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S E A R C H    D V D B e a v e r

 

H D - S E N S E I

A view on Blu-rays by Gary W. Tooze

    Released Individually by Indicator on Blu-ray in March, 2021:

or buy directly from Indicator:

or in the US:

The individual 20 Million Miles to Earth Blu-ray is also available in The Ray Harryhausen Collection (20 Million Miles to Earth, Earth vs. Flying Saucers, It Came from Beneath the Sea, and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad) [Blu-ray]

           

Indicator's The Wonderful Worlds Of Ray Harryhausen, Volume One: 1955-1960 Blu-ray Boxset has 20 Million Miles to Earth, It Came from Beneath the Sea and The 3 Worlds of Gulliver

 

 

and their The Wonderful Worlds Of Ray Harryhausen, Volume 2: 1961-1964 Blu-ray Boxset, coming out in November 2017, has Mysterious Island, Jason and the Argonauts and First Men in the Moon

 

 

20 Million Miles to Earth [Blu-ray]

 

(Nathan Juran, 1957)

Sony Pictures / Indicator (Powerhouse) UK
Review by Gary W. Tooze

Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Disc Size: 48,573,770,257 bytes

Features (b+w and color) Size: 20,912,833,920 bytes

Bitrate: 25.99 Mbps

Audio:

English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono

 

LPCM Audio English 1152 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1152 kbps / 24-bit
DTS-HD Master Audio English 3568 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 3568 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit)
Commentary:

Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps

Subtitles:
English SDH, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, Thai, none

English (SDH), none

Supplements:

Feature in both original black-and-white and colorized editions, (video extras in 480i/p) audio commentary by Ray Harryhausen, Dennis Muren, Phil Tippett, and Arnold Kunert, featurette: "Remembering 20 Million Miles to Earth" (27:05), featurette on the Colorization Process (10:55), Tim Burton Interview with Ray Harryhausen (26:47), Interview with Actress Joan Taylor (17:24), Original Ad Artwork, featurette on Advertising for 20 Million Miles to Earth and Other B-movies (17:30), featurette: "David Schecter: Movie Music's Unsung Hero" (22:37), Video Photo Galleries

Commentary by Harryhausen and Dennis Muren, Phil Tippett, and Arnold Kunert

Finding Harryhausen with Dennis Muren (11:28)
Remembering 20 Million Miles to Earth (27:03)
Interview with Joan Taylor (17:29)
Film Music's Unsung Hero (22:33)
The Colorization Process (11:02)
20 Million Miles More
Super 8 Version (8:40)
Trailer (2:00)
Image Gallery (0:36)

Released: December 4th, 2007 / September 29th, 2017
Standard Blu-ray case / Custom Boxset
16 chapters / 10 Chapters

 

Product Description:

Special-effects legend Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion talents and "Dynamation" (rear-projection) process are the highlights of the '50s-era creature feature 20 Million Miles to Earth. An American spaceship returns to Earth after a mission to Venus and crashes into the sea near Sicily. A sole survivor (William Hopper) is rescued, along with a specimen that quickly grows into a reptilian biped called the Ymir. The being eventually grows to 20 feet high and escapes its confines, whereupon it rampages through Rome before a showdown with the military. Despite lacking much of a personality, the Ymir is a marvelous showcase for Harryhausen's skills. Unfortunately, the rest of the film does not match his level of excellence; direction by Nathan Juran is perfunctory (his later collaborations with Harryhausen, including The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, are more lively), and performances and scripting are flat. Still, Harryhausen fans should enjoy this opportunity to see this phase of his career before he created his most enduring works.

Excerpt from Amazon HERE

 

 

The Film:

There's nothing that brings you back to your boyhood dreams like master animator Ray Harryhausen's painstaking, frame-by-frame, stop-motion efforts. You can forgive the flawed scripting and unconvincing performances as the giant Ymir takes his justifiable fear and self-protection instincts out on Rome's Colosseum. In retrospect we too are the bad guys here as we give heavy artillery fire at one of the great architectural wonders where he is simply seeking sanctuary. My other big peeve is when Col. Robert Calder (William Hopper of Perry Mason fame) meets up with the two brave Italian fishermen who risked their lives dragging his unconscious body out of the rocket ship wreck before it sank to forty fathoms - he doesn't even utter a 'thank' or bother to shake their hands. "Hummpf". But boys from 4 years to 44 still watch with fascination at how we introduce earth to visiting aliens and marvel as the slimy green lizard-like (considered Harryhausen's greatest monster), with the overactive pituitary, does his stuff. Can you blame him?

Gary Tooze

Note: Mr. Harryhausen can be seen in the film in a brief cameo as the zookeeper.


Video: NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

The image looks fairly impressive. Just like the SD edition the colorized version translated less frequent digital artifacts - or so it appears. In direct comparison to the SD - the 1080p Blu-ray is far superior in regards to color, contrast and detail. It still shows some digital artifacts though. This package is essentially exactly the same as the 50th Anniversary Edition SD that came out in July, but it is 1080p (as opposed to 480p). The beauty is that it is the same price but obviously better in terms of the image and audio.

Similar to Indicator's It Came From Beneath the Sea Blu-ray - very similar to the Sony 1080P - a notch superior but the static screen captures will simply show some pixels shifted around. It must be the same source. In-motion some may notice the Indicator gains advantage. Like the Sony, this has both the black & white and colorized versions. Like the Sony, these are also, the same file-size transfer on each disc - same bitrate (on the respective discs) - 21 Gig/ 28 Mbps. This exceeds the Sony which may show-up in-motion depending on your discerning eye or system capabilities.

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

1) Sony (B+W) Region  FREE Blu-ray - TOP

2) Indicator (B+W) Region FREE Blu-ray - SECOND

3) Sony (Colorized) Region  FREE Blu-ray - THIRD

4) Indicator (Colorized) Region FREE Blu-ray - BOTTOM

 

1) Sony (B+W) Region  FREE Blu-ray - TOP

2) Indicator (B+W) Region FREE Blu-ray - SECOND

3) Sony (Colorized) Region  FREE Blu-ray - THIRD

4) Indicator (Colorized) Region FREE Blu-ray - BOTTOM

1) Sony (B+W) Region  FREE Blu-ray - TOP

2) Indicator (B+W) Region FREE Blu-ray - SECOND

3) Sony (Colorized) Region  FREE Blu-ray - THIRD

4) Indicator (Colorized) Region FREE Blu-ray - BOTTOM

More Blu-ray Captures

 

 

 

 

 

Audio: With the video bumped from the SD - so is the audio as the Blu-ray has had the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 touch. It is pretty strong, certainly eclipsing the SD. The audio is supported with a host of subtitles - preparing the region FREE Blu-ray disc to be sold in many countries - we have optional subs in English (CC), English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, or Thai.

NOTE: A point off for not offering the original mono as an option.

Again, Indicator's Blu-ray offers both linear PCM (mono) and a DTS-HD Master surround bump - both in 24-bit. The Ymir cries still seem appropriately distant and occasionally touching while separation was noted in some of the artillery fire. The Indicator's original mono addition is correcting an unfortunate error in the Sony Blu-ray that purists will appreciate. The Indicator offers only optional English SDH subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray disc.

Extras: Duplicated from the 50th Anniversary Edition SD  - we are given nothing new - but still I'm not complaining about the effort put into the supplements. Firstly, we have a super entertaining audio commentary by Ray Harryhausen, Dennis Muren, Phil Tippett, and Arnold Kunert, then a nostalgic featurette: "Remembering 20 Million Miles to Earth" (27:05) with Harryhausen giving us a lot of detail of some of his other work as well as 20 Million... . There is a brief, 10 minute, featurette on the colorization process, a Tim Burton interview with Ray Harryhausen for almost a half hour and a delightful interview with actress Joan Taylor (about 20 minutes). There is some original ad artwork, another featurette - this time on Advertising for 20 Million Miles to Earth and Other B-movies (about 20 minutes and quite cool), a final featurette: "David Schecter: Movie Music's Unsung Hero" (running 22 minutes) and a video photo gallery.

Indicator duplicate the Sony supplements with the commentary by Harryhausen and Dennis Muren, Phil Tippett, and Arnold Kunert. the 1/2 hour Remembering 20 Million Miles to Earth, the Joan Taylor interview, the 22-minute Film Music's Unsung Hero piece, the 11-minute Colorization Process, a trailer and gllery but Indicator add more; Elijah Drenner's dozen minute documentary Finding Harryhausen with Dennis Muren is from 2017, and we get a 20 Million Miles More DigiComic, and a Super 8 version that was distributed. This includes a DVD for each of the three films as well. This Blu-ray boxset has an 80-page book with new essays, and film credits.  

Sony - Region  FREE Blu-ray

Indicator - Region FREE Blu-ray

BOTTOM LINE: Well, there was no way I wasn't getting this film in high-definition and the color edition is certainly enticing - even for purists. It does exactly as I was expecting - it looks and sounds superior - simply put the best way to see this film on your digital home theater. I can't help but tout the colorized but having the option is the ideal package.

Like the other three Blu-rays in this boxset, the Indicator has advanced over the older Sony - notably the mono option for the audio, a few more extras, a DVD and the 80-page booklet. Sounds like a must-own for Harryhausen fans with these essential 50's and 60's sci-fi gems.

    Released Individually by Indicator on Blu-ray in March, 2021:

or buy directly from Indicator:

or in the US:

The individual 20 Million Miles to Earth Blu-ray is also available in The Ray Harryhausen Collection (20 Million Miles to Earth, Earth vs. Flying Saucers, It Came from Beneath the Sea, and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad) [Blu-ray]

           

Indicator's The Wonderful Worlds Of Ray Harryhausen, Volume One: 1955-1960 Blu-ray Boxset has 20 Million Miles to Earth, It Came from Beneath the Sea and The 3 Worlds of Gulliver

 

 

and their The Wonderful Worlds Of Ray Harryhausen, Volume 2: 1961-1964 Blu-ray Boxset, coming out in November 2017, has Mysterious Island, Jason and the Argonauts and First Men in the Moon

 

 

 

 

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