DAM and MEGALON News from Media Blasters

[Monsterzero 1965]

The problem is that Blu-Ray quality does not translate into better quality than DVD when it comes to films that were not shot for Blu-Ray.

That's just wrong. 35mm film can be scanned at 2K and 4K resolution which has a higher resolution than Blu-ray.

[Showa Gyaos]

I'll be looking for a release date.

[RyanClark]

Concerning the topic of the International prints of the films goes, here's my opinion. I've noticed in a lot of cases, Media Blasters likes to use the original Japanese versions, but with dubs. I can't verify how much they do this for anime, but it's a lot more often with them than with a lot of other companies. I'm guessing maybe they want to feature them completely unaltered, as they were in Japan; and in the case of the Toho films, they may not understand some fans, particularly completists, want these previously existing English title/credits screens. I say email them and make this obvious that we want them. It would be awesome to see the original AIP DAM opening and credits, but that depends on if anyone has an actual print of it. Now, concerning the International credits, I would like to see both those and the Japanese credits featured using the multi-angle capability. Funimation used to do this with some of their anime titles, which I thought was brilliant (not sure why they stopped!). But for God's sake, I hope they have the uncut English dub of Megalon, not some attempt to remake the Cinema Shares version like Madman did.

I'm also thrilled to see they want to get the Japanese extras. That may mean commentaries, Japanese 8mm featurettes, and I believe Megalon has a Teruyoshi Nakano interview nearly an hour long. Plus, if you care about the 5.1 audio remixes, I'm hoping those will be there as well.

[omgitsgodzilla]

"We did inquire into [Return of Godzilla] in the past, and may try again in the near future"? I LOVE YOU, MEDIA BLASTERS!

[Tamura]

Ryan, I already sent MB a nice, specific letter about the credits.

[tymon]

I wouldn't mind if MB got the rights to all the Godzilla films, honestly. They seem to care about their product more than Sony or CM (though we got some damn good DVDs from them too). It would also be cool to have all 28 films on a shelf from the same company and similar packaging.

[Tamura]

^Sony definitely did care. Their releases and the two Universal King Kong DVDs are probably the best-looking Toho sci-fi/kaiju releases. I do have to say that their packaging could have been better. Stacking three disks on top of each other is completely impractical.

[The Dark Uniter]

Concerning the topic of the International prints of the films goes, here's my opinion. I've noticed in a lot of cases, Media Blasters likes to use the original Japanese versions, but with dubs. I can't verify how much they do this for anime, but it's a lot more often with them than with a lot of other companies. I'm guessing maybe they want to feature them completely unaltered, as they were in Japan; and in the case of the Toho films, they may not understand some fans, particularly completists, want these previously existing English title/credits screens. I say email them and make this obvious that we want them. It would be awesome to see the original AIP DAM opening and credits, but that depends on if anyone has an actual print of it. Now, concerning the International credits, I would like to see both those and the Japanese credits featured using the multi-angle capability. Funimation used to do this with some of their anime titles, which I thought was brilliant (not sure why they stopped!). But for God's sake, I hope they have the uncut English dub of Megalon, not some attempt to remake the Cinema Shares version like Madman did.

I'm also thrilled to see they want to get the Japanese extras. That may mean commentaries, Japanese 8mm featurettes, and I believe Megalon has a Teruyoshi Nakano interview nearly an hour long. Plus, if you care about the 5.1 audio remixes, I'm hoping those will be there as well.

I agree, I like multi-angles as well. A couple of movies utilized this feature: Star Wars, Alien and Commando. I think the reason why Funimation stopped using them is because it would ruin video quality or something like that. The only real release from them that I know that has complete Japanese credits are the Dragon Ball Z Dragon Boxes.

[tymon]

^Sony definitely did care. Their releases and the two Universal King Kong DVDs are probably the best-looking Toho sci-fi/kaiju releases. I do have to say that their packaging could have been better. Stacking three disks on top of each other is completely impractical.

True. The audio/video quality on some of the Showa films by Sony is pretty amazing, despite the half assed packaging and lack of features. I just think that MB is doing a better job with Toho films overall, my Varan DVD is awesome and it sounds like the Godzilla titles will be too.

[JVM]

Classic Media put their resources towards great menus, packaging and special features, and Sony put their resources toward good audio and video presentation. Hopefully Media Blasters can combine the best of both worlds.

[tymon]

^Well said.

[Tamura]

It seems that the longer a company has had relations with Toho, the better their later releases end up being. Sony is the best example I can think of. I'm not terribly impressed with the CM releases, but they certainly improved since 2002.

Multi-angle or seamless branching would be perfect in order to present MEGALON (and possibly DAM, too, if they include the Frontier dub) uncut in both Japanese and English with their respective credit sequences. This was successfully done for BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE in the ICONS OF TOHO set.

[Crimson_Raptor]

Multi-angle or seamless branching would be perfect in order to present...both Japanese and English with their respective credit sequences.

I agree.

[Gexistentialist]

Somewhere inside me, a child is running around in circles.

[wataru]

How long before someone bootlegs these for download? heheh

Nice to have a GvMegs/DAM topic with real 'meat' on it. Id like to replace my Fansubbed DAM and VCD Megs with DVDs (not BRDs). I wonder if Walmart or Target will get them when released. Walmart has shown interested in foreign media.

[The Dark Uniter]

I doubt it or I guess it depends where you live. When the Classic Media Godzilla DVDs are coming out, my Walmart didn't have any of them, only my local Best Buy or Costco has them. But even more recently, my local Best Buy is starting to dedicate its home entertainment towards Blu-rays and removed all the Toho DVDs altogether.

[wataru]

I doubt it or I guess it depends where you live. When the Classic Media Godzilla DVDs are coming out, my Walmart didn't have any of them, only my local Best Buy or Costco has them. But even more recently, my local Best Buy is starting to dedicate its home entertainment towards Blu-rays and removed all the Toho DVDs altogether.

Walmart has recently started showing an interest in more foreign media - picking up Top Gear DVD releases, Doctor Who releases and Target had the CM Godzilla films.

[Goji]

Nice to have a GvMegs/DAM topic with real 'meat' on it. Id like to replace my Fansubbed DAM and VCD Megs with DVDs (not BRDs).

Why?

[Hellspawn28]

How long before someone bootlegs these for download? heheh

Nice to have a GvMegs/DAM topic with real 'meat' on it. Id like to replace my Fansubbed DAM and VCD Megs with DVDs (not BRDs).

So wait? You will be buying this on DVD or Blu-Ray now?

[The Dark Uniter]

He's saying he is replacing the his Video CDs with the official releases on DVD. Reminds me of Hot Fuzz when the guy needed 2 "translators".