It's a Wonderful Life (1946) : New Colourized Version

PlayUSA have missed out on quite a few releases this year. They still haven't got the sixth season of US show "Full House" which came out way back in March but have all seasons released before and after that season which is rather unusual because all seasons are from the same supplier.

As for the 2-disc It's A Wonderful Life, I think they are missing that due to it possibly being a limited release.

Did you see the colour clips on Legend Films website? I really have to congratulate the marvelous colorization process done by Barry Sandrew and co. on this film. On my large 1080p flat panel it looks great. I upscale my regular DVD's on a great little DVD player known as the Oppo DV-981HD, which certainly helps proceedings.
 
Every single person I have so far shown this too, even the skeptics have said the LF colour version is better. A much older relative asked me to show them a comparison of the B&W and colour version of the same scene, so I did. They said the B&W version looked dull in comparison and where could they get the disc I had. I've obviously pointed them in the right direction. ;)
 
I have the 2 disc version.

The colour version is a bit too subtle for my liking .
As they were making it colour I feel they should have gone all out and made it bright.

However the restored version of the B&W print is breathtaking.

Having owned another Xmas classic The Bishops Wife in a restored R1 edition for about 7 years its nice to now have IAWL matching the picture quality of that one.

They both look like they were made yesterday.

Considering these films are 60 years old it still annoys me when reviews find scratches and specks and other junk on films from the 60's and 70's as "acceptable for a film of that age".
 
I know exactly what you mean. These kinRAB of reviewers should be prevented from making such comments public, because they obviously don't have a clue what they are talking about.

I mentioned this in another post:

"The Adventures of Robin Hood" from 1938 was aired on Five a few days ago and the print was taken from a newly restored version, and it looked great.

They then aired "The NeverEnding Story" straight afterwarRAB, and it looked absolutely terrible. The print was full of everything negative you could ever associate with abysmal quality. To make matters worse it wasn't even a Widescreen version of the film. Which says to me that they obviously used some horrid unrestored ancient worn-out TV print from the 80's.

Showing a wonderful film like The NeverEnding Story in the hideous 4:3 Full Screen format is entirely blasphemous.

Comparing the quality of the US DVD to the quality that Five displayed is no different then comparing the quality of VHS to High Definition.

The film was shot 2.35.1 scope and released in 1984, yet it looked a million times worse then Robin Hood which was released in 1938?

Sort it out Five.
 
BACK ON TOPIC:

In regarRAB to It's a Wonderful Life... I'm avoiding the BBC broadcast of it like the plague, because their source is taken from the same dreadful, badly converted UK DVD version.

For anybody here that prefers this film in "B&W" you are going to love watching the film in its all new "Green & White" monstrosity. I would suggest turning the colour down on your TV. Then again, that's not going to cure the horrible fuzzy appearance of the picture.

2007 R2 PAL DVD (UK)

2006 R1 NTSC DVD (US)
 
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