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

Flicker Alley bring us the fascinating Méliès: Fairy Tales in Color to single-layered Blu-ray in 1080P. The image is, of course, at the mercy of the restored elements and, as one example, of the painstaking effort gone into the reconstruction of many of these shorts: "In 1902, Georges Wiles shoots "A Trip to the Moon". The film is proposed in black and white and also in color, hand painted. It is released everywhere in the world. The color version, considered as lost during several decades, is then found in 1993 by the Filmoteca de Catalunya, however in desperate condition. As of 1999, highly delicate work began to rescue and digitize the elements. It is only in 2010 that a complete restoration could be launched, in order to enable the audience to rediscover this major cinema work, 109 years after its creation. Digital tools available today allow re-assembly of the fragments of the 13,375 frames of the film and restore them, one by one. Missing frames, lost or too damaged, have been taken from the black and white version, then colored. "  There are frequently rounded corners and damage dependant on the available sources.

The film is presented lossy Dolby audio - the 'Narration' option - features film historian Serge Bromberg, and adapted from George Méliès suggestions, these narrations are culled from Star Films distribution catalogues intended for the sale of these films to English-speaking territories. The scores are by Brian Benison, Eric Le Guen, Antonio Coppola, Robert Israel, Neal Kurz, Jeff Mills, and Serge Bromberg. It suits the shorts very well occasionally sounding dramatic and adventurous. There are no subtitles on this Region FREE Blu-ray.

Flicker Alley add a souvenir booklet featuring a new forward to the collection, along with rare images and the English-language narration text to several of the films. There is a second disc DVD.

The colorized segments with the lights out, in a pitch black room really do create a kind of magic in your Home Theater space. History as uniquely transported to the viewer can be overwhelming in the guise of these amusing shorts that resonate a deepness when put into context of how people must have reacted to them originally over 100 years ago. An must-own Blu-ray for fans of the Silent Era. There is far too little of this genre, like this, around. Strongly recommended!

Gary Tooze