Happy New Year everyone!
Thunderbean Thoughts:
In theory, the break from school should give me a lot more time to work on Thunderbean stuff; that has *sort of* been true, but progress while you are touching lots of projects never feels like much is happening, at least not right away. The reality is I’ve been basically doing nothing else but working on this stuff; I’m looking forward to getting back to the school year and being able to draw a little more.
In the world of Thunderbean, some of the things I’d *really* like to talk about are the things that are moving along like molasses at the moment. But heck, it’s still early in the year, and soon I’ll be able to show a lot of this stuff and talk about them here.
Earlier today, I finished working on the master for a project of films featuring the poetry of Edgar Guest. This one has been in progress off and on since May – so I’m happy to get it all set! It’s a special project for Dennis Atkinson, a great film collector and friend and the top donor of all time of films to the Library of Congress. It has turned out to be a pretty cool set, consisting of the Poetic Gems series.
The poetry of Edgar Guest is the basis of one of my live-action DVD sets in the works.
The really fun thing was finding all the bonus materials to put on the set near the end. Dennis provided a lot of them, but I found more- and one especially good find was a series of 15 minute radio shows from the early 40s. I managed to fit 26 of those in the bonus features! I put together this project as if it was an ‘official’ release, but I really don’t know if it will be. I’ve found that right at the end of the project is when I started to enjoy the films themselves rather than just look for the technical problems to solve.
Phantom Planet (1961), another live action release, was finished a few weeks back, and I’m happy getting reports back that people like it. It’s available on on Amazon here.
A scene from the upcoming Thunderbean live-action release of PHANTOM PLANET
The Fleischer Rarites set has been pretty close to finished for a little while; I’ve been doing some additional cleaning up and even adding a few other shorts to it. Looking forward to finally getting this set out- it’s been a year!
One of the “Fleischer Rareties” on my forthcoming set.
As I write this on the 3rd day of 2018, I’m largely thinking about all the possibilities of the year. While there are a lot of projects on deck here, as I was sitting down and looking through each project’s binder (and digital files), it’s clear that they’re all in really good shape, except for one (!). So, happily I can set aside talking about these for a minute!
The project that is in limbo at the the moment is Mr. Bug Goes to Town. We have a tentative license deal that got muddied up in the business office. Until “Thunderbean” is a bit bigger (and can offer more substantial guarantee money) it looks like this project is staying in a holding pattern. One of the reasons to have so many titles in a short period of time is to get “Hoppity” further along. Let’s see what happens…
Since it is the beginning of the year, I can probably get away with musing about what I’d like to do beyond what we actually are doing. So, I thought I’d ask a question that I usually ask around this time – what films are high on your want list? And, to add, what would you like to see Thunderbean do?
THESE are what I’d put high priority on given the ability to do so. Heck, maybe at some point we’ll be able to. There are some other things that we are doing that would be on this list if we weren’t working on them. I wish the list below all had that status! I’d love to hear what everyone is wanting to see. Be brutal. Be truthful! Let it all out! I am!
Here are my top 10 for 2018 that I’d like to see as a Blu-ray release:
1) Beany and Cecil – I’d love to see the cartoon series available on Blu-ray in its entirety. I’d even more like to see the surviving ‘Time for Beany’ puppet shows- the more the better!
2) Columbia’s Scrappy Cartoons. While some people like the Krazy Kats even more, I have a soft spot for Scrappy and Oopy (as if that wasn’t apparent here). The negs on these shorts are, for the most part, in remarkably good shape, at least the ones I’ve seen. If this could happen, of course, it would be great to add all the other Columbia shorts after this.
3) Fleischer’s Color Classics. With their almost all- Public Domain status, it’s clearly not a priority for an ‘official’ release of these shorts. That said, a set scanned from the original negs on these would be nothing less than a revelation. A majority of these have their successive exposure negs fully intact. There’s no reason to store all this beautiful stuff if there’s never a possibility of seeing it.
4) Fleischer’s Talkartoons. These would be the 38 or so cartoons from the every 30s; the series eventually evolved into the Betty Boop series. For the most part, the negs on these are in beautiful shape as well.
5) The Black and White Terrytoons! I know this would *never* be a top seller, but heck, I managed to break even on Willie Whopper, so anything is possible! I’d love a set of *all* the Black and Whites, but I’d take a set of all the early shorts probably first- I really love their bizarreness.
6) The Gerald McBoing Boing Show. While it’s pretty hit or miss, I really love the varied art styles and fun stories.
7) MGM’s Happy Harmonies. A blu-ray of this would, of course, also be gold. These shorts look so amazing on a big screen.
8) A Blu-ray of Richard William’s Commercials. Now, here’s something that probably could never happen, but it’s so disheartening to see blurry copies of the on youtube; and those copies look *better* than the crappy many-generations down VHS tapes I have.
9) The rest of the Betty Boop Cartoons! Olive Film’s sets, while not perfect, are pretty darn nice.. but most of the ‘Public Domain’ Bettys are missing. Wouldn’t it be great for all of them to be out?
10) Tom and Jerry Golden Collection – Volume 2. The first volume was of course not perfect, but so nice to see them looking that good. To me, the rest can wait if this was to become a reality!
So, for today anyway, we can dream! Now it’s your turn – what are your wishes for classic cartoons restored and released on disc? Have a great end of the first week of the year everyone!
Steve Stanchfield is an animator, educator and film archivist. He runs Thunderbean Animation, an animation studio in Ann Arbor, Michigan and has compiled over a dozen archival animation DVD collections devoted to such subjects at Private Snafu, The Little King and the infamous Cubby Bear. Steve is also a professor at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.
Setting aside Tex Avery, because someone else will mention him, we’ve talked before about a Sutherland release. But hunting down and then working on cartoons that, realistically, are very niche isn’t realistic. Still, it’s nice to see the effort has been made to restore a few of them.
A release of the restored non-Droopy Tex Avery cartoons at MGM would be at the top of my list. Bonus if Warners could dig up some of the original negatives, before some tweaks were made to the prints for re-release.
A restored release featuring ALL the Tex Avery MGM cartoons – including the ones with Droopys – would be at the top of MY list. Remember, only one Droopy cartoon (Dixieland Droopy) was restored for the 2007 DVD set released through Warner Home Video’s family department. And Avery’s MGM output is best watched chronologically and complete in any case.
Great post, Steve!. To me Harman-Ising’s HAPPY HARMONIES is a MUST HAVE SET. (I still have my LD Box)
Here’s some of the things I’d like to see restored and released on DVD:
Tom and Jerry Golden Collection: Volume 2
The rest of the Betty Boop cartoons
It’s Tough To Be a Bird
The four Winnie the Pooh featurettes in their separate original versions
A complete collection of the Color Classics
Looney Tunes that haven’t yet been released or restored
The color Popeye cartoons
The Tiny Toons “Spring Break” and “Night Ghoulery” specials
Out of the Inkwell
George Pal’s Puppetoons (both the European and Paramount cartoons)
Well, one of the series you mentioned isn’t out of the question as far as the Cartoons On Film label is concerned 😉
The Puppetoons Movie bluray includes the bulk of what you mention, albeit some in SD.
Tommy, I would LOVE to see an “Out of the Inkwell” set. The more complete the better, of course!
I totally agree with the Tom and Jerry set and Betty Boops. I dislike having incomplete collections and would love to have these finished.
Like a lot of others, I would like to see a Tex Avery MGM set.
I was wondering whether the Talkartoon “Ace of Spades” is a possibility for a Thunderbean set. I saw this cartoon only once, at a Tom Stathes screening, and would love to see it again.
While filling in the gaps for Tom and Jerry, Betty Boop, and Looney Tunes would be great, I’d rather have some of all things rather than all of some things. From that frame of reference, my wish list is for mostly-forgotten early TV cartoons: Q T Hush, King Leonardo, Hoppity Hooper, Tom Terrific, Linus the Lionhearted, and Ruff and Reddy top the list, along with being able to replace old VHS tapes of Spunky and Tadpole, the early Bozo cartoons, Crusader Rabbit, and Colonel Bleep.
Tom Terrific, Hoppity Hooper and Crusader Rabbit for sure!
In addition to your previously mentioned Fleischer material (without knowing what’s on Rarities), why not a collection of Screen Songs? Some of them have funny, really good animation and very entertaining, and historical, performances. Let me guess, licensing the music would be a huge expense.
I’m not so sure about the Gerald McBoing Boing Show. I got Jolly Frolics for Christmas this year, and for every gem there’s a dud.
I would return half of my DVD animation collection for a Quick Draw McGraw boxset. (Yeah, yeah, I know, music licensing issues).
I gasped when you said Mr. Bug was in limbo. That is the absolute cream of the crop on my want list. Sigh. Good luck.
I’d like to see HUCKLEBERRY HOUND Season Two, and QUICK DRAW McGRAW. Happy New Year!
My proposal for your Betty Boop request is that you can release the PD cartoons yourself or talk to Kino about releasing them (since they too have a deal with Paramount).
Love your list by the way, but I would also add Looney Tunes and most importantly, Mickey Mouse/Disney shorts.
The rest of the Woody Woodpecker cartoons are also long overdue for DVD releases. Same with the other un-released Walter Lantz cartoons.
Did you re-synch “Finding His Voice?” All the prints I’ve seen go out of wack just after Talkie & Mutie enter the W.E. office.
(Note to self: Get that Fleischer set. I somehow missed out on the 2017set.)
Oh, and Happy New Year to you & Mary!
As far as I know the 2017 Fleischer never materialized. At least I paid for it back then and never saw a DVD in my mail.
More of Lantz’s Oswald Rabbit or Pooch the Pup cartoons would be great. Pooch only has 12 or 13 titles, so that could easily be done!
Aside from the projects I’m working on:
-A complete Chuck Jones Road Runner And Coyote BluRay Set
-A complete Max Fleischer Color Classics BluRay set
-A complete Hartman & Ising Happy Harmonies BluRay set
-All of Ub Iwerks’ Color Rhapsody cartoons on BluRay
-George Pal Puppetoons BluRay set
1. Tex Avery! Once lauded as some of the best, funniest cartoons ever made, Avery’s one-shots in particular have been buried in recent years. I wouldn’t mind double-dips on the Droopy cartoons, either…the DVD set of those has some serious DVNR issues.
2. Bosko! If the handful of Bosko cartoons that made it onto the Golden Collections are any indication, an official release of more (or all!) of them would blow all the shabby public domain copies out of the water.
3. Terrytoons! They’re the one major Golden Age studio I’ve seen the least material from. I realize that they aren’t very good, but I’d buy a well-curated “best of” collection in a heartbeat.
4. Famous Studios Popeye! While I prefer the black and white Fleischer Popeye, I’d still like to see a restored release of these. The old Turner and PD prints look horrible.
5. Quick Draw McGraw! As a comment I recently read on Facebook mentioned, Warners will spend money on a “gritty” comic book reimagining of Snagglepuss, but they don’t have the money to clear background music on a handful of beloved TV cartoons? That’s bullshit.
6. Aladdin! Not the movie, the TV Series. It’s not like Disney can’t afford to put it out. It was great! Yeah, people didn’t like that Robin Williams wasn’t the Genie in it, but who cares? Great show.
I second a comprehensive release of the Bill Nolan Oswalds–everything from 1929 to 1931 at least.
Personally, I wanna see the following on DVD and/or Blu-ray–obviously restored and remastered:
1. Pre-1948 Warner Bros. cartoons not yet restored for DVD release:
• Fresh Hare (1942)
• Daffy’s Southern Exposure (1942)
• Any Bonds Today? (1942)
• A Day at the Zoo (1939)
• The Daffy Duckaroo (1942)
• The Impatient Patient (1942)
• Joe Glow, the Firefly (1941)
• Hop, Skip and a Chump (1942)
• Jack-Wabbit and the Beanstalk (1943)
• Gopher Goofy (1942)
• The Unruly Hare (1945)
• Racketeer Rabbit (1946)
• A Tale of Two Mice (1946)
• The Fighting 69th-and-a-Half (1940)
• Elmer’s Pet Rabbit (1941)
• Mr. and Mrs. Is the Name (1935)
2. Famous Studios Popeye cartoons released between 1943 and 1947
3. The rest of the Noveltoons, including a restored copy of The Friendly Ghost (1945)
4. Droopy, Barney Bear, Happy Harmonies, and various MGM one-shots
5. Fleischer Studios Color Classics–particularly The Cobweb Hotel (1936)
6. Heckle and Jeckle, Mighty Mouse and other Terrytoons, with original titles restored (if possible)
7. Early UPA shorts, including Hell-Bent for Election (1944)
8. Columbia’s Color Rhapsodies
9. The rest of the Tom and Jerry cartoons put out by Hanna and Barbera’s unit
10. The Censored Eleven.
Perfect list! Wow! I am very much in tune with that.
Very proper list!
Hey Jason Todd, I have an awesome idea, can you make a the late 60’s WB Cartoons from 1967-1969 on DVD and BluRay someday? Featuring Cool Cat, Merlin the Magic Mouse and Chimp and Zee Cartoons? And Jason, can you sign your petition to release all 17 Late 60’s WB Cartoons on DVD and BluRay someday? Just sign it!
https://www.thepetitionsite.com/714/531/606/release-all-the-warner-bros-seven-arts-looney-tunes-on-dvd-andor-blu-ray/
Me, too, Jason, and also the pre-1948s and post-48s not year on DVD.
(THe Pre-1948 A Hick, A Slick and a Chick).
Good list.
I have only seen the three Edgar Case Poetics on Alpha Video’s “Great Old Short Subjects”. It is my understanding that there were 13 of these distributed by Imperial Productions in 1935, some with narration by Norman Brokenshire and Al Shayne singing. There were so many great live action shorts from that decade that deserve renewed attention.
Yes, these are the shorts on the set, although not all of them. Beautiful copies of them though, and a Jam Handy short that actually has the poet, Edgar Guest,in it!
Hopefully once you and others have succeeded in restoring all of the Van Beuren animated cartoons to their former glory, the next big project is taking on HIS live-action shorts for Pathé and RKO. Gradually a select few (like 2-5 each per series) are popping up on YouTube and the Internet Archive such as some of the “Vagabond Adventure” and “World On Parade” travelogues and Stacey & Howard Woodard’s “Struggle To Live” nature films. Some of these are 16mm reissues through Official Films like the cartoons, others with their original logos. He really is an underappreciated film producer who supplied a wide variety of material for 1920s-30s movie goers. Some like the “Dumb-Bell Letters” and “Song Sketches” are probably more interesting as novelties intended to be seen just once, but others like the “Easy Aces” comedy-reels may deserve a DVD set all their own if enough of them can be found.
Top on my list would be Song of the South, the only major Disney film not to get a video release in the States. A comprehensive set of the Walt Disney Presents series is also long overdue.
Much of the talk so far is for major studio films, but what about foreign and independent animation? A set of Zagreb Films or John and Faith Hubley cartoons would be great. Show the full range of animation.
Mine are the regional animated ads that they shown on tv in the 1950s and 60s which include Muntz TV,Hamms Beer, the early Keebler Cookies and Crackers commercials, the Ford commercials with their canine mascot saying “It’s a Fooooooooorrrrrrrrrd” in the end and others.
And the Weatherman animated segments that they used to show during the newscast in the 50s that were created by the creators of Colonel Bleep.
Or a collection of Tex Avery’s tv commercial work.
Let me be the first to say MGM TEX AVERY REMASTERED. I know, you are all glad I thought of it.
MGM Happy Harmonies
MGM Barney Bear
Wood Woodpecker Vol 3 +
Terry Toons Remastered
All the early Paramount (Lulu, Screen Songs, Noveltoons, Famous Popeye)
Select Columbia Favorites – Most of the reference Columbia’s I’ve seen are dull snoozers IMO, but the print you shared last Christmas of The Little Match Girl is phenomenal, just waiting to be released in HD. I would definitely buy a set of remastered Columbia shorts, no question about it.
Anything that Thunderbean previously released on DVD, I would gladly buy again in HD.
I second the Fleischer Color Classics and the 2nd Tom & Jerry Golden Collection volume.
I’d also love to see…
1. Tex Avery’s cartoons at MGM – I know (most) of these were released on a foreign DVD, but they have a good amount of DVNR, and are censored…and adding his WB cartoons in would also be nice! Plus, it means that I would get to see “Garden Gopher” uncut!
2. Looney Tunes one-shots – The majority of them are fun and enjoyable (Meatless Flyday, Behind the Meatball, Boulevardier from the Bronx, etc.)
3. Bosko – Very interesting to watch, and quite funny too. Those Sunset/Guild prints are beginning to annoy me, as with the Nickelodeon-recorded ones with recreated titles.
4. MGM Happy Harmonies – Basically eyecandy to watch! The Count Screwloose cartoons, the Barney Bear cartoons, and the rest of the Captain and the Kids cartoons would be a good topper.
— Those Russian films cut up into serials for American TV, in either their original or serial form.
— Jiri Trnka’s “Midsummer’s Night Dream” and his series of folk tales.
— “Tom and Jerry’s Festival of Fun” (understand they actually edited shorts together with “Jerry’s Diary” as a framing story)
— “Gulliver’s Travels Beyond the Moon”
— Karel Zeman’s “Fabulous Baron Munchausen” (well, it’s sort of animated)
— Remaining Disney featurettes
— The director’s completed “King and the Chimney Sweep” (all we have in America is the old “Mister Wonderbird” release)
— A good release of “The Snow Queen”, original American dub
— “Saturday Superstar Movie” (bunch of one-shots and pilots by Filmation, HB, Rankin-Bass and others)
— “The Banana Splits” (animated segments anyway) and the live-action serial from “Skatebirds” (looked livelier than “Danger Island”)
— At least some of those ultra-cheap Marvel serials with the catchy theme songs
— “The Thief and the Cobbler”, director’s cut
I *love* this list!!!!
Zeman’s Munchausen is available on Blu-ray in the UK and the Czech Republic, the UK release is region-free and looks stunning!
I had no idea that The King and the Mockingbird hasn’t been released on DVD or Blu-ray in the US. There is an overpriced Japanese Blu-ray release that plays in all regions, but it only has Japanese subtitles.
Personally, I would love to see – in any format – the original 1952 release of this film, on which Mr. Wonderbird is based, called The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep. Paul Grimault wasn’t happy with this release (the film was taken out of his hand), which must be the reason it has been kept out of circulation, but the vocal talent (Anouk Aimée, Serge Reggiani) and the composer (Joseph Kosma) put it very high on my list of animated films I’d like to see. Most of the voices were re-dubbed in the 1980 release, and only fragments of Kosma’s music were used.
The Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago had some “Beany & Cecil” puppet show kinescopes that I was able to view. Then when the DVD came out, all of those shows were what was added to the video release. Make a guy wonder, how many of the puppet shows actually still exist?
I understand all of them exist, all as negs, preserved by the Clampett family.
Thanks for asking! In order:
1. Silly Symphonies on Blu
2. King Leonardo and his Short Subjects
3. Anything Fleischer. Would love to see the caveman cartoons!
4. Second your call for more Beany!
5. The Censored 11
6. Mighty Mouse
7. Ruff and Reddy
8. More Noveltoons.
9. Flip the Frog (finally!) On Blu.
10. Anything else from the 30s-50s we haven’t mentioned yet.
Hey Cliff, can you release Hocus Pocus Powwow (1968) and Injun Trouble (1969) were on Censored 11 on DVD and BluRay release someday?
How are the other sets (Flip, Rainbow Parades, Noveltoons, etc) coming along. It seems those have been in progress forevet
They are coming.. and they have been in progress for a while!
My list:
The color Popeyes
Any Paramount cartoons
The Alvin Show
A proper Rocky and Bullwinkle set with no music changes, watermarks or DVNR
I second the motion for The Alvin Show, restored to their ORIGINAL as-broadcast state! You can find a few bits and pieces here and there, but since Disney has owned them they’ve wrecked a lot of the musical numbers by “enhancing” them with an overlaid electronic musical track. The original music (not the singing) was one of the best things about the series. The NUMBER 1 best thing was Clyde Crascup, of course, and I once saw (video? Broadcast?) the episodes with the Clyde Crascup segments literally cut in half! Blasphemy!
I may be alone in this, but I’d love a complete set of the Columbia Phantasies. They may be hit or miss (to say the least), but the oddness factor keeps me hooked.
I would like to see the Late 60’s WB Cartoons from 1967-1969 on DVD and BluRay restored and Remastered someday in 2018! Featuring the introduction of the new Looney Tunes Characters, Including Cool Cat, Merlin the Magic Mouse and Chimp and Zee!
Cool Cat (1967)
Merlin the Magic Mouse (1967)
Hocus Pocus Powwow (1968)
Big Game Haunt (1968)
Hippydrome Tiger (1968)
Feud With a Dude (1968)
3 Ring Wing Ding (1968)
Chimp and Zee (1968)
Fistic Mystic (1969)
Shamrock and Roll (1969)
Bugged By a Bee (1969)
And also by the way, can you sign your petition to release all 17 Late 60’s WB Cartoons on DVD and BluRay Restore and Remaster of Cool Cat and Merlin the Magic Mouse Cartoons from 1967-1969!
https://www.thepetitionsite.com/714/531/606/release-all-the-warner-bros-seven-arts-looney-tunes-on-dvd-andor-blu-ray/
The TRUE outros from every episode of:
THE FLINTSTONES
TOP CAT
THE JETSONS
Whether in B&W or not, IT FAILS TO MATTER!
I just wish for them to finally see again the light of day.
Agreed..also
Beany and Cecil (the original 1961 one(
Second-third seaosn of Huck and first and all of Quick Draw
Linus the Lion-Hearted (cereal plug or not; maybe even with So-hi-like yeah right THAT’S gonna Happen)
The 1970 DePatie-Freleng Goldilocks (if the Bing Crosby estate ALLOWS).
My vote, on top of several worthy additions mentioned above, would be for all the Jay Ward commercials (primarily Cap’n Crunch and Quisp/Quake) to be fixed up and Blu-rayed.
Of stuff that hasn’t been mentioned, I would like to see a complete set of the original “Muppet Babies” series. I understand the live-action stock footage clearances might be a problem though (they even used clips from “Peanuts” in one episode).
I’ll add some requests not yet included:
The Mighty Heroes (seriously, no one’s mentioned it yet?)
Liquid Television (everything that can be cleared)
The “Fox and Crow” theatrical shorts
The Fantastic Four (1967 Hanna-Barbera version)
The Cattanooga Cats (probably just me)
The Shnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show (ditto)
The Baby Huey Show (the new shorts)
What a Cartoon! (at least a “Best of”)
As a happy owner of the Blu Ray Puppetoons Movie I’d also love to have ALL of the Jaspers in a single Blu Ray or DVD.
Electric [or Computer or Digital] Soldier [or Warrior] Porygon, the Pokemon episode which caused 600+ seizures. I’ve seen the scene which apparently caused all the trouble on YouTube, but I’ve never seen the whole thing. They’d have to reanimate most of it to reduce/remove most of the flashing lights.
Song of the South and Terrytoons anything would be nice.
Note that nothing’s impossible; I never expected the 1931 version of Alice in Wonderland to be released: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jH24yRuHfEU
As long as we’re dreaming:
1. Happy Harmonies and The Captain and the Kids
2. Columbia Cartoons featuring Krazy Kat
3. Columbia Cartoons featuring Fox and Crow and other cartoons from the forties.
4. Unreleased Lantz cartoons featuring Andy Panda, Chilly Willy and others (be selective since there are so many.)
5. Halas and Batchelor’s “Foo Foo”. (and other H/B cartoons if there’s room.)
6. Bubble and Squeak and other British cartoons (since B.A.P. only made five cartoons and we need to fill up the disc.)
7. Complete Barney Bear
8. Tex Avery (would have put that at #1, if it weren’t such an obvious choice.)
9. Color Popeyes from Famous Studios
10. Heckle and Jeckle
Here’s more that should be put on Blu-Ray
The animated propaganda cartoons of the USSR and Iron Curtain
FilmFair’s Paddington and Simon and the Land of Chalk Drawings
Van Buren’s Tom and Jerry
Cool, McCool
&
The animated cartoons from Zagreb Studios
Here’s the top of my BLU-RAY wish list for classic American cartoons right now…
1. Tom and Jerry Golden Collection Volume 2 (and onward) [thanks for the reminder, Steve!]
2. Tex Avery’s MGM cartoons (complete, chronological and restored)
3. The Censored Eleven (this has been ready to go for the past 6-7 years – just record a new intro with Leonard Maltin stating specifically how much further we’ve come in *2018*, and get it out there!)
4. The Fleischer Popeye cartoons, 1933-1942 (this should in theory be easily doable, since I believe Warner was already restoring all their cartoons in high definition back when their Popeye DVD sets were produced)
5. Fleischer’s Betty Boop cartoons (chronological and restored, AND in correct and uncropped aspect ratio!)
6. Fleischer’s Talkartoons [again, a great reminder from Steve… who DOESN’T wanna see those in restored quality?]
My top 10—I know some of these may not happen but as the Hep Cat said, “Welp I can dream, can’t I?”
1. The One and Only June Foray Documentary
2. The rest of the Looney Tunes Shorts
3. The Famous Studio Popeyes
4. The Quick Draw Mcgraw Show
5.Tex Avery Shorts
6. Terrytoons (Heckle and Jeckle, Mighty Mouse)
7. Early HB on Blu-Ray
8. Jay Ward on Blu-Ray
9. Tom And Jerry Golden Collection Volume 2
10. The unheard of by ,Beck Barrier and Kausler, documentary that was footage in Chuck Amuck with Mike Maltese and Mel Blanc
http://termiteterraceheadlines.blogspot.com/2017/12/chuck-amuck-clips-from-1980-film.html
I love these lists! Some great mouth watering toons above.
Some I would like are;
Tomfoolery (Rankin Bass)
Dodo The Kid From Outer Space (plus any other unreleased Halas and Batchelor cartoons)
Heckle and Jeckle
Fox and Crow
Deputy Dawg
Astronut
Fantastic Four (1960’s Hanna Barbera)
Pixie and Dixie
Quickdraw McGraw
Superboy (1960’s)
Laurel and Hardy (there is a French release)
Abbot and Costello
Tarzan (complete and remastered – Filmation)
Mighty Mouse (50s and 60s)
It’s The Wolf (from Cattanooga Cats)
The Beatles
Bailey’s Comets
and finally the still unreleased Huckleberry Hounds
I don’t ask for much do I? ha ha
It looks like the only truly endangered material being discussed here are the Bob Clampett Los Angeles TV puppet shows from the late 1940s to about 1954 or so. 35mm material is supposed to exist on the “Time For Beany” programs, but I’ve just seen a handful of them on 3/4 inch Umatic video tapes. They look and sound good for the most part. “The Willy The Wolf Show” (Clampett’s only prime time puppet show, of which I’ve seen one episode), “Buffalo Billy” and the “Thunderbolt the Wondercolt” shows are just not around for the most part. I would love to have all the surviving episodesl on DVD or Blu-Ray. These puppet shows demand a lot from the viewer, you have to work your imagination a bit to enter the world of the puppets, the video looks primitive by our standards today, but the voice tracks really are wonderful, with Stan Freberg, Daws Butler and the overlooked Walker Edminston (voice of Willy the Wolf). I’m very sad that a great part of our television heritage may just disappear in a stinking pile of vinegar prints. Time For Beany won several Los Angeles Emmy awards, it deserves to be remembered and preserved.
Completely agreed, Mark!
Oh, why not?
— Halas and Batchelor’s “Ruddigore” feature and the Hoffnung shorts
— All those animation festival VHS releases (pre-sick&twisted Mike & Spike; International Tournee of Animation, etc.)
— “Rock Odessy”
— A good curated disc of intermission animations (the Thunderbean Lantz collection has some cute Coca Cola promos)
— “Tom Terrific” and “Lariat Sam” from “Captain Kangaroo”
— “Willie McBean and His Magic Machine”
— The theatrical release of “Sherlock Hound”
— “Dick Deadeye” (a very imperfect pastiche of Gilbert & Sullivan, but with Ronald Searle character designs)
— Walter Lantz’s silent stuff (the ones with Fleischeresque live action tricks)
— “Disco Mickey”
It doesn’t hurt to ask. I’m still surprised Warner Archive released the complete “New Adventures of Huck Finn” (not a great show but a wondrous odd one, with surprisingly good optical work) and somebody unleashed the infamous “Food Fight”.
Wow, I’m almost at a loss, here, because everyone above already mentioned *ALL* the stuff I would have chosen, but let me chime in anyway–it would be an expensive purchase, but how about a COMPLETE LOONEY TUNES AND MERRIE MELODIES collection, featuring the restored titles already out there as well as fully restored titles that haven’t as yet made the cut (I can’t believe that “UNRULY HARE” and “RACKETEER RABBIT” didn’t make it). Almost half the job is done, and I’m sure that a lot of animation fans reading here wouldn’t mind the hole in the wallet just to get all the stuff in one place, or…
All the MGM cartoons, similar to the LOONEY TUNES and MERRIE MELODIES set above. Since it seems like the TOM AND JERRY GOLDEN COLLECTION is on hold, why not give us the complete MGM classic cartoons, including the TOM AND JERRY cartoons in full restoration (as full as possible since I keep hearing that some nitrates had been discovered). With such a nitch set, all mainstream and “forbidden” titles can be restored and released, while smaller sets can leave out any “offending” titles. Also, a complete MGM classic cartoons set will give us the rarest of the rare, the two COUNT SCREWLOOSE cartoons and the remaining CAPTAIN AND THE KIDS, all restored so that we get the proper soundtrack for “THE CAPTAIN’S CHRISTMAS” with John Silver’s reading of “The Night Before Christmas” as the cartoon begins; starving collectors like myself would really, really want these things, and I’m sure they’re doable…and I’d finally get a chance to hear all the MGM Bosko titles in the best possible quality and finally understand the lyrics sung in “BOSKO AND THE CANNIBALS”.
I’m also all for a blu-ray reboot of all early Jay Ward like all the “CRUSADER RABBIT” and the entire original run of “ROCKY AND HIS FRIENDS” (original music and original credits) and “THE BULLWINKLE SHOW” (original openings and credits), and this time, adding all the Jay Ward commercials and TV ads as special features…and how about the original first airing of “THE BULLWINKLE SHOW” with the puppet segments shown within the half hour segments where they were originally featured. I’d also like to see a full run of “HOPPITY HOOPER”, even though it would mean reruns of some of the segments featured in the earlier show, but at this point, I’d even take a well-produced set of *JUST* the “HOPPITY HOOPER” stories, done similar to the BEST OF ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE disks, just to have the series in high quality.
From seeing these on You Tube, I’d love to have a complete set of “LINUS THE LION-HEARTED”. Yes, Mark Kausler once said that someone was offering a complete set in surprisingly good quality on Ebay, but that is no more. If I could find someone who owns a copy of that set, I’d request a copy for myself, but no one is coming forward. Despite it being considered a half-hour commercial, it is still very entertaining, with some terrific voice talent.
All episodes of “Q. T. HUSH”, something that I wouldn’t think was that hard to greenlight. It features voice work by Dallas McKennon, and it used to be run along with “COURAGEOUS CAT AND MINUTE MOUSE” on our local ABC affiliate in the 1960’s in the early mornings…and, by the way, why not find what’s left of master prints on “COURAGEOUS CAT” so we can see these in HD as well, or at least on standard DVD. A&E did a halfway decent job of it, but the menus were screwy. There should also be a featurette and commentaries on such a set as well, similar to the commentaries throughout the DePatie/Freleng collection sets–feel free to be as critical as you like with those commentaries since these can be “so bad, they’re good” at times.
I have so much more, but I think you’ve all heard enough from me. Steve, if you were in complete control of all these properties, I am sure the job would get done! Sorry to hear that “MR. BUG” is fraught with obstacles, but keep trying. Your “GULLIVER’S TRAVELS” was so amazing that I’d hoped for a “MR. BUG” to go alongside it. All the best to you and your restoration staff at Thunderbean for 2018. Believe me, I know how hard restorations must be, and I’m also speaking to those within the Warner Archive who really are working toward the completion of the kinds of sets I’ve outlined here, regarding the theatricals, and I apologize for being that broken record ranter hee. I liked PORKY PIG 101, just to have the cartoons, and it does make me hopeful for that BOSKO AND BUDDY SHOW type set I’ve begged for on almost every other forum, including this one.
These dvd/blu-ray releases I would love to see:
1.The Cattanooga Cats
2.Hey! Hey! Hey! It’s Fat Albert! (the 1969 tv special)
3. Goldilocks & the Three Bears (1970 DePatie Freleng tv special)
4.The WB Bunny & Claude cartoons
5. The complete Calvin & The Colonel
6.The Amazing Three (the dubbed 60s version)
7.Jack and the Witch (1967 Toei feature)
8.Ken the Wolf Boy (the original 60s dub of this obscure Toei series)
9. Space Ace ( original 60s dub of obscure Japanese series)
The color Famous Studios Popeye cartoons.
The original Fantastic Four series from the 1960s.
Hey Steve Stanchfield, can you find all 7 Cool Cat, Merlin the Magic Mouse and Chimp and Zee Cartoons from 1968-69 in 35mm and/or 16mm prints for Thunderbean on DVD and/or BluRay Release and can you watch all 7 Cool Cat, Merlin the Magic Mouse and Chimp and Zee Cartoons from 1968-69:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5ul893
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2ib5vy
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2ib61m
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3bl512
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5uideh
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4pktks
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3wn5zh
What I’d love to see on DVD/Blu-Ray are:
1. All of Tex Avery’s MGM cartoons, uncut and restored
2. Tom and Jerry Golden Collection Vol. 2
3. Rocky and Bullwinkle
4. MGM Happy Harmonies, all uncut and restored
5. The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
6. Famous Studios Popeye Cartoons
7. The Winnie the Pooh featurettes in their original form
8. The rest of the Woody Woodpecker and Walter Lantz cartoons
9. All of the What a Cartoon Show shorts, all presented as originally aired
10. The rest of the Looney Tunes cartoons
All of the above, plus Color Rhapsodies and L’il Abner, Fleischer’s Stone Age cartoons and “The Raven.”
“And hurry down my chimney tonight.”
There are a number of films I’d like to see released. Some, like Mystery Bouffe may have been lost. I haven’t seen any of these in English. Fantadrom has no dialogue I think but most of the others haven’t been translated or are very hard to find. Since I haven’t seen most of them, I don’t have the slightest clue how to rank them. Sorry that a lot of them aren’t traditional cartoons but I think that most of them deserve notice so I’m going to keep it as it is.
Mystery-Bouffe
Jan Lenica’s Adam 2
The TV series Fantadrom
The Invisible Child (might have a DVD release soon)
Otogi’s World Tour
The Golden Bird (and many other obscure anime I found out about on AniPages)
Hey Mister! Let’s Play! (Pojde Pane budeme si hrat)
One Thousand and One NIghts 1969 anime (English language release)
A DVD release of every John and Faith Hubley short film
And last but not least, the remaining abstract films of Larry Jordan even though most of them aren’t technically animated
Someone should release surviving episodes of “Jim & Judy in Teleland”, “Telecomics”, and any pre-1954 animated ads from the UCLA vaults.
A multi-disc set of licensed, restored animated items from the British Pathe archives! It’s a gold mine, I tells ya.
1-A Terrytoons Set
2-Little Lulu/Little Audrey (with two-reel Raggedy Ann)
3-Puppetoons
4-Crusader Rabbit
5-Happy Harmonies and early MGM Harman & Ising
6-A Paramount set of the late 50s Noveltoons/Madcaps
7-Fox and Crow
8-Color Classics
9-The Barney Bears
10- Out of The Inkwell
The Joe McDoakes and Pete Smith live-action shorts would also be very nice.
And surely it’s a bout time The TOM & JERRY Golden Collection 2 was put out.
I didn’t buy the Chuck Jones set, they’re just a bit too depressing.
I was rapt to get the Gene Deitch ones although a little bit dissapointed it wasn’t a blu-ray
Thought Long about what I’d love to see released and in what order – even though I put Color Classics at 8, it’s probably the one which would be easiest to make a start on and they would look absolutely stunning in a blu-ray set and I’d be amongst the first in line.
Really Though, Any Terrytoons Set Please.
I’m enjoying the DFE’s and the logo’s have been snipped off, no one could be bothered to tell me although the end of Doug Goodwin’s logo theme can be heard on atleast one R&R entry. Absolutely Loving all the extra’s on them really outstanding job and the cartoons themselves have never looked better with vibrant colours and amazing clarity throughout. Looking forward to getting the rest of them when they are released.
Slowing getting through the Porky’s, they’re pretty lean on commetaries and extra’s after being so spoilt on the DFE’s and I settled on the burt on demand version but I will Look After and Treasure them. It’s a Joy to have all the B&W Porky’s together in one set. Many Thanks to All Involved !!
I second the Muppet Babies on BluRay.
I’d also like to see these on BluRay:
-DuckTales (Disney only released about 3/4 of the series on DVD)
-Super Mario Bros Super Show
-Fred Wolf’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series (which was released in its entirety on DVD)
-any surviving Colonel Bleep episodes
-Fleischer Studio’s Gabby cartoons
Finally, I’d like to see Thunderbean’s DVD sets of The Complete Tom and Jerry, Cultoons 1, 2, & 3, and Stop Motion Marvels get the same BluRay treatment that Cubby Bear and Private Snafu received (once most or all of the current projects are all finished, that is).
Though this is outside the scope of Thunderbean, I would love to see Disney release Make Mine Music, uncut and restored in HD.
Richard Williams version of A Christmas Carol
Duck Dodgers season 3
the Hardy Boys animated series
animated Alf and Alftales
Super President
Chattanooga Cats
three
the fleischer stuff (talkartoons, color classics and rest of betty boops) would be an AMAZING thing to do, all consecutive sets released after each other would be the perfect thing, with the color classics, seeing them under your label would be amazing and a great addition to my popeye and betty boop dvds. the talkartoons and betty boops would be a great finish to the betty boop collection, since about 2 to 3 of the talkartoons aren’t available to the public, but are preserved, and it would be amazing to see these in the best quality imaginable rather than 360p/240p on youtube with the shake “fix” on. Those three plus the Happy Harmonies would be a great, great, great addition to my collection, almost completing the fleischer studios collection.
Hello guys! Im also dreaming about some DVD/Blu Rays some day!!! So here is my top list of the some things I really would like to see get ready for all cartoon lovers and collectors!:
– HB ALL!! “Abbott & Costello” shorts;
– HB ALL!! “Laurel & Hardy” shorts;
– HB All!! ” Sinbad & His Magic Belt” shorts; (still wonder why noone mentioned them!!)
– HB “Quich draw Mc Graw show”
– HB new cartoon series which are: “wally gator/touche turtle/lippy the lion”
– HB second Part of the “Huckleberry Hound Show”
– HB ALL! “Ruff and Reddy” shorts;
– MGM ALL “Tom and Jerry” shorts, ( edited from color fading of the first golden collection set and then full secons set – all uncut and uncensored with restored and remastered).
– MGM “captain and the kids” + “happy harmonies” + all other
– Absolutely ALL WB merries melodies/looney tunes/ bosko etc
personaly for me the only one good reason to issue the dvd/blu ray is to have work done completely with restoring and remastering.
btw guys as for the sound restoring – I hate the sound which WB made with “captaind caveman and teen angels” HB cartoons. The sound is like it was not cleaned but was completely newly arranged! the voices are so HIGH freaquency that its no any pleasure to hear the cartoons at all. I still wonder why they decided to issue them on blu-ray even, if the couldnt do the right correct msuic and sound editing! for me its too clean than it should be on old cartoons.