A review I posted on the Facebook group Cartoon Research:
The new Blu-ray collection of the classic Fleischer/Famous Superman cartoons comes with the classic question, “Was the baby thrown out with the bath water?”
I have compared the raw and scrubbed images posted on Hi-Def Digest, using the screens of two laptops PC’s, two desktop PC’s, and a tablet. The PC displays were color-calibrated with an X-Rite colorimeter.
Then in blackest night, where no evil shall escape my sight, I watched the Blu-ray on two video projectors. An Epson 3-LCD (45″/1.33 image) and a much more expensive, and superior quality, JVC D-ILA (60″/1.33). Both were adjusted using a Spears & Munsil Blu-ray test disc.
When comparing the captured frames on Hi-Def Digest, I think the better the quality of the display the less appealing the raw scans are for me. Being so very familiar with the limitations and imperfections of the previous releases of these cartoons, watching them in Blu-ray is a new and vastly improved experience, especially on the JVC projector.
The raw clips in the “Speeding Towards Tomorrow” featurette don’t make me think, “Wow, if only the complete cartoons looked like this!” In fact, it feels more like I’m watching a DC DVD that’s been scaled up. I’ll go even further and say that, for me, the question isn’t so much whether the baby was lost with the bath water. It’s more, “What if the cels had been scanned digitally, rather than photographed onto 3-strip Technicolor film?”
I would of course be very interested in seeing the Superman cartoons given the Archive Collection treatment, but right now I’m very pleased with what I bought for less than 25 bucks.
I mentioned an Epson 3-LCD projector. It’s an Epson EF12, currently on sale for $700. Work on a new patio should start right after — correction: before — Memorial Day. Once it’s done I’m hoping to enjoy some backyard movie nights.
My Superman Blu-ray review posted on Amazon:
The negative reviews are coming from a certain point of view that I feel borders on axe-grinding, about how every film restoration should be done. It’s a disservice to fans telling them to pass on this Blu-ray.
We are well past the early days of software that “threw the baby out with the bath water” by removing details along with blemishes and film grain, resulting in an overall softening of the image.
Be assured that Max Fleischer’s Superman on Blu-ray looks absolutely fantastic! It’s so good I can almost imagine the original cels had been photographed digitally 80 years ago, rather than the Technicolor prints being scanned for this release.