Bonus: Flights of Fantasy - Catching up with Arnold Leibovit
May 07, 2024Episode 145
Arnold Leibovit
In this short Bonus episode, we catch up with Arnold Leibovit, the producer behind the restored Puppetoon series. We discuss his recent Rondo Hatten award for the Best Blu-ray Collection. And then he provides background on the upcoming Flights of Fantasy event at LA's Regency Village Theater, where Arnold promises an evening of restored cinematic wonders. Expect a 4K spectacle with "War of the Worlds," a vibrant array of Puppetoons, and a heartfelt nod to Ann Robinson's legacy, with the potential for surprise guests and Joe Dante's celebrated presence to add to the evening’s luster. We wrap up with a sneak peek at "Puppetunes Volume Four," which promises to continue the great preservation work of the previous volumes.
In this short Bonus episode, we catch up with Arnold Leibovit, the producer behind the restored Puppetoon series. We discuss his recent Rondo Hatten award for the Best Blu-ray Collection. And then he provides background on the upcoming Flights of Fantasy event at LA's Regency Village Theater, where Arnold promises an evening of restored cinematic wonders. Expect a 4K spectacle with "War of the Worlds," a vibrant array of Puppetoons, and a heartfelt nod to Ann Robinson's legacy, with the potential for surprise guests and Joe Dante's celebrated presence to add to the evening’s luster. We wrap up with a sneak peek at "Puppetunes Volume Four," which promises to continue the great preservation work of the previous volumes.
Hi Tim Millard here, and today we're catching up with Arnold Leibovit, who was on the podcast last September to talk about his Puppetoon movie Volume 3 Blu-ray release. Hi, Arnold, Hi, hey Tim, how you been Good, and I was excited to see just the other day that that volume 3, Puppetoon just won the best Blu-ray collection in the recent Rondo Hatton Awards, so I want to congratulate you.
Speaker 2:
Oh, thank you, it was a surprise. I know it was nominated, but it was a bit of a surprise. There were quite a few nominees in that category. It's always great to win. It's always great to be acknowledged, you know.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and I saw that the Todd Browning sideshow Shockers, which we did a podcast on, was like runner up. That was a terrific collection as well as well as the Boris Karloff Mr Wong collection from Kino. So those quite a as well as the Boris Karloff Mr Wong collection from Kino. So those are pretty stiff competition. But going back to the podcast, you know how great I thought that Volume 3 was and all of those extras you put together and just how terrific they looked. So I can't recommend it more highly. So I'm glad to see that it's getting some recognition.
Speaker 2:
It's exciting. I just finished writing my acceptance speech. I have to do it. It's going to be June 1st in. Wonderfest is where they do the awards. They give out the awards. I don't know if I'll be able to make it, but I'm going to do a video if I can't get out there to do it. But it certainly is. As I said, it's just nice to be, you know, paid a thank you by the very people that are fostering and supporting the fantasy and genre in sci-fi. So you know it's the audience that really you want. You know it's like your family. You know it's your family audience. You know it's your family audience, you know, and that's a wonderful thing. I'm very pleased about it, hopefully next year. There's been some discussion about presenting something out there for another event and that would be nice to do, you know, to do it there myself in person, but for now I'm just thrilled.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and I know that one of the reasons why you're not going to be out there is because you're going to actually be coming to LA very soon, and I did want to talk about that today. Not only have you done the puppet tunes, but you've also done other things with George Powell and other films. Why don't you tell us a little bit about this event here in LA?
Speaker 2:
Well, we came up with a concept called Flights of Fantasy. I worked together with a friend of mine His name is Stanley Sheff, who goes by the name Noon de Plume, maxwell DeMille, and he puts on and does a lot of work with the Cicada Club downtown Los Angeles and he's sort of an impresario and he's been a friend of mine for many, many years. We did a 40th anniversary of the Time Machine at the Orpheum Theater many years ago. It was a very successful part of the Last Remaining Seats program that are done downtown Los Angeles. And so we were talking and we came up with this. I said, you know, he said to me, I said to him well, maybe we should try to do that again, maybe come up with this idea of doing these, bringing back, you know, the kind of movies we loved growing up as kids and making a show out of it. And the way these are done is they're immersive experiences. It's not just going to a screening of a movie, there's pre-shows, there's guest stars, there's music, sometimes orchestral music. There's sometimes often theatrics that are done on the stage that precedes the show. Every show is a little different, and so the one we're doing now it's going to be at the Regency Village Theater in Westwood, which is the Fox Theater the theater, by the way, that Steven Spielberg and Jason Reitman and JJ Abrams and Bradley Cooper and Seth Rogen and about 50 or 60 other people just bought. So it's kind of exciting to be in that theater and some of those people are coming to the show, so it's going to be quite a star-studded event.
Speaker 2:
I've invited my friend, joe Dante, but I should get back to what we're showing. We're showing the War of the Worlds, which is a 4K. Paramount did the 4K of War of the Worlds, which is stunning. We're showing that, along with Puppet Tunes, I created a new feature film. It's a new 90-minute feature with opening and closing titles that incorporates 10 of the best Puppet Tunes that I've been restoring for the past 10 years overall, and I combine them into a single feature. My plan is to take this around the country, this idea, to many theaters.
Speaker 2:
This is the premiere. So it's the premiere of the new Puppetoon show 10 of the most amazing films that haven't been seen on a big screen in 90 years. So it is a momentous, historic occasion to see and in addition, there'll be War of the Worlds. There's also a pre-show that's been created for War of the Worlds that we did. There's various introductions and then getting back to our guest stars, joe Dante, my friend Joe, will be there to talk about it.
Speaker 2:
I invited Ann Robinson, who is the star of War of the Worlds. She's 95. It'll actually be her birthday that week, so we will be wishing her a happy birthday. I'll be there. We also may have some surprises. There'll be some surprise guests on the stage. I don't want to give it away, but there will be some surprise guest stars Also. You might even meet a Martian, because we've got a little surprise along that line, along those lines as well. So overall, it's going to be quite the evening. It's May the 22nd, the show starts at 7, doors open at 6, and we are selling tickets. We have discounted tickets now for Early Bird and then for various groups. We've invited various guilds. A CIFA, the Animation Society, is supporting it. Various guilds are supporting it, industry people it's an industry event, no doubt about it.
Speaker 1:
Well, it sounds terrific. I'll be there looking forward to it. Now, just to clarify you're going to show the whole War of the Worlds 4K.
Speaker 2:
The whole War of the Worlds, plus the whole War of the Worlds.
Speaker 1:
Plus the puppeteer.
Speaker 2:
Plus 90. It's a double feature. It's a double feature with an intermission. There's a concession stand so people can buy their popcorn and whatever they like. It's a wonderful theater, by the way, it's the historic Fox 1930 theater. And it's a wonderful theater, by the way, it's the historic fox 1930 theater and it's a wonderful theater. That's kind of a a kind of a grand thing for me. I mean, I went to school at ucla back in the day at the film school, and going to the fox theater for me again it's like coming home, you know, to go and do it there. So it's very exciting for me to do this at that theater and doing this show which is, I would say it's a once in a lifetime event.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I mean this sounds terrific. I know it was great to see the puppatoons, of course, on my 4K monitor at home looking so terrific, but to see them up on the big screen is going to be a treat as well.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, the restorations are something I mean. They are quite amazing. I've tried to pull together a show that is the most entertaining of the puppatoons, so it moves along very well. It has a nice pace to it. They're all the most entertaining puppatoons, they're all in technicolor. It they're all the most entertaining puppatoons, they're all in Technicolor. They look absolutely amazing and so I think for the audiences who haven't seen them, and the ones that have seen them, of course, will love them. But I think it's a bit of a revelation, you know, especially to see it on a big screen. It's quite a revelation to see.
Speaker 1:
And War of the Worlds 2, by the way Of course yeah, the 4K restoration on the big screen is going to be terrific.
Speaker 2:
It's nothing like it to see it the way it was originally released in 1953. And, by the way, war of the Worlds was the number one box office hit of 1953. That was the number one movie of the year. So here we are, 71 years later later, and look at where we are. The movie is still drawing the audiences. It still has a massive following. It's absolutely amazing for a movie that is 71 years old. It's a terrific movie. So that's exciting. It's, all in all, it's just an absolutely wonderful, exciting thing and I hope everyone will come People that live in Los Angeles, of course, will come and I think you're going to have a kick. I think it'll be a kick.
Speaker 1:
And I'll put the information and the tickets both on our show notes here for this short podcast episode and then also on our Facebook group and other places so people can look for that and get their tickets and find out more information. So, looking forward to it. And then, before we kind of wrap up here, I you know, I wanted to ask you are you working on volume four of the puppet tunes?
Speaker 2:
Yes, I am. I know it's never. The odyssey doesn't end, it's ongoing. We're in a I'd say we're in the throes of about 75% of it. I believe we're into finishing and my hope is that we can get into editing sometime in the summer. But that is only phase one of the new release.
Speaker 2:
Aside from it being a 4K scan, aside from it being fully restored back to its original glory, all the puppatoons, including the Gumby and Pokey sequences and everything else looks quite stunning in 5K, which was the actual scan. It was a 5K scan scan the um extras, which is something you do. I know you spend your time with the extra world and getting additional footage. Well, there's going to be just about as many extras on it as there is the film itself, and that will probably take another year just to do because there's an awful lot of material that I'm including on this one. It's going to be very surprising for people when they see what is actually going to be included New puppatoons, more puppatoons from Paramount, extras not seen before.
Speaker 2:
You know, every time you do one of these, you never know what you're going to get. You know it's like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get. You know, it's like a box of chocolates you never know what you're going to end up with. You turn around and there's another, and every day there's this wonderful new material. So we definitely should talk about it. We'll get into this. We can get into more of the details. You know, Sure.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, well, definitely, when that's coming out, we'll get you back on and we'll have a nice long discussion about the puppet tunes on that volume and all the extras and everything that went into it. So but it's great to catch up with you, have a brief conversation here and talk about what you're doing here in LA and let people know who are able to make it Realize, a lot of listeners here don't live in LA. So I want to also give you a little update on this volume four and if you haven't bought volume three, volume two, volume one, there are links as well to those so that you can purchase those Again. Can't recommend them more highly. They're just terrific and very entertaining.
Speaker 2:
Well, thank you, I appreciate your support, tim, and look forward to seeing you at the event and will I be anxious to hear what you have to say and how people respond, which will be very exciting to do, very exciting to see people's response to these. So it's what we do. I mean, this is what it's all about, really, and seeing it with a live audience in a movie theater. You know, big screen is the way it was originally intended to be seen, and that was my goal is to try to get these on a big movie screen and that is the that hopefully, people will be excited about.