I actually support the idea of the colorized DVD. I bought one of them tonight - my first Stooges DVD actually - and I am very impressed. I have no problem watching things in black and white - I've been a fan of the Stooges since I was three or so back in the late 80s, but seeing in color really gives them new life. There's potential to attract younger fans who absoultely would never watch black and white, too. The audio and video are significantly better than on any of my old VHS tapes, another plus.
I can understand the other view - that colorizing old films is vandalizing them - but people ought to relax a bit. The BW versions are still around, and do look better as well...
I'm not going to flame you either, but colorization
is vandalism. At least Columbia/Sony gives the viewer the option of watching the Stooges in the original B & W, so they get one Brownie Point for that.
I'm still not buying the DVD's, though... another problem here is that the corporate media keeps reselling the same sure-fire material over and over again in different formats, just because it's good for their bottom lines. Like, for example, in music rather than film, Columbia's record division has repackaged the great 1959 Miles Davis "Kind of Blue" album something like
five times now in CD format over the past couple of decades. How many times can you "improve" the sound quality of a recording that was really well-made in the first place?
Colorization is basically the same thing; a "wishful thinking" version of older films by people who, for the most part, weren't even alive at the time the originals were made. What right have they got to do that, other than that they own the copyrights?
Funny coincidence— just as I write this, I'm listening to Fred Astaire singing "I Used To Be Color Blind," and I have my CD changer set on "random play!"