Popeye Coming to DVD in 2007

Last night in an online chat with the Home Theater Forum, Warners Home Video announced they have finally settled their legal issues with Hearst Entertainment and King Features Syndicate and are planning to release all the Popeye starting in 2007. Here's the press release. The cartoons will be given the royal treatment, just like the Looney Tunes and will be released chronologically.

This was the second year I've managed to attend an online chat like this. The first time, unfortunately Warners was not prepared to answer any questions about animation, but this year they had a separate talk strictly for its Television and Animation releases and I just happened to have learned about it by accident yesterday. These chats are a great way to give rabid fans an opportunity to make special requests and feel connected with the people who make these releases happen, even if you do get the occasional rude question (for example, last night there were about 10 "Everwood" fans lurking to complain about the show being cancelled and DVD sets not being announced - I understand their frustration, but I don't condone the rude behavior).

I managed to get one question in and that was to ask if the just-announced Popeye release would get the "royal treatment" like the Looney Tunes. The answer: Popeye cartoons will be released chronologically (woohoo!), will be uncut, restored and we can expect some form of special features like the Golden Collections. In essence, yes. As a bonus they will be released staggered from the Looney Tunes release time. Almost too good to be true.

Anyway, as far as I know, Warners is the only studio that does these type of chats. They really seem to understand how important it is to foster good will in online communities like HTF and TVShowsOnDVD.com and that's rare in huge conglomerations like WB. The chat was from 5PM to 8PM (Pacific Coast time), not exactly working hours for anyone in the US, so again that's a nice consideration for the fans.

Thanks to people within Warners like George Feltenstein, high quality DVD releases of its theatrical animation are continuing to pour forth and delight fans. WHV is even promising to offer free replacement DVDs for some of the technical flubs of last year (some interlacing and overdubbing issues with Looney Tunes and Tom & Jerry DVDs). I'll be making sure to get in on that replacement program once details are released.