Rate My Animation Collection

[Neal]

I haven't been here in ages (no thanks to college) - but recently I got an Email that a topic I had subscribed to received a response. It was the first such Email in some time so I've been lurking around recently.

Since I used to come here a lot (I think this was my first animation forum) I'm curious about some of your respected opinions.

I've never made a 'rate my X' topic before, but after re-organizing my DVD shelves yesterday, I decided to make one.

This is a list of my animation on DVD/Blu-ray. Although I have more on VHS, we'll just stick to disc media.

I am looking for opinions on my collection. What you think of my overall selections. Which ones you think should go. And especially - what should I add. You can suggest films from any era, genre, animation medium (stop-motion, CGI, puppetry, hand drawn). You can make suggestions off trends you see in my choices or anything you just feel I should add.

There are certain TV shows or films I have not purchased the complete sets for or sequels, as you can see.

All items are DVDs unless indicated.

Just give me some feedback, please!


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Anime

Partial Series:

Digimon Data Squad, Collection One (episodes 1 through 13 of 48 )
Fullmetal Alchemist (season 1 of 2)
Gad Guard, volume 1 (episodes 1 through 4 of 26)
Monster, box set 1 (episodes 1 through 15 of 74)
Monster Rancher, 'the beginning' (episodes 1 through 8 of 73)
Tide-Line Blue, volume 1 (episodes 1 through 4 of 13)

Full Series:

Big O, The
Cowboy Bebop
Death Note (including: Re-Light: Visions of a God, Re-Light 2: L’s Successor, live-action Death Note, live-action Death Note II: The Last Name)
Elfin Lied
Gurren Lagann
Last Exile
Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit
Neon Genesis Evangelion (including: Death & Rebirth, End of Evangelion, Evangelion 1.01: You Are Not Alone)
Paranoia Agent
Record of Lodoss War

Feature Films/OVAs:

Akira [Blu-ray]
Animatrix, The
Appleseed
Appleseed: Ex Machina
Cat Returns, The
Dead Leaves
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Ghost in the Shell [Blu-ray]
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
Girl Who Leapt Through Time, The
Howl’s Moving Castle
Karas: The Revelation
Last Unicorn, The
Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland
Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro
Memories
Metropolis
Millennium Actress
My Neighbors the Yamadas
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Origin: Spirits of the Past
Paprika
Patlabor: The Movie
Patlabor 2: The Movie
Perfect Blue
Pom Poko
Ponyo [Blu-ray]
Sky Crawlers, The
Spriggan
Steamboy
Strait Jacket
Studio Ghibli Movie Collection (includes: Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Porco Rosso, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, Grave of the Fireflies)
Summer Wars [Blu-ray]
Tales from Earthsea
Tekkon Kinkreet [DVD]
Tekkon Kinkreet [Blu-ray]
Tokyo Godfathers
Vexille
Voices of a Distant Star
Whisper of the Heart
Wind Named Amnesia, A
Wonderful Galaxy of Oz, The

General Animation:

Feature Films:

9 [Blu-ray]
American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster, An
American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island, An
American Pop
Anastasia
Azur & Asmar: The Princes’ Quest
Battle for Terra
Beowulf
Cat’s Don’t Dance
Chuck Jones Collection (includes: Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, The White Seal, Mowgli’s Brothers, Yankee Doodle Cricket, A Cricket in Times Square, A Very Merry Cricket)
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Coraline [Blu-ray]
Corpse Bride
Dot and the Kangaroo
Dragon Hunters
Fantastic Mr. Fox [Blu-ray]
FernGully: The Last Rainforest
Incredible Mr. Limpet, The
Iron Giant, The
Kaena: The Prophecy
Lion of Oz
Mary and Max. [Blu-ray]
Mirrormask
Monster House
Nocturna
Pebble and the Penguin, The
Persepolis
Pink Floyd The Wall
Point, The
Rugrats Movie, The
Scanner Darkly, A
Secret of Kells, The [Blu-ray]
Secret of NIMH, The
Shrek 2
Snowman, The
Snurks, The
Star Wars: Clone Wars
Team America: World Police
Thief and the Cobbler, The
Thumbelina
Titan A.E.
Triplets of Belleville, The
Waking Life
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
We’re Back: A Dinosaur’s Story
Yellow Submarine, The Beatles

Television Series:

Cartoon Network:

Chowder, Volume 1 (episodes 1 through 5 of 49)
Chowder, Volume 2 (episodes 6 through 10 of 49)
Courage the Cowardly Dog (season 1)
Ed, Edd n’ Eddy (season 2)
Ed, Edd n’ Eddy: Fool’s Par-Ed-Ise (6 episodes)
Johnny Bravo (season 1)
Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, The (episodes 1 through 5 of 46)
Powerpuff Girls, The (complete series)
Samurai Jack (season 4)
Robot Chicken (season 3)
Venture Bros., The (season 1)

Nickelodeon:

Angry Beavers, The (best of season 1)
Invader Zim (episodes 1 through 5 of 27)
Rocko’s Modern Life (season 1)

Other Television:

South Park Season 1
South Park Season 4
South Park Season 5
South Park Season 6
South Park Season 7
South Park Season 9
South Park Season 10
South Park Season 11
South Park Movie, The
South Park: Imaginationland

Wonder Showzwen (season 1)

Shorts Collections:

Animation Express [Blu-ray]
Animation Show, Volume 1
Animation Show, Volume 2
Animation Show, Volume 3
Avoid Eye Contact, Volume 1
Celestial Navigations: The Short Films of Al Jarnow
Collection of 2005 Academy Award Nominated Short Films, A
Masters of Russian Animation, Volume 1
Spike and Mike’s Classic Festival of Animation
Wallace and Gromit: The Complete Collection [Blu-ray]

Disney:

Animated and Hybrid Feature Films/Featurettes/Direct-to-Videos:

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs [Blu-ray]
Pinocchio [Blu-ray]
Fantasia
Fantasia 2000
Dumbo
Bambi: Special Edition [DVD]
Bambi [Blu-ray]
Bambi II
Saludos Amigos/The Three Caballeros
Make Mine Music
Fun and Fancy Free
Mickey, Donald, and Goofy: The Three Musketeers
Melody Time
So Dear to My Heart
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
Disney’s Legends
Cinderella
Cinderella III: A Twist in Time
Cinderella II: Dreams Come True
Alice in Wonderland
Tinker Bell
Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure
Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue [Blu-ray]
Peter Pan
Return to Never Land
Lady and the Tramp
Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure
Sleeping Beauty
Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams
One Hundred and One Dalmatians
101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure
The Sword in the Stone
Mary Poppins
The Jungle Book
The Jungle Book 2
The Aristocats
Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Robin Hood
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin
Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving
The Tigger Movie
Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year
Winnie the Pooh: Un-Valentine’s Day and A Valentine For You
Piglet's Big Movie
Winnie the Pooh: Springtime with Roo
Pooh's Heffalump Movie
Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie
My Friends Tigger & Pooh: Super Sleuth Christmas Movie
The Rescuers
The Rescuers Down Under
Pete’s Dragon
The Fox and the Hound
The Fox and the Hound 2
The Black Cauldron
The Great Mouse Detective
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Oliver & Company
The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning
The Little Mermaid
The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea
Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas
Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical World
Aladdin
The Return of Jafar
Aladdin and the King of Thieves
The Lion King
The Lion King 1½
The Lion King II: Simba's Pride
A Goofy Movie
An Extremely Goofy Movie
Pocahontas
Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Hunchback of Notre Dame II
Hercules
Mulan
Mulan II
Tarzan
Tarzan: Collector’s Edition
Tarzan II
Tarzan & Jane
Dinosaur
Dinosaur: Collector’s Edition
The Emperor's New Groove
Kronk's New Groove
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Atlantis: The Lost Empire: Collector’s Edition
Atlantis: Milo's Return
Lilo & Stitch
Lilo & Stitch: Special Edition
Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch
Stitch! The Movie
Leroy & Stitch
Treasure Planet
Brother Bear
Brother Bear II
Home on the Range
The Wild
Valiant
Chicken Little
Meet the Robinsons
BOLT [Blu-ray]
The Princess and the Frog [Blu-ray]
Tangled [Blu-ray]
Mickey’s Once Upon A Christmas
Mickey’s Twice Upon A Christmas
Donald In Mathmagic Land
The Nightmare Before Chrismtas
James and the Giant Peach [Blu-ray]
The Secret of the Magic Gourd

Pixar:

Toy Story
A Bug’s Life
Toy Story 2
Monster’s, Inc.
Finding Nemo
The Incredibles
Cars
Ratatouille
Wall-E [Blu-ray]
Up [Blu-ray]
Buzz Lightyear of Star Command
Pixar Short Films Collection

Television Series:

Chip N’ Dale Rescue Rangers, Volume 1
Darkwing Duck, Volume 1
Ducktales, Volume 1
Ducktales, Volume 2
Growing Up With Winnie the Pooh: Love & Friendship
Lilo & Stitch: Islands of Adventure
Schoolhouse Rock: 30th Anniversary Edition

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[Daniel]

No Disney Treasures? Away with you!

[Neal]

Shameful, considering I'm a Disney obsessive...

[Ben]

Where'dya get your Nocturna disc?

Also, what does "BOLT" stand for? It isn't an acronym...

Apart from that (and excluding the anime), looks a bit like my collection, except for the wealth of classic archival animation that is sorely missing here.

[Neal]

Since the creation of this thread I've found (mostly for cheap - otherwise I wouldn't add some of these titles):

The Brave Little Toaster
Rover Dangerfield
Monkeybone
Pagemaster
Land Before Time 2, 3, 4, 13
How to Train Your Dragon
Snoopy's Reunion
You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown
Busytown Mysteries (26 episodes) [I loved Busy World as a kid!]
The Reluctant Dragon (original - not the new release which is just the short without the live action studio tour)
Flight of the Dragons
Once Upon a Forest
Hey Arnold (season 1)
Sita Sings the Blues
The Daydreamer (Rankin/Bass I'd never heard of before)
Waltz With Bashir

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Got my Nocturna disc from here:

http://www.freerecordshop.be/films/noct ... 0504073021

... the disc packaging is in Dutch from what I can tell - as that site is Belgian. However, the English language track is included. It's region 2. I had a crappy $50 DVD player I hacked to make it play. That DVD player finally bit the dust so this movie has been collecting dust.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Can you make some suggestions on where to start on archival animation? I only began buying DVDs for myself about 5 years ago as that's when I was first given my own player. Since then, with a few exceptions, a lot of what you see above was purchased at box stores (K-mart, Wal-mart), thrift stores and garage sales. I don't have any hip DVD stores anywhere within an hour of me that carry hard-to-find, out-of-print, independent or foreign films. I live a rather cloistered rural midwest American life. So my collection is composed mainly of films I've had the serendipity of finding. Also, admittedly, there is such a back catalog of classic animation I'm a little afraid of where to start. Tex Avery shorts, classic Disney shorts, old Looney Toons - I have no clue where to begin.

That said, I have begun to expand my tastes and am buying a region 2 / region hackable Blu-ray player for some non-region 1 released discs.

I plan to import the following:

Omohide poro poro / Only Yesterday
Umi ga Kikoeru / Ocean Waves
Wizards (the Blu-ray has only been released in region 2)
Les Maîtres du temps / The Masters of Time (region 1 DVD is insanely expensive)
The Plague Dogs (region 2 has the full film vs. region 1 has 18 minutes cut)
When The Wind Blows (region 1 is only a burn-on-demand Amazon disc)
La Planete Sauvage / Fantastic Planet (the Blu-ray has only been released in region 2)
The Adventures of Mark Twain (same as above)
Le Roi et l'oiseau / The King and the Mockingbird (the region 1 dvd seems to be nonexistent at this point, I searched all over)

As for non-imports I'm looking into:

Watership Down (2008 deluxe edition. I've heard rumors that this film like Plague Dogs is edited in the U.S. - but can't confirm that. So I'm buying it region 1)
Gulliver's Travels (Fully Restored 60th Anniversary Limited Edition - I've heard this is a top-notch release of this film)
Daft Punk - Interstella 5555
The Chipmunk Adventure

I want to get Mr. Bug Goes to Town (AKA Hoppity Goes to Town / Bugville) - but cannot tell which DVD release would provide the best audio / video quality. Any idea?

[Ben]

I always find Amazon is the best place to go to find all kinds of things, or eBay to pick up second hand. If you're only really starting to collect now, I would suggest maybe holding off for eventual Blu-rays. Tom & Jerry and the Looney Tunes are coming later this year. For obscure/very early stuff, look up Ray Pointer's Inkwell Images and Steve Stanchfield's Thunderbean releases.

I don't have much time to respond, but some answers in short:

- Thanks for the Nocturna link!

- Tex Avery isn't well represented on DVD, so don't bother looking for the MGM classics. Disney has a ton out, of which we've covered lots, so use our review searches for what sounds good.

- Plague Dogs is uncut in Australia, but not in region 2 (UK) as far as I know. Australia has the full cut from the director's own print, the rest of the world has the US cut. We have much more on this elsewhere on the site.

- When The Wind Blows UK disc is very decent. Can't remember if extras, but I think there might be a trailer and some, from a very long memory ago.

- Watership Down is uncut all over. WB's 2008 deluxe edition is the nicest version of the film, with a Blu-ray as yet unannounced and apparently not on the cards.

- Gulliver's Travels: the 60th Anniversary DVD is the version to go for; DO NOT get the extremely botched up Blu-ray release, which is just plain evil. Again, we have covered both editions here.

- Mr Bug Goes To Town is not officially available on disc, though WB were rumored to be putting out a Fleischer double feature with Gulliver that looks to have bitten the dust. The only "authentic" version out is Legend Films' Bugville disc, which title change apart seems to be of good quality (I don't have it, I have the Hoppity-edition LaserDisc).

[droosan]

Mr. Bug Goes to Town (aka Hoppity Goes to Town) is available on DVD with a nice transfer in Japan .. keep in mind that it does require a 'Region-2-capable' DVD player, though..!

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On Neal's animation collection: it's solid, so far! But, don't necessarily feel that you should be in a hurry to 'complete' it; take the time to watch what you have, already!

And, likewise, concentrate on collecting the stuff you'll want to keep (and watch!)

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There's a nice 're-mastered' Tom & Jerry set coming this fall to Blu-ray (and DVD, I'd presume) .. It was mentioned at San Diego Comic-Con that -- if that sells well -- Warner Bros will consider following-up with a proper Tex Avery cartoon collection.

In addition to the Looney Tunes and Walt Disney short collections, I'd recommend the Fleischer Popeye and Superman sets .. and Walter Lantz' Woody Woodpecker and Friends cartoon collections. But do take your time and keep an eye out for 'deals' & sales, because tracking those down is liable to take some time and money, any way you go about it ..

[Neal]

Ben - I'll look up Pointer/Stanchfield. Thank you for the suggestion.

Nocturna is a fun and well-animated diversion. I hope the company can pony up the funding for a second feature. They've been shopping around.

Shorts - I think I'm going to start by looking into reviews of the Treasures sets.

Plague Dogs - I've read multiple reviews that state the Optimum co.'s 2008 release is the same private print that was released in Australia by Big Sky.

Watership / Wind Blows/ Gulliver - thanks.

Mr. Bug - for sake of quality and funding legitimate companies who try to bring us classic animation, I try to only fund authorized/authentic releases. So knowing Bugville is the only so-called 'legit' release gravitates me towards getting that one in lieu of waiting on WB to get around to it. I've also read though this is more a less a slightly better funded bootleg and the opening titles are new but stylized to look old. I guess ultimately if it's the uncut feature, minus some titles, that's what matters most.

droosan - The Studio Ghibli release lacks English subtitles. I would only buy a film that's neither dubbed or subbed into English if it appears as if it will never be any other way (for example: King and the Mockingbird).

Glad you approve of my collection - what makes you so sure I haven't seen most of these films (for the record: I have). I'm sort of in a stockpile mode right now as I have some money saved from my summer job and am about to head back to college. I'd like to have some fresh discs to take back to to relax with.

I'll keep an eye on this T&J Blu-ray. My local Wal-mart has a lot of WB shorts sets - a Foghorn Leghorn set, two Looney Toons collections and several others I can't recall. But I'll hold off to see what will be restored for Blu. Speaking of which, I believe they have some Popeye as well.

Any opinions on the Yogi Bear Show? There's a complete series DVD for a bargain price.

[Ben]

I'd be wary of some of the Looney Tunes sets (specifically the recent character-centered discs like that Foghorn Leghorn), since they cropped the cartoons for 16:9 framing and from the sounds of things it's done pretty badly.


Yep, Nocturna looked pretty amazing from when we saw the trails a few years back. I was holding out for a US release (like the same company's Pinocchio 3000 eventually got), but will probably buy an import now as it doesn't look like it's going to happen (and the same with their El Cid feature). Donkey Xote did manage to get a release (and on Blu-ray too), but the film didn't look that great so I've held off. Has Filmax managed to get any more films out there? I kind of lost track of them.


Again, be careful on The Plague Dogs: there was a UK-announced version that was to contain the uncut print, but as far as I know this never actually materialized. I looked the movie up on Amazon UK and found multiple versions of the same Optimum disc along with what looked like a Dutch release. All the reviews were the same, so they all have the announcement for the uncut version being on the disc, which doesn't help. Being in the UK, I've been in a store and held that disc in my hands, and there's nothing on the packaging to denote it has the uncut print on it. There was another budget release too, and that failed to have the uncut print on there as well.

The ONLY uncut editions that I know about are the original VHS releases and the Australian Blue Sky DVD. I'm lucky to have both and can confirm that director Martin Rosen's print is pretty beat up and un-color corrected. I was in contact with the Blue Sky guys a while back and offered to create a new color corrected master (I'm an editor here) which would incorporate footage from the clean US cut, the corrected Rosen cut as well as the virgin VHS tape that I've since transferred to digital that looks pretty good.

What I can't understand is that somewhere there must be the original master tape that was used to dupe all those VHS tapes many moons ago. It's obviously sitting in a vault somewhere, probably unmarked. But for the original VHS and reissue VHS releases in the 1980s, a broadcast quality master was created for those dupes, either on ancient U-Matic tape or BetaSP. This is what the uncut VHS tapes were derived from, and this should still exist somewhere.

The actual film neg should be somewhere too, but that's understandable if it's now lost what with the film's history (and lack of appreciation to fund a proper search). But it annoys me that the master should be out there which would provide a much cleaner edition of the uncut version. Hopefully I may well get around to creating the amalgamation of current DVD, uncut print and uncut VHS to present the film as best as originally intended, but it's a big job that will need the right amount of time. Maybe one day...


By the way, I've removed your last line about buying a couple of bootlegs. We enjoy a healthy relationship with the Studios and ask that such talk is refrained from here, since we can't condone the illegal purchase of copyrighted material. Thanks for understanding.

[GeorgeC]

I've got the Legends film version of Hoppity ("Mr. Bug") Goes to Town.
It's retitled "Bugville" for whatever reasons but otherwise identical.

The print Legends used was fairly decent -- better shape than any of The Gulliver's Travels prints that I've seen on home video.

In many ways, it's a better film than Gulliver but still not as good as the weakest Disney contemporary films.

The film can be viewed as a predecessor to A Bug's Life. There's actually a number of similarities in the characters and story elements.

[Ben]

As I've said quite a few times before, I still can't see why someone didn't put out a very decent edition of Mr Bug Goes To Town when A Bug's Life and Antz jossled for box-office attention in 1998, with the tagline: "The Original Bug's Life!" or something cleverly attention grabbing.

I actually think Mr Bug/Hoppity is as good if not better than some contemporary Disney stuff. Certainly some of the Package Features elements (Bongo The Circus Bear, the other half of Fun And Fancy Free, for example). And there's a ton of great animation in it to boot. I've always enjoyed Stan Freburg's vocal as the lead character, very enthusiastic, and there are good songs too.

Such a shame about Pearl Harbor (and then Dumbo)...I think given different circumstances the film would have been a much bigger hit and really put the Fleischers on the map in terms of feature animation.