I’m happy to *finally* announce that the new Blu-rays, Mid Century Modern, Volume 1 and 2, have arrived— so it seemed like a good day to talk about them a little…
We’ll be working on getting the the pre-orders and other special orders out in the coming days. We’ve been behind for a while, but as of this week we have managed to get caught up with everything done so far. Since we finally have everything out the door (and because I get a lot of requests) We’re also offering all the ‘special’ sets again for one week only, including the Popeye In Technicolor special Blu-ray set not previously announced here.
Details on the ‘special’ sets are on the IAD forum.
Details on the Popeye set are here.
The scans for the first ‘Mid Century Modern 1’ were the first we had done in HD, back in 2010. The move was prompted by a drop in the price at the post house that had the HD telecine. Not long after that, the whole facility closed down, and for well over a year we were using the Telecine there, even though the studio was closed, except for the accountant! It was strange period of time, with my Telecine guy coming into the place he used to work at to scan cartoons. We enjoyed that period since there were so many fun films to scan. I remember doing those particular scans in the winter, and shoveling show to get the otherwise unused door open one of the days of the scans.
Originally, both of these sets were started out of wanting to have better versions of many of the films to show in the history of animation class I teach at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. I had prints of some of the films, and not-so-great video copies of others. Projecting the not-so-good ones prompted me to try to get better versions, and I found that the students also wanted to see these some of the films that weren’t available.
Amid Amidi’s excellent Cartoon Modern: Style and Design in Fifties Animation (2006) is an absolutely essential book, and increased interest in seeing many of these shorts. So many of the beautiful images in the book were meant to be seen in movement, and so the requests began to borrow things I didn’t have to scan.
The film collector community was amazing in lending some really beautiful material for both sets, much of it in original Technicolor prints. Of special importance were the contributions of Collin Kellogg, Dave Kirwan, Jerry Beck, and of course Mark Kausler. We owe all of them a round of applause for continued efforts in collecting and allow access to otherwise inaccessible materials.
Mike Kazaleh’s fun package art for Mid Century Modern 2 has been adapted for the Blu-ray, and the commentary tracks for the DVD versions appear on all as well. The commentary tracks include Jerry Beck, Mike Kazaleh, Amid Amidi and Dave Kirwan.
The first volume, Mid Century Modern Volume 1 (DVD released in 2012), has been out of print for a while now. It was originally mostly scanned in HD, with the digital cleanup done in standard definition. For the Blu-ray, we cleaned everything up again, adding some new films, and the scans that had been done in standard def had to be redone in HD. The icing on the cake for me was being able to scan many of the 50s Nash commercials produced by Walt Disney productions, with designs by Tom Oreb and others. These beautiful spots (scanned and cleaned up in 2k) have never been seen in HD before, unless you were lucky enough to see one of the rare screenings of 16mm prints. I was happy to add spots from the same series to many of these segments. I love this set.
Some notes on some of the films on Volume 1:
Destination Earth (John Sutherland productions,1956): An especially striking short produced for promotion produced for the American Petroleum Institute. The film was produced by a fantastic animation team: As usual for a Sutherland short of this vintage, it was directed by Carl Urbano. The story siby Bill Scott, Michel Amnesty and George Gordon, with production design by To Oreb and Vic Haboush. Animators include George Cannata, Ken O’Brien and Tom Ray. This scan is from a stunning 16mm IB Technicolor print, one of three I bought in the mid-80s from film dealer Jerry Nelson’s Big Reel Ad. I sold the other two prints since they were not quite as good. I think I bought them for $12 or $15 each! It was especially fun cleaning up with short last year- there was almost always a beautiful layout to look at!
Big Tim (1949) has been discussed here before. It’s one of UPA’s non-commercial shorts that is easily as well-produced as their theatrical shorts for Columbia.
Planet Patrol (c 1959/60) is produced by Grantray Lawrence. This beautiful print was loaned by our own Jerry Beck for the collection, and a little color correction brought out the absolutely beautiful color of the original short. Animation archeologist extraordinaire Mike Kazaleh had some interesting observations back in 2013.
The Magic Fluke
I feel like both sets are a really good primer in late 40s into the 50s animation design. Along with the Jolly Frolics DVD set (essential) you have pretty amazing examples of a period that still may be the single biggest influence on today’s animation industry. The menu is similar to the DVD edition, but the quality of the new scans and cleanup is stunning.
And, here are some stills from the set (click to enlarge):
Mid Century Modern, Volume 2 is essentially the same as the DVD version, with a lot of improvements made to steadying some of the films. This volume is also quite stunning quality-wise. Here is the trailer we made for it on the original release in 2013. The HD marks an improvement in quality, especially in the beauty of the color materials.
I like both sets a lot, and I’m very happy to finally have these long-awaited Blu-rays out. Thanks too to everyone for your help and patience(!) in supporting these projects. We couldn’t do any of this stuff without all of your help!
Here are the Amazon links for those who didn’t get the pre-order:
Have a good day 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.
Both sets look excellent.
In the not too distant future, I will upgrade to the Blu-Ray versions.
One slight hitch, though, as Amazon.com no longer ships to Australia (only to U. S. addresses if buying from Australia), and I can’t seem to buy your sets through Amazon.com.au, I will seem to end up purchasing this via PayPal.
Good morning Steve and Congratulations! Hope to receive this long, long time pre-order SOON including al the special ones described below:
(not released yet):
disc 26: Screen Songs
disc 27: Award Winners
disc 28: Odds and Ends
disc 29: Cartoon Paradise
Disc 30: I’m No Fool for Ib tech
Disc 31: Terry/ Lantz/ Famous
Disc 32: Popeye in Technicolor (I just pre-order the Popeye one)
All the best, your long time supporter.
Martin A
Wow. This is amazing. Looks fantastic. I have Vol. 1 on DVD and this makes me want to upgrade to blu-ray. Thanks for all you do, Steve. (Not sure if you remember me, but I believe we met in Ottawa back in 2005 or 2006. Jerry introduced us.)
Hi Ward!
I do remember… and looking forward to going to Ottawa this year as well! I really liked the DVDs on both these titles and am glad that the Blu-rays are done now!
Are these Bluray-only versions of the Mid-Century Modern sets or do they include DVDs with them?
You haven’t visited me in a while, so why not stop by and visit me sometime, please!!
I may want to help you!
Oh this is indeed good news! While I would have liked to do away with the cumbersome menus as found on the DVD’s (one has to arrow down to find the “PLAY ALL” function), I’ve always enjoyed the terrific programs of seldom seen animated experiments and commercials. One even includes the voice talents of Stan Freiberg (“roller freight, roller freight, roller freight…”), and I like those “drive-in” segments. People who like to compile their own favorite short films into a program all their own could sample some of those “drive-in” segments when they run that “party disk” for friends. That sort of thing also reminds me of local animation shows that used to do just that, add the “drive-in” promotionals between classic cartoons.
I will check out the POPEYE blu-ray, because the Technicolor shorts are so difficult to see as restorations. Great job, as always.
Luv luv LUVV! Can NOT wait to buy. Thank YOU for the great endorsement!!!
So what’s the latest news on Cartoon Commercials Volume 2 ?
Googie! Because of a cosmic prank, the most 21st Century of all design played out in the 1950s….
I’m a bit confused: In the “Popeye In Technicolor” a different disc from the “”Popeye/Betty Boop” disc previously announced?
Yes, it is.
Yes, it is. All different films; it will have ‘Insect to Injury’ on it– so one repeat….
Would it be right to assume that the Famous Popeye’s will have their original Paramount titles?
-Chris
Looks amazing! Nice work, Steve!
Ahem!
https://s33.postimg.cc/a8el8xijj/spaceman_and_fountain.jpg
Just ordered both on Amazon! (missed the initial pre order sale)
Lookin’ forward to watching them! 🙂
Just ordered the Popeye set!
Oh JOY! 🙂
Steve, can we pre-order the discs that haven’t been released yet?
Any info on:
Mid Century Modern, Volume 3?