Dick Tracy's 20th Anniversary

[Kamdan]

True. There's something to that for sure. Whenever I think of 1991 with movies, the two that spring to mind first are TMNT 2: Secret of the Ooze" and "Rocketeer". Concerning the latter, it's kinda interesting to think that during the 1990's, Hollywood made several attempts in adapting pulp and strip characters (Dick Tracy, Rocketeer, The Shadow, The Phantom) with varying degrees of success. Dick Tracy being the more successful of the bunch. Especially in leaving more of an impression on a generation I would say.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II was the first movie-going experience I remember. Every kid in the audience, including me, went absolutely wild when we first saw the Turtles literally spring into action. The filmmakers were absolute masters at building up anticipation and having the most satisfying payoff. I still remember hearing all the screams of agony when it appeared that the Turtles were going to be killed by being impaled that quickly turned to cheers of joy when Splinter saved them with his bow and arrow.

Speaking of bow and arrows, '91 was also the summer of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves which had a big impact on myself, despite it being wildly criticized for not being for children when not complaining about Kevin Costner's lack of an (nonexistent) English accent. Roger Ebert review of it is particularly insulting because he essentially complained about the movie not being the Errol Flynn version, despite it being driven by the same swashbuckling excitement of the original, abet more violent. When Mel Brooks decided to parody Robin Hood again (following his television series When Things Were Rotten), he displayed that attempting to translate the Flynn version to modern audiences would be laughable, as Cary Elwes' largely played Robin with that Flynn sensibility.

That along with the highly anticipated Terminator 2 sadly squashed The Rocketeer from achieving more success that summer. The filmmakers of Rocketeer were initially afraid that if Dick Tracy had been more successful, it would've squandered their potential for a franchise. They were temporary relieved when Tracy didn't achieve the success Disney hoped it would, but their efforts ended up not faring any better. It's interesting to note that the Rocketeer had the opposite distribution switch Tracy ended up with. They were wanting to be a Touchstone film and ended up being a Disney film.

Yeah. I do recall Beatty talking about showing "Bonnie and Clyde" to one of the Warner Brothers who was still head of the studio at the time, and was asked to edit it following the screening. Beatty altered the opening (incorporating a slide show of old photographs), but left the film intacked. Following the 2nd screening, it was given the greenlight, but not before the head of the studio made sure to let Beatty know that he was aware that nothing was trimmed, but if he had actually listened to him, Beatty would make nothing but flops. 

All of these stories remind me that I need to watch the Bonnie and Clyde special features again. I believe in that same argument that's when Jack Warner (the sole Warner brother that was there until the studio was sold off) tried to win the argument by boasting, "Whose name do you see out there on that water tower?" Beatty just casually said, "Well, it's MY initials." Such a great story of how the old studio system was dying and people like Beatty were moving in to take over for the next decade of film history that was driven by the filmmakers instead of studio heads.

If I am not mistaken, wasn't Dick Tracy as a franchise seriously being looked into as far back as the 1970's, as Paramount's answer to Eon and United Artists James Bond franchise? What you said about Gould makes me wonder if he had any meetings with Paramount during the developmental phase?

Yes, the first notion to make Dick Tracy into a film was by producer Michael Laughlin, who was told by François Truffaut after he made Two-Lane Blacktop that is next movie should be an "American film." Laughlin didn't know what he meant until he visited a New York City bookstore and came across copies of The Celebrated Cases of Dick Tracy and decided this would be his "American film." This is when Warren Beatty caught wind of this project and apparently secured a first look deal. Subsequently, the rights lapsed and when producers Art Linson and Floyd Mutrux took over, that's when they were trying to sell it as the next James Bond series.

I'm always trying to look for more concrete details about what Chester Gould thought about the film's development. He had retired from the comic strip in 1977 and he seem to be dismissive of other adaptations derived from his work. He was set in stone of doing his work that helped sell newspapers, and apparently had a mentality of whatever merchandise or spinoffs from the newspaper would help it as well. The only real creative input I remember reading was from when Tom Mankiewicz was attached to write the script and he came up with the opening of a sketch artist taking a description from a dying victim, and before the artist can finish the face, the victim cries, "That's him!" and dies. Apparently Gould loved that idea but Mankiewicz cited that Gould wanted creative control, which I doubt is true.

Jack's impression of Valenti's bewildered reaction towards his comment that no one in the industry was qualified to estimate the top of Batman, with Valenti exclaiming, "What? -- Wha ... What?!?" is pretty hilarious. Especially with before the Oscars were over that night, the story was starting to make the rounds back to him.

Another fine example of if you look good and talk well, everyone will believe you. Nowadays, if someone were to make those claims, you would get 50% of people telling you you're right and the other 50 telling you you're wrong. Definitely an advantage and disadvantage to not being attached to information at all times.

Right. True. I think the Blank is a cool visual, with The Question being about as closest to the overall look. Admittedly, as far as the 1990 film goes, I really do like Beatty's direction in how he chose to reveal the Blank. By briefly stepping out of the shadows to reveal the blank mask, and the line, "You don't. Because you never saw me." Very effective.

The way it came off in the final film is better than the dialogue that was initially written. It felt to forced when Keys was supposed to simply say can I see your face and The Blank complies by revealing the blank face. Definitely a great example of how rewriting improves overtime.

Now that you mentioned it, I do seem to recall something about Tracy coming in at #1 in a poll for comic properties to adapt by Dozier. Which is very telling in just how popular the character truly was, and for decades at that. Shame the show never got a season or two. The makeup work were on point for the villains at the time, but yeah, the show still needed some work in order to be ready for prime time. Unfortunately, as you noted, by the time Dozier could produce the show, that window of financial opportunity had just about closed, and apparently the risk was a bit too much for whatever reward was left to be had. I'm sure that had the Dozier Dick Tracy received a season or two, and had been spruced up to make it more fast paced and overall more entertaining, it would have had no problem in being a ultimately better representation of the strip compared to the Ralph Byrd serials and such. Which I've never really can get into all that much personally.

I think another issue it would've faced was that Dragnet was essentially a Dick Tracy show played entirely straight with no colorful villains. Batman was just completely out of the box with its campy approach and something like that applied to Dick Tracy I don't believe would've connected with audiences of the time. While Batman was very strait-laced in approaching crime and I don't think audiences would've connected with that being applied to just a guy in a fedora. That is inherently a conflict as to why something like that man has endured all these years, and Tracy is just a footnote in the zeitgeist of the medium. That's why other attempts of adapting comics like The Phantom or pulp heroes like The Shadow failed because it's too much of one thing while Batman provides a good mixture of both.

Ah, ok. I was thinking you meant back in the 1990's right after the film came out or thereabout. Yeah, the IDW stuff is just okayish to me. Personally, I'd rather IDW just reprint Tracy strip arcs in color like Gladstone was doing in the early 1990's to be perfectly honest. I think IDW has done a service in their reprint collections of the Gould material, but at the same time, it is fun and a novelty seeing the same strips in comic book format, and in color. Gladstone's color reprints of the Itchy Oliver, and the 1st Mumbles arcs were my introduction to Gould's Dick Tracy as a kid.

I'll have to hunt down some of those color re-prints. I have the entire Gould collection of strips and own the initial publishing of Celebrated Cases that had the first couple of stories colorized. They're fun to view as long as it's acknowledged that the originals are preserved. I've also been meaning to re-search when exactly it was decided that Dick Tracy's hat and coat were yellow. I've also seen him clad it with a green hat and sometimes an orange coat.

I'm shocked that they haven't done a 4K already. If they do it right that 4K could be demo disc material. As you said, this is a movie that was made for 4K. Should've been a flagship release for Disney years ago imo.

Hope it definitely gets released on 4K through Kino, who had released Disney owned films in the past.

Can I recommend another great podcast on the film? Check out Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers episode. They did a 3 hour podcast that went into the history of the comics and the film. It's a great listen.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. The host a really great at explaining just how complicated a simple shot appears to be in the movie that is actually multiple layers in focus to achieve the perfection of a drawn image. It might take me a day or two to completely listen to it but I'm sure they address the fact that this was the first movie to be mixed digitally, which, of course is common place today, but incredibly innovative at the time.

[The Joker]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II was the first movie-going experience I remember. Every kid in the audience, including me, went absolutely wild when we first saw the Turtles literally spring into action. The filmmakers were absolute masters at building up anticipation and having the most satisfying payoff. I still remember hearing all the screams of agony when it appeared that the Turtles were going to be killed by being impaled that quickly turned to cheers of joy when Splinter saved them with his bow and arrow.

That's a pretty cool theater memory to have. I don't really have any memories of my theater experience seeing TMNT2, though I remember really liking it. Outside of being annoyed that it wasn't Bebop & Rocksteady, but rather Tokka and Razar, I still didn't mind them, and the sequel was more reflective of the Fred Wolf toon which was all that I knew at the time. I might've liked TMNT2 more than the original 1990 film as a kid for a short while, but I don't think that lasted too long. TMNT3 was a disappointing theater experience, as was the film itself.   

Speaking of bow and arrows, '91 was also the summer of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves which had a big impact on myself, despite it being wildly criticized for not being for children when not complaining about Kevin Costner's lack of an (nonexistent) English accent. Roger Ebert review of it is particularly insulting because he essentially complained about the movie not being the Errol Flynn version, despite it being driven by the same swashbuckling excitement of the original, abet more violent. When Mel Brooks decided to parody Robin Hood again (following his television series When Things Were Rotten), he displayed that attempting to translate the Flynn version to modern audiences would be laughable, as Cary Elwes' largely played Robin with that Flynn sensibility.

I wasn't aware of Ebert's criticism of Costner's Robin Hood. That's interesting. I remember liking the movie alright, but I distinctly remember radio stations playing "Everything I do" by Bryan Adams ad nauseam. haha

That along with the highly anticipated Terminator 2 sadly squashed The Rocketeer from achieving more success that summer. The filmmakers of Rocketeer were initially afraid that if Dick Tracy had been more successful, it would've squandered their potential for a franchise. They were temporary relieved when Tracy didn't achieve the success Disney hoped it would, but their efforts ended up not faring any better. It's interesting to note that the Rocketeer had the opposite distribution switch Tracy ended up with. They were wanting to be a Touchstone film and ended up being a Disney film.

That's a amusing switcharoo. I guess I really need to watch "The Rocketeer" again. I haven't seen it in awhile, but outside of of a beautiful and busty Jennifer Connelly, I would probably rank Rocketeer last, or close to last (if we're counting something like "Tank Girl"), behind the other 1990's franchise attempts with comic strip/pulp/superhero characters outside of Batman (Judge Dredd, The Crow, The Shadow, The Phantom). Perhaps I'll feel differently if i sat down and watched it again, but I don't remember the film grabbing me like the other movies, I just liked Jennifer. 

All of these stories remind me that I need to watch the Bonnie and Clyde special features again. I believe in that same argument that's when Jack Warner (the sole Warner brother that was there until the studio was sold off) tried to win the argument by boasting, "Whose name do you see out there on that water tower?" Beatty just casually said, "Well, it's MY initials." Such a great story of how the old studio system was dying and people like Beatty were moving in to take over for the next decade of film history that was driven by the filmmakers instead of studio heads.

Yeah, that's a classic story. I do remember Beatty stating that the old moguls definitely wanted things done their way, but admired that their word was their bond, and they were willing to take chances, and that they were willing to take the licks if the film proved to be a flop. Even back in 1990, it seemed like Beatty was more or less implying that the studios were not as inclined to take chances than the Hollywood era he was essentially cultivated within.

Yes, the first notion to make Dick Tracy into a film was by producer Michael Laughlin, who was told by François Truffaut after he made Two-Lane Blacktop that is next movie should be an "American film." Laughlin didn't know what he meant until he visited a New York City bookstore and came across copies of The Celebrated Cases of Dick Tracy and decided this would be his "American film." This is when Warren Beatty caught wind of this project and apparently secured a first look deal. Subsequently, the rights lapsed and when producers Art Linson and Floyd Mutrux took over, that's when they were trying to sell it as the next James Bond series.

That's interesting to think about. I mean, this was right in the thick of the Roger Moore Bond era, so a competing Dick Tracy franchise with a similar tone of action scenes and comedic situations isn't something that comes across as far fetched. Whether or not any of the actors, at the time, who might have been thought of as playing Dick Tracy could evoke the charm of Roger Moore is an entirely different question.

I'm always trying to look for more concrete details about what Chester Gould thought about the film's development. He had retired from the comic strip in 1977 and he seem to be dismissive of other adaptations derived from his work. He was set in stone of doing his work that helped sell newspapers, and apparently had a mentality of whatever merchandise or spinoffs from the newspaper would help it as well. The only real creative input I remember reading was from when Tom Mankiewicz was attached to write the script and he came up with the opening of a sketch artist taking a description from a dying victim, and before the artist can finish the face, the victim cries, "That's him!" and dies. Apparently Gould loved that idea but Mankiewicz cited that Gould wanted creative control, which I doubt is true.

Thank you for this info.

The way it came off in the final film is better than the dialogue that was initially written. It felt to forced when Keys was supposed to simply say can I see your face and The Blank complies by revealing the blank face. Definitely a great example of how rewriting improves overtime.

Yikes, yeah thankfully a script isn't always treated as a bible and can often change. Even right in the thick of production. Glad this was changed. A complying/yielding Blank doesn't evoke much menace. Especially so right off the bat.

I think another issue it would've faced was that Dragnet was essentially a Dick Tracy show played entirely straight with no colorful villains. Batman was just completely out of the box with its campy approach and something like that applied to Dick Tracy I don't believe would've connected with audiences of the time. While Batman was very strait-laced in approaching crime and I don't think audiences would've connected with that being applied to just a guy in a fedora. That is inherently a conflict as to why something like that man has endured all these years, and Tracy is just a footnote in the zeitgeist of the medium. That's why other attempts of adapting comics like The Phantom or pulp heroes like The Shadow failed because it's too much of one thing while Batman provides a good mixture of both.

That's true, now that you explain it like that. I guess you can say "The Green Hornet" falls into this sort of failure as well. I mean, Dozier probably knew that the Green Hornet being played like Batman wouldn't work, so tried a different approach and the show still failed. A noble experiment. Shame that the show STILL hasn't received a proper official DVD or Blu ray release (At least not state side) to this day.

I'll have to hunt down some of those color re-prints. I have the entire Gould collection of strips and own the initial publishing of Celebrated Cases that had the first couple of stories colorized. They're fun to view as long as it's acknowledged that the originals are preserved. I've also been meaning to re-search when exactly it was decided that Dick Tracy's hat and coat were yellow. I've also seen him clad it with a green hat and sometimes an orange coat.

I'm reading this with envious eyes.

Well, as of Sun, I am the proud papa of the first 9 volumes of Gould's Dick Tracy complete collections (still got a ways to go! haha). Course, I'm still waiting to get Vol 9 in the mail, and only have Vol 7 and 8 with me. I took advantage of a recent bundle offer from Clover Press, that reprints Vol 1-6, but the reprints reflect the size/printing format of the later volumes. I think they will be released two at a time starting later in the year and will conclude with Vol 5-6 early next year.

Hope it definitely gets released on 4K through Kino, who had released Disney owned films in the past.

I don't pre-order very often, but a 4K of the 1990 "Dick Tracy" movie would have me pre-ordering on day 1!

Can I recommend another great podcast on the film? Check out Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers episode. They did a 3 hour podcast that went into the history of the comics and the film. It's a great listen.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. The host a really great at explaining just how complicated a simple shot appears to be in the movie that is actually multiple layers in focus to achieve the perfection of a drawn image. It might take me a day or two to completely listen to it but I'm sure they address the fact that this was the first movie to be mixed digitally, which, of course is common place today, but incredibly innovative at the time.

Yes, thank you for the suggestion. I checked it out over this past weekend, and it was a fun listen. Clearly, one of the gentleman was more into the Dick Tracy subject matter than the other, but the co-host came across very interested as well, and always ready to engage with all the information that was given. Thanks again!

[Kamdan]

That's a pretty cool theater memory to have. I don't really have any memories of my theater experience seeing TMNT2, though I remember really liking it. Outside of being annoyed that it wasn't Bebop & Rocksteady, but rather Tokka and Razar, I still didn't mind them, and the sequel was more reflective of the Fred Wolf toon which was all that I knew at the time. I might've liked TMNT2 more than the original 1990 film as a kid for a short while, but I don't think that lasted too long. TMNT3 was a disappointing theater experience, as was the film itself.

Yeah, they definitely yielded to the complaints of violence depicted in the first film. It's a shame that the tone of the original couldn't have carried on, but money talks and you know what walks. They both are special in my heart and I am a lot more willing to forgive its faults because of the state of mine I was in seeing it for the first time. I got into a pretty heated argument once when The Incredibles 2 came out, and I said how much The Secret of the Ooze was a better sequel than that was.

I was understanding of the change of Bebop & Rocksteady to the more feral Tokka and Razar because they were the creation of the comic's creators, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It lent itself more to the reality the movies depicted as opposed to the cartoon. I believe both of these issues were addressed in the behind the scenes special called Behind the Shells. I saw that as many times as I did the films and I believe that watching material like that, along with a couple of specials relating to Batman '89 and Returns, helped me develop the understanding of how the filmmakers create a reality different from our own and I never went through a crisis of realizing what's make believe and what isn't.

I don't remember it all having any ill feelings towards Turtles III when it came out. I remember how welcoming it was to see Casey Jones return and the Japan environment was certainly different from the other two. It wasn't until the dawn of Internet, reviewing, such as the Angry Video Game Nerd, when I discovered how severely hated that movie was. I personally never felt a desire to slice the VHS in half with a samurai sword and beat it with a hammer. Most of what I hear from fans of what they wanted to see in the follow ups was way too big to be realized by the filmmakers who weren't major studios. Golden Harvest mainly handled kung fu movies were not in a capacity to handle something as broad as what was depicted in the cartoons.

That's a amusing switcharoo. I guess I really need to watch "The Rocketeer" again. I haven't seen it in awhile, but outside of of a beautiful and busty Jennifer Connelly, I would probably rank Rocketeer last, or close to last (if we're counting something like "Tank Girl"), behind the other 1990's franchise attempts with comic strip/pulp/superhero characters outside of Batman (Judge Dredd, The Crow, The Shadow, The Phantom). Perhaps I'll feel differently if i sat down and watched it again, but I don't remember the film grabbing me like the other movies, I just liked Jennifer. 

I'll have to check and see if I still have the European DVD of The Rockteer because I initially got it due to it being anamorphic while the America DVD wasn't. It has Touchstone Pictures at the beginning of it and the title is simply Rocketeer. It's definitely worth a rewatch for more than just Connelly. Joe Johnston really nailed the period look down, which was further helped by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo's script. When Johnson subsequently did the first Captain America, I thought it suffered from not having a script as good as The Rocketeer's, mainly because Bilson and De Meo had a masterful sense of 30's lingo as they grew up watching the films of that era on television, and felt that it was more like the anachronistic League of Extraordinary Gentlemen film adaptation than the World War II epic it could have been. The score is very moving and is the best you can ask for in a film adaptation of a comic book. Some might have quarrels over certain elements from the original Dave Stevens comics not being present, but every change they made was a welcome one.

Stevens had no real sense of plotting when he was asked to fill the back pages of the Starslayer comic when he created The Rocketeer. Subsequently, readers were much more interested in the back up feature than the main feature, and he really struggled to complete the story he had started when it was just supposed to be an excuse for him to draw a 30's era story and indulging his with pinup queen Bettie Page. It was literally a godsend when Bilson and De Meo wanted to turn The Rockteer into a film because all three of them were on the exact same page on how to approach the material. They all really clicked when they decided the bad guys needed a muscle in the movie, and they collectively awls said it should be Rondo Hatton. It was also smart of them to keep within the genre that they were creating. It made a lot more sense to have Cliff's girlfriend be an actress than a model and also having Howard Hughes be the inventor of the rocket pack, instead of Doc Savage.

Yeah, that's a classic story. I do remember Beatty stating that the old moguls definitely wanted things done their way, but admired that their word was their bond, and they were willing to take chances, and that they were willing to take the licks if the film proved to be a flop. Even back in 1990, it seemed like Beatty was more or less implying that the studios were not as inclined to take chances than the Hollywood era he was essentially cultivated within.

You can definitely tell that Beatty was fed up with how tabloid journalism was becoming more predominant in journalism at the time of Tracy's release. It spread wider with more sensationalism and was appearing to be read more than what was considered to be the legitimate news of the day. He slyly talks about that in the Dick Tracy TCM specials where in this day and age, anyone can post anything and it can be conceived as a truth. That's a big reason why he didn't like doing publicity, because it had allowed journalist to ask him questions on whether or not certain rumors about him were true or not. I've heard that he is a very controlling person when it comes to details like that, even down to how he will appear on camera, which explains why a famed cinematographer like Emmanuel Lubezki shot the first special.

Of course, it's nothing novel because that often comes up with stars of today. One of the more recent examples I can recall is when Robert Downey Jr. was being interviewed for one of the avengers movies, and the interviewer decided that was a good time to ask him about his past incidents with drugs and alcohol. Downey immediately shut down the interview and walked out of the room because that pertained nothing to the subject at hand. It is a very common journalistic tactic. I n YouTube, there is an interviewer named Bobbie Wygant and we're able to see her fully uncut interviews with her subjects that are mainly related to movie publicity. One of them that sticks in my mind is how John Goodman is asked about Roseanne's then recent divorce while promoting The Flintstones movie and Goodman is very annoyed that this subject is being brought up that has nothing to do with the movie he supposed to be talking about.

That's interesting to think about. I mean, this was right in the thick of the Roger Moore Bond era, so a competing Dick Tracy franchise with a similar tone of action scenes and comedic situations isn't something that comes across as far fetched. Whether or not any of the actors, at the time, who might have been thought of as playing Dick Tracy could evoke the charm of Roger Moore is an entirely different question.

Bond was definitely the model to follow if one were to create a successful series of films. The Salkinds had that in mind when they did Superman, but I always thought the ended too soon because they spent way too much money on the first two films. The Bond series didn't start off a with mega budgets and the profits they gained on the films allowed them to get bigger and bigger with each film. This was also a model, Michael Uslan wanted to follow when he conceived the idea of a Batman feature film. He was also smart at realizing how invaluable it was to attract big names to the films to play the villains, just has what was done with the television show, to attract further interest as the films progressed. I trust that was also a mentality in conceiving Dick Tracy as a film series.

Yikes, yeah thankfully a script isn't always treated as a bible and can often change. Even right in the thick of production. Glad this was changed. A complying/yielding Blank doesn't evoke much menace. Especially so right off the bat.

This detail right here is a great example of how valuable it is to have, whether credited or uncredited, rewrites to help punch up a script in a way that the initial writers couldn't think of. they can only offer so much after many rewrite attempts. At the same time, however, it could be damaging, as I noted earlier, with the deletion of Pruneface's pyromaniac tendencies that would've paid off with The Blank kills him. I have to admit that is not my favorite scene in the movie as it it doesn't make any sense why Tracy freeze Bug Bailey from a cement covered death and for some reason tries to take his place covered in the cement and ends up with a jammed gun due to the hardening of the concrete.

That's true, now that you explain it like that. I guess you can say "The Green Hornet" falls into this sort of failure as well. I mean, Dozier probably knew that the Green Hornet being played like Batman wouldn't work, so tried a different approach and the show still failed. A noble experiment. Shame that the show STILL hasn't received a proper official DVD or Blu ray release (At least not state side) to this day.

Yeah, I don't understand what is the hold up on releasing this series to home media. The interest is very high as people will always be interested in Bruce Lee. I figured it would be a shoe-in tie-in when the Seth Rogen feature came out but no luck. Same deal when Once Upon a Time in Hollywood came out, but still nothing.

I'm reading this with envious eyes.

Well, as of Sun, I am the proud papa of the first 9 volumes of Gould's Dick Tracy complete collections (still got a ways to go! haha). Course, I'm still waiting to get Vol 9 in the mail, and only have Vol 7 and 8 with me. I took advantage of a recent bundle offer from Clover Press, that reprints Vol 1-6, but the reprints reflect the size/printing format of the later volumes. I think they will be released two at a time starting later in the year and will conclude with Vol 5-6 early next year.

I was once in your envious shoes. It will be admittedly harder now since most of the volumes quickly went out of print. I mostly got mine right when they were first announced and had to be patient on a couple of the volumes on the secondhand market. I would really like to get my hands on complete volumes of Buck Rogers and The Phantom, but those are very expensive on the secondhand market and I can live with just requesting them through the library when I feel the need to look at them.

I decided to get those reprints as well to have all the volume be consistent. I hope that there will be a little added bonus for those rebuying them and something that will be exclusive only to the originals to be fair. There have been some reprints of the Collins era strips, but it would be nice to have them in the hardcover format.

[The Joker]

I was understanding of the change of Bebop & Rocksteady to the more feral Tokka and Razar because they were the creation of the comic's creators, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It lent itself more to the reality the movies depicted as opposed to the cartoon. I believe both of these issues were addressed in the behind the scenes special called Behind the Shells. I saw that as many times as I did the films and I believe that watching material like that, along with a couple of specials relating to Batman '89 and Returns, helped me develop the understanding of how the filmmakers create a reality different from our own and I never went through a crisis of realizing what's make believe and what isn't.

I wasn't privy to the "Behind the Shells" special, so the explanation/reasoning behind the exclusion of Bebop & Rocksteady was not known to me as a child. I probably theorized back then, that the reason for Tokka and Razar was to simply differentiate the films, from the toon. The 1990 film wasn't exactly a spitting image of the toon either, and I was very cognizant of this even as a young kid. Course, again, all I knew at the time, was the Fred Wolf version, but I was able to roll with the changes. Especially so with the 1990 film, due to it being such a quality adaptation, and one that is something of a miracle we got. Considering the Mirage influences being quite evident, but at the same time, the Mirage Comics being incredibly niche compared to the white hot popularity of the Fred Wolf cartoon at the time.

I don't remember it all having any ill feelings towards Turtles III when it came out. I remember how welcoming it was to see Casey Jones return and the Japan environment was certainly different from the other two. It wasn't until the dawn of Internet, reviewing, such as the Angry Video Game Nerd, when I discovered how severely hated that movie was. I personally never felt a desire to slice the VHS in half with a samurai sword and beat it with a hammer. Most of what I hear from fans of what they wanted to see in the follow ups was way too big to be realized by the filmmakers who weren't major studios. Golden Harvest mainly handled kung fu movies were not in a capacity to handle something as broad as what was depicted in the cartoons.

It's easy to get influenced, sure, but I can honestly say that my initial viewing of TMNT3 was disappointing. I distinctly recall not being pleased with the "in time" story line, and the experience essentially paling in comparison to the feeling I had walking out of the 1990 or the 1991 follow-up. As you mentioned, Casey returning was the highlight, but unfortunately even his return couldn't save the film for me, and my lack of enthusiasm when the end credits began rolling.

Another thing about 1993, since I'm stirring up memories, was that I do recall there being a big shift with TMNT being considered "cool" by many of the boys I knew in grade school from just the year prior. I remember being surprised by this, and then becoming very self-conscious since, for whatever reason, being a turtle fan at the grade school I attended was basically the equivalent of liking Go-Bots or whatever. This, compounded with my disappointment with TMNT3, lead to my interest in the Fred Wolf toon (which was still dominating anything TMNT related) slowly becoming something of an afterthought, as I found myself becoming more and more interested in comics, and BTAS/X-Men TAS. 

I'll have to check and see if I still have the European DVD of The Rockteer because I initially got it due to it being anamorphic while the America DVD wasn't. It has Touchstone Pictures at the beginning of it and the title is simply Rocketeer. It's definitely worth a rewatch for more than just Connelly. Joe Johnston really nailed the period look down, which was further helped by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo's script. When Johnson subsequently did the first Captain America, I thought it suffered from not having a script as good as The Rocketeer's, mainly because Bilson and De Meo had a masterful sense of 30's lingo as they grew up watching the films of that era on television, and felt that it was more like the anachronistic League of Extraordinary Gentlemen film adaptation than the World War II epic it could have been. The score is very moving and is the best you can ask for in a film adaptation of a comic book. Some might have quarrels over certain elements from the original Dave Stevens comics not being present, but every change they made was a welcome one.

Stevens had no real sense of plotting when he was asked to fill the back pages of the Starslayer comic when he created The Rocketeer. Subsequently, readers were much more interested in the back up feature than the main feature, and he really struggled to complete the story he had started when it was just supposed to be an excuse for him to draw a 30's era story and indulging his with pinup queen Bettie Page. It was literally a godsend when Bilson and De Meo wanted to turn The Rockteer into a film because all three of them were on the exact same page on how to approach the material. They all really clicked when they decided the bad guys needed a muscle in the movie, and they collectively awls said it should be Rondo Hatton. It was also smart of them to keep within the genre that they were creating. It made a lot more sense to have Cliff's girlfriend be an actress than a model and also having Howard Hughes be the inventor of the rocket pack, instead of Doc Savage.

I'll have to give it another spin sometime.

You can definitely tell that Beatty was fed up with how tabloid journalism was becoming more predominant in journalism at the time of Tracy's release. It spread wider with more sensationalism and was appearing to be read more than what was considered to be the legitimate news of the day. He slyly talks about that in the Dick Tracy TCM specials where in this day and age, anyone can post anything and it can be conceived as a truth. That's a big reason why he didn't like doing publicity, because it had allowed journalist to ask him questions on whether or not certain rumors about him were true or not. I've heard that he is a very controlling person when it comes to details like that, even down to how he will appear on camera, which explains why a famed cinematographer like Emmanuel Lubezki shot the first special.

That makes sense. Thanks for explaining that. I've watched a few interviews with Beatty in 1990 when he was in the thick of promoting "Dick Tracy", and it's clear he's not entirely comfortable giving interviews. Though some interviewers do state that Beatty never was exactly adept in film promotion to begin with.

Bond was definitely the model to follow if one were to create a successful series of films. The Salkinds had that in mind when they did Superman, but I always thought the ended too soon because they spent way too much money on the first two films. The Bond series didn't start off a with mega budgets and the profits they gained on the films allowed them to get bigger and bigger with each film. This was also a model, Michael Uslan wanted to follow when he conceived the idea of a Batman feature film. He was also smart at realizing how invaluable it was to attract big names to the films to play the villains, just has what was done with the television show, to attract further interest as the films progressed. I trust that was also a mentality in conceiving Dick Tracy as a film series.

Was Clint Eastwood's interest/involvement with potentially starring in a series of Dick Tracy films around this time period, or was this more in and around the time John Landis was involved? I seem to remember Eastwood's name being brought up in relation to being potentially considered, or that he was actually interested in the role to some extent.

This detail right here is a great example of how valuable it is to have, whether credited or uncredited, rewrites to help punch up a script in a way that the initial writers couldn't think of. they can only offer so much after many rewrite attempts. At the same time, however, it could be damaging, as I noted earlier, with the deletion of Pruneface's pyromaniac tendencies that would've paid off with The Blank kills him. I have to admit that is not my favorite scene in the movie as it it doesn't make any sense why Tracy freeze Bug Bailey from a cement covered death and for some reason tries to take his place covered in the cement and ends up with a jammed gun due to the hardening of the concrete.

Yeah, with the way that scene is edited, it really comes across like there's something missing there. Upon first hearing about a longer work print cut, I speculated that there was something that unfortunately got edited out, explaining the peculiar conclusion to the scene.

Yeah, I don't understand what is the hold up on releasing this series to home media. The interest is very high as people will always be interested in Bruce Lee. I figured it would be a shoe-in tie-in when the Seth Rogen feature came out but no luck. Same deal when Once Upon a Time in Hollywood came out, but still nothing.

Exactly. I remember thinking the Rogan film would at least have one positive outcome, in by having the 1960's series released on DVD or Blu, but nothing. I also thought that the GH series might be released a year or so following the Adam West Batman finally getting a official release, but nope. Like you said, Bruce Lee's association would make this a seller immediately. The last time that the Green Hornet has received national exposure, was in the very early years of the FX channel. Which is weird to think about, and most unfortunate.

I was once in your envious shoes.

Rub it in.       

It will be admittedly harder now since most of the volumes quickly went out of print. I mostly got mine right when they were first announced and had to be patient on a couple of the volumes on the secondhand market. I would really like to get my hands on complete volumes of Buck Rogers and The Phantom, but those are very expensive on the secondhand market and I can live with just requesting them through the library when I feel the need to look at them.

Yeah, it's a collection which, to be perfectly honest, I've wrestled with for a number of years as I knew it would be a undertaking to say the least. The reprints from Clover Press finally was the catalyst in being the deciding factor. However, I've been relatively lucky on Vol. 7, 8, and 9. Vol. 7 with The Mole on the cover, I got back in May (shortly after committing to the reprint bundle) for about $42. Which is a steal compared to the "buy it now" prices on the secondary market from what I can tell. Vol. 8 with Pruneface on the cover, I got for roughly $55. This past Sun, I was able to secure Vol. 9 with the Flattop cover for $40 plus shipping. Indeed, I am procedurally going down the line with these, but have been getting fairly lucky on auction listings thus far. I haven't resorted to a "buy it now" price on eBay ... yet.

I decided to get those reprints as well to have all the volume be consistent. I hope that there will be a little added bonus for those rebuying them and something that will be exclusive only to the originals to be fair. There have been some reprints of the Collins era strips, but it would be nice to have them in the hardcover format.

I remember seeing a few of the early 1st printing volumes with the more old timey covers over on EdwardRHamilton, which had some really good wholesale prices for the books, but again, I wasn't entirely convinced I wanted to undertake such a task. Guess I'm glad I waited considering the consistent format change, and larger print of the upcoming reprints.

[Kamdan]

I wasn't privy to the "Behind the Shells" special, so the explanation/reasoning behind the exclusion of Bebop & Rocksteady was not known to me as a child. I probably theorized back then, that the reason for Tokka and Razar was to simply differentiate the films, from the toon. The 1990 film wasn't exactly a spitting image of the toon either, and I was very cognizant of this even as a young kid. Course, again, all I knew at the time, was the Fred Wolf version, but I was able to roll with the changes. Especially so with the 1990 film, due to it being such a quality adaptation, and one that is something of a miracle we got. Considering the Mirage influences being quite evident, but at the same time, the Mirage Comics being incredibly niche compared to the white hot popularity of the Fred Wolf cartoon at the time.

It definitely was an interesting situation to see the first film reflect the original Mirage comics than the cartoon and action figures which were more popular and recognizable with the kid audience that made it to global phenomenon it became. From that perspective, it makes sense why they went to direction they did. There's also a whole story about how the first cut of the first movie was leaning more towards a PG-13 rating and it was decided to scale down the violence and changes in music to make it PG. One of the most infamous cuts was how Master Tatsu was supposed to actually kill the Foot member who was trying to stop him during his tirade, and how they just simply dubbed in some "He'll be alright" to alleviate the situation.

I hope you've seen the after-mentioned documentary. It really does showcase the complexity of making those films. With the release of the upcoming Turtles movie, everyone still questions why the Turtles can't be live action as well. Seeing how much time and effort that went into the movies, it's a miracle they were actually able to pull them off. It obviously endured a lot of endurance for the actors to wear those costumes, and be correlated enough to look as good as it did. As we saw in the third film, we see how important it is to get all those elements right.

It's easy to get influenced, sure, but I can honestly say that my initial viewing of TMNT3 was disappointing. I distinctly recall not being pleased with the "in time" story line, and the experience essentially paling in comparison to the feeling I had walking out of the 1990 or the 1991 follow-up. As you mentioned, Casey returning was the highlight, but unfortunately even his return couldn't save the film for me, and my lack of enthusiasm when the end credits began rolling.

Another thing about 1993, since I'm stirring up memories, was that I do recall there being a big shift with TMNT being considered "cool" by many of the boys I knew in grade school from just the year prior. I remember being surprised by this, and then becoming very self-conscious since, for whatever reason, being a turtle fan at the grade school I attended was basically the equivalent of liking Go-Bots or whatever. This, compounded with my disappointment with TMNT3, lead to my interest in the Fred Wolf toon (which was still dominating anything TMNT related) slowly becoming something of an afterthought, as I found myself becoming more and more interested in comics, and BTAS/X-Men TAS. 

Exactly and the Turtles eventually got smothered out with the introduction later that year of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. They tried to adapt but the complexity of pulling off believability of the characters was worth more than they were willing to pay, as evident by The Next Mutation. It really was a pleasant surprise when the 2003 animated series came back and was more embracing of the original Mirage comics, which I had started to read in conjunction with it.

That makes sense. Thanks for explaining that. I've watched a few interviews with Beatty in 1990 when he was in the thick of promoting "Dick Tracy", and it's clear he's not entirely comfortable giving interviews. Though some interviewers do state that Beatty never was exactly adept in film promotion to begin with.

Right, it is possible that overexposure can cause major backlash. I would like to study more of what the audience reaction was at the time of this release versus the very positive critical reaction that gathered the most nominations for a comic based film at the time. Something that I noticed with Batman 89 growing up was that mostly everyone I knew, didn't even remember it and those who did treated it as though if it were a flash in the pan. My best friend honestly thought that the Batman film series started with Batman Returns. Some people complain about how movies are too forgettable nowadays, but it's obvious that even the most successful movies at the time get forgotten. Definitely the movie of 1990 that people won't forget is Home Alone and you're lucky if you meet someone who is not only familiar with Dick Tracy because they're fans of Madonna. I still regret that I never took up a chance of watching that and Evita back to back with the girl I knew that was a big Madonna fan, but had not seen Tracy. All that I got later on in life was my friend and his girlfriend and me watching it once really late at night.

Was Clint Eastwood's interest/involvement with potentially starring in a series of Dick Tracy films around this time period, or was this more in and around the time John Landis was involved? I seem to remember Eastwood's name being brought up in relation to being potentially considered, or that he was actually interested in the role to some extent.

There's some conflicting facts about Eastwood wanting to play Tracy. Some sources say that he seeked out Landis for the part and Landis has said that Eastwood was his first choice and had a meeting with him. Eastwood said that he wasn't interested because he was still doing Dirty Harry movies at the time and didn't feel the desire to play another cop. Apparently he later more open to doing the film City Heat with Burt Reynolds that was directed by Richard Benjamin, who was at one point slated to direct Dick Tracy. It would've been interesting to seeing him do it, but the problem with many of the choices for casting Tracy was that they had all played similar detective roles before. Landis also mentioned when he eventually had a meeting with Beatty he had to really convince him why he would be good for the part when he expressed concerns about how the audience perceived him in previous movies like Bonnie and Clyde.

Yeah, with the way that scene is edited, it really comes across like there's something missing there. Upon first hearing about a longer work print cut, I speculated that there was something that unfortunately got edited out, explaining the peculiar conclusion to the scene. 

It's just so clumsily edited as well. Where did Bug disappear to? The script makes more sense as just described as Tracy's gun getting accidentally covered while he tries to help Bug out of the cement bath. There's no reason at for him to be covered in the cement.

Exactly. I remember thinking the Rogan film would at least have one positive outcome, in by having the 1960's series released on DVD or Blu, but nothing. I also thought that the GH series might be released a year or so following the Adam West Batman finally getting an official release, but nope. Like you said, Bruce Lee's association would make this a seller immediately. The last time that the Green Hornet has received national exposure, was in the very early years of the FX channel. Which is weird to think about, and most unfortunate.

I remember the SyFy Channel of all places ran a marathon of all of the episodes to promote the movie. I believe that was its last true national exposure aside from appearing in syndication on stations like MeTV that would pair it with episodes of Batman, like what was done for FX. That was truly a great time when you could catch The Greatest American Hero, The Incredible Hulk and Wonder Woman on FX as well. I distinctly remember a Fourth of July Batman marathon on FX where they would have long blocks of certain villains and that kept me from playing with fire crackers and watching fireworks that year.

Also, at one point, The Green Hornet was aired unedited on one of the various Encore/STARZ channels. One of the first DVRs we ever got had every episode on it.

Rub it in. 
   

Yeah, it's a collection which, to be perfectly honest, I've wrestled with for a number of years as I knew it would be an undertaking to say the least. The reprints from Clover Press finally was the catalyst in being the deciding factor. However, I've been relatively lucky on Vol. 7, 8, and 9. Vol. 7 with The Mole on the cover, I got back in May (shortly after committing to the reprint bundle) for about $42. Which is a steal compared to the "buy it now" prices on the secondary market from what I can tell. Vol. 8 with Pruneface on the cover, I got for roughly $55. This past Sun, I was able to secure Vol. 9 with the Flattop cover for $40 plus shipping. Indeed, I am procedurally going down the line with these, but have been getting fairly lucky on auction listings thus far. I haven't resorted to a "buy it now" price on eBay ... yet.

Just be patient and remember that good things come to those who wait.

I remember seeing a few of the early 1st printing volumes with the more old timey covers over on EdwardRHamilton, which had some really good wholesale prices for the books, but again, I wasn't entirely convinced I wanted to undertake such a task. Guess I'm glad I waited considering the consistent format change, and larger print of the upcoming reprints.

It is a bit of a pain to keep up with all of the various re-prints. I'm also a big fan of Flash Gordon and I've collected the recent collections of the original comic strips but I'm not a fan of the matter in which they printed them like old newspapers. I had to go with reprints from Nostalgia Press that are better bigger printer and better looking.

[The Joker]

It definitely was an interesting situation to see the first film reflect the original Mirage comics than the cartoon and action figures which were more popular and recognizable with the kid audience that made it to global phenomenon it became. From that perspective, it makes sense why they went to direction they did. There's also a whole story about how the first cut of the first movie was leaning more towards a PG-13 rating and it was decided to scale down the violence and changes in music to make it PG. One of the most infamous cuts was how Master Tatsu was supposed to actually kill the Foot member who was trying to stop him during his tirade, and how they just simply dubbed in some "He'll be alright" to alleviate the situation.

I hope you've seen the after-mentioned documentary. It really does showcase the complexity of making those films. With the release of the upcoming Turtles movie, everyone still questions why the Turtles can't be live action as well. Seeing how much time and effort that went into the movies, it's a miracle they were actually able to pull them off. It obviously endured a lot of endurance for the actors to wear those costumes, and be correlated enough to look as good as it did. As we saw in the third film, we see how important it is to get all those elements right.

True. It was very much a case of all the stars aligning with the 1990 film. I haven't seen that doc yet, but I'll have to check it out sometime. The 1990 film is yet another film that, like Dick Tracy 1990, has been treated very poorly stateside. Barebones releases with goofball gimmicks like 'scratch and sniff', ect. I'd love to see what Kino/Arrow/Shout/VinegarSyndrome/Indicator could do with it. Even the old Steve Barron director's commentary from the Region B/C would be alright. At least it's something.

Exactly and the Turtles eventually got smothered out with the introduction later that year of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. They tried to adapt but the complexity of pulling off believability of the characters was worth more than they were willing to pay, as evident by The Next Mutation. It really was a pleasant surprise when the 2003 animated series came back and was more embracing of the original Mirage comics, which I had started to read in conjunction with it.

Yeah, following "The Next Mutation", TMNT very much went into a dark phase, but ever since the 2003 animated series, the franchise has continued to remain relevant.

Right, it is possible that overexposure can cause major backlash. I would like to study more of what the audience reaction was at the time of this release versus the very positive critical reaction that gathered the most nominations for a comic based film at the time. Something that I noticed with Batman 89 growing up was that mostly everyone I knew, didn't even remember it and those who did treated it as though if it were a flash in the pan. My best friend honestly thought that the Batman film series started with Batman Returns. Some people complain about how movies are too forgettable nowadays, but it's obvious that even the most successful movies at the time get forgotten. Definitely the movie of 1990 that people won't forget is Home Alone and you're lucky if you meet someone who is not only familiar with Dick Tracy because they're fans of Madonna. I still regret that I never took up a chance of watching that and Evita back to back with the girl I knew that was a big Madonna fan, but had not seen Tracy. All that I got later on in life was my friend and his girlfriend and me watching it once really late at night.

I think Batman 1989 was an entirely different beast altogether than that of Dick Tracy. Where one was absolutely successful on many fronts (and was the template for many years subsequently), Tracy by contrast was one of the many attempts that tried to replicate, but ultimately couldn't quite hit the mark. If Batman had a 'cooling off period', then I would say it was 1991. Where it was only the Kenner "Dark Knight" toyline, and DC Comics keeping Batman in the public consciousness (in 1990 Batman was continually brought up in relation to Dick Tracy so if some people had actually forgot about the film, the media sure wasn't going to let you forget). By 1992, Batman Returns, it's toy line, along with the premiere of BTAS, essentially cemented once and for all that the Batman IP wasn't going to phase out and go into a dormant stage like before with the Adam West show. Batman was very much here to stay. Unfortunately, Dick Tracy kinda came and went with nothing whatsoever being released, subsequent to the 1990 film, that would have kept the Tracy IP germane to the public or children's continued interest. Which kinda explains why it's almost something of a "forgotten" film and has been treated so shoddily on the DVD/Blu/4K physical media market.

It's frustrating seeing much lesser films being treated better on the physical media front, but as we've discussed, I don't think it's necessarily solely due to how the film has been treated since release. Disney is one thing (not friendly towards discs these days), Beatty is another (he's keeping that grip tight), and these boutique companies have to gage where their profit margins lie when licensing movies from the studios. Especially since it's already a niche market, with Dick Tracy being even more niche.

There's some conflicting facts about Eastwood wanting to play Tracy. Some sources say that he seeked out Landis for the part and Landis has said that Eastwood was his first choice and had a meeting with him. Eastwood said that he wasn't interested because he was still doing Dirty Harry movies at the time and didn't feel the desire to play another cop. Apparently he later more open to doing the film City Heat with Burt Reynolds that was directed by Richard Benjamin, who was at one point slated to direct Dick Tracy. It would've been interesting to seeing him do it, but the problem with many of the choices for casting Tracy was that they had all played similar detective roles before. Landis also mentioned when he eventually had a meeting with Beatty he had to really convince him why he would be good for the part when he expressed concerns about how the audience perceived him in previous movies like Bonnie and Clyde.

Interesting. I would accept Landis' word on Eastwood. As yeah, a series of Dick Tracy movies with Eastwood running concurrently with the still continuing Dirty Harry films would be a bit much, and a case of casting with very much type. Still, it's interesting to think about Eastwood in the role. With his charisma, along with a (presumably) more no-nonsense, direct, gruff demeanor.

It's just so clumsily edited as well. Where did Bug disappear to? The script makes more sense as just described as Tracy's gun getting accidentally covered while he tries to help Bug out of the cement bath. There's no reason at for him to be covered in the cement.

Right. It's blatantly bizarre how it's edited in the final film.

I remember the SyFy Channel of all places ran a marathon of all of the episodes to promote the movie. I believe that was its last true national exposure aside from appearing in syndication on stations like MeTV that would pair it with episodes of Batman, like what was done for FX. That was truly a great time when you could catch The Greatest American Hero, The Incredible Hulk and Wonder Woman on FX as well. I distinctly remember a Fourth of July Batman marathon on FX where they would have long blocks of certain villains and that kept me from playing with fire crackers and watching fireworks that year.

Oh yes. How could I forgot about those July 4th Adam West Batman marathons FX would throw for year after year in the 1990's. I remember recording quite a few episodes to VHS during those marathons. lol Exactly right on FX, those early FX channel afternoons were great. Heck, FX introduced me to Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman show, and I'll always be grateful for that.   

Also, at one point, The Green Hornet was aired unedited on one of the various Encore/STARZ channels. One of the first DVRs we ever got had every episode on it.

Guess I don't recall that, but I do remember GH airing late nights on FX. I think right before "Back Chat". To which, I still associate Jeff Probst with over Survivor. haha

Just be patient and remember that good things come to those who wait.

Yeah, a lot of tape and a little patience make all the difference. 

It is a bit of a pain to keep up with all of the various re-prints. I'm also a big fan of Flash Gordon and I've collected the recent collections of the original comic strips but I'm not a fan of the matter in which they printed them like old newspapers. I had to go with reprints from Nostalgia Press that are better bigger printer and better looking.

That's absolutely understandable. Truth be told, I have interest in collecting The Phantom, and a modest interest in Steve Canyon, but I have to be realistic with expenditures, and especially in this economy and inflation.

[Kamdan]

True. It was very much a case of all the stars aligning with the 1990 film. I haven't seen that doc yet, but I'll have to check it out sometime. The 1990 film is yet another film that, like Dick Tracy 1990, has been treated very poorly stateside. Barebones releases with goofball gimmicks like 'scratch and sniff', ect. I'd love to see what Kino/Arrow/Shout/VinegarSyndrome/Indicator could do with it. Even the old Steve Barron director's commentary from the Region B/C would be alright. At least it's something.

It is a great documentary that truly highlights all of the nuances of craftsmanship that went into making those films. They also highlight great annoyances as I am reminded of in my last rewatch where one of the producers boasts about how they responded to the criticisms of parents who thought the first film was too violent and they responded by having the Turtles use items within their grasp to use instead of their own trademark weapons. They ended up creating a worse problem as I'm sure many kids were influenced to use their yo-yo toys as Michelangelo does to take out a group of bad guys. It's a prime example how brain dead executives can be when they bow to unwarranted complaints by consumers that should just steer clear from the product.

I don't understand either why we haven't gotten new 4K editions of the films yet. I did indeed import those German Blu-rays so I could have my hands on a decent set of special features. I don't know if there's a conflict on the distribution of the films since they're owned by Warners and Paramount/Nickelodeon owns the Turtles trademark. It is weird to see Nickelodeon's name on merchandise for the original films.

Yeah, following "The Next Mutation", TMNT very much went into a dark phase, but ever since the 2003 animated series, the franchise has continued to remain relevant.

They definitely had to learn the hard way that quality is what matters the most about the franchise, not quantity. It is amazing to see how much the franchise has grown within these last 20 years. Like Batman, it's important for the owners to keep the character relevant for its audience and Turtles is just as worthy because its popularity crosses with both the kids of yesterday and today.

I think Batman 1989 was an entirely different beast altogether than that of Dick Tracy. Where one was absolutely successful on many fronts (and was the template for many years subsequently), Tracy by contrast was one of the many attempts that tried to replicate, but ultimately couldn't quite hit the mark. If Batman had a 'cooling off period', then I would say it was 1991. Where it was only the Kenner "Dark Knight" toyline, and DC Comics keeping Batman in the public consciousness (in 1990 Batman was continually brought up in relation to Dick Tracy so if some people had actually forgot about the film, the media sure wasn't going to let you forget). By 1992, Batman Returns, it's toy line, along with the premiere of BTAS, essentially cemented once and for all that the Batman IP wasn't going to phase out and go into a dormant stage like before with the Adam West show. Batman was very much here to stay. Unfortunately, Dick Tracy kinda came and went with nothing whatsoever being released, subsequent to the 1990 film, that would have kept the Tracy IP germane to the public or children's continued interest. Which kinda explains why it's almost something of a "forgotten" film and has been treated so shoddily on the DVD/Blu/4K physical media market.

It's frustrating seeing much lesser films being treated better on the physical media front, but as we've discussed, I don't think it's necessarily solely due to how the film has been treated since release. Disney is one thing (not friendly towards discs these days), Beatty is another (he's keeping that grip tight), and these boutique companies have to gage where their profit margins lie when licensing movies from the studios. Especially since it's already a niche market, with Dick Tracy being even more niche.

Right, as I mentioned in my previous response, relevancy drives the success of these types of films. Everyone right now is sure learning the value of the Barbie IP with the success the movie is gaining right now. Like what happened with Batman '89, they found the right tone to approach the material that I'm sure was in doubt by many of the people involved, but it's more than paying off with it now just $100 away from making a billion dollars. This will unfortunately cause others to attempt the copy the success as I am already hearing they want Lena Dunham of all people to do a Polly Pocket movie, who I believe won't be able to hold any restraint on her brand if comedy at something that's a kids toy. Then again, they're really pushing the marketing on the latest Ninja Turtles movie on the fact that the people behind Superbad and Pineapple Express are doing this. We might get something good out of this trend like we did with Batman '89 or just pale imitations

Interesting. I would accept Landis' word on Eastwood. As yeah, a series of Dick Tracy movies with Eastwood running concurrently with the still continuing Dirty Harry films would be a bit much, and a case of casting with very much type. Still, it's interesting to think about Eastwood in the role. With his charisma, along with a (presumably) more no-nonsense, direct, gruff demeanor.

It definitely would have been a change for Eastwood, who definitely at that time was wanting to stray away from always playing the gruff anti-hero and was probably looking for something family friendly. After the 80's, he definitely decided to emphasize more on his directing and become just as iconic in that role as he did previously. I do recommend seeing him in City Heat if you'd like to see him in a Tracy-like role. It is reminiscent of Tracy because I'm sure it was filmed on the same city backlots.

Speaking of directors, one choice I wish we could get more details on is when Beatty apparently asked Martin Scorsese to direct Dick Tracy. While I do prefer the idea of Landis directing the film, I can't help but wonder how Scorsese would have approached the material I'm sure piqued his interests. It obviously wouldn't have been R-rated and I know for a while he wanted to do a kids film but couldn't find the right material until he finally came across Hugo.

Oh yes. How could I forgot about those July 4th Adam West Batman marathons FX would throw for year after year in the 1990's. I remember recording quite a few episodes to VHS during those marathons. lol Exactly right on FX, those early FX channel afternoons were great. Heck, FX introduced me to Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman show, and I'll always be grateful for that. 
 

Guess I don't recall that, but I do remember GH airing late nights on FX. I think right before "Back Chat". To which, I still associate Jeff Probst with over Survivor. haha

Exactly on Wonder Woman. I can't even recall a time it was ever put back on the air aside from today where it's part of the Heroes and Icons rerun channel. It was a big deal when those first came on DVD since they weren't seen for so long. I hope someday somebody uploads some commercial blocks from those early FX days to rejuvenate those memories watching those shows there.

That's absolutely understandable. Truth be told, I have interest in collecting The Phantom, and a modest interest in Steve Canyon, but I have to be realistic with expenditures, and especially in this economy and inflation.

Definitely get in touch with your local library on whether or not they have interlibrary loan services. They can help you find some of the rare material that's out of your price range to purchase for the moment. I frequently use the website listed below to search for certain material and send the library the listed OCLC number so they can retrieve it.

https://www.worldcat.org/

[The Joker]

It is a great documentary that truly highlights all of the nuances of craftsmanship that went into making those films. They also highlight great annoyances as I am reminded of in my last rewatch where one of the producers boasts about how they responded to the criticisms of parents who thought the first film was too violent and they responded by having the Turtles use items within their grasp to use instead of their own trademark weapons. They ended up creating a worse problem as I'm sure many kids were influenced to use their yo-yo toys as Michelangelo does to take out a group of bad guys. It's a prime example how brain dead executives can be when they bow to unwarranted complaints by consumers that should just steer clear from the product.

True. A clear case of unintended consequences.

I don't understand either why we haven't gotten new 4K editions of the films yet. I did indeed import those German Blu-rays so I could have my hands on a decent set of special features. I don't know if there's a conflict on the distribution of the films since they're owned by Warners and Paramount/Nickelodeon owns the Turtles trademark. It is weird to see Nickelodeon's name on merchandise for the original films.

Yeah, seeing the Nickelodeon logo is a bit of an eye sore, but we just have to tolerate it. Your guess is as good as mine on the rights. I mean, the 1990's films have had several DVD releases, and continue to have blu ray releases, but unfortunately just bare bones releases. I can't imagine a boutique label haven't at least inquired about licensing those films, unless it's whatever studios involved having a obnoxiously high fee which would be counterproductive with estimated profit for the boutique label...?

Right, as I mentioned in my previous response, relevancy drives the success of these types of films. Everyone right now is sure learning the value of the Barbie IP with the success the movie is gaining right now. Like what happened with Batman '89, they found the right tone to approach the material that I'm sure was in doubt by many of the people involved, but it's more than paying off with it now just $100 away from making a billion dollars. This will unfortunately cause others to attempt the copy the success as I am already hearing they want Lena Dunham of all people to do a Polly Pocket movie, who I believe won't be able to hold any restraint on her brand if comedy at something that's a kids toy. Then again, they're really pushing the marketing on the latest Ninja Turtles movie on the fact that the people behind Superbad and Pineapple Express are doing this. We might get something good out of this trend like we did with Batman '89 or just pale imitations

Hope for the best, and expect the worst. 

It definitely would have been a change for Eastwood, who definitely at that time was wanting to stray away from always playing the gruff anti-hero and was probably looking for something family friendly. After the 80's, he definitely decided to emphasize more on his directing and become just as iconic in that role as he did previously. I do recommend seeing him in City Heat if you'd like to see him in a Tracy-like role. It is reminiscent of Tracy because I'm sure it was filmed on the same city backlots.

I'll have to check that one out. I don't think I've seen City Heat. Definitely something I'm going to look into. Thanks for the recommendation!

Speaking of directors, one choice I wish we could get more details on is when Beatty apparently asked Martin Scorsese to direct Dick Tracy. While I do prefer the idea of Landis directing the film, I can't help but wonder how Scorsese would have approached the material I'm sure piqued his interests. It obviously wouldn't have been R-rated and I know for a while he wanted to do a kids film but couldn't find the right material until he finally came across Hugo.

Scorsese directing is certainly a very interesting scenario to think about. Much like Landis, I'm sure Scorsese's style of directing would have made for a more energetic film than what we got with Beatty (we've previously spoken on this). One only has to look at "The Color of Money" to see how Scorsese's direction, along with editing, that made the pool matches have a sense of vibrancy that makes the movie very rewatchable. At least to me. Yeah, a Scorsese-directed "Dick Tracy" movie is very interesting to think about...

Exactly on Wonder Woman. I can't even recall a time it was ever put back on the air aside from today where it's part of the Heroes and Icons rerun channel. It was a big deal when those first came on DVD since they weren't seen for so long. I hope someday somebody uploads some commercial blocks from those early FX days to rejuvenate those memories watching those shows there.

Yeah, that would be great. I do remember FX really going all out with the Adam West Batman during those early years. I still remember FX doing short skits where Tom Bergeron would go out dressed as the '66 renditions of the Batman villains (Penguin, Joker, Riddler). This might have been during a marathon, but I'm not absolutely sure on that.

Definitely get in touch with your local library on whether or not they have interlibrary loan services. They can help you find some of the rare material that's out of your price range to purchase for the moment. I frequently use the website listed below to search for certain material and send the library the listed OCLC number so they can retrieve it.

https://www.worldcat.org/

Appreciate the link! I'll do that. 

[The Joker]

[Kamdan]

To answer the question posed in the title of the videos, Jeffrey Katzenberg'a infamous 1991 memo details that the reason Dick Tracy was concerned as a disappointment was that they spent just as much money marketing it as they did making it, severally narrowing the profits. Meanwhile, Pretty Woman only cost a faction of the budget of Dick Tracy and ended up outgrossing Batman worldwide, which was their goal with Dick Tracy. Beatty was pissed about being singled out for this and has sat on the property all of these decades out of spite it seems.