Movies M.I.A on blu-ray

[mikelcho]

The Bermuda Depths is another Rankin/Bass & Tsuburaya Productions co-production, ala The Last Dinosaur.

Warner Archive also released The Last Dinosaur earlier in its unedited version as well.

[Terasawa]

The Bermuda Depths is another Rankin/Bass & Tsuburaya Productions co-production, ala The Last Dinosaur.

Warner Archive also released The Last Dinosaur earlier in its unedited version as well.

But not yet on Blu-ray, which is what this thread is about.

[mikelcho]

The Bermuda Depths is another Rankin/Bass & Tsuburaya Productions co-production, ala The Last Dinosaur.

Warner Archive also released The Last Dinosaur earlier in its unedited version as well.

But not yet on Blu-ray, which is what this thread is about.

Thanks for telling me this. I was just commenting on the fact that they were both made by the two studios at about the same time.

Was there a third film that was also made at about the same time (the 1970s) by Toho and Rankin/Bass, or am I thinking about King Kong Escapes from the 1960s?

UPDATE: Never mind, I found it. It was The Ivory Ape (1980).

[Terasawa]

Was there a third film that was also made at about the same time (the 1970s) by Toho and Rankin/Bass, or am I thinking about King Kong Escapes from the 1960s?

Toho released The Last Dinosaur but they weren't involved in production. That movie was the first of three Rankin/Bass and Tsuburaya Productions collaborations. The second, of course, is The Bermuda Depths, and the final co-production was The Ivory Ape (1980).

Some English sources say The Bermuda Depths and The Ivory Ape were released theatrically in Japan, but not according to Japanese sources. Apparently Bermuda was only seen on TV in Japan while Ape was never released there at all. The latter hasn't been released on video in the U.S.

Besides King Kong Escapes, Rankin/Bass apparently collaborated with Toho (actually Toho Eizo, the subsidiary which produced the Godzilla films from 1972 to 1975) on Marco (1973). There doesn't seem to be a lot of information about that co-production, but I've found English and Japanese sources that corroborate Toho's involvement.

Anyway, the only reason I commented in the first place was to draw attention to the Japanese co-origin The Bermuda Depths. Kingkev said it was a giant turtle movie, but I thought the fact that TPC co-produced would be more interesting to fans on a Godzilla site.

[mikelcho]

Was there a third film that was also made at about the same time (the 1970s) by Toho and Rankin/Bass, or am I thinking about King Kong Escapes from the 1960s?

Toho released The Last Dinosaur but they weren't involved in production. That movie was the first of three Rankin/Bass and Tsuburaya Productions collaborations. The second, of course, is The Bermuda Depths, and the final co-production was The Ivory Ape (1980).

Some English sources say The Bermuda Depths and The Ivory Ape were released theatrically in Japan, but not according to Japanese sources. Apparently Bermuda was only seen on TV in Japan while Ape was never released there at all. The latter hasn't been released on video in the U.S.

Besides King Kong Escapes, Rankin/Bass apparently collaborated with Toho (actually Toho Eizo, the subsidiary which produced the Godzilla films from 1972 to 1975) on Marco (1973). There doesn't seem to be a lot of information about that co-production, but I've found English and Japanese sources that corroborate Toho's involvement.

Anyway, the only reason I commented in the first place was to draw attention to the Japanese co-origin The Bermuda Depths. Kingkev said it was a giant turtle movie, but I thought the fact that TPC co-produced would be more interesting to fans on a Godzilla site.

Again, thanks for the info!

[MaxRebo320]

*Rankin Bass/Tsuburaya/Toho Snip*

I should mention the existence of The Bushido Blade, a 1981 Rankin/Bass production featuring Toshiro Mifune, Tetsuro Tanba and Sonny Chiba (Along with The Last Dinosaur's Richard Boone as Matthew C. Perry, a pretty inspired casting choice actually) directed by Tom Kotani who also directed Last Dinosaur, Bermuda Depths and Ivory Ape. I've seen a few places list Toho as having involvement in it, but to what extent, I have no idea (Possibly just loaning them their studios?). I haven't seen the movie since I've heard its pretty awful. If you a US production with Mifune involving the search for a sword, just watch Red Sun. If you want a movie with Mifune, Tanba and Chiba, watch Shogun's Samurai.

[kingkevzilla88]

Vinegar Syndrome is releasing Beastmaster and Fade To Black as part of their black Friday sale.

[mikelcho]

Vinegar Syndrome is releasing Beastmaster and Fade To Black as part of their black Friday sale.

Is the first film the one already mentioned on the post "How "The Beastmaster" (1982) went missing"?

[kingkevzilla88]

Vinegar Syndrome is releasing Beastmaster and Fade To Black as part of their black Friday sale.

Is the first film the one already mentioned on the post "How "The Beastmaster" (1982) went missing"?

Yes, it is the original Beastmaster. They're using a 4k restoration from a 35mm interpositive from Warner bros. It's going to be part of their Vinegar Syndrome Ultra subline, which means once it's sold out that's it. No reprints of anything.

[LegendZilla]

Does this include films available on blu-ray in some regions, but not others?

[mikelcho]

Vinegar Syndrome is releasing Beastmaster and Fade To Black as part of their black Friday sale.

Is the first film the one already mentioned on the post "How "The Beastmaster" (1982) went missing"?

Yes, it is the original Beastmaster. They're using a 4k restoration from a 35mm interpositive from Warner bros. It's going to be part of their Vinegar Syndrome Ultra subline, which means once it's sold out that's it. No reprints of anything.

Ah hah, I thought so!

[kingkevzilla88]

Does this include films available on blu-ray in some regions, but not others?

Yes, half of companies that putting these films out, tend to make their discs region-free.

[Rody]

My wishlist:
- all of the Marx Brothers movies Warner Brothers owns. A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races seem like good picks for the Criterion Collection, while their later, frankly not as good, films are shoo-ins for the Warner Archive.

I'm resurrecting this post to say that A Night in Casablanca is coming in December. I don't remember who owns that particular one, but I'll take this as progress!

Paramount is finally releasing Roman Holiday, the '50s romance flick starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck, on Blu-ray - one of the most conspicuously absent from the format classic Hollywood films.

Godzilla fans should be interested in it because it was a huge hit in Japan and an enormous favorite of Ishiro Honda, who adored Hepburn and based the princess traveling incognito element of Ghidorah TTHM on this movie.

I just bought this one recently myself; the packaging seems pretty nice, but I haven't actually watched the disc yet.
Maybe I'll do that tonight...

[Angilasman]

^ Cool!

Night in Casablanca has some sort of weird rights situation. It was released on DVD by Warner Brothers along with the five movies the brothers made for MGM (and one for RKO) but now apparently it was available for someone else to license.

[Chrispy_G]

Is there an overall 'home market releases' thread? There are a lot of things worth discussing, but they don't really fit the "Missing on Blu Ray" descriptor.

Should there be one if we don't have one already?

[kingkevzilla88]

Is there an overall 'home market releases' thread? There are a lot of things worth discussing, but they don't really fit the "Missing on Blu Ray" descriptor.

Should there be one if we don't have one already?

I'm fine with turning this into a general home video discussions thread.


One of the scariest films of all time is finally getting a blu-ray release, Fire In The Sky.

[Chrispy_G]

Scream Factory is apparently working on a 4K release of Army of Darkness from a new 4K transfer. That's awesome, and I hope they can include as many versions of that film as possible.

Funimation is dropping FREAKING AKIRA in 4K....that is an amazing thing to see. I hope it goes well for them and that in time, they can put out more films/shows in that format....even if many anime shows would likely be getting upscaled, the sort of presentation a 4K release would yield would fully 'max out' any visual potential. Anime films would obviously gain a bit more from 4K discs. ESPECIALLY classic anime films.

Arrow, Shout Factory, Funimation....it seems like EVERY key home market label has broken into the 4K realm EXCEPT for Criterion.

One of the YouTube aficionados mentioned that this year, it seems like more and more of the bonus material Criterion was including were of the 'archive' variety and less original/new bonus material. Perhaps there is a COVID related reason....but I wonder if it is a sign of them struggling a little bit as a label?

[Terasawa]

Umbrella Entertainment (Australia) releasing Japanese cult TV series Monkey on BD

Account of the Journey to the West (1978-1980) was a Japanese series produced by Nippon TV. Jun Fukuda was one of the series' directors; Teruyoshi Nakano and Koichi Kawaita helmed the SFX unit for several episodes as well.

It was picked up by the BBC in 1979, which had the series dubbed into English as Monkey. It was very popular in the UK and was also shown in New Zealand and Australia. The 39 BBC dubbing scripts will be available for download with this Blu-ray release. (The remaining 13 episodes were dubbed by the same cast in 2004, probably a testament to how popular this show was.)

[MaxRebo320]

Wow, really hope that set's Region Free. I have not seen it, but given how well-regarded/remembered it is, I'd love to check it out sometime. The theme song is bopping, and was performed by Godiego, who also did some songs for Obayashi's House.

[Terasawa]

Important to note about Monkey: it looks like it's just the English version of the show. I'm not sure if that's because of licensing restrictions or content differences.

And yes, the theme song is fantastic. The ending theme is great, too, because everything Godiego did was gold.