Gulliver's Travels 1.33:1 only please! - Page 4

Agreed. They still need to pass judgment on these things instead of blindy distributing such garbage.

I can't support this because it reminds me of Ryko Distribution's recent dust-up with several studios (primarily Blue Underground and Severin) they have deals with over European exploitation titles with "pornographic" material in them. The studios either had to find a new distributor, halt production of the title, or edit the title under Ryko's guidelines. Just a big load of bull of Ryko's part over films with very small cultish appeal.

Though if a studio pays in full, why should any distributor deny a release over its quality? Why should they care? The majority of these independent distributors are faceless to end consumers.

Well they dont need to, but how many of us would blind buy a title from them after this?

Remember this is Bluray, a format people buy because it has better quality then DVD. If you cant deliver the quality, its better to be honest and just release the DVD. Since most of us can accept that a DVD can have a bad master (its better then nothing). But pretending that they carefulled mastered this is BS.

It looks DNRd VHS.

Did Blue Underground and Severin want to edit the movies because of "pornographic" material or show them fully uncut....If the former then i disagree with their stance since they are buying exploitation and should release them fully uncut....If it was because Ryko were cutting the films then giving them to these studio's then i would be annoyed ( as a consumer because i want my films uncut )

Severin is releasing vintage erotic films which were available in "soft" or "hard" versions from the producers. The idea was to sell to as many different markets and territories as was possible, and different areas expected different things out of a sex movie. Severin usually offers both the "soft" and "hard" versions as separate products, for films including The Beast In Space and Emmanuelle Around The World, allowing the consumer/retailer to decide which version they'd rather have, which I think keeps everyone satisfied.

Synapse did the same thing with Thriller: A Cruel Picture a while after Kill Bill was released. Blue Underground released both edited and uncut versions of 99 Women and Bare Behind Bars, but Emmanuelle in America is only available uncut. Media Blasters offered an edited version of Erotic Nights of the Living Dead.

It's not much different from the Theatrical/Unrated versions of Hollywood films. Well, except that when these guys say "unrated", they aren't kiding.

A huge number of fake reviews have suddenly popped up for the amazon listing of GULLIVER'S TRAVELS...all 5 star reviews.

Fake reviews are bad enough but these are ridiculous. Funny how 10 people who never posted amazon reviews before all suddenly post a 5 star review for this travesty.

But there was one especially goofy review. After reading the 5 star review, I went to the "read my other reviews" link and discovered that this guy had reviewed ONE other movie. The other movie he reviewed was the DVD version of GULLIVER'S TRAVELS where he pronounced it "almost as good as the Blu-ray". And right under that was his Blu-ray review of the movie. So let me get this straight...this guy, who had NEVER posted a review before, bought BOTH the DVD and the Blu-ray? Really? Fortunately, I guess he got his money's worth because he loved them both!

These people can't do a good job of anything. They do the world's worst Blu-ray and try to cover it up with the world's most obvious fraud. How many underacheivers can one organization hire?

I have numerous queries asking me to do a PIX thread but I told them its not necessary since the bad reviews are almost universal.

If someone or fanboys spreading FUD we may have to waste our time working on this instead of Pinocchio.

Maybe they are experiencing abysmal sales and are getting desperate.

But you know you want to. Think of the thread title... "Worst BD Ever!"

Okay, I'll come clean and admit that I have ordered this disc regardless. I've seen the screencaps and read the reactions and know exactly what to expect from the disc. I just HAD to have the "worst ever Blu-Ray" in my collection.

DVD Savant chimes in, with his usual care (cough cough) for technical detail:


No, it's not entirely favorable, but really, how in God's name is this even slightly "attractive"? If I saw a theatrical print that looked like this, I'd go to the box office and demand my money back. And it's odd that he can note the blurred frames and "dissolve-bump effect" without noticing the elephant in the room: that NHP, for all their "restored" talk, almost certainly sourced this from an analog, interlaced, standard-def master, which should be obvious even on a 13" monitor. At least he calls them out on the AR ********.

You ought to read the reviews from J6Ps over at Amazon. They actually think the BD looks great.

What's really odd is that almost all of the original reviews that said it was a POS have been deleted, mine included!!! I wonder if Koch had something to do with this.

Wow, wouldn't this be a bummmer if this becomes the trend. Take a POS 1.33:1 PD transfer, 16x9 it and sell the s*** out of it to all the J6Ps out there...the end has started...help us all!!!

They have eight 1 star reviews listed when i just checked but i'm suspicious about some of the other reviews.

Someone said this "It brings this classic to life. The wide screen allows you to see more".

Yah the widescreen allows you to see more....Gee you gotta love comments like that.

Another person at Amazon said this and i suspect it may be someone involved at Koch trying to exert pressure to get rid of negative reviews.

"The most trust worthy people I have ever known on the internet worked on this film. Amizon.com has major security issues and there at fault for this bad review. As well as other issues and the reason why I will never buy any used mechandise from amizon ever again! There security stinks worst than any website in the world."

Then there are real clowns who haven't got a clue about film and aspect ratio's and pre-widescreen films posting rubbish like this.

"As I read the savage reviews about cropping i remembered that Michael Palin, in his diaries (available on Amazon), mentioned that they shot Monty Python's first films on 35mm stock. the ratio on those films, in their widescreen releases the aspect ratio was 1.85 to 1, which multiplies to 16.65 to 9. However I don't see all of these intrepid reviewers bitching about the top of the Black Knight's head being cut off. The film is presented in widescreen format the same way that the Monty Python films have been presented in widescreen, with black bars on either side of the screen and the image area from top to bottom determining the side to side ratio. 25% of this masterpiece is not missing, as claimed by some reviewers".

Then we have another clown pretending they have a clue when they do not.

"This one actually exposes the left and right images that have not been seen since the original release, albeit at the expense of some of the upper and lower frames. This is much closer to the way Fleischer would have wanted it, and true to his spirit. I am a film critic and cultural commentator for WeHoNews.com in West Hollywood, and see just about every film made".

Another clown who probably works for Koch.

"I have to say there is nothing wrong with this product it is perfect in every way Video is so crisp its phenomenal. The Sound is crazy good its like your in a theater. If you were going to buy only one movie for your kids let this be the one you wont be disappointed. My cousins loved every minute of it they cant get enough of it!!!! SO please ignore any bad reviews of this they are lies take it from me that your going to be extremely satisfied".

So many clowns but i am not laughing at those reviews because someone will be fooled and buy this piece of junk.

We need more AVS members posting reviews for this at Amazon.

In fact Dr Thomas Reich types broken english in a few of those reviews and a few comments to the one star reviews ( not shown on this thread ) like oh lets see maybe a German whose english was not so good would and wait a second Koch is a German company....Hmmm connection with all those five star reviews ? Maybe or maybe not.

As Dex Robinson pointed out earlier, almost all of the favorable reviews at Amazon are by people with no review history -- a couple of them even reviewed the Blu-ray and the DVD. It's blatant astroturfing, nothing more. The only question is whether it's Koch, NHP, or someone else behind it.


Koch is and always has been an American company, currently headquartered in New York. It's not German.

I thought the mixed the reviews on amazon. I have seen that on other movies.

Oh it's probably just the name Koch...Thats German - I guess the owners and it's home is America.

Tsk Tsk you bad fox for assuming things based on names. Gee i'm answering myself now i guess i'm nuts - I gotta go and talk to myself in the mirror now.

Well, the founder (Michael Koch) is Austrian. Apparently the current majority owner is a UK-based hedge fund, but Koch's operations are still limited to North America.

amazon lets you upload your own customer images. Let everyone see how ass it looks...

Yes considering that some reviewers seem to work at the same company that released the movie. If thats true, the word scam comes into my mind.

has anyone notified Amazon?

Hey, anyone else get an anonymous email after posting on amazon...? Really weird. Somehow the BD of GT is connected to this..

http://cindysinx.com/ nsfw

very strange...

Hi, you don't know me and I choose to remain anonymous (or as anonymous as one can be these days), but I thought you'd be interested in this email I got from someone who worked on the new Koch Gulliver's Travels Blue-ray/DVD. She has an adult website on which I was briefly a member, because I had met her on a dating site (which was actually a way to lure guys to her website) - I still receive emails as an ex-member. I could not believe the nerve of her asking me to be a shill for this botched release. THIS is where most of the positive reviews are coming from:

----------------------------------------

"Dear Cindysinx.com members and friends. I had a wonderful birthday this weekend and i wanted to thank all of you who send me cards or gifts. I also wanted to ask you for some help.

As some of you know i work days in film and tv production and last November and December I worked on a project called "Gullivers Travels" for Koch E1 which was a restored version of the classic Fleischer Film done straight to Blue Ray and DVD. A former employee is trying to ruin our star rating on Amazon.com with false comments and lies and we need to get all my friends, members and people on my mailing list to go there and write some good positive reviews so we can get our star rating up to 5 stars. They don't have to be long just very positive and please rate this product 5 stars. I can get a big bonus if we make 5 stars and this would really help me in this poor economy. Plus if we get the rating up to 4 or 5 stars Koch will go ahead with a new movie project from us and we're scheduled to do Max Fleischer's Superman next. I need all my friends and members to please go to the links i pasted below on Amazon.com and please write some good positive reviews for me. I have attached some examples below to help you write them

I'm going to have a special contest with special prizes for the member or former member who writes the best review. I am going to read all the reviews and select the person or persons who write the best review and they will receive either a free 6 month membership to my site and any 4 of my DVD's absolutely free. For the members who write the second and third best reviews i will give them a free month and a free DVD. Also if someone writes something really terrific i will also offer to do a free one hour private one on one cam session at your convenience and do whatever you want for you and be totally nude and all yours for an hour, it's your choice.

I hope that i can count on all my friends to help me with this, it's very important to me and you will have my thanks and gratitude and really be helping me. I'm grateful for your assistance and i know i can count on you all. Thank you!

Yours truly,
Cindysinx"

The above link is NSFW (not safe for work).

sorry swift. i amended it.

Hmm that is strange.

Since this person is asking people to write the reviews and is remaining "anonymous" it's safe to assume that no other person other than Koch employees could be behind this.

So, who wants to post that email to Amazon as a review for Gulliver's Travels? Nothing like having a porn starlet schill fake reviews for your kiddie film...

I totally would but I have my album for sale on amazon which they can easily find by clicking on my profile and I don't need alot of negative reviews.

But feel free to cut and paste....

and great, they're gonna get Max Fleischer's Superman cartoons next? More fake HD with stretched and cropped 16x9...? Great.




Just checked again and this person who sent me the email had to go through some hoops. I looked at my amazon profile and I don't have a contact email address. So he must have gone to my music webpage and contacted me through that. Wow.

I believe the only real connection between the two is just the employee. Her day job seems to be with the production company while the website is her night side project. I do not blame Koch at the moment, it is sleezy how she is attempting to hide the fact this release was screwed up with fake reviews.

I like how almost every one of those 5 star rave reviews says, "I have watched this DVD on Blue Ray..." hilarious...

Cartoon Brew did a story on this (actually 2) recently. They show a comparison between the "Squashed" Koch version and a reproduction of the same shot unsquashed from a story in Good Housekeeping from the time. The Koch interpretation of the word "enhanced" leaves a lot to be desired...