GULLIVER'S TRAVELS - Woodhaven Entertainment (1999)

                               I close out Gulliver week with this interesting tape from Woodhaven Entertainment, I have three more tapes of Gulliver in my collection, however they are mostly the same transfers as discussed before, and I don't want this week getting boring. This VHS version of the film is mastered from a fair to good 35mm sharp film print, there is a problem with this print though as in the scene in which King Little calls upon the guards to kill Gulliver the picture drops out suddenly and then something weird happens, the screen goes bright red for one to two minutes then drops outat which point we join the film back in progress. I call reel change. The packaging looks, for a lack of a better term "Ghetto", Gulliver looks like he's wearing a leotard and his face looks like it just got ran over, it boggles my mind how anybody saw this artwork as sellable, it reminds me of those old, early 80's Transatlantic covers, gosh how terrible those were. Behold my friends, some of the worst VHS cover art of all time!!! At least this tape is in SP mode, its one saving grace.

GULLIVER'S TRAVELS - Burbank Video (1993)

                           Finally a Gulliver tape that is NOT in EP mode. This Burbank/Video Treasures edition is quite good. It opens with a "Adjust Tracking" warning, but why it isn't in EP mode? The transfer used is the same 16mm second generation transfer used on the last two tapes I've done entries on. Not much to say about this tape, although I do like the packaging, I've heard from people that these companies put more effort and money into the packaging than the tapes themselves, ha, if that is the case than the first two tapes covered as part of Gulliver week are the cheapest and laziest editions out there.
                          One more entry to closeout Gulliver week tomorrow, and then it's onto "Madacy Week" where I discuss an ultra cool and ultra rare sci-fi box set I got at the Goodwill for only $4.00. Enjoy.

GULLIVER'S TRAVELS - Metacom Video (1994)

                    Here is another Gulliver edition, this time from Metacom Video for their Family Adventure Theatre line, this is one of the worst Gulliver covers ever, but at least it uses an honest image on the cover of the bad quality you are getting, so brace yourself. The transfer is pretty much the same one used by Diamond Entertainment, which was discussed in the previous entry. And yet again the tape is duplicated in the much loved EP mode. Other than that there is not much to say about this edition.

GULLIVER'S TRAVELS - Diamond Entertainment Corporation (1990)

                  Gulliver week continues with this tape from Diamond Entertainment Corporation, the cover is surprising as it actually credits Paramount Pictures, which most of these companies tended not to do, instead they slapped their name on it and fooled people into thinking that they made it. The cover also boasts the wonderful original poster art from 1939 and includes a 16mm first generation transfer of the original theatrical trailer at the end of the feature. The feature itself is also a decent transfer, I'm supposing of 16mm elements as well. The downside about this and many tapes of the era is that it is yet again duplicated in low quality EP mode, with massive amounts of color bleed throughout. I think it is rather disrespectful to present the film in such piss-poor quality, as it detracts from the enjoyment of an otherwise full color, and breathtaking animated feature. The description on the back cover is also a fun read and the image on the back cover must be a publicity still of some sort, where DEC may have gotten such a thing is unknown to me, but it is beautiful nonetheless.

GULLIVER'S TRAVELS - California Video Distributors (1985)

               Continuing on with the theme of Gulliver's Travels, I present to you the 1985 California Video Distributors VHS, unlike the previously mentioned Alpha VHS, this one has good (and when I say good, I mean good as far as old 1980s VHS tapes recorded in EP mode are concerned) picture quality. The cover utilizes the same publicity still from the Alpha VHS, but with better colors this time. The print used is a vastly better 16mm print of the 1957 NTA reissue version, so yet again there are no Paramount titles. Curiously, the banner "Hollywood Movie Greats" was later reused by GoodTimes Entertainment, for their various releases of old Public Domain films.
                Gulliver will be covered all this and next week, and after that hopefully, I will have more in my collection to start entries on new titles like Metropolis, The Jungle Book (Zoltan Korda's film), It's A Wonderful Life and others. Enjoy the scans, I have a great debt of gratitude for David A. Scott who runs a blog similar to this one called "The VCR From Heck" on Tumblr, check it out at the link below.
http://vcrfromheck.tumblr.com/

GULLIVER'S TRAVELS - Alpha Video Distributors (1991)

              Max Fleischer's Gulliver's Travels, has been a public domain staple for years, appearing on more VHS tapes, Beta tapes, LaserDiscs, and DVDs than any other animated feature film in history. The film is a personal favorite of mine, having first seen it on Winstar's 1999 VHS, and I love seeing it whenever I get the chance. A little background on the film, Gulliver's Travels was the second animated feature ever made (and Paramount Pictures first animated feature) the first being Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was produced by Max Fleischer, who is most famous today for his creation of Betty Boop, his Popeye and Superman cartoons and his many innovations within the animation industry (including the invention of the Rotoscope, which was used to trace live action footage into animation). Gulliver was produced at the then-new Fleischer studios in Miami, Florida (The Fleischers, as well as key staff members moved there from their New York studios to produce this feature), and the film was a box office hit, even leading to two Oscar nominations.
           In 1968 the film went into, along with other Fleischer fare, the public domain, due to NTA (the film's rights holders since the 1957 reissue) not renewing the copyright. Thus the film started appearing on Super 8mm home movie prints, then VHS and Beta, LaserDiscs and finally DVD and Blu-ray. This tape, from Alpha Video Distributors, is one of the many churned out left and right from these low budget, fly-by-night companies who often took the cheapest and/or worst prints possible of classic films and dished them out onto the home video market, to unsuspecting consumers who thought they were getting a bargain, when in fact, they mostly got third generation, color faded, 16mm reissue dupes on a bad quality VHS tape. Such is the case for this sorry tape. My tape has several issues and is almost unplayable, it is the most damaged tape in my collection. Alpha would later reuse this transfer on their 2004 DVD.

Welcome.

Hello and welcome to "The Public Domain Chronicles". I am Geno Cuddy, and I have been a longtime fan of public domain films, Metropolis and Gulliver's Travels in particular. I have, for many years, collected public domain films in various formats and editions. For those of you who don't know what public domain means, it means just this: "Works in the public domain are those whose intellectual property rights have expired, have been forfeited, or are inapplicable", which basically means that if a movie or an artwork once had a copyright and it expired, it goes into the public domain (anyone can use it), this also applies if a work never had a copyright. Well, enough legal jargon, lets get on with it, on this blog I will show you all of the Public Domain VHS tapes in my collection, with full color cover scans, label scans, and notes on the transfers used. Enjoy.