Topic: Colorized DVD's

[shemps#1]

I was just wondering how many people here have any of the colorized DVD's and what they thought about them. I bought STOOGED AND CONFOOSED for the GF, and we both agreed that the Color was well done, but due to the small number of shorts per disc and the high price ($25 sugg. retail) they are not worth collecting.

[Pilsner Panther]

"Shorts have no business being in color," of course, even with the option of watching them in the original black and white. My earlier comment (from before the old site went away) stands. That is— to keep it brief—  that black and white film has its own special quality, and colorizing it is never, ever an "improvement."  All it is is someone's totally uneducated guess as to what these classic old films "might have" looked like in color.

A lot of the greatest 20th century film directors, everyone from Orson Welles to Billy Wilder to Stanley Kubrick, chose to shoot in black and white even after color film was readily available. What does that tell you?

They wanted it that way, they wanted that b&w look!

[FineBari3]

"Shorts have no business being in color," of course, even with the option of watching them in the original black and white. My earlier comment (from before the old site went away) stands. That is— to keep it brief—  that black and white film has its own special quality, and colorizing it is never, ever an "improvement."  All it is is someone's totally uneducated guess as to what these classic old films "might have" looked like in color.

A lot of the greatest 20th century film directors, everyone from Orson Welles to Billy Wilder to Stanley Kubrick, chose to shoot in black and white even after color film was readily available. What does that tell you?

They wanted it that way, they wanted that b&w look!

BUT...those were directors that were using B&W film as artistic expression. Columbia used it because it was CHEAP! Sure, old film, pre-safety stock B&W is beautiful and luminescent. Two things the Stooges are not!  I like the colorized DVDs just fine.

[Mercedes]

Yes i agree, colorizing it was a great idea im sure they would have used color it was available. Also i hope it happens in future, it will : http://threestooges.net/forums/index.php?topic=12.0

[123cagney]

Yeeeeeaaah! Right on Finebari3! I've said exactly that a hundred other ways! This wasn't Gone with the wind people. I LOVE THE STOOGES! But lets NOT re-write history. These were quickies made as appetizers for the MAIN event. The equivalent to LOONEY TUNES. These guys hit something next to genius in the comedy department...but no one is studying the cinematic layout!
P.S.-Mercedes...Do you speak the way you write? Maybe a pre read is in order? I don't mean any offense. But ...you don't make much sense.

[Pilsner Panther]

BUT...those were directors that were using B&W film as artistic expression. Columbia used it because it was CHEAP! Sure, old film, pre-safety stock B&W is beautiful and luminescent. Two things the Stooges are not!  I like the colorized DVDs just fine.

We really do have the old gang back here, MJ... Anyway, maybe I wasn't clear enough about the qualities of black and white film. Sure, sometimes it was the low budgets that dictated to the directors of the time that they had to use b&w, but look what they did with it! Some of the results are truly great, immortal even.

The "spooky" and "detective story" Stooges shorts, for example— especially the ones from the Shemp era, are very carefully planned out and stage-lighted for black and white film, every scene. Anyone who doesn't think so ought to check out "Dopey Dicks," to take one of the best examples of the Columbia lighting and stage set design. Laurel & Hardy, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, Fatty Arbuckle, Harry Langdon, and Charlie Chaplin just don't "look right" colorized, either.

Sometimes, being stuck with a low budget and primitive technology can make you more creative, rather than less!

The new Tom Hanks film ("The Polar Express") is almost completely digital, including him. Will it be a great, memorable movie experience? We'll see.

Those old-timers could do one hell of a lot creatively and comedically with only human beings and a hand-cranked camera, or an early motorized camera and a carbon microphone, though... they were "A tough act to follow," you bet!

[xraffle]

I have both colorized DVDs. The colorization is very nice and very realistic looking. It looks like it was filmed in color. However, when you start to watch it, you start to realize that the Stooges aren't meant to be in color. B&W is what makes the stooges unique. No offense, but I don't understand why anyone would prefer the color instead. Sure, the color does improve the picture a little bit, but that's not the point. After I started watching the color for a while when I first bought these DVDs, I realized that if it's not B&W, it's not the Stooges. However, I don't regret buying the DVDs at all. The new restored B&W versions of the shorts look magnificent.

[FineBari3]

BUT...those were directors that were using B&W film as artistic expression. Columbia used it because it was CHEAP! Sure, old film, pre-safety stock B&W is beautiful and luminescent. Two things the Stooges are not!  I like the colorized DVDs just fine.

We really do have the old gang back here, MJ... Anyway, maybe I wasn't clear enough about the qualities of black and white film. Sure, sometimes it was the low budgets that dictated to the directors of the time that they had to use b&w, but look what they did with it! Some of the results are truly great, immortal even.

The "spooky" and "detective story" Stooges shorts, for example— especially the ones from the Shemp era, are very carefully planned out and stage-lighted for black and white film, every scene. Anyone who doesn't think so ought to check out "Dopey Dicks," to take one of the best examples of the Columbia lighting and stage set design. Laurel & Hardy, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, Fatty Arbuckle, Harry Langdon, and Charlie Chaplin just don't "look right" colorized, either.

Sometimes, being stuck with a low budget and primitive technology can make you more creative, rather than less!

The new Tom Hanks film ("The Polar Express") is almost completely digital, including him. Will it be a great, memorable movie experience? We'll see.

Those old-timers could do one hell of a lot creatively and comedically with only human beings and a hand-cranked camera, or an early motorized camera and a carbon microphone, though... they were "A tough act to follow," you bet!

Yes, that is incredible that those film pioneers did that stuff, and figured out everything we still use today. One thing about digital; everything I learned in film school is worthless now, because it's all digital now!

[Pilsner Panther]

Yes, that is incredible that those film pioneers did that stuff, and figured out everything we still use today. One thing about digital; everything I learned in film school is worthless now, because it's all digital now!

Same here, with the things I learned in Graphic Design class back in the 80's. I still know how to do mechanical pasteup, with paper, foam-core illustration board, hot wax, a steel ruler, and an X-Acto knife, but it's one useless skill now! MS Word, Corel Draw, Photoshop, and Paint Shop Pro killed it, but dead. The last paste-up job I did was a wall-size (24 x 36") hospital personnel directory, way back in 1989. Even then, the hospital's medical illustration department had just gotten an early HP flatbed scanner, so the handwriting was on the wall.

Not that I'm complaining; composing on the screen is a lot less messy, and if you already know basic page layout principles, it's much faster, too.

[jaronson]

I have to agree with Jim on this issue.  The color looks nice and realistic, but if Columbia is going to continue this with few shorts on each DVD and a hefty price, I probably won't buy them.

[3Stooges]

I really like the colorized DVD much more than I thought I would when I first heard about them. Now, I have no desire to watch the B&W versions of the shorts that have been colorized.

[Fuller Bull]

Yeah I bought both discs and their not bad, but I need to see some Shemp ones before I'm convinced.

[123cagney]

I have to agree with Jim on this issue.  The color looks nice and realistic, but if Columbia is going to continue this with few shorts on each DVD and a hefty price, I probably won't buy them.

Suuuuuuurrrre you won't. Just like when DVD came out (and even though we all had these movies on VHS) we said-"No,No, not me." Now I have em all. VHS and DVD!

[Larry Larry]

Suuuuuuurrrre you won't. Just like when DVD came out (and even though we all had these movies on VHS) we said-"No,No, not me." Now I have em all. VHS and DVD!

Actually some of us can hold out.

I've bought all the Columbia DVDs so far, but I drew the line at these overpriced, undervalued DVDs and did not buy them.  For nearly a $25 list price, Columbia has managed to scrape together 2 shorts they haven't already released and combine them with 2 they have.   This is a new low. 

Their primary interest seems to squeeze as many pennies out of us as possible.  There seems to be no effort made to release the Stooges shorts in chronological order and in "sets". 

We can buy an entire season of over 30 episodes of The Munsters or Gilligan's Island with minimal features for around $30.  It's about 10 hours of programs.

Have you seen the Chaplin box sets?  Amazing.  The two Marx Brothers box sets?  Phenominal!   The Warner Brothers Marx Set cost me about $50, has 7 full length features, dozens of shorts, Bugs Bunny cartoons, trailers, documentaries, commentaries and a beautiful box that holds all the DVDs.   Even the Abbot and Costello collections hold 8 movies for less than what Columbia is charging for these stupid colorized DVDs that hold 4 shorts.

Get with it Columbia.  I know you are ripping us off.  I work for a major DVD authoring and post production company. 

Maybe Columbia is getting ripped off by their vendors and they have no money left, so they have to charge us so much.  But I doubt it.   

[FineBari3]

Suuuuuuurrrre you won't. Just like when DVD came out (and even though we all had these movies on VHS) we said-"No,No, not me." Now I have em all. VHS and DVD!

Dude, I have 'em on on Laserdisc, too! (that old 'to die for' media).

I DO disagree with Columbia's pricing and lack of material, but I did like the colorization job. I didnt mind paying the extra $ to see it, since I am a film person. Would I continute to pay that $ for other colorized DVD's? NO WAY, I say!!!

[123cagney]

Suuuuuuurrrre you won't. Just like when DVD came out (and even though we all had these movies on VHS) we said-"No,No, not me." Now I have em all. VHS and DVD!

Dude, I have 'em on on Laserdisc, too! (that old 'to die for' media).

I DO disagree with Columbia's pricing and lack of material, but I did like the colorization job. I didnt mind paying the extra $ to see it, since I am a film person. Would I continute to pay that $ for other colorized DVD's? NO WAY, I say!!!

One thing is for sure,Columbia and/or C3 take far too long  between releases. With all the SHORTS the boys have under their belt, these blood worms should be rollin out two discs at a time. Frankly I'm surprised at how SLOW production is!
I bought one of the two colorized discs. The look is good, but it dosn't outway the fact we got a rerun of violent is the word for curley. Come on, at least stick a Besser short in there! It ain't Curley, but it would have been something NEW!

[Stoop]

Although I have not seen  the colorized shorts I think they could help spread the stooge gospel across to people who would otherwise not watch something in black and white. Many of my friends enjoy The Three Stooges, but they only watch their shorts when I make them watch. They seem to only pay attention to things in color.()

I’m curious about the colorized shorts. But I don’t want to waste my money on something I might not like. So I’m going to try before I buy (if I buy). There is no point in giving Sony my money if they did a bad job. Right?
 

[Dunrobin]

They seem to only pay attention to things in color.()

I always find that amusing.  I'm so old, my family's first TV was one my father built himself from a kit. It had a perfectly round 13" picture tube, and was mounted in a large wood cabinet that my father built as well.  I can remember sitting in front of it watching the original Mickey Mouse Club with my big brother when we lived in Levittown, on Long Island, back in 1958.  We didn't get a color TV until my grandmother gave us her old set, when I was 16.  (That would have been in 1971.)

[jrvass]

We had a color TV in the mid '60s. When they first started coming out. The old B&W went in the basement. The electronics were in a box and the picture tube swiveled on top of the cabinet. I watched that TV more than the color one. Until you couldn't buy TV tubes at the drug store.

Now my parents have some wide-screen LCD/Plasma TV thing. Every time I visit, since they bought it, they turn it off! And turn on a crappy Sony 13" in the kitchen (with the sound all the way up, since my Mom is deaf!)

Colorize the Stooges? Blasphemy!

James

[Laughing Gravy]

I am very pleased to see that so many Stooges fans have rejected the "colorized" episodes. Good for ya'll. Hopefully, Columbia has seen the light and future DVD releases will be restored, remastered, and presented in all their monochromatic glory only, or I won't be buying them.

[xraffle]

I am very pleased to see that so many Stooges fans have rejected the "colorized" episodes. Good for ya'll. Hopefully, Columbia has seen the light and future DVD releases will be restored, remastered, and presented in all their monochromatic glory only, or I won't be buying them.

It doesn't seem like Columbia is planning to release anymore Three Stooges DVDs. It's been eight months since their last DVD release.

[Laughing Gravy]

Sales were lousy on the colorized discs. So you've got a bunch of folks who are shocked -- shocked! -- to find out that they had no idea what fans want ("Funnier in color!" indeed) and who are looking really, really stupid. Sooner or later, we'll get additional discs, hopefully in "complete season" sets.

[Laughing Gravy]

I've been advised that THE THREE STOOGES MEET HERCULES will be released on DVD by Columbia on June 28 -- in B&W only. Stay tuned for more info.

[xraffle]

Well, it's about time! However, there's just one problem: I don't really like the Curly-Joe movies that much. Columbia should've released the rest of the shorts on DVD instead, but that's Columbia for you.

[Pilsner Panther]

Sales were lousy on the colorized discs. So you've got a bunch of folks who are shocked -- shocked! -- to find out that they had no idea what fans want ("Funnier in color!" indeed) and who are looking really, really stupid. Sooner or later, we'll get additional discs, hopefully in "complete season" sets.

Yeah, maybe, but just the opposite could happen. Sony could say, "These things aren't selling, so the hell with it," and discontinue the series altogether. That's how the corporate (non-) mentality often works.

 

Do you have the actual sales figures, to date? I'd like to see what they are. There would have been nothing wrong with Sony putting the existing Columbia Tristar VHS tape programs on DVD— with, say, six shorts on each disc instead of their standard three on each tape. Why they didn't do that instead of colorizing them and annoying all of us Stooges purists is beyond me. Since I have almost all of the VHS tapes and they're in good condition, I'm just going to have them transferred to DVD myself, when my budget permits it.