Gamera Arrow Limited Edition set

[The Octopus]

You know how Toho did international versions for their Kaiju films? Did Daiei do that with thier Kaiju films too? In other words are there "international dubs/versions" of the various Gamera films?

Barugon, Gyaos and Guiron all got international dubs in Hong Kong (Or by "Pedro Productions" in Guiron's case), which were the dubs Sandy Frank used for those 80s VHS releases and later MST3K.

What about the first Gamera film from Sandy Frank? Did he do the dub himself?

[MaxRebo320]

[What about the first Gamera film from Sandy Frank? Did he do the dub himself?

Yeah, that and Zigra were dubs commissioned by Sandy Frank (The way you can tell Zigra was done later is when the characters mention it being the 1980s, despite it being a 70s film). Who knows if they (And Jiger) ever got Hong Kong dubs back in the day. Super Monster also has a Hong Kong dub, which is the only one.

[The Octopus]

Who knows if they (And Jiger) ever got Hong Kong dubs back in the day.

Viras too right? Whenever the Sandy Frank versions played on TV in my neck of the woods, I don't ever recall seeing Jiger or Viras.

[MaxRebo320]

Viras too right? Whenever the Sandy Frank versions played on TV in my neck of the woods, I don't ever recall seeing Jiger or Viras.

Oh yeah, that one too. I guess your username warned me not to discuss the octopus.

[BabyG1975]

So in the likely hood of Arrow doing a box set...

Would we get AIP's dubs along wih the Sandy Frank ones?

Will we receive the Heisei movies along with GtB?

[Terasawa]

So in the likely hood of Arrow doing a box set...

Would we get AIP's dubs along wih the Sandy Frank ones?

Will we receive the Heisei movies along with GtB?

No one really knows since an Arrow physical media release is purely speculative right now, but:

I'd guess that all extant English versions will be included (where possible, more on that in a second) since they were for the Shout! releases in 2011. The Mill Creek Daimajin Blu-ray included English versions produced by American International as well. International versions of Barugon, Gyaos, Guiron (the three of these were released by Sandy Frank), and Super Monster are uncut and should sync up to HD masters of the Japanese versions with little trouble. While Frank didn't really cut any footage from Gamera or Zigra, those don't match up exactly with the Japanese versions (e.g. credit placement, some shuffled footage in G65), but it wouldn't be too difficult to sync up those soundtracks either.

Gammera is quite different from the Japanese version so if it were included it would have to be separately. Fortunately, Legend Films has an HD scan of the latter (with a few little bits of footage spliced out) and hopefully Arrow (or any other distributor) could acquire that from them.

The AI-TV versions of the '66 thru '70 films could be problematic since none of these is uncut. "War of the Monsters" (Barugon) is more than ten minutes shorter and would be the most difficult to include. Also, the only commercially available version is really poor so the distributor might want to seek fan assistance in locating a 16mm element. "Destroy All Planets" (Viras) is eighteen minutes longer than its Japanese version but it's all in the stock footage montage. Kadokawa's home video versions split the difference by increasing the runtime to approx. 81 minutes. "Return of the Giant Monsters" (Gyaos) and "Attack of the Monsters" (Guiron) were edited by AI-TV and if a distributor wanted to sync those soundtracks to the Japanese versions they'd probably have to patch some of the lines with audio from the Japanese or international versions. I think the only difference in runtime between "Gamera vs. Monster X" (Jiger) and the Daiei release is in the opening credits, so that could be done pretty easily.

That's the most basic way you could go about including dubbed audio, IMO, although it's not the most "authentic" way. But if I were Arrow (or whoever), I'd be looking for alternate audio sources than the ones Shout! used. For one, Shout! didn't even include English versions for either of the first two films. So, if anyone's looking, there are fans who have pretty decent audio sources for these films and would be willing to help out (fully free of charge, of course).

[MaxRebo320]

But if I were Arrow (or whoever), I'd be looking for alternate audio sources than the ones Shout! used. For one, Shout! didn't even include English versions for either of the first two films. So, if anyone's looking, there are fans who have pretty decent audio sources for these films and would be willing to help out (fully free of charge, of course).

Didn’t Shout! outright refuse superior sources offered by fans/collectors in favor of crappy VHS rips?

[Terasawa]

Tbh I’m not sure, but whatever they used they did a very poor job getting the sync right.

[Joseph Goodman]

Arrow's Fran Simeoni confirms a Gamera set is forthcoming in the December issue of UK magazine Home Cinema Choice :

One of our big upcoming projects is a collection of Gamera films; many of these will be available for the first time in the UK and it’s going to be a real treat to see them all packaged together, with loads of extras and stunning packaging. We love working on boxsets and this is one of a few we have planned for 2020, including our [Alejandro] Jodorowsky collection.

[Godzamera]

Arrow's Fran Simeoni confirms a Gamera set is forthcoming in the December issue of UK magazine Home Cinema Choice :

One of our big upcoming projects is a collection of Gamera films; many of these will be available for the first time in the UK and it’s going to be a real treat to see them all packaged together, with loads of extras and stunning packaging. We love working on boxsets and this is one of a few we have planned for 2020, including our [Alejandro] Jodorowsky collection.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH

I hope the transfers are good, and I kinda wanna see Gamera 4 as a bonus feature. Anyway, this will look nice beside my GODZILLA BOX.

[Terasawa]

Please be the 4K versions of the Heisei films...

[G-Matt]

Arrow's Fran Simeoni confirms a Gamera set is forthcoming in the December issue of UK magazine Home Cinema Choice :

One of our big upcoming projects is a collection of Gamera films; many of these will be available for the first time in the UK and it’s going to be a real treat to see them all packaged together, with loads of extras and stunning packaging. We love working on boxsets and this is one of a few we have planned for 2020, including our [Alejandro] Jodorowsky collection.

AMAZING!! I cannot wait!

[Lecontinentperdu]

Guess they mean Showa-era? Great!!!! I love Arrow.

BTW, if someone could re-release Gamera The Brave, i'd be happy...

[omgitsgodzilla]

It would be wild if they could get the whole series. MB's license to Brave is almost certainly long expired, and that one could use a new Blu-ray release since the dub audio was completely botched on the old BD.

[Cookson]

Hopefully not just a UK release.

[Desmondzil32]

Let's just say that I hope to god that this series gets the treatment american werewolf in London did. That was a near perfect put together package that contain some amazing supplementary bonus content. So if that level of care is given to gamera, then we are in great hands.

[kingkevzilla88]

Hopefully not just a UK release.

If it is, then they might be region free.

[Rody]

This is exciting news. I hope as well that we get the 4k transfers of the films - although, have all the films been restored as such? I don't recall hearing that all the Showa films had been done.

[Great Hierophant]

It would be wild if they could get the whole series. MB's license to Brave is almost certainly long expired, and that one could use a new Blu-ray release since the dub audio was completely botched on the old BD.

I kicked myself when I did not pick up the Blu-ray of GtB when it was released, but it was almost "a blink and you've missed it!" release in terms of how long it was on the market for. I got the DVD just to fill the hole.

Are you referring to this report from Blu-ray.com :

Special Note: The BD default audio selection is a 5.1 DTS-HD MA English dub track, which carries some significant synch issues (found on the English 2.0 mix as well). Please be aware of the error before purchasing.

Are these issues also present on the DVD?

[omgitsgodzilla]

No, the DVD's fine. The thing with the Blu-ray is, on both of the English audio tracks, the music and sound effects are doubled -- it's like there's a second copy of the music and effects track at a slightly lower volume playing several seconds early.