Fan Restoration of “Bambi Meets Godzilla”

Aaron Muszalski tells Boing Boing,

Coda Shetterly (@KindredCoda) made a frame-for-frame 1080p re-creation of Marv Newland’s infamous animated short, “Bambi Meets Godzilla”. Originally created in 1969, “Bambi Meets Godzilla” was a staple of animation festivals well into the 90’s (especially “Spike and Mike’s”, who screened with near-religious reverence).

The film was an early example of remix culture, having been made entirely without permission from either Disney or Toho. It was also notable for its humorous credits, which consume the majority of the film’s 1:32 running time.

Previously, “Bambi Meets Godzilla” was only available online in an extremely poor quality version.

YouTube Link: "Bambi Meets Godzilla: The Restoration"

And here's a post by Coda explaining the process behind the restoration.

• [Just_Ok]

  What about Bambi’s revenge?

• [moop2000]

  Reading the how-to description, it sounds more like a recreation than a restoration to be honest. Still loved it though :)

  • [aperturehead]

    The original looked beat up and seemed as if it had been run through a million projectors (which it probably had) – this is another case of GILDING THE LILY – it completely and totally lacks the charm and humor of the original. It’s too sterile now. I give it 1 out of 10 STARS

    • [dr]

      I think “completely and totally lacks the charm and humor of the original” is a pretty big and unfair exaggeration, but I do agree that the not-cleaned version is better. I first saw this in a film festival in the mid 70s, and the shaky, dirty version that has been around is much closer to my memory of the short than this one.
      That said, Shetterley’s recreation is an admirable job, and is among the better of the myriad sequels and remakes that have appeared over the years.

      Another fantastic short from the same era that might be unfamiliar to younger BBers is De Duva, Madeline Kahn’s film debut.

      • [Chris Sobieniak]

        I think what people forget to take note was in the technical limitations that apparent in the film itself, as it was a last-minute effort that Marv Newland made to get a passing grade in a college film program. The slight wonky nature of the film was due to the position of the character as it was clear it was not leveled just right with the drawings used (the titles appear to move away on top of the frame and are more closer at the bottom). I suppose he filmed the animation at an angle on a tripod. And of course in those pre-digital days the only way to ever get something like this out there was to make duplicate prints of the film, resulting in very degraded copies over and over. I think the best copy I have was one I got for Mr. Newland himself a few years ago from his personal negatives. It’s at least close to the truth spirit of the film than what can be found in these recreations and other attempts all over the net.

• [franko]

  so, this just occurred to me: is the monty python usage of the Big Foot an homage to *this*, or vice-versa?

  • [GawainLavers]

    Good question.  Same year, so no clues there.

    • [Chris Sobieniak]

      In these situations I would say “Great Minds Think Alike”, as most of America would not know of what Monty Python was at all in 1969.

• [Boundegar]

  Video already removed.  And I wanted to show it to my kid.

  EDIT: And now it’s not removed. How weird.

  • [Xeni Jardin]

    They gave us a bum link, here’s the correct one: http://youtu.be/QDiBgHuRctg

    • [Coda Shetterly]

      Thank you for posting this!

• [Paul Renault]

  That piano’s got quite a sustain.

  • [zuben]

     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Day_in_the_Life#Final_chord

    :)

• [Randy Murray]

  I remember first seeing this in a “film festival” in the early 80′s (could have been the late 70′s) that mainly consisted of the then hard to find original Star Trek blooper roles. 

  Life before Youtube was hard, young’ns. 

  • [Chris Sobieniak]

    For years, both this and the Star Trek bloopers had been made available in the home movie market on either 16mm or super 8mm.  I suppose not too many people were too ambitious to go beyond home movies to get stuff like this for their personal collections, but it was very possible to find these in the pre-video days.

• [Romeo Vitelli]

  I remember it was also included on the DVD version of that 1998 Godzilla movie with Matthew Broderick.   The short was the best part of the DVD.  

  • [Preston Sturges]

    The Robot Chicken version of the remake of the remake of Godzilla

    http://youtu.be/ba0chf_WCfU

    • [Chris Sobieniak]

      There’s been a few parodies/homages over the years.  The cartoon series Stunt Dawgs had it proudly displayed in it’s opening sequence.  A scene in “Doug’s 1st Movie” also spoofed it lovingly in a bit where Roger thought of what kind of monster did Skeeter had.

  • [SuperMatt]

    I’m pretty sure it was played before the movie started in the theater version of that.  Because I remember seeing this at a movie theater, and I’m pretty sure it was before a Godzilla movie.

    Actually, I think it was the 1985 Godzilla remake that I saw this before…

• [LightningRose]

  Very cool. I first saw this as part of the 1977 film. “Fantastic Animation Festival”. Thanks, Xeni.

• [Eric B]

  When I saw “Godzilla 1985″ in a theater, this was on the front of it.  Very awesome. Especially to a 9 year old.

• [Bob Dinitto]

  It’s been along time since I’ve seen this but the plot hasn’t changed.

• [MainStreetLuv]

  My father used to screen a 16mm copy for my brother & I when we were growing up. Great short. Also on the pride of my VHS collection “Hardware Wars & Other Film Farces” with the aforementioned film, Closet Cases of the Nerd Kind, and Porklips Now.

• [jayson]

  It would be even nicer if they could have resisted slapping a watermark all over the film. 

  Ironic, that someone would go to all the trouble of restoring a film, only to scrawl their digital graffiti over it afterwards. 

  • [clintboxe]

    I thought this was rather strange.

  • [Coda Shetterly]

    Unfortunately, I’ve had my video editing projects on YouTube outright stolen from me in the past. People would simply cut out the part of the video that has the name of the organization i worked for, and post it as their own. I didn’t really want to add a watermark, but I wanted even less to see people making money from something I worked on in a dozen different places, with no attribution.

    Also, any other releases of this project in the future will NOT include a watermark.

    • [Roscoe Filboe]

      Did you get permission from Marv Newland to do your “restoration”? (I agree with other posters… it’s actually a recreation.)

      • [Coda Shetterly]

        I agree that it is more of a re-creation, and have re-named the YouTube page accordingly. About Marv Newland, see my reply to Nathaniel below.

• [flickerKuu]

  Nice, I remember seeing the original print. Somewhere I have the T-shirt, signed by the man. Wonderful memories.

• [skeletoncityrepeater]

  Spike and Mike’s dude. Animation! Take a flyer. Crazy Cartoons! Flyer?

• [ImmutableMichael]

  Thank you for reminding me of this, and even better, of the Kenny Everett show where i saw it for the first time (1980?).

• [Luther Blissett]

  helvetica. nice. good thing, probably, that comic sans was not available for the original.
  BTW, WTF, when i follow the coda link, i get a NSFW warning.

• [JonS]

  So, I just showed this to my 10yo.

  Me: Hey, Sascha! Come and watch this.
  [movie starts]
  Sascha. Awww, Bambi!
  [title screen]
  S: Uh, oh. Godzilla … that’s not good.
  [1 minute mark]
  S: Oh dear.
  [movie ends]
  S: Sad movie (but still smiles)
  S: What about Bambi’s Revenge?

  • [Chris Sobieniak]

    Which is pretty much what made the film work for the past 40 years.

• [Pacific Vacuum]

  oh man remember this from Spike & Mike’s every single year :)  Good memories.

• [Nathaniel Akin]

  This is an interesting project, but I really hope there was discussion with Marv before doing it.  I would encourage those that enjoy good animation (and a slightly warped sense of humour) to purchase a DVD from Marv: http://www.cartoonbrew.com/dvd/the-best-of-international-rocketship-76720.html 

  Mr. Newland doesn’t spend much of any time online, but there is a great tumblr of his recent postcard work available here: http://marvcards.com/

  • [Coda Shetterly]

    Nathaniel,

    I was unaware of that DVD, which sounds wonderful if it’s true that the animation on the disc was “remastered from original 35mm camera negatives”.

    I’m not looking for financial gain, and haven’t made a single dime on this project. I only made this version for fun, and because I also thought that there was no better-quality original version available. If there’s a higher quality version of the original available, then it certainly negates what I’ve made.

    I had gone to MarvCards.com to try and find contact info, but there was none. I also did not know that he still creates animation, or anything of his production company, International Rocketship. Guess who I’m calling tomorrow morning?

    UPDATE: I called International Rocketship today and the phone number’s been disconnected. Unless anyone has any other contact info for Marv, I guess I’m writing him a letter.

    • [Chris Sobieniak]

      Best I got from Marv indirectly was a 16mm copy of the film from his “printing negatives” with a signed certificate of authenticity.  It looks about what I want Bambi Meets Godzilla to be, an imperfect film, as I realized very well how it was executed and enjoyed it more for that.