dvd-4-life

Just wondering if its worth getting since most of his work is unavailable elsewhere.

pro-bassoonist

I don't know if you are fluent in French but here's a review regarding the French release of Tex Avery which does not look too good (in French only).

(I do not own the set)-

http://www.dvdnet-fr.com/lire-test-dvd-344.html

Cheers,
Pro-B

Gil Jawetz

I speak no French but their beef seems to be over the exclusion of some politically incorreect cartoons from that set. What else is new?

pro-bassoonist

Njål

A friend who also bought this, and is a bit of an Avery nut, noted the following censoring:
'Half-Pint Pigmy' and 'Uncle Tom's Cabana' are missing,
Blitz Wolf
Happy-Go-Nutty
Henpecked Hoboes
Lucky Ducky
Daredevil Droopy
Droopy's Good Deed
have noticable snips here and there (at least if you're somewhat familiar with the material).
I still have my laserdisc set to fall back on for these, so I can live with it (and the limited dvd tin looks great).

Gil Jawetz

What's the confusion (other than my typo)? Cartoon sets are always being censored (See Fantasia, Loony Tunes, etc...) to purge them of examples of previous era's humor... Things like "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips" and blackface humor, stuff that was once acceptible but isn't anymore. Njål pointed out the specific omissions.

Here's a screencap from "Half-Pint Pigmy" as seen on that site:

pro-bassoonist

I am not a cartoon pundit so the info that Njal provided is exactly what I was hoping I would see. This makes sense....

Pro-B

RichDB10

Not sure how true it is..but i did hear a rumour around the turn of the year or the back end of last year..that these will appear in R1 by the end of the year fully remastered!! ,unlike the French R2 set which by all accounts is identical to the laserdisc set.
If this is true it is also to be hoped that it won't be plagued by the 'censorship' issues outlined above.

Gil Jawetz

I'd say there's just about zero chance of that happening. The distributors have shown over the years that they do not want the more "incorrect" cartoons out there. We'll see.

unclehulot

If the rumored R1 set happens, and it does sound possible (search the Cartoon Research site's animation forum), Jerry Beck is behind the planning -- he also is the moving force behind the Looney Tunes sets, and some possible Tom and Jerry sets. And if anyone can get them released uncensored it would be him. I think the climate is a bit better for DVD releases of un-PC material these days -- look at the recent Disney "tin" releases -- the provision was to have Leonard Maltin explain the context for those with weak history backgrounds... if that's what it takes, fine.

Personally, I would hold off on the R2 Tex Avery set -- even if the content ends up the same in R1, they will be from new transfers, rather than the recycled Laserdisc era transfers on the French set.

unclehulot

It's a bit unfair to criticize a MODERN release of Fantasia for being censored -- the zooming in to censor the offending images on certain shots was done long ago, and cut right into the surviving negative. The original shots are lost, so even if one wanted to restore them it's not an option -- and not the fault of those in charge of the DVD release.

wz42

I take it, since this thread is so old, that the R2 release is the only way to go since I can't seem to find anything beyond the the Tex Avery's Droopy dual disc set over at Amazon.

Did anybody get this set and could provide a brief review?

From browing the couple other threads on here I do understand it's been censored both for editing and removal of two shorts and it'll have an english mono track but there was talk but no confirmation that it'd have forced french subs (burned in?). Is all the content on this that's on the R1 Droopy set?

Anything else?

TIA