March of the Wooden Soldiers (1934) GoodTimes DVD ADDED

[James_Armstrong]

Title: Babes in Toyland AKA March of the Wooden Soldiers (1934)
Country: America
Region: 0
Releasing Studio: GoodTimes Entertainment
Case Type: Keep Case
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Anamorphic?: No
PAL or NTSC?: NTSC
Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Subtitles (are they optional?): English, Spanish (yes)
Cuts: (and if you know it, precise run time) None (77:59)
Commentaries: None
Extras: Theatrical Trailer (3:29)
Production Notes (1 page)
Stan Laurel Home Movie (1:41)
Oliver Hardy Interview (3:30)
Notes: DVD title: March of the Wooden Soldiers.
The film is colorized.
Easter Eggs: None
Amazon ASIN (UK, French, German, USA releases only): B00000JZHK
Source:*Own this

[Eric_Cotenas]

Added, thanks!

[Brent_Reid]

Some footnote suggestions:

Good Times DVD: 1991 colorization by The Samuel Goldwyn Company
Both BDs: 2006 colorization by Legend Films

Also, the current DVD footnotes are incorrect, and ironically create even more confusion. They should be amended to: Despite a large number of substandard and often edited "public domain" releases, the film, is, and always has been, fully copyrighted.

[Eric_Cotenas]

[quote="Brent_Reid"]Some footnote suggestions:

Good Times DVD: [b]1991 colorization by The Samuel Goldwyn Company[/b]
Both BDs: [b]2006 colorization by Legend Films[/b]

Also, the current DVD footnotes are incorrect, and ironically create even more confusion. They should be amended to: [b]Despite a large number of substandard and often edited "public domain" releases, the film, is, and always has been, fully copyrighted.[/b][/quote]

Noted.

[Brent_Reid]

Hi Eric, you've added my note without removing the other one; now it's even more confusing! This note is completely wrong and should be removed:

There's been some confusion on the film's copyright status. The original Babes in Toyland version (running at 77 mins) is still under copyright while the re-released "March of The Wooden Soldiers" is in the public domain.

The film has never been in the public domain. and no creative work can be both PD and non-PD (copyrighted) at the same time. The many unlicensed releases, none of which are listed, are actually bootlegs.

[Eric_Cotenas]

Fixed.

[Brent_Reid]

Cheers Eric. Sorry to kep this one going, but I've just noticed some other mistakes in the DVD listing:

The MGM, Eureka and Force listings have the footnote "DVD title: March of The Wooden Soldiers." This is redundant and should be removed, as all home video releases carry this title!

The second Eureka listing is just a repackage of the first listed disc and shouldn't be listed separately. Instead, it should be removed and a note added to the first: Also available in a 2-DVD set [Amazon link] with "Bogus Bandits" (1933).

The page footnotes as a whole are a little repetitive and outdated; clearly the result of multiple editors adding to them over time. I suggest replacing all of them with:

OVERALL: Draw
- The US MGM DVD has the best quality transfer, but is barebones.
- The identical R2 and R4 Eureka and Force DVDs have an extra Stan Laurel short.
- The US Goodtimes DVD has a good quality transfer of the 1991 colorization and some relevant extras.

General Notes:
There are a large number of budget, supposedly "public domain" releases, but these feature a poor quality 73-minute edited print, and are best avoided.

[Eric_Cotenas]

[quote="Brent_Reid"]Cheers Eric. Sorry to kep this one going, but I've just noticed some other mistakes in the DVD listing:

The MGM, Eureka and Force listings have the footnote "DVD title: March of The Wooden Soldiers." This is redundant and should be removed, as [i]all[/i] home video releases carry this title!

The second Eureka listing is just a repackage of the first listed disc and shouldn't be listed separately. Instead, it should be removed and a note added to the first: [b]Also available in a 2-DVD set [Amazon link] with "Bogus Bandits" (1933).[/b]

The page footnotes as a whole are a little repetitive and outdated; clearly the result of multiple editors adding to them over time. I suggest replacing all of them with:

[b]OVERALL: Draw
- The US MGM DVD has the best quality transfer, but is barebones.
- The identical R2 and R4 Eureka and Force DVDs have an extra Stan Laurel short.
- The US Goodtimes DVD has a good quality transfer of the 1991 colorization and some relevant extras.

General Notes:
There are a large number of budget, supposedly "public domain" releases, but these feature a poor quality 73-minute edited print, and are best avoided.[/b][/quote]

Do you know the running time of the Eureka discs? OFDB says 77 minutes but that would mean it is either NTSC (like recent combo DVD side releases) or NTSC-to-PAL conversion.

[Brent_Reid]

There's only one Eureka disc, which I don't have, but I do know that at that specific time, Eureka and Force were partners and released their DVDs simultaneously. They were always NTSC-PAL copies of US transfers, so the Eureka will have exactly the same running time as the Force, give or take the odd second.

[Eric_Cotenas]

Thanks.

[Brent_Reid]

You're welcome Eric - and thank you! I also have the US MGM DVD and will dig it out at some point to supply the missing running time. Until then, we're done!