Saturday, December 14, 2013

March of the Wooden Soldiers (Colorized / Black & White)



Beware of the two versions
There are two versions offered for sale at Amazon. The Koch Vision Entertainment version, despite the description in the technical details, is NOT COLORIZED. The Goodtimes Home Video version version IS colorized. Which you prefer is entirely up to you, but don't order the Koch Vision version if you want the movie in color. The Koch Vision version has an extended silent film extra of the first time Laurel and Hardy appeared together (NOT as a team, however). The extra is interesting, but (by today's standards anyhow) a little slow. The Goodtimes Entertainment (Colorized) version, although a few cents cheaper than the other version, is, in my opinion, a much "cleaner" print. Even with the color level turned down so it appears as the original B&W, the Goodtimes version is sharper and more distinct. March of the Wooden Soldiers, holds up pretty well.

A Christmas Must-Buy
The Laurel and Hardy classic, March of the Wooden Soldiers (originally released as Babes in Toyland), was the fantastic result of combining two tremendous talents with a childlike, fantasy world and adult situations (Laurel and Hardy, Toyland and an evil landlord's mortgage conspiracy, respectively). Such rich source material makes for a film of unsurpassed quality: featuring rich and imaginative environments, costumes, sights and sounds. Every fairytale has its day, from Little Bo Peep to the Three Little Pigs to Mother Goose, and even Santa. We all know that the winter months are a time to remember to greatest holiday classics from years past, and March of the Wooden Soldiers is unsurpassed in its genre.

The holidays are associated with bright and festive colors--bright reds, greens, blues and golds--that set a warm and cheery mood, and the movies that we choose to enjoy during this season are no different. Fortunately, this edition of March of the Wooden Soldiers has...

Comments from the color Producer of March Of The Wooden Soldiers
The "review" from Robert Badgley of March Of The Wooden Soldiers is certainly not the truth and clearly appears to be written by someone with a strange agenda. I suggest he get his facts straight before writing such a misleading, false and defamatory review. Amazon reviews are intended to inform, not mislead and misinform.

I was personally responsible for producing the prior color release from Goldwyn and I am also responsible for producing the current color and black and white release from Legend Films.

This was truly a lost Laurel and Hardy film. Film prints of this movie have gone from distributor to distributor and are well worn. However, both Goldwyn and a renowned distributor and collector provided 35mm material to produce a complete print that is widely recognized to be the highest quality. In my previous colorization company, American Film Technologies, I transferred that 35mm print to analog one-inch video tape. While extremely inferior by today's...

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