DVD REVIEW: PLANET OF DINOSAURS 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
DVD REVIEW:
RETROMEDIA [ 2007 ] 84'
DVD REVIEW:
AVG. BITRATE: 4.27 Mb/sec
WTFFILM RATING:
WTFFILM DOES NOT ENDORSE THIS DVD OR RECOMMEND ITS PURCHASE
A staple of bargain bin VHS companies from their very inception, WTFFILM remembers seeing this film on sale everywhere from department and grocery stores to flea markets and with a motley collection of cover artwork. The film was released first to DVD by Goodtimes Home Entertainment - culled from that same 16mm print that seemed to have served as a source for every other of its previous home video incarnations, the disc suffered a bit from poor encoding and lack of resolution but, otherwise, kept the film as I (and many others, I'm sure) came to love it intact.
Skip ahead a few years - Retromedia announces a newfangled 30th anniversary edition of the film, which is to be presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio and sourced from 35mm for the first time ever. Good news, right? Sadly, the hacks who run the show at Retromedia have not cleaned up their act as far as product quality goes - their release of PLANET OF DINOSAURS has the honor of being the first ever resident of WTFFILM'S DVD HELL.
THE FEATURE PRESENTATION:
Retromedia's DVD sports a brand new transfer of the film, presented in 1.79:1 widescreen and anamorphically enhanced for widescreen television sets. With higher resolution and better color reproduction than the previous Goodtimes release, its no lie that this is the best the film has ever looked on home video.
That's where this reviewer's praise for the release ends.
The new transfer, just like the rest of Retromedia's long line of releases, is interlaced. The disc is single layered (only 3.20 of the 4.33 GB of storage available are utilized) and the film is encoded at a pathetically low average bitrate of 4.27 MB/sec - minor pixelation is present throughout the feature. More annoying is the fact that, upon close inspection, the transfer seems to have been crudely blown up to fill the extra horizontal resolution of the 16:9 frame. The opening and closing credits show this most obviously - the letters and floating drawings of dinosaurs have sharp and artificial digital edges created when the video editing software Retromedia was using interpreted the footage and increased its horizontal resolution.
PLANET OF DINOSAURS has been a favorite film of mine since I first saw a VHS of it on sale at the local department store - that VHS was quickly hidden away behind a stack of other videos and, a few days later, I had returned to purchase it. As a child there's literally nothing not to love about the film. As an adult I've realized that it has next to no value, critically, but that doesn't keep me from loving it in my heart of hearts.
Even worse than the transfer and encoding issues is the fact that the company is up to a number of its old tricks. New special effects have been added to the film - the space ship Odyssey now explodes in craptacular digital glory, the escape pod has revised boosters, and the firing lasers are now accompanied by white flashes from the laser barrels. To add insult to injury, a new copyright has been added to the title card for the film stating that Retromedia is the copyright holder for this new special edition of the film.
Complete bullshit, but, frankly, they can keep it.
The film itself hasn't aged well - the 35mm source for the film is ripe with vertical scratches and spots of dirt and even has a number of splices. The original negatives for the film were apparently in no shape to transfer from and Retromedia reportedly did the best they could, with some of the most damaged portions of film being culled from the producer's 16mm print of the film. These are minor quibbles, however, in comparison to the issues listed above.
A decent 35/16mm composite print of the film is marred by unnecessary tampering and poor encoding. Even the audio track has been fudged a bit along the way to include new sound effects and ambient noise. Pathetic.
THE EXTRAS:
The extras for this release are sparse but welcome - up first is a fine commentary track hosted by Fred Olen Ray and featuring James K. Shea, Jim Aupperle, Doug Beswick, and Steve Czerkas. This is the most rewarding part of the DVD and its a pity the release its included with is as shoddy as it is. Next up are two TV spots for the film which look to be sourced from 16mm and are in fine shape (the longer of the two features some effects shots from the film that were altered by Retromedia in their original and unaltered form).
Following the pertinent extras are near-unwatchable copies of the Willis O'Brien shorts THE GHOST OF SLUMBER MOUNTAIN [1918] and THE DINOSAUR AND THE MISSING LINK [1915]. WTFFILM has seen much better copies of these two short films circulating on Turner Classic Movies and suggests looking for those better versions if you really wish to see them.
THE OVERALL PRESENTATION:
PLANET OF DINOSAURS comes housed in a standard black Amaray-style snap case with a full color insert. While the cover artwork itself is designed well enough, the package otherwise is about as well designed as an average eBay-purchased bootleg DVD. Menus are minimally designed, crude, and have little to do with the film on disc. In an embarassing mishap, this 30th Anniversary Edition is marketed both on the front and back of the DVD cover as a 20th Anniversary Edition - a minor offense but a nice crown for the Retromedia dumb-fuckery that ruins the rest of the presentation.
THE VERDICT:
Retromedia - headed by wrestler and crap film-maker extraordinaire Fred Olen Ray (THE ALIEN DEAD [1980] and DINOSAUR ISLAND [1994]) - should honestly be ashamed of itself. Why they feel it necessary to alter films with new digital effects that look nothing but cheap and out of place is completely unknown to me and their overall lack of forward momentum in terms of presentation quality is unfortunate to say the least. This DVD could have been quite good - the print, though aged and worn, is obviously better than those seen previously and the commentary by the crew is quite nice - but, as seems to be the norm, Retromedia has dropped the ball.
Cling to your aging VHSs and the old Goodtimes DVD release and hope that better days are on the way. I can't not recommend this DVD enough.