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Does anyone have the sell sheets yet? Did Criterion license CRUMB from Sony Pictures? Could open up some fun speculation if they did...

The sell sheets indicate it's from Sony Pictures. Louis Bluie has a Janus logo.

Well, "more than fifty minutes of unused footage" from Crumb could potentially be a major extra. I was originally thinking I'd pass, but they now have piqued my curiosity.

Jeff wrote:

ianungstad wrote:Crumb doesn't strike me as being a particularly good value. It's pretty much the same package as the Sony disc which you can get for 8-10 bucks with an extra commentary track . (It seems likely that there will be lots of overlap between the two tracks as well.)

I don't see why they weren't able to include the OOP BBC doc on Crumb that they themselves released on Home Vision. (At the very least...)

I'm a little surprised at that too. I'm actually surprised they didn't just include Louie Bluie as a supplement to Crumb.

My buddy said the same thing and I agree. I want Louie Bluie for sure and am considering CRUMB, but I do have the original Sony release, so do I really need the new one?

I'd highly recommend this book as a companion piece to the film. It includes scans from Charles' notebook and letters from Charles (that were sadly edited for grammar by Maxon Crumb, ruining a bit of his writing's unique charm), as well as comics from Robert and scans of some of Maxon's bizarre work. The standout of the book, however, is a full scan of Charles' delightfully subversive art school application, which is an invaluable piece of work in and of itself (and is included in this Criterion release as well apparently, to some extent).

DVD Movie Central Review
The transfer doesn't seem to be so hot, but that's understandable given the source. What I can't wait for is the booklet!

I think the image looks great, everything considered. It's a little grainy, sure, but detail is pretty good, the colours are striking and the materials are in excellent shape.

Napier wrote:DVD Movie Central Review
The transfer doesn't seem to be so hot, but that's understandable given the source.

I want to know what the hell a "cinematographic embellishment" is.

You can tell that this reviewer fast-forwarded through the film and didn't actually watch any of the bonus features. Chris - your reviews have me totally spoiled at this point.

I was on the fence about this, but the artwork, including Charles' scrawlings as the inner artwork, totally sold me on this. In this case, the artwork is a supplementary material itself.

In the solo commentary Zwigoff mentions that Crumb has horrible taste in films, praising Titanic, and that Criterion sent some films with him to show to Crumb. They watched Army of Shadows (which is a favourite of Zwigoff's) and Crumb thought it was "good" but couldn't get past the haricuts because they were "all wrong," and by the sounds of it complained about them through the whole film.

They should have sent Amarcord instead

Nobody ever complained about the haircuts in Titanic!

domino harvey wrote:They should have sent Amarcord instead

A shame really that Criterion haven't released any films by Bigas Luna. I could see them being hits with Crumb too! (I vote for The Chambermaid on the Titanic!)

domino harvey wrote:They should have sent Amarcord instead

And here's your new issue of Gigantic Asses.

Thanks for covering in detail the content of the deleted scenes, Chris. This was information I've been waiting on. It sounds like a good addition to the set, but I guess I can wait as I have the Sony DVD. Pity indeed about the Robin Williams interview. Unless it's lost, I wonder where it went.

cdnchris wrote:In the solo commentary Zwigoff mentions that Crumb has horrible taste in films, praising Titanic, and that Criterion sent some films with him to show to Crumb. They watched Army of Shadows (which is a favourite of Zwigoff's) and Crumb thought it was "good" but couldn't get past the haricuts because they were "all wrong," and by the sounds of it complained about them through the whole film.

Man, I doubly wish I worked at Criterion now- I want to participate in "decide what movies to send to Robert Crumb" day.

Beaver on the Crumb BD.

Wow! I want just louie Bluie but the completist in me says I need to get Crumb as well.

I'm the same: I've watched Louie Bluie this afternoon and it was one of the most enjoyable experiences I've had this year. Can't really say much more than Chris has already said in his review other than to support his claim that this is definitely one of the best-looking DVDs I've seen in some time - other than the sparse archive footage, this transfer is a reminder of how standard definition can still surprise you in the BD age. I think the differences would have been more subtle to spot had the film received the Blu treatment. Very robust sound too, and such infectious music. It's a lovely little portrait of this undervalued musician and great storyteller, witty and often laugh-out-loud funny. Louie Bluie will be on my End of Year Top Ten list, for sure. Anyone considering to blindbuy this: run, don't walk! You're not going to regret it.

Going to get the Crumb Blu on the strength of this one.

By the way, there's some hidden commentary by Zwigoff in the 2nd page of unused footage.
You have to go up with the remote to highlight the 2 "o" from footage.
He discusses it for about half an hour.

Interesting interview with Zwigoff mostly about these two, where he's sort of bluntly honest as usual. They ask him about the Woody Allen pull quote.