August 10, 2004

Columbia TriStar Reignites Colorization Debate with New 'Three Stooges' DVD

Here's a hot story making its rounds on the wires: Columbia TriStar's home-video unit will be releasing a 'Three Stooges' DVD including colorized and black-and-white film versions:

"The best thing about this DVD release is it gives the consumer the ultimate choice," said Suzanne White, vice president of marketing for Columbia TriStar home entertainment. "They can watch the very best, the finest restored image of the black-and-white version, or watch the new colorized version and switch instantaneously between the two."

According to the article, this new release isn't like the Turner colorization fiasco of the mid 80s -- today's colorization technology is vastly improved, and the studio actually did some research this time out. This isn't the first colorization effort this year (The History Channel's 'Time Machine: World War I in Color' Series has been airing since the spring) but it does represent the first colorized DVD release.

Is this a savvy DVD marketing move? First off, the massive amount of publicity will definitely benefit the stagnating stooges, who rarely break out of their rabid fan base.

Second, it gives the studios one more "bite at the apple" -- an excuse to re-release all of their B&W B-list titles. After all, we're not talking about colorizing 'Citizen Kane' or 'The 400 Blows' -- It's a couple of goofy, dated slapstick movies.

I personally would love to see an overtly artistic colorization attempt on a 1950s atomic scare or hygiene film, but hey -- that's just me.

Boston.com / A&E / Movies / Stooges digitally painted on DVD