rebels. That said, there’s been one thing that’s been bothering me about all three, specifically an aspect they all share.

Why is it Mandolorians in the two animated series remove their helmets whenever they darn feel like it but Din Djarin makes it a point never to, even when his life’s in danger.

My question is…What on Earth did I miss?! I consider myself a big fan but I don’t follow the non movie/TV side that well. If anyone can direct me to where it says different Mandolorians follow different customs, I’d be very appreciative. Thank you 😃

Post
#1365738
Topic
Song Of The South - many projects, much info &amp; discussion thread (Released)
Time

clutchins said:

http://thedigitalbits.com/columns/my-two-cents/022417-0100

Bill Hunt says Disney has a 4K scan of SOTS but have no plans for it yet.

“FYI, a couple of other bits of interesting information that Chuck passed on to us from last night’s Wexler event: About 100 of the 400 or so classic Disney animated shorts have been scanned in 4K (at Warner) and restored. Also, new 4K restoration work has been done on Disney’s Song of the South to fix certain shots previously out of alignment (because of a faulty camera used during the original photography), though no public release is currently planned. Fascinating”

(I know this story has somewhat groundbreaking info on Star Wars, but I want to keep on topic).

Cool on Disney’s own restoration, even if they don’t plan on releasing it (thus, I hope in the three years since that story came out, more classic Disney shorts restored. I love watching them on Disney+ 😃)

YoshiKiller2S said:

Update: ok so it’s been a long time and I just wanted to say that we’re still working on it and I think it will be coming out soon, I don’t know when though.

However, I do have some things to tie you guys over.

Here’s a SOTS trailer I got scanned recently https://youtu.be/7DwRhEeAwJ4

And here’s a comparison of the dirt cleanup process https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM043levdfY

Nice work on the clean-up so far, especially the color.

Post
#1360680
Topic
Info: Recommended Editions of Disney Animated (and Partially Animated) Features
Time

jolennon said:

Oh sorry, my mistake. I must have mistaken it for another movie.

Hey, a little positive news: there’s a 1080p Make Mine Music somewhere around the internet and it’s uncensored.
You can see some screenshots here: https://www.disneycentralplaza.com/t2378p100-la-boite-a-musique-walt-disney-1946

Cool news. All I could find was a Japanese laserdisc. Not bad but the fact there’s an HD version floating around is still a nice find.

simps said:

jolennon said:

The Toy Story change was made before the first DVD release. The original opening never made its way to digital home video, only laserdisc/vhs.

The change for Toy Story’s opening logo occurred in 2009 with the 3D re-release with Toy Story 2 in cinemas and has been that way since. 😃

That’s what I remembered too. A rare change I don’t like (the fade from the original log and the wallpaper was cute). On that note, I’ve been re-watching all the Pizar films and A Bug’s Life and The Incredibles are the only ones to keep the original Pixar-only Disney castle. All were ones rereleased in 3D so that makes sense.

Post
#1350189
Topic
Info: Recommended Editions of Disney Animated (and Partially Animated) Features
Time

farerb said:

That Lilo & Stitch change is not new. It was changed for the UK way back then.

I heard about that, but I just checked D+ and it’s there. No real opinion, it doesn’t stick out like some Star Wars changes. Not sure it looks like an oven (at the very least, it’s clear she’s moving a pizza box and there’s no oven door). It be cool if they gave the US version but I think they have trouble with alternate video and have to pick the safest choice. I know they JUST fixe Simpsons.

Post
#1325503
Topic
Info: Recommended Editions of Disney Animated (and Partially Animated) Features
Time

tomi said:

WaltWiz1901 said:

tomi said:

but it’s cropped )-:

It isn’t cropped, it’s matted. The 2013 Blu-ray was matted and cropped on all four sides compared to the open matte Gold Classic Collection/45th Anniversary Edition DVD and the matted Disney+ stream.

oh
so it was made with that aspect ratio in mind
that’s good to know

As best as I can remember reading, all their films from the 60s to the (80s-00s?) were made so they could be shown matted to widescreen in theaters but also be shown open-matted on television, something that obviously included videotapes when they became popular. I’m sure BOTH versions are valid by design since Disney knew there’d be different ways an audience can view them.

ccateni said:

Disney needs to start giving other companies a chance to restore their films because of their botched jobs.
Oh, and give the audience the original theatrical cuts of films and not the edited versions, that really crappy for them not to.

This may be unpopular of me to say but I think MOST of the Disney restorations look great. Granted, I’ve seen the one running away scene in Cinderella, screenshots of the bad Sword in the Stone, and the alligator/blue bird scene in Lion King, coupled with the fact that I hadn’t watched most of the films between my “little kid” and “young adult years”, but I like how they look. The older cel and paper films look like animation of the era. I know Disney removed some of the mistakes (like paint variations and cel mis-alignment), but they didn’t go so far to make them look like… well, like the CAPS made films. Granted, they should be taken to task for bad restorations but there’s two points I want to make:

1.) Disney+'s version of The Sword in the Stone shows they know when they screwed up and will possibly use the move to 4K as a chance to fix mistakes.

2.) Comparisons to theatrical prints may not tell the whole story. Granted, the filmmakers may’ve made choices based on how it’ll look on a theatrical print many generations down but that has to be weighed against the fact that the print a fan today maybe looking at today has aged and might no longer look like how it did when first made. Also, prints were made to be trashed after the theater run, so I can’t imagine them being the best representations compared to the negatives and interpositives Disney would’ve been looking at. Again, it might not be the best approach for Disney to match the films to the artwork in their archives without thinking of how they would’ve looked after many stages in copying but I doubt we can judge by prints. For all we know, what we’re seeing now may be what the artists were trying for.

Post
#1317366
Topic
New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh - Preservation Project (* unfinished - lots of info *)
Time

VintageMan94 said:

I’ve Recently Discovered The Title Of Rabbit Marks The Spot Was Changed.

Original Broadcast, Thank to CDCB2.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1PYTW1vOcPPDC5KcvH6l5FeCToUjYtfed

TV Reruns, VHS & DVD Release.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1FRki5HOHi3L83yfXbpwWoFcO62rbat0B

Disney Plus, Sorry About The Raw Photo Capture.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1MyzRqcGJrzQcVRwNr5rnQ6wYrYZxGC4U

My guess is that the title was added on video for both the original production and HD remaster and they weren’t careful in matching the original font.

Post
#1312557
Topic
Info: Recommended Editions of Disney Animated (and Partially Animated) Features
Time

tomi said:

nevermind just checked and it is 16:9
shame

Yeah, I meant to answer you but I forgot to before this. Sorry. I thought the framing looked ok but, again, this is only my 2nd viewing of the film.

WattsFilms1990 said:

Out of all the restorations I’ve seen from Disney, one of the worst color restorations I’ve ever seen from them is the Region 1 DVDs of one of my favorite Mickey Mouse shorts, The Prince and the Pauper.
I mean, just look at this!
[]
The difference is almost literally “night and day”!

Here’s a video comparison I made some time ago:
https://youtu.be/S3-7QHae580

Boy, then I have slightly unpleasant news: Disney+, while HD, looks more like the DVD image, at least the scene that those screenshots came from.

I JUST watched your video and there are scenes where I agree that the VHS had better color (especially the nighttime scene by the window, but also the golden color in one of the chase scenes). The newer copy looks fine to someone who hasn’t seen the VHS and I feel it’s brighter at least partially to compensate for VHS’ reduced ability to show details (I read this affected the VHS of the 89 Batman as well) but I can certainly see a difference (at least more than some Winnie the Pooh comparisons I’ve seen).

Post
#1312552
Topic
Info &amp; Request: Muppet Christmas Carol - Widescreen w/ deleted song and Dir. commentary!
Time

monkeyjb1988 said:

Variant04 said:

There may exist a 4K version of the movie…

So if anyone were to also get a 4K rip of the song, it would be possible to have a 4K movie with the scene.

The movie’s in 4K on Disney+. I thought someone said the deleted song was 4K too but the movie’s definitely 4K.

If true, it doesn’t look QUITE as good as the film. Probably the best the scene looked to a home audience (previously on 1.33 DVD), but it looks like, to me at least (who don’t get some of the arguments about color timings so judge for yourself) from a high-quality workprint rather than from the negative.

Again, it does look pretty good, but the scenes still in the film book-ending the song look better than what’s in between.

Post
#1312012
Topic
4K restoration on Star Wars
Time

Jedi Master Skywalker said:

https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1204960815821946880?s=21

JJ is on our sides

Very interesting. I’m sure Disney ain’t happy, but glad to know we have someone official on our side.

44rh1n said:

Very interesting! Charles Bunnag, one of the colorists of the new 4K HDR Disney+ version of the Original Trilogy, as well as “The Mandalorian,” has spoken regarding the negative claims that the Disney+ HDR is “fake.” There’s even an interesting comment from Marc Wielage (colorist of the 2004 versions). https://mixinglight.com/color-tutorial/is-the-disney-series-the-mandalorian-fake-hdr/

Also cool. Yeah, I’ve watched Mandalorian on both my 1080p tv and my new 4K and both look great (not a great ton of difference between the two but shrug.

I’ve read the rest of the thread (not gonna quote all of it) but I agree the OOT is becoming a less distinct possibility. I would love to see them brought back but as it stands, I think the flame wars between old-timers from the 70s-97 and the newbies from 97-now will make the star wars look like a skirmish. I don’t think Disney wants that headache and those of us who want the OOT but can just as easily enjoy the 4K19 (even with “Maklunky”, rocks in front of R2 and “NOOOOO!!!” in Jedi) are gonna be stuck in the middle. I’m keeping up hope but I’m not going to let it cloud my enjoyment of the trilogy.

Post
#1310373
Topic
Does Lucas receive any royalties for characters he created?
Time

For $4 billion, I feel like that was the last of the royalties. Even if it wasn’t, I feel like even stuff like The Mandolorian, Resistance, and any other Star Wars would still be enough, from a legal standpoint, to still owe George Lucas royalties unless Disney’s lawyers squared the issue away (and, c’mon, it’s Disney; they squared it away 😃 ).

Post
#1310309
Topic
Info: 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' - comparisons
Time

I found this on YouTube and thought of you guys. I approve of SOME of the changes and the restored picture of the changed version but I wanted to hear your thoughts (if you’re offended by my previous comment, understand I was born over 20 years after this special first aired so the newer one is what I remember)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sm-7ADxAUg4

Post
#1309742
Topic
<strong>The Mandalorian</strong> - a general discussion thread - * <em><strong>SPOILERS</strong></em> *
Time

Anchorhead said:

SO nice to see Mos Eisley back to proper 1977 form. I thought this was a bit stronger than four. I liked four, but this was more my style of a lone bounty hunter. It remains to be seen what he plans on doing with the baby but he seems to want to leave it somewhere safe, as he was trying to do in the last episode.

I also think it was Mando going back for her at the end. If not her body, then something she may have been carrying that the other guy overlooked.

There was a nice shot of Mando on the Dewback that matches the picture on the bottom of my lunchbox. The original was used in other memorabilia back in 77. An obvious inspiration for the shot in this episode. I’m really digging that attention to detail. I don’t have my lunchbox handy, but I’ll take a pic when I can.

I’m not seeing the forced female agenda on this show at all. With the ST, yes, but I’m not bothered by it. With this show, I’m not getting that vibe at all.

I don’t think it was the Mando going back unless that last shot took place earlier in the episode. Just me though.

I agree not forced female agenda on this show (but disagree with the sequel trilogy; I don’t see it there either). There just happen to be female characters these past two episodes and they were all cool… just not as cool as Mando. It’s a big galaxy.

Finally, are you taking about the AMOUNT of people in Mos Eisley when you say it matches 1977? I figured people on this thread would be annoyed it matched the 1997 version of Mos Eisley as it was one more nail in the original versions’ coffins (or at least makes MY personal arguments that neither version is exclusive to each other with canon, other than “Maclunky” 😄) As for some who can enjoy either version, I was tickled to see Mos Eisley matched so well for it’s return to the Star Wars saga.

orchidal said:

My prediction is that the first 3 eps and maybe the last two eps (last 3 eps if I’m being optimistic) of this season are important to the narrative, while 4,5, and possibly 6 will serve as filler. Looking forward to a 2hr15min. fan edit of this season more than having to view this episodically tbh.

Maybe it’s filler, but it’s still entertaining and expands the universe. At least, at only 8 episodes, there’s time to make the filler episodes good (or at least I like them). I’m not sure we need a fanedit as you can skip the recaps for each episode and the credits after the beautiful art. Just me I guess 😃