It’s cold as heck right now out here in Michigan and lots of places; at Thunderbean we’ve been hunkering down— and working on the next projects that are lined up. I thought it would be a good week to give an update as to the status of the ‘official’ Thunderbean sets.
Over the last six months, we’ve been working diligently on something that, right now, hasn’t come to fruition yet— and moving things forward isn’t in our hands. Even though that’s disappointing at the moment, this tiny company has been able to keep afloat because of its small size and adaptability.
Thunderbean started in 2004, producing DVDs. It is really a continuation of ‘Snappy Video’ a small business I started in 1988, releasing VHS tapes of cartoons. He jumped to Blu-rays in 2014 changed the abilities of the company drastically, as did the opportunities to work with other companies (like Tommy Stathes’ Cartoons on Film, TCM, Disney, ASIFA and others).
Here are the ‘official ‘projects that are all on the slate right now, and a few things about how they’re doing. We’re having a lot of fun moving all these forward.
Mid Century Modern Animation, Volume 3: The Blu-ray master and packaging are finished on this title. we started a Go Fund Me Campaign on February 6th to help get this to the finish line, and as I was writing this the campaign reached it’s goal! Thanks to everyone for helping. We’ll be leaving it up for anyone that wants to contribute, and the additional funds will go toward getting the long out-of-print Mid Century Modern, Volume 2 back in replication.
Rainbow Parades, Volume 2:
This set completes the Rainbow Parades series. This set, using the master materials licensed from Blackhawk Films, includes all the Technicolor Rainbow Parades. We had ten of the 13 films completed for the set; A major hard drive cash set us back 6 restorations, and we’re working on trying to restore the hard drive (there are now five we need to either recover or redo). We hope to have this set wrapped in the coming few months. The bonus features are nearly done for this set as well.
Lou Bunin’s Magic Puppet Animation Featuring Alice in Wonderland: Over the last few weeks, I’ve reviewed the materials we have on this set, and love how everything is looking. We’re still waiting to get some things we’ve been trying to get for years, but it’s looking positive. We’ll have this set out in the first half of this year.
ComiColor Cartoons, Volume 1 and 2: Lots of scans are done on this set, with more in progress. Nearly all are coming from the black and white separations, so these films are looking better than they’ve ever been seen. We’re keeping his one under wraps a bit, but it’s really looking great. Both volumes will be out this year.
More Technicolor Dreams: Depending on the ability to get certain films from a major archive, his set will likely be finished later this year. This one has been in progress the longest at this point- and hard to say if we can get this done this year, but we’re really trying!
Felix the Cat: The Thunderbean Felix project has, at this point, a long and varied history. Project partner Dave Gerstein and I are really excited about jumping onto some aspects of the project this year, as the plate gets a little clearer. We’ll be talking about it later his year, and I’m excited to add more scans to the big collection we have so far.
Other Thunderbean projects are in various stages (I need to be properly dressed to talk about one of them) and we’re looking forward to talking more about those soon, too.
HAVE A GOOD WEEK ALL!
