MST-HD Remaster Project Vol. 1: Godzilla vs The Sea Monster, The

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Faneditor Name:
Genre:
Fanedit Type:
Original Release Date:
1966
Original Running Time:
97
Fanedit Release Date:
Fanedit Running Time:
97
Time Cut:
1
Subtitles Available?
Available in HD?
Brief Synopsis:
An ongoing project that seeks to remaster classic episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 using the best available HD film sources in their original aspect ratio.
Intention:
My goal is to give these classic episodes new life with a true HD remaster – not simply an upscale or playing the riffs over the HD movie. At the same time, I want to hold on to every element that made these classic episodes so great, so not a word of dialogue has been removed.
Other Sources:
Godzilla versus The Sea Monster - Recreated Walter Reade-Sterling Title Card by SpaceHunterM⚧ (youtube)
Curtains closing by Jurassic Films (youtube)
Green Screen curtains opening by Yuriy Tsymbaliuk (youtube)
Special Thanks:
Thank you to INIGHTMARES who showed an interest in this edit and provided feedback, Riffling for the upscaling the footage, and ArtIsDead for producing the cover art.
Release Information:
Digital
Editing Details:
The film is sourced from the Criterion Collection Godzilla box set. I intentionally built the edit in 2.35:1 so that the image expands when we move from SD TV show and enter the new HD theater. This comes from some of my favorite local theaters which show previews in 1.85:1 before expanding for the main feature (assuming it's in cinemascope). The song 'Dance Yrself Clean' by LCD Soundsystem also served as inspiration for this, A light gamma tweak was applied to the movie so that Joel + the bots are always the blackest element onscreen (even if it’s just barely perceptible at times) while trying to maintain the integrity of the Criterion transfer. Silhouettes and host segments were deinterlaced and upscaled by Riffling. Some light saturation and contrast boosting was applied to the host segments.
Cuts and Additions:
Rotoscoped the final countdown door so that it opens/closes on the new, expanded HD theater.

00:00 – Updated “Turn Down Your Lights” logo

6:10 – Replaced the Film Ventures International credits with recreated Walter Reede titles (done by youtuber SpaceHunterM⚧). This is probably the biggest change from the original episode. Since the theater sits empty for 45 seconds while the FVI credits run, I felt the Walter Reede titles were a much quicker and more suitable way to get the show going.

6:18 – Animated a bit more of Joel and the bots walking into the theater to account for the extended theater seats.

27:39 – Red curtains open on the theater as Joel and the bots return. This was done to account for the extended seats, and to avoid more time-consuming animation.

47:57 – Red curtains close as Joel and the bots leave.

1:18:20 – Red curtains close as Joel and the bots enter.

1:29:47 – For whatever reason, the moment the nuclear plant self destructs the screen flashes a solid lime green. I replaced this with what I felt was a more fitting orange gradiant to match the explosion.

Cleaned up the silhouettes whenever the MST3K Info Club address showed up. Not sure when exactly that was.

1:36:33 – Recreated the Best Brains logo with HD movie footage.
Trailer

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This edit goes above and beyond restoring a classic episode of MST3K. I have never seen the host segments look so good even on their official dvds. The movie itself looked amazing. It was such a wonderful experience to watch an old favorite episode with an actual HD movie. Watching the movie in widescreen really helps to give it a modern experience and I didn't even notice the transitions between widescreen and full screen when entering and exiting the theater. The surgically enhanced episodes MST3K has been creating are amazing, but this is a better experience in my opinion. Amazing work! Hoping your make more!

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Amazing and important preservation by SeaCom! I'm hoping (and guessing it will) be very inspirational to other MST3K preservationists.

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I've wanted a project to exist like this for a very long time. I even made my own attempt at one point but never completed it. This is so enjoyable to experience. A must watch for MST3K Lovers. Same Jokes. Same Pacing. But all in HD. The Theater curtains were the only thing I feel didn't quite fit BUT I completely understand why they had to be put in place to cover the transition of Joel and the Bots walking into the theater. It also felt a tad squished because of the widescreen/shadowrama having to fit that aspect ratio, but again it had to be done to make this work at all. 10/10 overall. Hope they do many more in the future.

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(Updated: April 13, 2023)
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This was so good, I did a comparison segment on video, just so you can see the improvement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i2b4Ubva7Q&ab_channel=KeithBradbury

The original is washed-out, vhs-quality in the film portion, but this one just POPS, it's soo good! This is a fantastic improvement on the original. This FULLY replaces the original. It's the same content, but in full high-definition glory.

And I LOVE the theater curtains! Nice touch!

NOTE: because the movie is presented in full widescreen, with black bars on top and bottom, the host segments are presented within the screen ratio, so they are a bit smaller than my original "full-screen" version. This took a little bit of getting used to, but I understand why the faneditor did this and will not complain.

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I am going to keep it very short: This is EVERYTHING you could want in making the old episodes of MST look as good as they possibly can. And the switching from HD movie aspect ratio back to host segment aspect ratio almost feels like the sort of thing Joel would have done on purpose just to keep the SOL feeling lo-tech. (and also because Joel is weird and does odd nonsensical things, The switch and transitions are not a distraction) All the necessary changes here work, and I am excited about whatever comes next in this project!

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