WB Archive Collection: Discs On Demand!

[GeorgeC]

I'm hoping this DOESN'T turn out to be the way WB finally releases the Tex Avery MGM shorts on DVD/Blu ray.

That would be sad because those shorts deserve much better treatment!

IF they can afford to fund overbloated action vehicles and restore the original King Kong, a decent effort can be made to find better quality prints of the Avery shorts and put those out on home video since like Kong the master negatives just don't exist anymore.

I just made a music video as an extra assignment for myself (outside of broadcast school class) using Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody To Love" and footage from "Swingshift Cinderella."

It'd been a while since I'd seen any of Avery's MGM work.

Reminded me of what so many kids and adults are missing because of WB's stupid S & P rules and the literal blackout of most classic Hollywood animation from TV nowadays.

Yes, the shorts can be violent but they are nowhere near as grotesque and raunch as what the average of Family Guy or South Park gets away with today.

I don't know why suits are so afraid of these films...

[EricJ]

And keeping an entire post ON Warner Archive for more than one whole paragraph before free-associating whatever angry-fanboy complaints sprang to our randomly-firing synapses...

Latest animated WA addition is "Peanuts Motion Comics", now downgraded to Archive after originally being groomed for bigger releases--
Although Warner thought that DC and Peanuts flash-animation would be the new download thing upgradable to disk, based on their Watchmen sales (and the fact that Bill Melendez wouldn't be making any more fully-animated Peanuts specials), seems like the writing is on the limited-marketing wall.

[GeorgeC]

Eric,

You've gotta be on sad lonely old guy if this is your only source of amusement...

[Randall]

I was browsing the Warner Archive offerings, and came across a couple of interesting ones. I'm not sold on motion comics, but they have one available for Superman: Red Son, and one that includes both Batgirl: Year One and Batman Adventures: Mad Love.

The ones I really want to get, though, are The Amazing Captain Nemo and Man From Atlantis, and maybe Steel.

[eddievalient]

I'm hoping WB will eventually use the archive to release shows that might not sell well otherwise (Taz-Mania, Histeria, Capitol Critters, The Pirates of Dark Water, etc).

[Ben]

Good point. They did it with Eleventh Hour, though animation seems to be a smaller proiority for the line right now, with only a couple of specials out there.

They have been doing some well recieved short film collections, so let's hope they get the idea that fans want these shows big enough to warrant bog standard Archive Collection releases.

[EricJ]

though animation seems to be a smaller priority for the line right now, with only a couple of specials out there.

And although they did finally release "Life and Adventures of Santa Claus" (their last remaining Rankin-Bass holiday special from the boxset of two years ago), "Nestor the Long-Eared Donkey" now seems to have been downgraded to Archive title, after appearing on the boxset.

...Who's to say what other specials/titles may end up losing their mainstream-release parking space?

[Ben]

Actually, even so far a lot of the titles released were intended for mainstream commercial release. Freebie And The Bean had been announced previously and then delayed, and cover art for some others had already been seen. I think they looked at projected sales and redirected the outlet for many of them, and since the line has proven to be a success, I do fear that some other titles, that may have had bigger releases, are simply being diverted to the WBAC to save on additional costs.

After all, the Studio has said, those that really want some titles will find a way to own them, be they regular store copies or WBAC discs. Just like how the Fleischer Popeye series never made it to Europe; their thinking that copies wouldn't sell in huge numbers, and those serious collectors who really wanted Popeye on disc would import from the US anyway, so why bother with converting them to PAL and going through classification systems for a niche title?

Same with the WBACs - why spend more on a wider release for some titles when the few that would jump on them are just as likely to be okay going for the WBAC edition?

[Ben]

I'm still loving the WBAC titles coming out, and their Memorial Day Sale (good through 5/31/10) is currently on, offering single discs for around $13.50 and multi-disc sets at 20% off!

Have you noticed other studios picking up on this trend? I see a few "Amazon Exclusives" from Universal, MGM and Fox, but their listings are awful.

Anyone know of any sites/pages that are keeping track on these MOD releases? The WB Archives are very easy to keep up with and search their dedicated page, but how about the rest of them?

I've seen a couple that I'm tempted on, but there's no way of seeing what else has been put out there from the other distributors.

[eddievalient]

As long as it's on sale anyway, I would highly recommend the excellent (and criminally underrated) Rankin/Bass film "The Flight of Dragons". From the opening song by Don Mclean to the awesome voice work by Harry Morgan, John Ritter and James Earl Jones, this film is not to be missed.

[EricJ]

Have you noticed other studios picking up on this trend? I see a few "Amazon Exclusives" from Universal, MGM and Fox, but their listings are awful.
Anyone know of any sites/pages that are keeping track on these MOD releases? The WB Archives are very easy to keep up with and search their dedicated page, but how about the rest of them?

They're experimenting with What They Saw Other Studios Do, because that's where the catalog DVD market seems to be headed.
Only problem is, they don't quite have their own in-house TCM to give them a sense of movie-historian perspective, and why we should care that the Al Jolson musicals are now on disk.
Give MGM and Universal a little time, they'll get the hang of it....Although what we really need now is Fox to do their own MOD-vault line, and show the non-Warners how to do it.

(And yes, we DO need one central info page, as it's rather hard to find Amazon's without Googling for it.
If Amazon's going to open their own store, they've got to keep the shelves clean for the customers.)

[gaastra]

Pirates of Dark Water to be released by Warner Archive on dvd.

http://www.toonzone.net/forums/showthread.php?t=272471

[Randall]

Looks like Thundarr and Josie & the Pussycats in Outer Space too, judging by other posts in that thread. Good choices. This looks to be the way of the future for most Warner-owned cartoon shows. Retail, pressed DVDs would be nicer, but if this is the only way they'll get released, then I'm all for it. Warner does offer these for review, so hopefully we can cover these for our Animated Views readers.

[gaastra]

Thanks. I updated the title.

[droosan]

Yay yay!

Here's hoping these do well, so we can get more 1960's & 1970's Saturday morning titles ..

Go Warner Archive!