A Trip to the Moon (1902) Dir. Georges Melies (Flicker Alley Blu-Ray)

[Travis Sheldon Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Travis Sheldon]

Just wondering if anyone picked up this release.
I missed a screening of this film at the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville when they were touring, so I would like to know how the film looked.
The Blu-ray is presented in a steelbook with a few extras that look intriguing, but word is that there is a sync issue with the disc.
Melies is surely one of my biggest inspirations, to name one.
Flicker Alley Blu-Ray=article&id=46&Itemid=49

[Robin Bougie Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Robin Bougie]

Didn't get it yet no, but I'm interested.

Also: An interesting little trivia mention about Melies in this NSFW blog post I did a week or two ago:
http://bougieman.livejournal.com/550024.html

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

I didn't even know this was out on Blu. I guess AIR scored the Blu-ray, which is kinda cool. The DVD Talk review doesn't mention a synch issue but the DVD Beaver one does and has the following information taken from the Flicker Alley website:

Please note that one of the bonus feature audio options on the Blu-ray disc of our limited SteelBook edition -- A Trip to the Moon in B&W Audio Option 1, featuring Robert Israel's orchestral score and the original English narration written by Georges Melies -- is currently missing its narration track and only features Robert Israel's orchestral score - All Blu-ray discs shipped at this time will be with this orchestral score only configuration.

This only affects the Blu-ray disc of this set. The DVD disc in this publication contains the audio for this bonus feature as
described on the packaging.

We are in the process of remastering and remanufacturing a Blu-ray disc which will have the English narration/Robert Israel's orchestral score configuration for this particular bonus feature. If interested, we will make it available, by request, to customers who fill out our on-line Disc Replacement Form located HERE.'

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

I just noticed a pre-order up on Amazon for this due 6/1/12:

A Trip To The Moon & The Extraordinary Voyage Deluxe Combo Blu-Ray DVD Edition

No original hand-colored copies of A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la Lune - 1902), by Georges Mélií¨s, had been known to survive until one was miraculously found in Spain in the mid-1990s, but in a fragmentary condition thought too fragile to handle for either viewing or restoration. In 2010, three experts in worldwide film restoration - Lobster Films, and two non-profit entities, Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema and Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage - launched one of the most complex and ambitious film restoration projects ever to bring an original, colored version of Mélií¨s masterpiece back 110 years after its first release. Using the most advanced digital technologies now available, the team reassembled and restored the fragments of the 13,375 frames. The two foundations, which carried out specifically the music part of this project, decided to approach AIR s Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoit Dunckel, to compose an original modern soundtrack to accompany this cinematic milestone. Flicker Alley is pleased present this brand new restoration which also features The Extraordinary Voyage, a fascinating new documentary, directed by Serge Bromberg and Eric Lange. The Extraordinary Voyage chronicles the journey of A Trip to the Moon from the fantastical Mélií¨s production in 1902, to the astonishing rediscovery of a nitrate print in color in 1993, to the premiere of the new restoration on the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival in 2011. The documentary includes interviews with contemporary filmmakers, including Costa Gavras, Michel Gondry, Michel Hazanavicius, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet on Mélií¨s enduring significance to cinema.

BONUS FEATURES: This publication also contains A Trip to the Moon in a beautifully restored black and white edition from original 35 mm elements with two separate audio tracks of music: An orchestral score by Robert Israel with the original English narration written by Mélií¨s; and a second track produced by Russell Merritt consisting of a troupe of actors voicing the various characters as performed in the U.S. in 1903, with piano music by Frederick Hodges. There is also an interview with the group AIR discusing their new soundtrack, and two lunar-related shorts by Mélií¨s - The Eclipse (1904) and The Astronomer's Dream (1898).