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  4. Does Disney own the original masters for Terrytoons?
RareSox
  • RareSox
  • Advanced Member Topic Starter
2022-04-15T11:26:00Z
I was in a voice chat with Noah the other night, talking about Paramount restoring the terrytoons, and he mentioned that Disney owns the original masters to the shorts, with Paramount restoring the shorts via television duplicates.

My question is if it's possible for Paramount to buy the original masters from Disney so they could properly restore the Terrytoons, much like Warner Bros did with the Popeye cartoons when restoring them for DVD.
S. C. MacPeter
2022-04-15T15:16:18Z
???????????

The original masters for the Terrytoons cartoons are stored at the UCLA Film & TV Archives under Viacom’s ownership and collection. Fox never had any rights to the Terrytoons beyond distribution. Viacom has never cared enough (besides the 3 Mighty Mouse shorts on the Bakshi set) to go back to the masters. Gypsy Life’s TV title is cut onto the nitrate negative, for those curious, but the possibility of a nitrate print existing at UCLA with the original title is possible too
S. C. MacPeter
2022-04-15T15:21:52Z
And since it should be said, there are no plans currently of restoring the Terrytoons library. It could happen, and it could start at any moment, but there is nothing happening exactly right now. If such a rumor is spreading, it’s false
Tommy Stathes
2022-04-15T16:17:17Z
Originally Posted by: RareSox 

I was in a voice chat with Noah the other night, talking about Paramount restoring the terrytoons, and he mentioned that Disney owns the original masters to the shorts, with Paramount restoring the shorts via television duplicates.

My question is if it's possible for Paramount to buy the original masters from Disney so they could properly restore the Terrytoons, much like Warner Bros did with the Popeye cartoons when restoring them for DVD.



Who is "Noah"?
FoxInAFix
2022-04-15T17:48:13Z
Originally Posted by: S. C. MacPeter 

And since it should be said, there are no plans currently of restoring the Terrytoons library. It could happen, and it could start at any moment, but there is nothing happening exactly right now. If such a rumor is spreading, it’s false



I do have to say I've heard Jerry Beck say numerous times that every year a handful of Paramount titles are getting restored. That includes Terrytoons and he even named a few titles on a podcast he was on earlier this year.
S. C. MacPeter
2022-04-15T18:13:11Z
Originally Posted by: FoxInAFix 

I do have to say I've heard Jerry Beck say numerous times that every year a handful of Paramount titles are getting restored. That includes Terrytoons and he even named a few titles on a podcast he was on earlier this year.



PRESERVED. Not Restored

Jerry is referring to his work with ASIFA-Hollywood to preserve classic cartoons to ensure their survival. This isn’t restoration, but Viacom does receive 4K scans of the cartoons preserved, but they do nothing with them. With that said, I’m not entirely of the scan part being true
FoxInAFix
2022-04-15T23:29:19Z
Originally Posted by: S. C. MacPeter 

Originally Posted by: FoxInAFix 

I do have to say I've heard Jerry Beck say numerous times that every year a handful of Paramount titles are getting restored. That includes Terrytoons and he even named a few titles on a podcast he was on earlier this year.



PRESERVED. Not Restored

Jerry is referring to his work with ASIFA-Hollywood to preserve classic cartoons to ensure their survival. This isn’t restoration, but Viacom does receive 4K scans of the cartoons preserved, but they do nothing with them. With that said, I’m not entirely of the scan part being true



Ah! Got it! Well, at least preservation is better than nothing I guess.. And I know Beck is always trying to get this stuff to come out the best he can. Not a lot more we can do, I'm afraid, except for legally buying the releases we want more of.
RareSox
  • RareSox
  • Advanced Member Topic Starter
2022-04-16T13:09:58Z
At least they're doing something with the library. Preserving them is better than nothing.
Sansic
2022-04-16T13:19:12Z
To answer your question, Noah/ Noah S. is a friend of Raresox. He is an amateur animation historian and he’s doing a webtoon called the Fables, me and Raresox work with him on it and he’s actually a nice person.
S. C. MacPeter
2022-04-16T14:20:06Z
Originally Posted by: RareSox 

At least they're doing something with the library. Preserving them is better than nothing.



Viacom hasn’t paid a single dollar for the work in preserving the cartoons. That’s why only a few have been done
Kyroe
2022-04-16T22:46:05Z
Not all of the Terrytoons are Viacom's as they only own the post-1929 Terrytoons catalog.
S. C. MacPeter
2022-04-17T00:38:32Z
Originally Posted by: Kyroe 

Not all of the Terrytoons are Viacom's as they only own the post-1929 Terrytoons catalog.



...Because the Fables weren't made at Terrytoons, but by what became Van Beuren
Kyroe
2022-04-18T04:18:06Z
True, thanks for correcting me. Fox only distributed the Terrytoons. Fox never had an in-house animation studio during the Golden Age of Animation, though I think the only other cartoon that Fox distributed, (sorry if I'm off topic) was broadcast distribution of Filmation's version of The Hardy Boys, though who knows who owns that since it hasn't been seen in years and is not in Classic Media's catalog.

Back on topic, CBS bought the rights to the Terrytoons in the mid-50s, (Correct me if I'm wrong). So Disney never owned the Terrytoons in the first place because they are not part of Fox's catalog.
RareSox
  • RareSox
  • Advanced Member Topic Starter
2022-04-18T10:31:02Z
Thanks for correcting me there.
S. C. MacPeter
2022-04-18T13:46:15Z
Originally Posted by: Kyroe 

Back on topic, CBS bought the rights to the Terrytoons in the mid-50s, (Correct me if I'm wrong). So Disney never owned the Terrytoons in the first place because they are not part of Fox's catalog.



Precisely what you said, Fox only had the distribution rights and never owned any of the master material (which is now at UCLA's Archives, free for Viacom to use at any point). CBS bought them and has done minimal with them since 1966. They all exist in their original, uncut theatrical form, though several negatives have the TV titles cut on (though they might have nitrate prints on these subjects as well) like Gypsy Life. Sadly, you probably won't ever see them that way
S. C. MacPeter
2022-04-18T13:56:30Z
Originally Posted by: RareSox 

much like Warner Bros did with the Popeye cartoons when restoring them for DVD.



On this note, I believe that the Popeye masters have been partly in Turner's/WB's own vaults, and at MOMA for decades. For the Harveytoons stuff, Paramount still stores them, but Universal still owns them physically, and just has to pay a transfer fee to use them if they ever want too (they just haven't, and I believe the Boo Moon transfer was done by another party since its PD). I'm only noting this because I think it would benefit those curious about the world of who owns what and where everything is
ArcLordOne
2023-09-14T20:21:28Z
I had considered this too, but thankfully they'd don't, or we'd most likely NEVER see them, and they'd all disappear from the Holy Internet.
Pete Hale, Cartoonist
https://cartoonistramblings.blogspot.com 
https://goldenagecartoonforums.createaforum.com 
S. C. MacPeter
2023-09-15T01:18:42Z
Even if they somehow did have the masters, Viacom would own the copyrights. Disney would charge them a storage fee and a scanning fee should they ever need them in this scenario, not unlike the current (and actually real) situation with the Harveytoon masters
Bobby Bickert
2023-09-15T20:05:18Z
Originally Posted by: S. C. MacPeter 

On this note, I believe that the Popeye masters have been partly in Turner's/WB's own vaults, and at MOMA for decades.



According to "bozo" (Barry Mills), the producer of The Popeye Show on Cartoon Network, when he requested the original negatives for some of the theatrical Popeye cartoons, they were being stored at the Library of Congress. (Though that was 20 years ago.)

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