I have a number of reasons to be skeptical about the announced Olive Films’ Betty Boop: The Essential Collection Vol. 1, to be released in July. Not that anything Olive has done in the past makes me wary, as I own a number of their releases and the transfer quality is consistently excellent. Rather, it’s what they’re doing now that is furrowing brows.
Most apparent is that that selection of cartoons not only seems hastily done, but it lacks genuine historical insight. Albeit, most of the cartoons are wonderful, but it’s not nearly as representative as it should be. For a premiere volume, one would think a few of the cartoons animated by Grim Natwick, Betty Boop’s creator, would have been included. But this selection starts after Natwick left the studio. None of the cartoons with Cab Calloway or Louie Armstrong (which would obviously entice a wider audience) are on this premiere release either.
The titles planned for future volumes, as David Gerstein writes, seems arbitrarily limited to the Betty Boop series or what’s been released before as part of the 1995 anthology film Betty Boop Confidential, with a few public domain selections based on those rules thrown in (which leaves out over 30 Talkartoons or Screen Songs starring Betty).
That lack of savviness surely stems from the fact that none of the roundtable of animation experts are involved with Olive Films. A fair amount of noise has been made over the fact that Jerry Beck is not a consultant on this project. That’s not to say Jerry’s involvement is a cure-all, but his absence is not exactly a mark in any project’s favor, nor is the fact that Jerry knows no one calling the shots on this release.
This kind of thinking is fairly typical with the big players, of which Warner Home Video is certainly the worst offender. “We know everything and you geeks don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” Well, maybe if those geeks were making more of the final decisions with basic (and free) advice, we wouldn’t have faded Eastman Tom & Jerry cartoons mastered in high-definition or Blue Ribbon versions of Warner cartoons when readily available original elements exist. Therefore it’s a little disheartening that this mindset is alive at a smaller player whose intentions seem earnest.
One example of how this will work against them, re: Betty Boop: the Paramount logos for all of these cartoons could easily be reinstated from private collectors’ materials relatively inexpensively (especially compared to what UCLA charges for use of their materials), but it seems obvious we’ll have those pointless U.M.&.M. logos and jump cuts blaring from the HDTVs soon enough. Just a little effort and acceptance would surely result in better sales and more favorable reviews.
I hope that I’m very wrong. The oeuvre of early sound Fleischer cartoons is the second-most important one in classic animation still in dire need of a strong release (the first and foremost, of course, is that of the Tex Avery MGM cartoons). But I doubt this will be it.
Update: Amazon pre-order links now available: Blu-Ray and DVD. I can understand the costs of licensing copyrighted works, but they could’ve filled it up with more content than this for $19.99/$24.99. The Thunderbean DVDs cost next to nothing and Steve Stanchfield literally makes those by himself. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think Olive Films was the amateur outfit…
Warners did seem to respond with Vol. III of the Popeye DVDs, when they delayed it’s release to fix the end of “The Hungry Goat”. But that’s likely only because;
1.) They had gotten burned by having to send out all those Disc 1 replacements because nobody did quality control on Vol. II of the series, and;
2.) Cartoon Network had already done a simulated recreation which showed some effort to match the soundtrack, so that a crappy fade-to-Paramount mountain ending would have been particularly insulting.
Not that they were going to recreate the ending on their own at DVD quality — they just took CN’s lower res ending and edited it in, but at least there was some response to Jerry and/or the public on that one (I’m guessing they’ll have forgotten by the time Vol. IV is slated to come out next year, and I’m sure you’re right that those gawdawful UM&M negs — especially the ones where they were too lazy even to keep the animator title credits intact — will be what the Olive Films releases will be.
It seems pretty clear that the only “consultants” Olive is using for these releases are beancounters requesting “Betty Boop” cartoons to bank on that aren’t PD, as apparently they think they’re actually going to compete with the Wal-Mart consumers that buy the dollar-bin Betty collections.
Also, Olive seems very impersonal about cooperating with outside collectors and/or consultants aside from whoever they contact at Paramount. They don’t seem to use any representatives or insiders among the online community. An anonymous representative sometimes responds to questions on their Facebook page, but they don’t seem interested in any consumer input outside general “yes” or “no” question.
The pricing for these is indeed ridiculous. They could at least put 2 hrs of content into these instead of soaking the consumer with 80-90 minutes of content at premium price so they can wring out an extra volume and an extra $25 each for those pursuing a “complete” collection.
Absolutely frustrating, I’m sure. Can’t these companies learn how to do a proper cartoon restoration. They should know by now that the most rabid fans aren’t going to like a sloppy job and want historical accuracy with these shorts.
I actually mentioned you in my comment on Jerry’s post. I knew that you would have some thoughts about this so-called “release.”
With the effects of the financial crisis and recession still lingering on, all hopes of a 3rd Popeye volume seem hopeless, even a flawed one unless the Genndy Tartakovsky Popeye movie manages to do well.
I emailed Olive and pointed them to this and several other online discussions about the Boop release. If I get a response, I’ll share it, but I’m not optimistic.
It’s “geeks” like you and Jerry Beck (sorry, Jerry) and others that I rely on for evaluating these DVDs and helping me decide what to purchase/support. It seems to me like these companies are making the same mistakes they made when they were just movie studios; namely, they have little or no appreciation for the historical significance of these cartoons/movies and the need to have them available in their most original state possible. I know it’s all about the “almighty” dollar; but, there’s money in fostering/maintaining/promoting the art of these films. Some day there will be a resurgence of interest in alot of the “old” animation; like there was in the Universal monsters in the 60s and people will support the product that best represents those films. I await the “after release” reviews from y’all before I make my purchase.
In regards to Warner Bros., who actually own the material and don’t (or didn’t) subcontract releases out, what I find particularly galling is that it’s inconceivable that they’d allow this to happen with a film like “Wizard of Oz” or “Casablanca.” But it’s still perfectly okay for the cartoons that would have shared theater screens with those classics.