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Cartoon Roots
(1907-1932)

Contents: Lightning Sketches (1907), Cartoons on Tour (1915), Bobby Bumps Starts to School (1917), Fireman, Save My Child (1919), The Circus (1920), The Bomb Idea (1920), Felix Comes Back (1922), Col. Heeza Liar, Detective (1923), The Jolly Rounders (1923), Springtime (1923), Lost and Found (1926), Scents and Nonsense (1926), Hot-Toe Mollie (1930), The Milkman (1930) and Farmerette (1932).

Cartoons on Film
2014 Blu-ray Disc / DVD edition

Cartoon Roots (1907-1932), black & white, 98 minutes total, not rated,
including Lightning Sketches (1907), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, Cartoons on Tour (1915), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, Bobby Bumps Starts to School (1917), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, Fireman, Save My Child (1919), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, The Circus (1920), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, The Bomb Idea (1920), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, Felix Comes Back (1922), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, Col. Heeza Liar, Detective (1923), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, The Jolly Rounders (1923), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, Springtime (1923), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, Lost and Found (1926), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, Scents and Nonsense (1926), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, Hot-Toe Mollie (1930), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, The Milkman (1930), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, and Farmerette (1932), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.

Cartoons on Film, no catalog number, UPC 6-40864-25477-7
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 Blu-ray Disc, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in pillarboxed 16:9 (1920 x 1080 pixels) progressive? scan MPEG-4 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, chapter stops; one single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; chapter stops; standard two-disc BD keepcase; $18.95.
Release date: 1 January 2014.
Country of origin: USA

This dual-format Blu-ray Disc / DVD collection has been mastered from a series of good to very-good 16mm reduction prints, with additional source material provided by the Library of Congress.

The films are accompanied by fine music scores composed and performed by Robert Israel and Ben Model, a soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings (The Jolly Rounders), and by the original synchronized soundtracks for the sound era films and post-synchronized films.

The discs' supplemental material includes a gallery of contemporary promotional materials and reviews, contemporary comic strips that were the inspiration for cartoons and were derived from film cartoons, contemporary recordings inspired by cartoon characters, a comparison of a silent cartoon and a sound cartoon freely-adapted from it, with an example of soundtrack manipulation in the same film, a gallery of contemporary production records, a reissue version of The Circus (1920) prepared for television broadcast in the 1950s, with a copy of the script for the film’s reissue narration, and an eight-page booklet with notes on the films.

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