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Forbidden Planet

will be released by Warner Bros. Nov. 14 in two DVD editions to mark its 50th anniversary. The two-disc special edition ($27) includes the restored film, three documentaries and other programs featuring Robby the Robot. A collector's edition ($60) comes with a Robby action figure and lobby cards.

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/li ... 19.art.htm

YES! Finally, this landmark gem gets the treatment it deserves. A pity that the lobby cards don't come with the gift set, which I couldn't justify buying!

We finally got one! We got a restored and remastered Special Edition of Forbidden Planet .

From videostoremag:

[quote]What better way to kick off this year's 37th annual San Diego Comic-Con International than with an announcement that Forbidden Planet, the granddaddy of all the extravagant science-fiction movies being plugged at the show, is being prepped for a special 50th anniversary DVD release.

Warner Home Video is expected to announce July 20 that what many film historians consider the most influential science-fiction film ever made will arrive on DVD Nov. 14 in two DVD editions: a two-disc special edition ($26.99) and an ultimate collector's edition ($59.92). Orders are due Oct. 10.

For both editions, the movie, in a new widescreen version, has been digitally transferred from restored film and audio elements, while the soundtrack has been remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1.

Extras include commentaries, additional scenes, three documentaries and two subsequent programs featuring the movie's celebrated Robby the Robot: the 1958 MGM feature film The Invisible Boy and an episode from “The Thin Manâ€

Gordon McMurphy wrote:A pity that the lobby cards don't come with the gift set, which I couldn't justify buying!

Do you mean the 2 disc edition like the King Kong set?

I wonder if the Robby "action figure" is functional. It would be a real disappointment if you can't wind it up and have it walk and light up.

gigimonagas wrote:

Gordon McMurphy wrote:A pity that the lobby cards don't come with the gift set, which I couldn't justify buying!

Do you mean the 2 disc edition like the King Kong set?

I meant to say that it is a pity that the lobby cards don't come with the 2-disc and only with the $45 gift set. The $20 set is a tremendous package, though.

If you need some playmates for Robby the Robot, check out this, this, and this

More info here:

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=62233

More than four hours of special features in the 2-Disc Special Edition include commentary, additional scenes, two follow-up vehicles starring Robby the Robot plus three documentaries. Also of special note is the lost footage, which features preliminary takes of various special effects including the space ship and interior and exteriors. Very few people knew of the existence of footage, which, since the '50s, had bounced around to various stock houses and vaults, simply marked as "The Saucer Footage." Star Wars special effects artist Dennis Muran, who had learned of the footage in the '70s, brought it to the attention of WHV which finally tracked it down in New York City.

Even more info:

[quote]The Quintessential 1950s Sci-Fi Movie …

FORBIDDEN PLANET

50TH ANNIVERSARY 2-DISC SPECIAL EDITION and ULTIMATE COLLECTORS EDITION

From Warner Home Video November 14

Newly Restored and Remastered Film, in Widescreen and
Dolby Digital® 5.1, Has Six Hours of Bonus Features Including
Two Follow-Up Robby the Robot Films, Lost Footage, Additional Scenes, Three New Documentaries and More

Ultimate Collectors Edition in Unique Metal Alloy Collector's Case

Contains Collectible Robby The Robot Action Figure,

Reproduction Lobby Cards Portfolio and Mail-In Movie Poster Offer

Burbank, CA (July 21, 2006) - Forbidden Planet, considered by many the most influential science fiction film ever made until the Star Wars era, goes into DVD orbit November 14 when Warner Home Video releases Forbidden Planet 50th Anniversary 2-Disc Special Edition and Forbidden Planet Ultimate Collectors Edition. The film, in a new widescreen version, has been digitally transferred from fully restored new film and audio elements. The remarkable electronic soundtrack has been remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1.® The 2 Disc Special Edition will be available at $26.99 SRP; the Ultimate Collector's Edition for $59.92 SRP.

A pioneering work whose ideas and style influenced countless cinematic space voyages that followed -- Star Wars, Star Trek, Lost in Space, 2001: A Space Odyssey, among others -- Forbidden Planet is based on Shakespeare's The Tempest and stars Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Warren Stevens, Earl Holliman and Richard Anderson. It also marks the motion picture debut of Robby the Robot. Fred McLeod Wilcox directed the Cyril Hume screenplay.

More than four hours of special features in the 2-Disc Special Edition include commentary, additional scenes, two follow-up vehicles starring Robby the Robot plus three documentaries. Also of special note is the lost footage, which features preliminary takes of various special effects including the space ship and interior and exteriors. Very few people knew of the existence of footage, which, since the ‘50s, had bounced around to various stock houses and vaults, simply marked as “The Saucer Footage.â€

A clever Swede over at HTF has posted a comparison of the HDTV presentation and the old DVD transfer, plus a few extra shots:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/sho ... tcount=102

Stunning.

Why did Warner use two different designs for the $26 keep case edition and the cardboard fold-out case in the $60 edition? The later is gorgeous, but the former looks thrown together. Oh, well.

Amazon's pre-order:

Collector's Edition

2 Disc Edition

Digitalbits is reporting the 2 disc release on 1 HD-DVD will be available day and date with the 50th anniversary dvds, and there will be an HD-DVD tin set as well.

First review is up at DVDTown.

Gigi M. wrote:First review is up at DVDTown.

And no audio commentary. Odd.

I received my set today and I was really impressed by the transfer of this five-decade-old processed-by-Metrocolor and quite likely over-printed film. The grain on the previous release was atrocious, as were the colors. The audio has also been significantly improved. As for the film itself, it's fun, but its shortcomings are more evident today - the direction is pedestrian, very stagey and the light dialogue is really silly and extemporaneous. The real star is the sumptuous set design and matte work which remains striking in places. The influence of Forbidden Planet cannot be underestimated and for many years it was the touchstone for science fiction aesthetics and the electronic music pre-dates Doctor Who, though it is very abstract, but it fits the movie well - I shudder at the though of a typical 50s orchestral score, though that might have gave the film the extra oomph it needed.

The Barrons' score -- in addition to being one of the major landmarks of electronic music -- is a joy to listen to.
When the specs for these releases were announced, I was disappointed that there wouldn't be a documentary dedicated exclusively to this score. There would be plenty of interesting things to cover. In addition to the unusual (and cute) angle of the Barrons as a husband-and-wife team of experimenters, there are the odd characteristics of their "cybernetic" methodology: They created circuits that had properties of simple organisms and were designed to burn out after their natural "life span," then used tape manipulation to alter the unpredictable sounds the circuits produced. What's amazing is that such bizarre approach could produce music of such recognizable form and fit with the film.
Then there's the subject of the Barrons' other pioneering works, their collaborations with John Cage and Maya Deren, and their recordings of Anais Nin, Tennessee Williams, and others. It would be interesting to try and place them within the community of New York artists of the era. Sometimes I think I should have gone into documentary filmmaking myself.
Anyway, I don't mean to gripe, but when we get such elaborate and long-awaited new relases, this is a real missed opportunity for a documentary on this important part of Forbidden Planet. I hope the main documentary on the DVDs will at least discuss their contribution for a few minutes.

Oh, Bebe Barron is interviewed and there's about three minutes(out of the 26-minute docu) of discussion on the music and sound effects, including the shameful fact that as the score was not played by orthodox musicians on traditional instruments, the Barrons could not be credited as composers (thus the "electronic tonalities" card) and thus the score couldn't be nominated. But the influence was strong and Brian Hodgson and Delia Derbyshire of Electrophon would draw on it for the mesmerizing Doctor Who theme in 1963.

Here's a 9-minute audio interview with Bebe from 2005. A fascinating story that is seldom spoken of in the progression of 20th Century music.

Gordon wrote:I received my set today and I was really impressed by the transfer of this five-decade-old processed-by-Metrocolor and quite likely over-printed film. The grain on the previous release was atrocious, as were the colors. The audio has also been significantly improved. As for the film itself, it's fun, but its shortcomings are more evident today - the direction is pedestrian, very stagey and the light dialogue is really silly and extemporaneous. The real star is the sumptuous set design and matte work which remains striking in places. The influence of Forbidden Planet cannot be underestimated and for many years it was the touchstone for science fiction aesthetics and the electronic music pre-dates Doctor Who, though it is very abstract, but it fits the movie well - I shudder at the though of a typical 50s orchestral score, though that might have gave the film the extra oomph it needed.

I disagree Gordon re the direction and the dialog.

I hadn't seen this film since I was a teenager and I was even more impressed with it now. We can never underestimate the impact of well-done films like these on the great American abstract thinkers of the 50's & 60's (i e for a simple example, the Beats), who, like Rimbaud, were looking for elevated experiences which corresponded to the vague pleasures of the still uncharted mind-- the film is every bit as visually & conceptually trippy (tho in it's own Eisenhowerian naiive, though pioneering, way) as Kubricks 2001. Walking into a theater and seeing such visually trippy set design, ideas, costumes, tied to such hallucinatory atmosphere and very intelligently freaky ideas must have been thrilling to those looking to "break on through". It's a film whose purpose lies every bit as much in it's sum effect-- just like 2001-- via it's combined elements as it does in it's "content" of plot/mise en scene etc. Add in the total mind fuck of the music and you have a genuine tour de force which simulates an acid or psilocybe trip as well as anything from the psychedelic era. Progressive minds must have had a field day back in the fifties watching it. As for the art direction alone I find it nearly on a par with similar masterpieces from Kubrick or-- a film I think Kubrick must have been a huge fan of-- KWAIDAN.

The concepts in the film re the Krell's intelligence, the explanation of the vast exponential ratcheting of "10" toward infinitude, the scale of the machine's engine, the 20 mile catwalks, the equally enormous conception of time (2000 centuries), etc, these are beyond the zone of sci fi and nearly psychedelic. Therefore I think the slight little tiny sense of pedestrian melodrama that we note today in the film were desperately needed in order to keep the audience latched in to the narrative and not take it as some high winded intellectual piece of hoo-ha... keeping the film precisely where it should be... great sunday afternoon entertainment.

There is a nice, brief eight minute video interview with Bebe Barron from 1997 on the DVD disc of this OHM+ CD set of electronic music. I'd agree too that it's too bad that Warners didn't do a featurette about the music -- but hell, the new transfer is so gorgeous that I'll get over it.

Thanks, I just ordered it, partly because it was a good deal with the Google Checkout promotion still going on. I knew about the Ohm set from several years ago but wasn't aware Ellipsis Arts had reissued it with a DVD.