April 23, 2023 • 31 mins
In Episode 48, Jay & Jim are back and this time they each have the brand new Superman 5-Film Collection 4K Steelbook. It's a very first look and first listen! This special episode can also be viewed on CapedWonder.com, facebook, and youtube. The first of many deep dives in the Christopher Reeve Legacy of Superman Films. Superman, Superman II, Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, Superman III and Superman IV.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Now the Capedwonders Superman Podcast with JayCows and Jim Bowos on iHeartRadio. Hi,
everybody, welcome to a special editionof the Cape Wonders Superman Podcast.
We are excited to join you today. Jim and his Superman office and then
me and my Superman office, becausewe both in our hands have the Superman
(00:25):
five film collection. Here it is. Jim is showing his, I am
showing mine nineteen seventy eight to nineteeneighty seven. Jim, we have a
lot to talk about today. Ohboy, Dewey, and this is a
gigantic box set, the biggest oneyet. Really excited. I've got the
(00:45):
English UK version, and Jay,You've got the German version. Is that
right? The fabulous German version withlots of things I can pronounce, but
but what's inside is all good.I'm able to to read all of that.
So, Jim, we should mentionthat obviously this was delayed in the
US, although it wasn't delayed overseas. We have a lot of people watching
(01:07):
and listening today and they should knowthat the delay has not affected them,
but it has affected us in theUS. It has I don't know a
single person, of course, whohas received it in the US. We've
got a lot of friends in theUK, we have friends in Australia.
They are reporting that they have receivedthis and they reviewed it. Of course,
(01:29):
we've been watching these streaming on Voodooand Apple TV and iTunes for a
few weeks now too, and it'sgiven us a great idea of what to
expect. But of course physical mediais the best quality, and Jayu and
I have just started diving into thisand the wonderful presentation as well, and
boy, it's nice and sturdy andreally beautiful, really well done, it
(01:56):
really is. It's the biggest oneyet. Of course, over the years,
we've had the beautiful two six ten, which was the DVDs, We've
had the twenty eleven Superman Motion PictureAnthology box, quite a bit smaller of
course than the brand new one.And then there've been international ones over the
years that are various sizes, andthere have been other steal books actually prior
(02:19):
to this one, that have comeout in twenty sixteen in various countries.
But this is the giant of theentire history of the Superman movies, the
Christopher Ree movies on home videos.So you're going to need to make some
space on your shelf. This makesa great display piece, as you can
see when you get this in themail, it's about three pounds and you're
(02:42):
going to find that it has thiscardboard piece that actually fits on the back
and slides over, much like thattin box that we love from two thousand
and six. And when you slidethis off, it reveals the beautiful bookshelf's
type of a box and that it'svery easy to pull out each movie.
(03:05):
What I absolutely love the most aboutthis presentation is that they have honored all
of the original movie poster artists andthat's really great. Superman the movie,
of course, we love the BobPeak art, and then we've got the
others Superman two, both versions ofSuperman two. That's what's very cool about
this is we're familiar with this fromthe box back in two thousand and six
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and the classic movie poster art thatwe remember in the theater. Superman three
is the same way, and Supermanfour. Dan Goosey's art looks absolutely beautiful.
These were all produced by the way, by steelbook dot Com and all
produced in Denmark. And then somepeople have been asking Jay about this particular
(03:52):
box and this isn't a box withdiscs. This is a box with beautiful
collectibles. And this is only availablein this Steel Book. So if you've
ordered or pre ordered the other boxset that shows Christopher Reeve at the bottom
of the Fortress, that doesn't havethis box. It has the movies by
themselves. So this case here,that's his action comics on it. It's
(04:15):
got that Supermans on the back,and you open it up, there's all
kinds of goodies in here. You'resaying that doesn't come with the regular box
set, that's right, and thatregular box set. I don't know anybody
who's received it yet. It isavailable for pre order in the US.
I've seen it on the Walmart website, the best BUYO website, I think
best Buy in Canada's got it forpre order, and perhaps Amazon as well.
(04:39):
But unfortunately, presently most of thewebsites, and I've listed many of
them caped Wonder for the Steel Book, are either saying currently unavailable or temporarily
out of stock. Now keep inmind, based on this certificate of authenticity
that we see, they only madethirteen thousand, hundred and twenty five copies
(05:01):
worldwide, so I don't know howthose were distributed worldwide, but it looks
like they're really really limited. Now. What else is in this box is
a beautiful photo booklet, and Iknow you've got the same one, J,
and I'm sure it's in English,even though it's the German release.
And it also features all of theoriginal one sheet poster art and a lot
(05:28):
of great photographs from all of themovies. And what I love about this
page, guys, is that theDonner cut honors Richard Donner by showing a
rather rare photograph of him and theFortress of Solitude. So that's a big
plus for me. And then there'sa couple of photos in here from Superman
three that you don't see very often. Here's the Evil Superman and here is
(05:50):
Superman rescuing Ricky from the Week KingWeek Thresher, and so those are rather
uncommon. The rest of it haspretty common photos. But what I love
about this Jay this booklet, itfeatures the Christopher Reeves specific as shield we
see on his chest. In fact, I don't see a single trademark styles
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shield anywhere in this box, andI think that's pretty unique to this release
because typically we see it somewhere.Of course, our friends Robert Van Dedi
and Wilfredo Torres. As many ofyou know, we had them at our
Motor City Comic Con Christopher Reeve LegacyReunion in twenty twenty two. And now
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what we have in this beautiful actionbox is a mini version of one of
the issues, actually Issue one JAvery very cool, nice faithful reproduction of
that. And then finally we havea lenticular of sorts of our friends Jack,
Terence Stamp and Sarah Douglas, whichwould make a great piece to have
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autographed at a show if you getto meet them, all encased or enclosed
in a beautiful box that shows againthe Christopher Reeve style shield. So the
art designer of this set really focusedon featuring that specific shield. It looks
great. Oh yeah, it's it'sit's beautiful. I love that it has
a certificate of authenticity, which Ihaven't seen before. And what's also unique
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about these boxes is they did someselective isolating of various parts of the images.
So some of the cover is mattand then some of the parts are
shiny, like the car in thiscase with Superman four, it's all about
the same degree of shininess. Samewith Superman three. When you get to
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Superman two, Superman himself and thelogo are shiny, but the rest of
the box is matt. Same herethe shield shiny, the rest of the
boxes matt. So those extra touchesI think really a difference in this box
set. J Well, let's startwith let's start with that. We kind
of showed everything briefly here, butlet's really dive into disc one, which
(08:09):
is that original Bob Peek art onthe cover, which I mean, I
don't know if it's ever looked better. What I appreciate about how they reproduce
the art on this cover is thatthe colors here are closer to what the
original piece of art looks like.When we look at the one sheet posters
or the quad posters, they're muchbluer, and that's not how the original
(08:30):
art looked. So this is morefaithful to the original piece, which I've
seen in personal. It was onexhibit in twenty eleven in Hollywood, and
I got to go visit it andlook at it up close. So if
we open up this box, wehave a beautiful studio photo by Bob Penn
of Christopher Reeve that we're familiar withand it's actually one of my favorites.
And then the box has a reddisc and a blue disc. The red
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is the four K j yes andthe blue is the Blu Ray. Now,
the Blu Ray is not the fourK remaster. The Blu Ray is
the same Blu Ray as the twentyeleven anthology Blu Ray. So many fans
were hoping that this Blu Ray wasgenerated from this remaster, and it's not.
(09:16):
It's the old one. In yourversion, Ja, the German has
the theatrical cut Blu Ray. Butguess what the UK version is the special
edition initially released in two thousand andone that has the extra eight minutes.
And if we go to this sleeveand you look at the very bottom of
(09:37):
it, it actually says online onehundred and fifty one minutes, whereas your
sleeve says one hundred and forty threeminutes. So why is there a difference.
Why does the special edition appear inthe UK version but not in the
German version? So that begs thequestion, what will the US version,
(09:58):
the French version, the Mexican version, and some of the other countries.
What Blu Ray is going to bein the Superman the Movie box. Another
interesting aspect of this being the SpecialEdition, is a unique menu that has
a unique set of extra features,and they're not the same extra features ja
that are in the twenty eleven anthology. That's a very unique aspect of this
(10:22):
UK box set, and so it'spretty exciting. Many fans have spoken up
over the past few months since thisbox set was announced hoping that the Special
Edition would be in this box.Well, you got your wish, not
on four K, but on BluRay. I also want to mention too
that on the Blu Ray you dohave the option, at least in this
(10:43):
German version, to switch between theone audio source and then the original theatrical
audio, which is fans often talkabout having that original sound that they remember
of the credits, swishing through spaceand that Superman ask that we see for
the first time. If you wantthat original theatrical two point zero audio that
(11:03):
is on this German version, itis on the German But the only option
you've got on this special edition isthe only option you've always had, and
that's the Michael Thaw enhanced version thatwe first heard on DVD in two thousand
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and one and then carried over tothe other box sets and now to this
one. So yeah, that's uniqueto this. So remember the special edition
as one audio option. It's notthe original sound, it's the enhanced sound
that many people do like Superman twodouble set. So if you open it
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in this direction, you get thetwo four K discs. One is for
Superman two theatrical ones for the RichardDonner cut. They're really pushing you to
watch the four K and they reallywant you to listen to the Dolby Atmost
track. Now, speaking of thatjay, you've got two options on these.
You've got the Dolby Atmost, whichis really great sounding, and then
(12:09):
you've got the original two point zerostereo mix option as well on these,
and that goes for the German versionas well. Again, beautiful piece.
This is unique and that has gottwo movies in one. We move on
to Superman's three. There we areour friend Richard Pryor at the end of
the film, and then we've gotthe two discs as well. Are you
(12:31):
surprised with these that we don't havelike we had in twenty eleven, a
booklet that explains what's on each disc. We're really guessing until you put it
in the machine. Well, youreally are, and in these previous releases,
it does have a booklet. Thebooklet that came with the DVD set,
the tins set does explain what's inside, and you're absolutely right. You
(12:56):
pointed that out to me the otherday that hey, there's no book explaining
the contents. So of course themenu on the disc itself does. You
can also go to your four Kplayers remote and oftentimes there's a button called
audio and if you press it,you'll see you can scroll through the different
(13:16):
audio options if you don't use themenu that's on the disc. Superman four
also a beautiful box featuring Gene Hackmanand both of the disc as well.
Another interesting aspect of your disc jor your selection of discs of four k's,
(13:37):
is that each one of your fourK discs has a Dolby Vision logo.
My discs do not. None ofthese movies are Dolby Vision except Superman
the Movie, So that is anerror. I've confirmed it with some of
our video experts, and Dolby Visionis on Superman the Movie, but not
(14:00):
on the sequel discs. So soI'm holing up the Superman four here and
says it says Dolby vision. I'mholding it up to the camera here and
yeah, I mean so that isincorrect. That is incorrect. Now,
there have been there's been talk thatit's possibly showing that way on streaming,
but that's unconfirmed right now. SoI just want to clarify that that is
(14:22):
another difference between the German version inthe UK. J I'm so curious what
the US version is going to looklike, Jim. I also would like
to just if we can mention withSuperman four, and there's been a lot
of discussion about this, especially sincewe were able to experience some of these
streaming before getting this box set inhand, and we know a lot of
(14:43):
you don't have the box set inhand, but the opening theme to Superman
four and a couple other music cuessound very different than what we're used to
over the years, and there's alot of speculation on why it sounds different.
(15:28):
You and I have had a lotof discussion about it. I've spoken
with some people that are actually inthe soundtrack and music industry that are professionals
that have reviewed this very carefully,and right now nothing is absolutely definitive.
We don't have a confirmed answer orreason for the change. We're going to
be investigating that further to see whatwe can find out. Jay, we
(15:54):
talked about the fact that perhaps themain theme in the movie is the same
one we've always been used to hearing, but maybe mixed differently, whereas other
folks think it's a completely different take, possibly from the German orchestra that first
recorded the score. That's got along history, piece of history. It
(16:18):
was recorded first in Germany, thenthey went to England, did some more
recording, rerecorded some things. Butsome are speculating that it's the German main
theme or one of the takes ofthe German main theme. I know that
that that fanfare, that that soundat the beginning the trumpet of the Superman
theme when we see the Warner Brotherslogo, and then where the theme comes
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in over the credits, it comesin much closer on this new four K.
The music begins almost while the fanfareis still going where if you watch
the original version, you've got aspace there and then the music comes in.
So that's why they don't line upperfectly with the original version that we
know. But boy, if youjust move it over an inch digitally,
(17:02):
you'll hear that they match up prettyclose. They just sound so different.
So hopefully we'll get that mystery solved. You know, my personal opinion,
being an audio guy so many years, it sounds like the version we know
and love that simply is just mixeddifferently. But for all we know,
yeah, maybe it's a different version. We have a really interesting situation and
(17:59):
I've never heard of before, andthat involves Superman the Movie. Now,
back in twenty eighteen, we allknow the four K of Superman the Movie
theatrical cut came out for the firsttime, and then it was shown for
the fortieth anniversary of the film invarious theaters around the world. Right now,
it's touring again in various theaters,and it appears to be the same
(18:23):
four K with one exception. Thereis a yellow orange flash at the end
of Christopher Reeve's name in the openingcredits. However, I did not see
that flash in the theater this time, nor did you, Jay, and
nor did many other people. Andthe speculation is that they went back to
the original four K, perhaps removeda frame or two sent that digital file
(18:47):
to theaters. But the rest ofthe film looks exactly like the four K.
There's been a lot of controversy aboutthe quality of the four K,
not the audio, but the video, and a few months ago one of
my best sources with Warner Brothers wastold that a new scan and a new
remaster was done of Superman the Movierecently, at least around the time that
(19:10):
these sequel four k's were being done, but it is currently missing an action.
That new scan and remaster is notin this Steel book, nor is
it in any other individual release.What has changed between twenty eighteen and today
with this Superman the Movie four Kare the audio choices. I think one
(19:32):
of the big successes of the fourK in twenty eighteen was the inclusion of
the Dolby Digital five point one audiomix. There's the at most or the
enhanced Michael Thought two thousand and oneversion, and there was a seventy millimeter
six track mix released back in nineteenseventy eight, and that was on the
(19:56):
twenty eighteen disc, which is righthere with a slipcase. If you order
Superman the Movie on four K today, at least in the US on Amazon,
you're going to get an identical boxwith identical specs on the back as
the twenty eighteen However, the seventymillimeter Delby Digital five point one is no
(20:18):
longer on the new version. Itis now the stereo Mix two point zero.
Why is that That's another mystery wedon't know yet. But that option
matches all of the sequel options inthe box set, so they're all consistent
as far as audio options. Soif you've got your tent eighteen disc,
(20:41):
hold on to it. It's gotthat great seventy millimeter six track, which
I love the best out of allof them, and it's it's great.
I do hope a new rescan andremaster will come out soon. Let's talk
a little bit Jim too, abouthow these scans look. This is our
first time seeing the less cut ofSuperman two in four K, which really
(21:04):
dramatically improves it. You know,the Donner cut looked pretty good because we
know that they were going back toso much of that source material to put
the Donner cut together. But theLester version of Superman two, I mean,
you posted a couple of photos andthey're just spectacular, they really are.
What's really jumped out at me.First of all are all of the
(21:27):
Fortress scenes. Jay the Fortress set. Of course, we know that set
was rebuilt between the Donner years andthe Lester years. It was built initially
at Shepperton Studios, then it wasrebuilt for the Richard Leicester scenes at Pinewood.
So the Pinewood Fortress interior set inthis four K just pops, It
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sparkles. The depth, the levelof detail is the best I've ever seen
it, and maybe it looks bettertoday than it even did in the theater.
That's one of the things that reallyjumped out at me. Another really
obvious change jay or improvement, isthe quality of Superman's costume, its color,
its detail. It's much more blueand as it should be. One
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of the things that I remember noticingback in the day. I remember going
to the theater in June of eightyone when the film came to the US,
the scene where the villains land atthe lake, Jack and Sarah or
Non and Ursa on the shore forthe first time, I remember seeing wires.
Subsequent releases over the years on homevideo, the wires are still there.
(22:36):
For the first time they took themout. It is obvious in this
box set that they did their homeworkand really did a great job removing wires.
Wires were never meant to be seen. Some piarists have said, oh,
leave them, you shouldn't alter thefilm. In my opinion, they
(22:56):
should be removed because obviously the filmmakerswanted you to believe a man could fly,
and we don't need to see wires. So it looks beautiful. Hey,
Superman four looks really great us forsome of the criticism we already know
for so many years. With Supermanfour, many of the scenes, even
(23:17):
the flying scenes, a lot ofthe Nuclear Man flying scenes look so much
better to me, Chris and Margot, which was always, you know,
for me tough to see because weknow how great those scenes could have been,
like they were in the first andsecond films. But even these just
seem a little cleaner to me.Well, they really do. Superman three
(23:37):
and four were mastered about a differentmaster colorist with a whole lot of experience.
In fact, one that's one ofthe more senior guys there. My
understanding is, and these two reallyreally excite me. In fact, I
think of all of these releases,Superman three is my favorite. Picture wise.
It's obvious they put a lot oflove into these. Wire removal was
(24:00):
beautifully done for the first time inSuperman four, I don't see any wires,
and they've meticulously gone into the majorityof the blue screen flying scenes and
color corrected the costume. Yeah,so when Superman is very small in the
frame and he's flying away or flyingtowards you, now his costume blue is
much truer in most cases, andsame goes with Superman four. So that
(24:26):
really helped make the experience for memuch more enjoyable. The blues and the
yellows and reds in his costumes arejust beautiful, absolutely gorgeous. They're just
great looking films, and I thinkthat really elevates their whole presentation so much.
Highly recommended. Many fans J havesaid, is this four K really
(24:49):
going to be worth the money?Is it really a bump up? And
these are massive bump ups in myopinion, if I were to rate the
presentation of this steel box, I'dprobably give it an a minus. And
the only reason I'd give it asis because, like the tin back in
two thousand and six, it hada little sleeve that went over the front
(25:12):
two but it had a lid onit where you could enclose fully the disks,
whereas when I took off this coveron the four K box it revealed
a permanently open side. Yeah,now I would have liked to have seen
a cover on it, just soI could enclose it and keep the dust
(25:34):
off. But if you display thisside on your bookshelf, it looks fantastic
and it makes for very, veryeasy access to your movies. I love
it. Let's talk quickly before wego about this. You sent me this
hat, which I was super Ifit wasn't for Jim, I wouldn't have
this box set, and I wouldn'thave this hat and a shirt by the
way, which is in the laundry, because I already worn it. But
(25:56):
this is something, honestly for allof the Superman gear out there that people
have put together on their own.On the sneak this is official. This
is official from Warner Brothers. It'son their website. It's actually sold out.
But this original shield that we lovefrom the original film, it says
seventy eight on the side of thehats. As far as I know,
(26:19):
I think this is the first timewe have seen anything related to the Christopher
Reeve films available as a wearable,probably since the eighties. Oh, I
agree. In fact, I've neverowned an official hat with that logo on
it and the T shirt j isthe Bob Peek one sheet movie poster.
(26:41):
Yep. And it's beautifully done aswell. But yes they're sold out,
but don't worry. I'm sure they'regoing to get more in stock. That
that was a fast sellout, Itell you what. And you know fans
are hungry for this stuff, JayJim, What should we be looking forward
to? What type of answers arewe looking for when we finally get the
(27:02):
American version of these box sets?As we wrap up here, Well,
the answers that I'm looking for isnumber one. Why was the seventy millimeter
six track audio removed from the fourK of Superman the Movie? Where is
this new rescan and remaster of Supermanthe Movie? Many fans wanted an improved
(27:22):
version of Superman the Movie released onfour K? Was it actually completed?
Did it not pass QC quality control? Perhaps it's still in process. Is
that something we're going to see laterin the year in December? Maybe for
another theatrical re release or another homevideo release. We don't know. The
Superman four main theme and some ofthe other music. What's the story on
(27:48):
that? Do US version. I'mvery curious which version of the Blu Ray
of Superman the movie is going tobe included in that set, and why
the UK got the special edition.Let me remind everybody that the extras that
are in this steel book are exclusiveto the Blu Ray discs. They're not
(28:10):
on the four K discs, andthe extras are all legacy extras. There
are no new extras like behind thescenes footage, documentaries, etc. Nothing
new that we haven't seen already.In fact, many of them were on
the twenty eleven anthology, in theten two thousand and six, and you
know what, you know what elsewe've got to look forward to. I'm
(28:33):
going to share something else with you. Many of you bought this anthology,
and many of you are pre orderingand have purchased this steel book. In
the supplementals on the Blu Ray arethe Flesher cartoons from the forties. They
are not remastered, But what iscoming out as a separate release for the
first time jay on Blu Ray areall of the Flesher cartoons completely restored.
(28:57):
And that has been on the listof many hardcore fans for a long time.
So I'm really really excited about those. You definitely want to pick those
up at some of the finest animationever done Superman or otherwise. Yeah,
fantastic. Well, listen, wehave plenty more to talk about those US
releases out next month. By theway, if you've been following the Reeve
(29:19):
Legacy Reunion, which Jim and Ihave been trying to put together through out
the last couple of years, here, if you head to Smallville Con at
the end of June, you'll findMark Pillow and Mariel Hemingway and Sarah Douglass
and everyone's really excited to have thosethree spend some time out at Smallville Con,
(29:41):
which is a really nice con.That's going to be a Saturday the
twenty fourth and Sunday the twenty fifthof June. So see our friends Mark
Pillow and Mariel Hemingway and of courseSarah Douglas out at Smallville Con. Hey,
I've got to bring out one morething, Jay, that's very exciting,
and then we'll wrap this up.Superman and Concerts starting to tour again,
and it's coming March fifteenth, twentytwenty four, at eight pm.
(30:06):
That's a Friday at the Walt DisneyConcert Hall in Los Angeles and the conductor
who normally conducts the Hollywood Bowl Orchestrawill be conducting the La Philharmonic for Superman
the movie. We've already got celebritiessaying they want to come, and we
really want to turn this into afun, fun caped Wonder event, so
(30:27):
we're going to keep everybody posted aboutthat. But that's definitely something look forward
to. I've spoken with two peoplewho said that this place rivals the Royal
Albert Hall, so I can't wait. That's gonna be fantastic. I'm already
booking my ticket. LA Here wecome. There you go, Jay.
This has been a lot of fun. I have been taking so many notes
(30:48):
and sticking discs in and out ofthe machine again and again, checking audio
and picture quality. This has beena gigantic research project for me, and
we're going to continue to learn moreabout these four ks. Please reach out
to us on social media or throughthe Caped Wonder website and let us know
what you discover. Thank you everybodyfor watching, for listening. We'll be
(31:11):
back with another podcast soon. We'resorry it took so long, but you
know what they say, good thingscome to those who wait, and you
waited a long time, and lookwhat's here. That's all for today,
Jim, thank you so much,and as always, stay sober.
Now the Capedwonders Superman Podcast with JayCows and Jim Bowos on iHeartRadio. Hi,
everybody, welcome to a special editionof the Cape Wonders Superman Podcast.
We are excited to join you today. Jim and his Superman office and then
me and my Superman office, becausewe both in our hands have the Superman
(00:25):
five film collection. Here it is. Jim is showing his, I am
showing mine nineteen seventy eight to nineteeneighty seven. Jim, we have a
lot to talk about today. Ohboy, Dewey, and this is a
gigantic box set, the biggest oneyet. Really excited. I've got the
(00:45):
English UK version, and Jay,You've got the German version. Is that
right? The fabulous German version withlots of things I can pronounce, but
but what's inside is all good.I'm able to to read all of that.
So, Jim, we should mentionthat obviously this was delayed in the
US, although it wasn't delayed overseas. We have a lot of people watching
(01:07):
and listening today and they should knowthat the delay has not affected them,
but it has affected us in theUS. It has I don't know a
single person, of course, whohas received it in the US. We've
got a lot of friends in theUK, we have friends in Australia.
They are reporting that they have receivedthis and they reviewed it. Of course,
(01:29):
we've been watching these streaming on Voodooand Apple TV and iTunes for a
few weeks now too, and it'sgiven us a great idea of what to
expect. But of course physical mediais the best quality, and Jayu and
I have just started diving into thisand the wonderful presentation as well, and
boy, it's nice and sturdy andreally beautiful, really well done, it
(01:56):
really is. It's the biggest oneyet. Of course, over the years,
we've had the beautiful two six ten, which was the DVDs, We've
had the twenty eleven Superman Motion PictureAnthology box, quite a bit smaller of
course than the brand new one.And then there've been international ones over the
years that are various sizes, andthere have been other steal books actually prior
(02:19):
to this one, that have comeout in twenty sixteen in various countries.
But this is the giant of theentire history of the Superman movies, the
Christopher Ree movies on home videos.So you're going to need to make some
space on your shelf. This makesa great display piece, as you can
see when you get this in themail, it's about three pounds and you're
(02:42):
going to find that it has thiscardboard piece that actually fits on the back
and slides over, much like thattin box that we love from two thousand
and six. And when you slidethis off, it reveals the beautiful bookshelf's
type of a box and that it'svery easy to pull out each movie.
(03:05):
What I absolutely love the most aboutthis presentation is that they have honored all
of the original movie poster artists andthat's really great. Superman the movie,
of course, we love the BobPeak art, and then we've got the
others Superman two, both versions ofSuperman two. That's what's very cool about
this is we're familiar with this fromthe box back in two thousand and six
(03:30):
and the classic movie poster art thatwe remember in the theater. Superman three
is the same way, and Supermanfour. Dan Goosey's art looks absolutely beautiful.
These were all produced by the way, by steelbook dot Com and all
produced in Denmark. And then somepeople have been asking Jay about this particular
(03:52):
box and this isn't a box withdiscs. This is a box with beautiful
collectibles. And this is only availablein this Steel Book. So if you've
ordered or pre ordered the other boxset that shows Christopher Reeve at the bottom
of the Fortress, that doesn't havethis box. It has the movies by
themselves. So this case here,that's his action comics on it. It's
(04:15):
got that Supermans on the back,and you open it up, there's all
kinds of goodies in here. You'resaying that doesn't come with the regular box
set, that's right, and thatregular box set. I don't know anybody
who's received it yet. It isavailable for pre order in the US.
I've seen it on the Walmart website, the best BUYO website, I think
best Buy in Canada's got it forpre order, and perhaps Amazon as well.
(04:39):
But unfortunately, presently most of thewebsites, and I've listed many of
them caped Wonder for the Steel Book, are either saying currently unavailable or temporarily
out of stock. Now keep inmind, based on this certificate of authenticity
that we see, they only madethirteen thousand, hundred and twenty five copies
(05:01):
worldwide, so I don't know howthose were distributed worldwide, but it looks
like they're really really limited. Now. What else is in this box is
a beautiful photo booklet, and Iknow you've got the same one, J,
and I'm sure it's in English,even though it's the German release.
And it also features all of theoriginal one sheet poster art and a lot
(05:28):
of great photographs from all of themovies. And what I love about this
page, guys, is that theDonner cut honors Richard Donner by showing a
rather rare photograph of him and theFortress of Solitude. So that's a big
plus for me. And then there'sa couple of photos in here from Superman
three that you don't see very often. Here's the Evil Superman and here is
(05:50):
Superman rescuing Ricky from the Week KingWeek Thresher, and so those are rather
uncommon. The rest of it haspretty common photos. But what I love
about this Jay this booklet, itfeatures the Christopher Reeves specific as shield we
see on his chest. In fact, I don't see a single trademark styles
(06:15):
shield anywhere in this box, andI think that's pretty unique to this release
because typically we see it somewhere.Of course, our friends Robert Van Dedi
and Wilfredo Torres. As many ofyou know, we had them at our
Motor City Comic Con Christopher Reeve LegacyReunion in twenty twenty two. And now
(06:35):
what we have in this beautiful actionbox is a mini version of one of
the issues, actually Issue one JAvery very cool, nice faithful reproduction of
that. And then finally we havea lenticular of sorts of our friends Jack,
Terence Stamp and Sarah Douglas, whichwould make a great piece to have
(06:57):
autographed at a show if you getto meet them, all encased or enclosed
in a beautiful box that shows againthe Christopher Reeve style shield. So the
art designer of this set really focusedon featuring that specific shield. It looks
great. Oh yeah, it's it'sit's beautiful. I love that it has
a certificate of authenticity, which Ihaven't seen before. And what's also unique
(07:23):
about these boxes is they did someselective isolating of various parts of the images.
So some of the cover is mattand then some of the parts are
shiny, like the car in thiscase with Superman four, it's all about
the same degree of shininess. Samewith Superman three. When you get to
(07:46):
Superman two, Superman himself and thelogo are shiny, but the rest of
the box is matt. Same herethe shield shiny, the rest of the
boxes matt. So those extra touchesI think really a difference in this box
set. J Well, let's startwith let's start with that. We kind
of showed everything briefly here, butlet's really dive into disc one, which
(08:09):
is that original Bob Peek art onthe cover, which I mean, I
don't know if it's ever looked better. What I appreciate about how they reproduce
the art on this cover is thatthe colors here are closer to what the
original piece of art looks like.When we look at the one sheet posters
or the quad posters, they're muchbluer, and that's not how the original
(08:30):
art looked. So this is morefaithful to the original piece, which I've
seen in personal. It was onexhibit in twenty eleven in Hollywood, and
I got to go visit it andlook at it up close. So if
we open up this box, wehave a beautiful studio photo by Bob Penn
of Christopher Reeve that we're familiar withand it's actually one of my favorites.
And then the box has a reddisc and a blue disc. The red
(08:54):
is the four K j yes andthe blue is the Blu Ray. Now,
the Blu Ray is not the fourK remaster. The Blu Ray is
the same Blu Ray as the twentyeleven anthology Blu Ray. So many fans
were hoping that this Blu Ray wasgenerated from this remaster, and it's not.
(09:16):
It's the old one. In yourversion, Ja, the German has
the theatrical cut Blu Ray. Butguess what the UK version is the special
edition initially released in two thousand andone that has the extra eight minutes.
And if we go to this sleeveand you look at the very bottom of
(09:37):
it, it actually says online onehundred and fifty one minutes, whereas your
sleeve says one hundred and forty threeminutes. So why is there a difference.
Why does the special edition appear inthe UK version but not in the
German version? So that begs thequestion, what will the US version,
(09:58):
the French version, the Mexican version, and some of the other countries.
What Blu Ray is going to bein the Superman the Movie box. Another
interesting aspect of this being the SpecialEdition, is a unique menu that has
a unique set of extra features,and they're not the same extra features ja
that are in the twenty eleven anthology. That's a very unique aspect of this
(10:22):
UK box set, and so it'spretty exciting. Many fans have spoken up
over the past few months since thisbox set was announced hoping that the Special
Edition would be in this box.Well, you got your wish, not
on four K, but on BluRay. I also want to mention too
that on the Blu Ray you dohave the option, at least in this
(10:43):
German version, to switch between theone audio source and then the original theatrical
audio, which is fans often talkabout having that original sound that they remember
of the credits, swishing through spaceand that Superman ask that we see for
the first time. If you wantthat original theatrical two point zero audio that
(11:03):
is on this German version, itis on the German But the only option
you've got on this special edition isthe only option you've always had, and
that's the Michael Thaw enhanced version thatwe first heard on DVD in two thousand
(11:24):
and one and then carried over tothe other box sets and now to this
one. So yeah, that's uniqueto this. So remember the special edition
as one audio option. It's notthe original sound, it's the enhanced sound
that many people do like Superman twodouble set. So if you open it
(11:46):
in this direction, you get thetwo four K discs. One is for
Superman two theatrical ones for the RichardDonner cut. They're really pushing you to
watch the four K and they reallywant you to listen to the Dolby Atmost
track. Now, speaking of thatjay, you've got two options on these.
You've got the Dolby Atmost, whichis really great sounding, and then
(12:09):
you've got the original two point zerostereo mix option as well on these,
and that goes for the German versionas well. Again, beautiful piece.
This is unique and that has gottwo movies in one. We move on
to Superman's three. There we areour friend Richard Pryor at the end of
the film, and then we've gotthe two discs as well. Are you
(12:31):
surprised with these that we don't havelike we had in twenty eleven, a
booklet that explains what's on each disc. We're really guessing until you put it
in the machine. Well, youreally are, and in these previous releases,
it does have a booklet. Thebooklet that came with the DVD set,
the tins set does explain what's inside, and you're absolutely right. You
(12:56):
pointed that out to me the otherday that hey, there's no book explaining
the contents. So of course themenu on the disc itself does. You
can also go to your four Kplayers remote and oftentimes there's a button called
audio and if you press it,you'll see you can scroll through the different
(13:16):
audio options if you don't use themenu that's on the disc. Superman four
also a beautiful box featuring Gene Hackmanand both of the disc as well.
Another interesting aspect of your disc jor your selection of discs of four k's,
(13:37):
is that each one of your fourK discs has a Dolby Vision logo.
My discs do not. None ofthese movies are Dolby Vision except Superman
the Movie, So that is anerror. I've confirmed it with some of
our video experts, and Dolby Visionis on Superman the Movie, but not
(14:00):
on the sequel discs. So soI'm holing up the Superman four here and
says it says Dolby vision. I'mholding it up to the camera here and
yeah, I mean so that isincorrect. That is incorrect. Now,
there have been there's been talk thatit's possibly showing that way on streaming,
but that's unconfirmed right now. SoI just want to clarify that that is
(14:22):
another difference between the German version inthe UK. J I'm so curious what
the US version is going to looklike, Jim. I also would like
to just if we can mention withSuperman four, and there's been a lot
of discussion about this, especially sincewe were able to experience some of these
streaming before getting this box set inhand, and we know a lot of
(14:43):
you don't have the box set inhand, but the opening theme to Superman
four and a couple other music cuessound very different than what we're used to
over the years, and there's alot of speculation on why it sounds different.
(15:28):
You and I have had a lotof discussion about it. I've spoken
with some people that are actually inthe soundtrack and music industry that are professionals
that have reviewed this very carefully,and right now nothing is absolutely definitive.
We don't have a confirmed answer orreason for the change. We're going to
be investigating that further to see whatwe can find out. Jay, we
(15:54):
talked about the fact that perhaps themain theme in the movie is the same
one we've always been used to hearing, but maybe mixed differently, whereas other
folks think it's a completely different take, possibly from the German orchestra that first
recorded the score. That's got along history, piece of history. It
(16:18):
was recorded first in Germany, thenthey went to England, did some more
recording, rerecorded some things. Butsome are speculating that it's the German main
theme or one of the takes ofthe German main theme. I know that
that that fanfare, that that soundat the beginning the trumpet of the Superman
theme when we see the Warner Brotherslogo, and then where the theme comes
(16:40):
in over the credits, it comesin much closer on this new four K.
The music begins almost while the fanfareis still going where if you watch
the original version, you've got aspace there and then the music comes in.
So that's why they don't line upperfectly with the original version that we
know. But boy, if youjust move it over an inch digitally,
(17:02):
you'll hear that they match up prettyclose. They just sound so different.
So hopefully we'll get that mystery solved. You know, my personal opinion,
being an audio guy so many years, it sounds like the version we know
and love that simply is just mixeddifferently. But for all we know,
yeah, maybe it's a different version. We have a really interesting situation and
(17:59):
I've never heard of before, andthat involves Superman the Movie. Now,
back in twenty eighteen, we allknow the four K of Superman the Movie
theatrical cut came out for the firsttime, and then it was shown for
the fortieth anniversary of the film invarious theaters around the world. Right now,
it's touring again in various theaters,and it appears to be the same
(18:23):
four K with one exception. Thereis a yellow orange flash at the end
of Christopher Reeve's name in the openingcredits. However, I did not see
that flash in the theater this time, nor did you, Jay, and
nor did many other people. Andthe speculation is that they went back to
the original four K, perhaps removeda frame or two sent that digital file
(18:47):
to theaters. But the rest ofthe film looks exactly like the four K.
There's been a lot of controversy aboutthe quality of the four K,
not the audio, but the video, and a few months ago one of
my best sources with Warner Brothers wastold that a new scan and a new
remaster was done of Superman the Movierecently, at least around the time that
(19:10):
these sequel four k's were being done, but it is currently missing an action.
That new scan and remaster is notin this Steel book, nor is
it in any other individual release.What has changed between twenty eighteen and today
with this Superman the Movie four Kare the audio choices. I think one
(19:32):
of the big successes of the fourK in twenty eighteen was the inclusion of
the Dolby Digital five point one audiomix. There's the at most or the
enhanced Michael Thought two thousand and oneversion, and there was a seventy millimeter
six track mix released back in nineteenseventy eight, and that was on the
(19:56):
twenty eighteen disc, which is righthere with a slipcase. If you order
Superman the Movie on four K today, at least in the US on Amazon,
you're going to get an identical boxwith identical specs on the back as
the twenty eighteen However, the seventymillimeter Delby Digital five point one is no
(20:18):
longer on the new version. Itis now the stereo Mix two point zero.
Why is that That's another mystery wedon't know yet. But that option
matches all of the sequel options inthe box set, so they're all consistent
as far as audio options. Soif you've got your tent eighteen disc,
(20:41):
hold on to it. It's gotthat great seventy millimeter six track, which
I love the best out of allof them, and it's it's great.
I do hope a new rescan andremaster will come out soon. Let's talk
a little bit Jim too, abouthow these scans look. This is our
first time seeing the less cut ofSuperman two in four K, which really
(21:04):
dramatically improves it. You know,the Donner cut looked pretty good because we
know that they were going back toso much of that source material to put
the Donner cut together. But theLester version of Superman two, I mean,
you posted a couple of photos andthey're just spectacular, they really are.
What's really jumped out at me.First of all are all of the
(21:27):
Fortress scenes. Jay the Fortress set. Of course, we know that set
was rebuilt between the Donner years andthe Lester years. It was built initially
at Shepperton Studios, then it wasrebuilt for the Richard Leicester scenes at Pinewood.
So the Pinewood Fortress interior set inthis four K just pops, It
(21:48):
sparkles. The depth, the levelof detail is the best I've ever seen
it, and maybe it looks bettertoday than it even did in the theater.
That's one of the things that reallyjumped out at me. Another really
obvious change jay or improvement, isthe quality of Superman's costume, its color,
its detail. It's much more blueand as it should be. One
(22:14):
of the things that I remember noticingback in the day. I remember going
to the theater in June of eightyone when the film came to the US,
the scene where the villains land atthe lake, Jack and Sarah or
Non and Ursa on the shore forthe first time, I remember seeing wires.
Subsequent releases over the years on homevideo, the wires are still there.
(22:36):
For the first time they took themout. It is obvious in this
box set that they did their homeworkand really did a great job removing wires.
Wires were never meant to be seen. Some piarists have said, oh,
leave them, you shouldn't alter thefilm. In my opinion, they
(22:56):
should be removed because obviously the filmmakerswanted you to believe a man could fly,
and we don't need to see wires. So it looks beautiful. Hey,
Superman four looks really great us forsome of the criticism we already know
for so many years. With Supermanfour, many of the scenes, even
(23:17):
the flying scenes, a lot ofthe Nuclear Man flying scenes look so much
better to me, Chris and Margot, which was always, you know,
for me tough to see because weknow how great those scenes could have been,
like they were in the first andsecond films. But even these just
seem a little cleaner to me.Well, they really do. Superman three
(23:37):
and four were mastered about a differentmaster colorist with a whole lot of experience.
In fact, one that's one ofthe more senior guys there. My
understanding is, and these two reallyreally excite me. In fact, I
think of all of these releases,Superman three is my favorite. Picture wise.
It's obvious they put a lot oflove into these. Wire removal was
(24:00):
beautifully done for the first time inSuperman four, I don't see any wires,
and they've meticulously gone into the majorityof the blue screen flying scenes and
color corrected the costume. Yeah,so when Superman is very small in the
frame and he's flying away or flyingtowards you, now his costume blue is
much truer in most cases, andsame goes with Superman four. So that
(24:26):
really helped make the experience for memuch more enjoyable. The blues and the
yellows and reds in his costumes arejust beautiful, absolutely gorgeous. They're just
great looking films, and I thinkthat really elevates their whole presentation so much.
Highly recommended. Many fans J havesaid, is this four K really
(24:49):
going to be worth the money?Is it really a bump up? And
these are massive bump ups in myopinion, if I were to rate the
presentation of this steel box, I'dprobably give it an a minus. And
the only reason I'd give it asis because, like the tin back in
two thousand and six, it hada little sleeve that went over the front
(25:12):
two but it had a lid onit where you could enclose fully the disks,
whereas when I took off this coveron the four K box it revealed
a permanently open side. Yeah,now I would have liked to have seen
a cover on it, just soI could enclose it and keep the dust
(25:34):
off. But if you display thisside on your bookshelf, it looks fantastic
and it makes for very, veryeasy access to your movies. I love
it. Let's talk quickly before wego about this. You sent me this
hat, which I was super Ifit wasn't for Jim, I wouldn't have
this box set, and I wouldn'thave this hat and a shirt by the
way, which is in the laundry, because I already worn it. But
(25:56):
this is something, honestly for allof the Superman gear out there that people
have put together on their own.On the sneak this is official. This
is official from Warner Brothers. It'son their website. It's actually sold out.
But this original shield that we lovefrom the original film, it says
seventy eight on the side of thehats. As far as I know,
(26:19):
I think this is the first timewe have seen anything related to the Christopher
Reeve films available as a wearable,probably since the eighties. Oh, I
agree. In fact, I've neverowned an official hat with that logo on
it and the T shirt j isthe Bob Peek one sheet movie poster.
(26:41):
Yep. And it's beautifully done aswell. But yes they're sold out,
but don't worry. I'm sure they'regoing to get more in stock. That
that was a fast sellout, Itell you what. And you know fans
are hungry for this stuff, JayJim, What should we be looking forward
to? What type of answers arewe looking for when we finally get the
(27:02):
American version of these box sets?As we wrap up here, Well,
the answers that I'm looking for isnumber one. Why was the seventy millimeter
six track audio removed from the fourK of Superman the Movie? Where is
this new rescan and remaster of Supermanthe Movie? Many fans wanted an improved
(27:22):
version of Superman the Movie released onfour K? Was it actually completed?
Did it not pass QC quality control? Perhaps it's still in process. Is
that something we're going to see laterin the year in December? Maybe for
another theatrical re release or another homevideo release. We don't know. The
Superman four main theme and some ofthe other music. What's the story on
(27:48):
that? Do US version. I'mvery curious which version of the Blu Ray
of Superman the movie is going tobe included in that set, and why
the UK got the special edition.Let me remind everybody that the extras that
are in this steel book are exclusiveto the Blu Ray discs. They're not
(28:10):
on the four K discs, andthe extras are all legacy extras. There
are no new extras like behind thescenes footage, documentaries, etc. Nothing
new that we haven't seen already.In fact, many of them were on
the twenty eleven anthology, in theten two thousand and six, and you
know what, you know what elsewe've got to look forward to. I'm
(28:33):
going to share something else with you. Many of you bought this anthology,
and many of you are pre orderingand have purchased this steel book. In
the supplementals on the Blu Ray arethe Flesher cartoons from the forties. They
are not remastered, But what iscoming out as a separate release for the
first time jay on Blu Ray areall of the Flesher cartoons completely restored.
(28:57):
And that has been on the listof many hardcore fans for a long time.
So I'm really really excited about those. You definitely want to pick those
up at some of the finest animationever done Superman or otherwise. Yeah,
fantastic. Well, listen, wehave plenty more to talk about those US
releases out next month. By theway, if you've been following the Reeve
(29:19):
Legacy Reunion, which Jim and Ihave been trying to put together through out
the last couple of years, here, if you head to Smallville Con at
the end of June, you'll findMark Pillow and Mariel Hemingway and Sarah Douglass
and everyone's really excited to have thosethree spend some time out at Smallville Con,
(29:41):
which is a really nice con.That's going to be a Saturday the
twenty fourth and Sunday the twenty fifthof June. So see our friends Mark
Pillow and Mariel Hemingway and of courseSarah Douglas out at Smallville Con. Hey,
I've got to bring out one morething, Jay, that's very exciting,
and then we'll wrap this up.Superman and Concerts starting to tour again,
and it's coming March fifteenth, twentytwenty four, at eight pm.
(30:06):
That's a Friday at the Walt DisneyConcert Hall in Los Angeles and the conductor
who normally conducts the Hollywood Bowl Orchestrawill be conducting the La Philharmonic for Superman
the movie. We've already got celebritiessaying they want to come, and we
really want to turn this into afun, fun caped Wonder event, so
(30:27):
we're going to keep everybody posted aboutthat. But that's definitely something look forward
to. I've spoken with two peoplewho said that this place rivals the Royal
Albert Hall, so I can't wait. That's gonna be fantastic. I'm already
booking my ticket. LA Here wecome. There you go, Jay.
This has been a lot of fun. I have been taking so many notes
(30:48):
and sticking discs in and out ofthe machine again and again, checking audio
and picture quality. This has beena gigantic research project for me, and
we're going to continue to learn moreabout these four ks. Please reach out
to us on social media or throughthe Caped Wonder website and let us know
what you discover. Thank you everybodyfor watching, for listening. We'll be
(31:11):
back with another podcast soon. We'resorry it took so long, but you
know what they say, good thingscome to those who wait, and you
waited a long time, and lookwhat's here. That's all for today,
Jim, thank you so much,and as always, stay sober.
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