Laurel & Hardy: The Definitive Restorations [Blu-ray]

Their early movies are displayed, in these six discs, to what was state-of-the art quality at the time of their public releases. And the sound is excellent too. It’s hard to imagine how Ollie survived all those falls and dunkings and still maintained a smiling face.

Most releases of Laurel & Hardy films over the years, whether they be from the old Video Classics or Blackhawk collection, were taken from 16mm print masters that had long been over-used. As a result, the VHS releases I grew up with in the 90s had a rather cable-tv feel to them.In recent years, the old Hal Roach Studios films have traded hands multiple times and have been kept in storerooms with little to no care. On top of that, Laurel & Hardy's films were redistributed so many times and the negatives used so much between the late 40s-80s, that it resulted in their Roach films looking ancient compared to their Fox films--made only 9 years a part in most cases.In 2011, we finally got the Digital Restorations of all their sound Roach films that Hallmark had owned, which included every sound short and all but 2 Roach features. The digital releases were restored from the original 35mm negatives as much as humanly possible. Still, they show wear and tear. But were the best release of Laurel & Hardy's films to date.Now here we are with this release. A 4K/HD restoration of two features of multiple short subjects taken from the original negatives. Again, these aren't perfect restorations, bit they are as perfect as we will get for multiple reasons.Hal Roach didn't take care of his films the way MGM, Fox, Universal, or Columbia did. And he sold the rights to those films to studios and people who took even less care than he did, with few exceptions. MGM owned Our Gang, and two Laurel & Hardy movies. Because of the lack of care, the films fall into disrepair. It's why some Laurel & Hardy shorts look like they weren't even filmed in the same decade as Moe, Larry and Curly--when they were!This is a fine restoration, and the best we've had of the boys' work so far. I only hope that Kit Parker films restores the rest of the Laurel & Hardy catalogue--including their silent films.

I really loved watching these restored films on blu-ray. Since they were remastered up to 4K resolution it would have been nice to see them get a UHD 4K disc release as well, which brings me to part two of this review, which isn't really a review at all, but more of a suggestion to the publisher in hopes that they see it.When can we expect the rest of the Laurel and Hardy films restored? There are still a great many titles missing and it would be wonderful to see them in a complete collection, in chronilogical order, with a Play All feature: "Unnaccustomed As We Are - Utopia". ( I realize the FOX Features would likely not be part or possible in this and I don't think anybody would complain about that.)The one thing I didn't like about this particular release was how they handled the commentary. It is great to have the commentary, don't get me wrong, but in the case of The Music Box the commentary ran longer than the video. In this case they just tagged on a black screen that read, "Commentary Continues" It feels a little awkward when you just want to watch the video without the commentary. I know I can easily press the menu button and go back, but if they ever decide to do a release with a Play All feature hopefully they will provide the video with commentary in the Extras so they can leave off the Commentary Continues screen during a normal viewing. I think this would have been best even with this release.I am hoping a Complete Collection is in the works. I remember initially the DVD's were released with a few titles before they moved forward with the complete set. Hopefully we get a Complete Series again with everything restored. I realize that will mean some of our titles our double-dipped, but still a complete set would be wonderful. I would just consider this one a trial for a donation to fund a complete series issue. If my dream for a Complete Collection comes true I hope they add a Play All feature and release it in UHD 4K disc format as well.

Awesome!!!

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