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Betty Boop on Blu
Topic Started: Jun 1 2013, 05:35 AM (1,569 Views)
panzer the great & terrible
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Mouth Breather
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No I don't and it rankles, because I have Region B Blus. When the money appears I will upgrade. The one I have is Stone Age, maybe six years old. Bought on your recommendation as I recall. I really don't want to get a flashlight out and find the model number if you're OK with that.
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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JazzGuyy
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If you don't mind opening the case, an Oppo can be modified to be Blu-Ray region-free with an under $100 kit and about 15 minutes of your time. The only tool needed is a phillips screwdriver. PM me if you are interested and I can tell you where to find a kit.
TANSTAAFL!
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JazzGuyy
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Here's a couple of reviews of the Boop Blu-Ray with screen shots so you guys can get some idea of the quality.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film4/blu-ray_reviews_59/betty_boop_vol_1_blu-ray.htm

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Betty-Boop-The-Essential-Collection-Volume-One-Blu-ray/74378/#Review
TANSTAAFL!
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The Batman
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Thanks, Jazzy. I am on the fence about this release, I find the price too high (up here, anyway), but these reviews make it harder to resist.

Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
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Frank Hale
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While from the reviews the Olive Boops appear to be the best we've seen on video, it is disappointing to me that we're still stuck with the UM&M titles. I believe UCLA restored at least some of the cartoons, and I saw "Bimbo's Initiation" back in the 80's at a film festival in a fantastic print with the original Paramount titles.

Can't help but conclude that Olive took the easy way out on this one, regardless of 4K scans or whatever.
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mort bakaprevski
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To misquote Allen Iverson:

.... we're talking about credits, not the animation, not the animation, not the animation, we talking about credits. Not the animation.
"Nov Shmoz Ka Pop."
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Frank Hale
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I know you're right, Mort, but it still bugs me. I can't help it.
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mort bakaprevski
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And I'm sympathetic.

Years ago I saw the 1936 SHOW BOAT at the L.A. Art Museum. I was so pissed that the original globe & plane of Universal had been replaced by Leo the Lion (they owned it then).

On the other hand, at another site, some guys get their undies in a snit about the Universal logo prefacing all the old Paramount product. If they had REPLACED the Paramount mountain, I'd get it, but this is just in addition.... &, for me, simply indicates ownership. No biggie.
"Nov Shmoz Ka Pop."
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JazzGuyy
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Both Dave Kehr and the DVD Savant have weighed in on the Betty collection:


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/movies/homevideo/betty-boop-the-essential-collection-comes-to-blu-ray.html?ref=arts
http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s4268boop.html
TANSTAAFL!
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Laughing Gravy
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I've started watching them as well. They're the best I've ever seen. Could they be better with some money and work? Yes. But I'm extremely glad to have them, and tonight's lovely guest was dazzled by "Bamboo Isle".
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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Frank Hale
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Here is Jerry Beck's pretty balanced review:

http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/dvd-review-betty-boop-the-essential-collection-volume-1/
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Laughing Gravy
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Excerpted from my website review:

While Betty herself remains an icon, whose visage adorns toys, retro memorabilia, posters and knick knacks, her cartoons (slightly more than 100 of 'em) have been tough to see over the past few years. An official boxed set of VHS tapes included all of her existing cartoons (I think three of them are considered lost) and then was transferred to a huge DVD set in France, but in America we've only received a few random public domain releases - until now. Olive Films' surprising and most-welcomed dive into the Fleischer vaults (the films were originally distributed by Paramount) is a joy. Four volumes are promised; the first set includes 12 cartoons, from the essential (Chess Nuts, Betty Boop's Bamboo Isle, Betty Boop's Halloween Party, Betty Boop's Rise to Fame) to the, um, non-essential, Betty Boop's Life Guard and The Foxy Hunter, both post-Code films that showed how far Betty fell once the censors stepped in. (Eight of the 12 cartoons come from 1932-1933, prime years for Miss Boop, whose career lasted from 1930-1939. She was voiced by Mae Questel in nearly all of her cartoons; you remember Mae, no doubt, as the senile aunt in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation: "Don't throw me down, Clark!")

Olive has been criticized in some quarters because the prints aren't restored with original Paramount opening titles (they all open with the credit that was tacked on when they were sold to TV in the mid-1950s) and because Fleischer used an oddball OAR early in the talkie era (1.22:1 instead of academy 1.37:1) that isn't duplicated here, but I only noticed one of the 12 cartoons that seems to have a framing problem. As for the cartoons themselves, they look terrific, the Fleischer weirdness (these things seem to have been a major inspiration on the TV watchers of the 1950s who went on to do underground comics) really shines through, and the set is, when all is said and done, "essential" indeed. Volume 2 will be on sale in a few weeks, and here in the Balcony, we're hoping one of the later volumes includes Poor Cinderella, the one and only Betty Boop cartoon in color.

Ray Pointer asked me to elaborate on the cartoons themselves; my response:

I watched 'em all this morning, in fact. Had seen a few of them last week, showed them to friends for their opinion (they loved 'em). My reviews tend to be more "is it worth watchin'?" than the nitty gritty. I will add that I'd forgotten how good Chess Nuts was (I remembered how good the others were). I thought the first half of Betty Boop M.D. was awful and almost skipped it; glad I stuck around, the second half ranks near the best of Fleischer of the period. And of course Bamboo Isle and Rise to Fame and Halloween Party are all must-haves.

I hope I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You makes it to one of the volumes before they're through.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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Laughing Gravy
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Betty Boop Vol. 3 on April 29. Contents:

• Minnie the Moocher (1932)
• I'll Be Glad When You're Dead You Rascal You (1932)
• Mother Goose Land (1933)
• The Old Man of the Mountain (1933)
• I Heard (1933)
• Ha! Ha! Ha! (1934)
• Stop That Noise (1935)
• Service With a Smile (1937)
• The New Deal Show (1937)
• Be Up to Date (1938)
• Out of the Inkwell (1938)
• Pudgy in Thrills and Chills (1938)
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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panzer the great & terrible
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Of course I'm buyin' it, and of course I'll love it, but I do wish there weren't so many of the late ones. On the other hand, Minnie and Rascal You and The Old Man of the Mountain belong in every decent collection. I know all three by heart, but still desperately need to see the Blu-Rays. Obsession is obsession.
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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Laughing Gravy
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Watched several of the new Vol. 4 cartoons today. They look wonderful, particularly the Cinecolor Poor Cinderella, which is just beautiful.

Now that the series is done, we can tally 49 cartoons. Six of them are from Betty's Talkartoon series (1930-1932). Of Betty's first 38 solo cartoons, 31 are included in the set. Poor Cinderella (1934) was the first of the "Color Classics" and that's here, too.

The remaining 11 cartoons are from late Betty period (1937-1938). So all told, I think it's a pretty nice selection of prime Betty and in the absence of any further volumes, it stands as a pretty good set and I'm very happy with it.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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