The Mechanical Monsters 35mm (Patreon)

I'm really excited about this next project. Most likely due to the repeat exposure as a child, I have a strong fondness for the Paramount Superman series.

The good folks associated with the Max Fleischer Cartoons project have given me this 35mm scan of The Mechanical Monsters to restore.

As it turns out, the "HD" versions of Superman that appeared on DC stream are actually upscales of the DVD standard definition versions (which explains the heavy compression artifacts). Members of the Fleischer family had a meeting with WB about trying to reach some sort of agreement as WB has many of the old Paramount masters (e.g., Popeye, Koko the Clown, Superman). Unfortunately, an agreement could not be reach at that meeting. Hopefully something will be worked in the future. 

In their search for more of their family's films, they found an archive that had two 35mm films of Superman, The Mechanical Monsters and Billion Dollar Limited. That archive was generous enough to scan those films and allow them to be restored.

The 35mm films are actually in rough shape. I've spend the last couple days playing with the scan to see what's possible with the restoration (actually restoration work has not began yet). But the good news is that I think I have been able to overcome most of the obstacles that the prints present. See below for the before and after pictures of different parts of the film. 

Because of my love of this film and the difficulty involved, I'll be doing regular posts on the restoration work of this to show how I was able to get from the point A to point Z.