I've been backing up an analogue-sound PAL laserdisc, stop action versions of The Pied Piper of Hamelin and Cinderella. It's a 1982 laserdisc based on children's TV shorts from 1979 and 1981, made by Cosgrove-Hall, a company with a long track record for children's animation. I don't have equipment for a direct video image capture, so the shots that follow come from the DVD I recorded and aren't as good as I'd like since I already had another hour of video on the disk and had to use too high a compression rate - I'm going to have to do it again some time with nothing else on the disk. Both are about half an hour long.



http://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/53419/90- ... %281982%29

The animation used wooden dolls (I think), claymation, and anything else that suited the needs of the production company. It's occasionally a little slow-moving compared to modern animated film, but works well.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin is basically an animated version of the traditional poem and paintings based on it, read by Robert Hardy. The town of Hamelin is infested with rats, a mysterious Piper arrives and offers to get rid of them for a thousand guilders. The mayor and council agree, and he gets rid of the rats... then the council reneges on the deal, and the Piper takes the town's children instead of the money.

The Piper's first appearance:



Confronting the Mayor and council



The Piper starts to summon the children



The children follow the piper out of town



Despite its age the colours are really vibrant and the recording is still extremely clear.


Cinderella uses the same animation techniques, but the colour tends more towards pastels, gauze filters, etc. so clarity isn't always so good. It's the traditional story as told by Perrault, ditching some of the later additions to the story such as Buttons. It does still have the cat, mice, pumpkin, etc. Unusually there's no narration or dialogue, just music.

The wicked stepmother tears up Cinderella's invitation to the ball



Cinderella and the Prince dance at the ball



Cinderella and the Prince at their coronation



Both are very good considering their age - the disk seems to be VERY rare, so if you ever see it, grab it!

A couple on Amazon Prime last night.
Akeela and the Bee and Triplets of Bellville

Akeela was a very sweet movie with a positive message. Triplets was a very inventive enjoyable animated feature.

This morning The Taking of Pelham One, Two, Three off of a DVR'd TCM broadcast. Kind of stinker frankly. Sooo many stereotypes.

Tonight

I watched the Childs Play laserdisc last night. Its such a great movie. Of course being a low budget horror it has its issues. The main one being the music is just to over the top.
The story is interesting in that a dying killer chants some magic chant and enters a Good Guy Doll. This Doll ends up being given to a young boy by his mother. This is where the fun/horror begins

Forgot how cheesy this movie is

http://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/02154/12223/Other-People%27s-Money-%281991%29

First time I've seen this movie and quite allright if you ask me.
This is why I love laserdiscs. I can find movies that haven't come out on dvd/blu-ray here in The Netherlands,
and movies that I have seen in videostores when I was just a kid.

came today, will be spinnin' it tonight.

It is not, it´s a classic. And I was overwhelmed by the quality if the disc (HD-DVD)...even I really enjoyed the LD too..The movie itself is much better than it´s recent remake (imho)

Watched The Breakfast club & King of California last night on HDDVD
I was all

Making my way through this awesome set on Blu

Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman

New Tale of Zatoichi
Zatoichi the Fugitave
Zatoichi on the Road

what do you feel about the art piece on the clear wrapper being gone once you open the set?

half of beverly hills cop 2

Absolutely great transfer and good movie but come on, there was some very hammy acting it it.

last night: apollo 13 re-issue dvd. lift off scene revealed my setup was inferior
yesterday: beverly hills cop dvd.

did you hear about Harold remis? he'd dead.

The Matrix on HD-DVD yesterday. Today Charlie and the chocolate factory, also on HD-DVD.
Can't deside what I will watch next...

RUSH (2013) dtsHDMA 5.1 / Lucasfilm Ltd THX sound system.

The film mix has throttle with formula 1 race cars.

Director Ron Howard (Apollo 13) brings Racing drivers rivals
James Hunt and Niki Lauda race neck and neck to be champion of the world based on true story events. With crash that left Niki Lauda with scared face after a horrendous crash at the German Grand Prix.

Picture was nice looking.

dtsHDMA 5.1 was great sounding with sound effects of racing cars zooming along the LCR and down each side wall of the stereo surrounds and behind with Dolby-EX switched on. LFE.1 rumbled most times with speeding race cars often bass was covered by the LCR.



Red case for a moment I thought it was HD-DVD making a comeback?
































































Whoa that's the question to ask.











The press guy gets a hammering.

Nice review laserbite34, I thoroughly enjoyed this one, not an uncommon occurrence when Ron Howard is involved. It brought back fond memories of when F1 was in its heyday and everything was in play. Remember the six wheel car?

Long day on the couch yesterday recovering from food poisoning. The only plus side was that I got in 4 movies.

So Dark the Night and Johnny O'Clock from the Columbia Film Noir 4 boxset.



Willow on Blu



and



on Blu

bguzman, ? no I don't recall seeing that on the occasional sport racing on Saturdays in the 70's. Does it make the car go faster.

I'm surprised RSUH got a 8.3 on IMDB while APOLLO 13, gets 7.6 on IMDB.
Rotten tomatoes gives RUSH 89% while APOLLO 13, gets 95%.

Whoa! What the blazes did you eat and where? You must been feeling a horroble sickness pain. Have you been to the hospital?

John Landis's vampire rom-com Innocent Blood - but on the German DVD release, Bloody Marie: Eine Frau mit Biss which is uncut and widescreen (not letterboxed like the laserdisc, or cropped like the American DVD and video releases) and seems to be a much better transfer generally. The menus are German, but it plays in English if you select it. It's usually ridiculously expensive, but I stumbled across a vendor that had a few copies left very cheap, and got one for myself and two more to sell on eBay - then sold my R1 copy for more than I'd paid for all three of the German ones! Feeling VERY pleased about this, so decided to watch the movie again - it's still a fun romp with vampires, mobsters, undercover cops and lots of gratuitous sex and violence, Anne Parillaud is still extremely hot, and despite its age it still works very well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innocent_Blood_%28film%29