This review will be part of a series where we won't be doing the extensive detail (bitrates, bonus captures etc.) to cover many boxsets arriving.

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

ADDITION: Imprint Blu-ray (November 2025): This Tales of Adventure 8 (1916 - 1971) set focuses on six Jules Verne-inspired films. There are four genuine (if ranging from faithful to "in name only") Verne adaptations and two that are purely riding the Verne wave for box-office purposes. The box set very honestly labels the collection “adapted from and inspired by” rather than claiming every film is a straight adaptation, which is refreshingly accurate for a boutique release. 1080P captures for four of the films are from alternate but highly similar image Blu-ray transfers: four of the six films (all except the worldwide Blu-ray debut of Valley of the Dragons (1961) and Jules Verne’s Rocket to the Moon (1967,) which has never had a Beaver-reviewed Blu-ray edition) already exist on Blu-ray in versions reviewed by DVDBeaver, and Imprint’s new transfers are remarkably close to those previous releases. They appear to use the same or extremely similar HD masters in every case with virtually identical color timing, detail retrieval, contrast and grain structure. Any differences are genuinely minor and mostly come down to individual taste or display calibration rather than one being clearly demonstratively superior.

Specifics:

”20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916) – Identical 4K restoration to Kino’s 2020 disc (reviewed HERE); frame-for-frame the same image, but Imprint adds the superior new orchestral score by Orlando Pérez Rosso and Anthony Slide’s commentary.

Master of the World (1961) – Extremely close to the 2022 Shout Factory transfer (reviewed HERE); colors, contrast and sharpness are effectively identical; Imprint’s encoding is equally clean and film-like.

War-Gods of the Deep (1965) – Practically indistinguishable from the 2015 Kino/MGM edition (reviewed HERE); same lush aquamarine/amber palette, same level of fine detail and grain; both look excellent and very comparable.

The Light at the Edge of the World (1971) – Essentially on par with Kino’s 2020 release (reviewed HERE); colors, black levels and shadow detail are matching or within a hair’s breadth; both transfers are strong and natural-looking.

The captures for Valley of the Dragons (1961) and Jules Verne’s Rocket to the Moon (1967) are new and from the Imprint boxset Blu-rays.

NOTE: We have added 100 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE.

On their Blu-ray, Imprint's audio is uniformly clean, well-balanced, and faithful to the original mixes with no distortion, major hiss, or age-related woes across the entire set. The 1916 20,000 Leagues benefits enormously from Orlando Pérez Rosso’s newly recorded orchestral score – rich, dynamic, and beautifully spread, It gives the silent film a genuinely cinematic sweep that elevates the entire experience. Master of the World enjoys a surprisingly robust stereo track that gives Les Baxter’s score real presence and lets the Albatross’s engines rumble satisfyingly. The four 1960s–70s films are all lossless and every one sounds clear and punchy: dialogue is always intelligible, effects have decent weight (especially the explosions in Rocket to the Moon and the storm/wave crashes in Light at the Edge of the World), and the music cues hit with proper impact. War-Gods of the Deep makes particularly good use of the mono mix for its echoing underwater cavern atmosphere. Nothing here is going to rattle your subwoofer, but everything sounds exactly as good as (or better than) these films have ever sounded in the comfort of your home. Imprint offers optional English subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-rays.

Imprint has loaded five of the six discs with strong, enthusiast-friendly supplements, making this one of their better-packed multi-film boxes. Highlights include 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea offering a dry but informative audio commentary by silent-film historian Anthony Slide (Hollywood Unknowns: A History of Extras, Bit Players, and Stand-Ins.) Master of the World is the supplemental standout with a lively group commentary by Tom Weaver (A Sci-Fi Swarm and Horror Horde,) David Schecter (co-author with Weaver of Universal Terrors, 1951-1955: Eight Classic Horror and Science Fiction Films,) on the score. It also includes Richard Heft and Lucy Chase Williams (The Complete Films of Vincent Price,) plus two brand-new video essays (one general and one focused on Vincent Price by Andy Marshall-Roberts) and the original trailer. War-Gods of the Deep gets a brand-new commentary by Jonathan Rigby (Euro Gothic: Classics of Continental Horror Cinema) and Kevin Lyons (editor of The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Film and Television,) that is typically excellent, plus a very enjoyable Tab Hunter featurette “Going Deep with Tab Hunter” and the alternate U.S. title sequence. Jules Verne’s Rocket to the Moon includes another new commentary by Stephen Jones (author of The Art Of Horror Movies: An Illustrated History) and Kim Newman (Something More Than Night) (always a treat) - two short 2021 archival pieces with Newman and Matthew Sweet, rare silent on-set footage, and the trailer. The Light at the Edge of the World has a commentary by Howard S. Berger and Nathaniel Thompson that incorporates vintage audio interviews with producer Ilya Salkind (Bluebeard) and director Kevin Billington (Voices,) plus a radio spot and trailer. Only Valley of the Dragons is completely barebones--a shame for its Blu-ray premiere, but understandable given how obscure it is, yet the sheer quantity and quality of new material on the other titles more than compensates. The sturdy 1500-copy green-tinted hardbox is gorgeous.

The Tales of Adventure Collection 8 showcases a fascinating cross-section of genre talent spanning six decades with Vincent Price gloriously hamming it up in two of the strongest entries-- as the magnificent flying-warship tyrant Robur in Master of the World (1961) during the absolute peak of his Roger Corman/Edgar Allan Poe purple period (House of Usher → Pit → Tales of Terror → Raven → Masque → Tomb of Ligeia) and then as the immortal gill-man overlord of underwater Lyonesse in Jacques Tourneur’s dreamy, Poe-flavoured War-Gods of the Deep (1965,) sharing the screen with 1950s heart-throb Tab Hunter (Damn Yankees, Polyester, Gunman's Walk, The Loved One,) future Mary Poppins / Bedknobs and Broomsticks star David Tomlinson, and AIP’s house scream-queen Susan Hart (Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, etc.). Kirk Douglas and Yul Brynner deliver raw, brutal star power in The Light at the Edge of the World (1971,) Douglas in full savage-beard mode akin to The Vikings or Lonely Are the Brave, Brynner basically playing evil King of Siam / Magnificent Seven gunslinger / Westworld gunslinger in pirate garb with Samantha Eggar (The Collector, The Brood, Psyche 59) and Fernando Rey (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Viridiana, Violent Blood Bath, The French Connection II) adding class. The 1916 silent relies on long-forgotten Universal contract players (Allen Holubar, Matt Moore, Jane Gail) whose biggest claim to fame is appearing in one of cinema’s genuine technical miracles. Valley of the Dragons (1961) stars reliable B-lead Cesare Danova (Taras Bulba) and Irish journeyman Sean McClory alongside ex-Playmate Joan Staley (The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, Johnny Cool) and Danielle De Metz (Return of the Fly, The Magic Sword, The Scorpio Letters) in pure drive-in cheesecake mode. Charles Bronson (Death Wish,) looking hilariously out of place in Victorian whiskers, provides the muscle in Master of the World just after The Magnificent Seven and before he became the grim 1970s/80s action icon. Finally, Jules Verne’s Rocket to the Moon (1967) is an absolute embarrassment of British comedy riches: Terry-Thomas at maximum cad, Lionel Jeffries (The Wrong Arm of the Law, Sudden Terror, Camelot, First Men in the Moon) straight off Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Dennis Price, Graham Stark, Gert Fröbe fresh from Goldfinger, Burl Ives (Our Man in Havana, Day of the Outlaw, The Daydreamer, The Big Country, Shenandoah, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and, of course, Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer) as P.T. Barnum, Troy Donahue in his post-teen-idol slump, and the stunning Daliah Lavi (The Whip and the Body, Some Girls Do, Ten Little Indians) bringing Euro-spy glamour from The Silencers and Casino Royale (1967) -- essentially the same ensemble you’d find in Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, The Wrong Box or the Chitty/Bond-adjacent comedies of the era. Valley of the Dragons, making its worldwide Blu-ray debut, finally gets a proper HD transfer (albeit in 1.78:1) that reveals far more detail in the cave sets and stock-footage “dinosaurs” than any previous DVD or TV broadcast ever managed. Blacks are solid, and the print is remarkably clean for a low-budget quickie that heavily repurposes footage from One Million B.C. NOTE: The cave-spider looks a lot like the one in 1958's World Without End, although that film was in color. Jules Verne’s Rocket to the Moon is bright, colorful, and stable with only occasional slight blooming on whites, but nothing detracts seriously from the enjoyment of the Victorian sets and explosions. In short, if you already own the earlier Kino / Shout discs, you won’t see a dramatic night-and-day upgrade with Imprint, but the presentations are of equally high quality and the new extras (especially the commentaries and the 1916 score) make the set worth owning. 

Gary Tooze