20 Million Miles to Earth [Region 2]
by Nathan Juran
![20 Million Miles to Earth [Region 2]](/images/20-Million-Miles-to-Earth-Region-2-B0000667KX-L.jpg)
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DVD details
Actor: Frank Puglia, Joan Taylor, John Zaremba, Thomas Browne Henry, William HopperDirector: Nathan Juran
DVD: Region Code 2
Audio: Arabic (Subtitled); Bulgarian (Subtitled); Czech (Subtitled); Danish (Subtitled); Dutch (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); Finnish (Subtitled); German (Subtitled); Greek (Subtitled); Hebrew (Subtitled); Hindi (Subtitled); Hungarian (Subtitled); Icelandic (Subtitled); Italian (Subtitled); Norwegian (Subtitled); Polish (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Swedish (Subtitled); Turkish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); German (Dubbed); Italian (Dubbed)
Format: PAL
Picture Format: 1.85:1
DVD Reviews of 20 Million Miles to Earth [Region 2]
DVD Review: NICE JOB ON AN OLD FAVORITE! ONE OF HARRYHAUSEN'S B&W CLASSICS IN COLOR!
Summary: 5 Stars
In the late 60's, I remember Saturday mornings, sitting in my PJ's, eating a bowl of cereal and watching this film(and many like it)on my living room floor! My family didn't have a color set until 1971, so I thought every movie was in B&W. I actually love B&W as it seems to add something to my favotite old horror films like Frankenstein and The Wolfman. On the other hand, Ray Harryhausen's work seems to be made for color, so I was pretty excited to see this.... if it was done right. Not being a fan of colorization, having Ray Harryhausen overseeing this project made a big difference to me.
****The Film****This is one of my favorite monster movies with one of Ray's most memorable creatures. The Ymir is an interesting and cool looking creature from Venus who grows rapidly in Earth's atmosphere. Not since King Kong has an animated monster evoked so much sympathy from it's audience. The film is pretty standard 50's sci-fi, but the FX and Harryhausen's gifts bring this to another level. This is a fun film to watch!
I have bought all of Harryhausen's films on VHS and the original DVD releases and I have now bought these new colorized versions.
Being able to switch from black and white to color was a great feature and it worked perfectly on my DVD player. I must say after seeing this film in B&W 100 times in my life, it was a welcome change to watch it in color. The Ymir and elephant battle is a highlight as there is a huge contrast of color with the grey elephant and the green Ymir.
The Transfer looks really good here, but I thought the old print was excellent too, so your buying this for the color choice and the new extra features which are also excellent. If you have the Sinbad films, you will pretty much have all the features that didn't get carried over on this disc and you will be able to add these new features, plus the commentary with Mr Ray Harryhausen himself to your collection! I found these new versions on sale for $7.00, so the upgrade was worth it for me. I hope The Beast Of 20,000 Fathoms gets this treatment in the near future.
I have heard that some players won't play the disc or do the color change without an annoying display icon on screen, but it I didn't have this problem. The icon would disappear as soon as I pressed the angle key a second time. If you love these films, it's worth looking into for the new features and color choice, the color palate looks perfectly normal and it adds that wow factor back to this classic film!
DVD Review: Harryhausen makes the most from the least
Summary: 3 Stars
20 Million Miles To Earth is visual effects wizard Ray Harryhausen's 1957 black and white interplanetary King Kong remake, as well as a tribute to his stop motion photography mentor Willis O'Brien. No, it's not a direct analogy, but there are so many scene for scene knockoffs from Kong that one must believe that only Harryhausen could have gotten away with so much theft (read that as `homage') from his mentor without facing a lawsuit. Yes, technically, the film was directed by noted B film maven Nathan Juran (The Seventh Voyage Of Sinbad), but it's a very standard film, wholly carried into the memory by Harryhausen's skills.
That stated, it's also a very enjoyable film....The film also features a classic 1950s era opening narrative about `SCIENCE!': `Great scientific advances are often times sudden accomplished facts before most of us are dimly aware of them. Breathtakingly unexpected, for example, was the searing flash that announced the atomic age. Equally unexpected was the next gigantic stride, when man moved out of his very orbit to a point more than 20 Million Miles To Earth!' Cue the start of the film! And the end is just as priceless. Didacticism is always good for a guffaw in sci fi films.
But, 20 Million Miles To Earth offers more than a few condescending chuckles; it offers a glimpse into a not too long ago time when wonder was still enough to propel a film. Nowadays, too many people ruin films by asking questions that the films acknowledge as givens, and need far too many special effects, as they are too lazy to imbue, and actively participate in art. Ray Harryhausen and Nathan Juran's film does more with less than many films that came later, and even if that sentiment is trite, it's also true. And 20 Million Miles To Earth is a highly enjoyable film, no matter how cookie cutter it is. After all, what determines the success of a cookie is not its shape, but its taste, and that comes from its ingredients, not its mold. What Harryhausen had in his best films was a good recipe, and alot of talent, to fit into some very old and familiar molds. Thus why they are still savored to this day, no matter how many times the hand has held such before.
DVD Review: Great DVD set!
Summary: 5 Stars
The extras on disc 2 (already pointed out in other reviews) are excellent. The colorization is superb. I compared the color version to other color sci-fi or horror movies made at around the same time and this colorized version holds up great. I, for one, feel so fortunate that Harryhausen is still alive to supervise this colorization and to offer his commentary to this DVD set. This is a must-have for a Harryhausen fan.DVD Review: Black and White Blu-ray
Summary: 5 Stars
Above average sci-fi 50's film and shows how great black and white can look on Blu-ray. Highly recommended to fans of this genre.DVD Review: Venus Schmenus...this thing is pretty neat even at 50 yrs old.
Summary: 3 Stars
Well, while this is another level of brilliance by Ray Harryhausen, it is not one of my favorite movies but I grabbed it because I enjoy watching it from time to time. Basically this movie got the same treatment that IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA got (see my other review) as far as the colorization and features. This time, our feature critter crash lands in the sea off Rome and a boy finds a capsule contain a gel like substance, which turns out to be protection for.......our critter, once hatched, our critter begins to grow rapidly because of earth's air supply and soon becomes large enough to be a real pain in the butt and starts wreaking havoc all over Rome. While entertaining to watch, there are others in the Harryhausen series that are better but that's just a personal opinion. It is definitely good enough to add to your Sci-Fi Library for sure.
Description of 20 Million Miles to Earth [Region 2]
Special-effects legend Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion talents and "Dynamation" (rear-projection) process are the highlights of the '50s-era creature feature 20 Million Miles to Earth. An American spaceship returns to Earth after a mission to Venus and crashes into the sea near Sicily. A sole survivor (William Hopper) is rescued, along with a specimen that quickly grows into a reptilian biped called the Ymir. The being eventually grows to 20 feet high and escapes its confines, whereupon it rampages through Rome before a showdown with the military. Despite lacking much of a personality, the Ymir is a marvelous showcase for Harryhausen's skills. Unfortunately, the rest of the film does not match his level of excellence; direction by Nathan Juran is perfunctory (his later collaborations with Harryhausen, including The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, are more lively), and performances and scripting are flat. Still, Harryhausen fans should enjoy this opportunity to see this phase of his career before he created his most enduring works. --Paul GaitaGeneral DVDs
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