Deaf Crocodile

[TechnicolorAcid]

6-Month Subscription Details Revealed:

Spoiler

Right off the top we need to thank our subscribers. Subscriptions are incredibly important in allowing us to do what we do. Cash flow is always a difficult and crucial part of any small business and particularly so with a company like ours in which each project has a tremendous amount of up front expenses. The influx of cash that subscriptions provide us is absolutely essential. We conducted a recent poll asking folks what they consider the best benefit of subscribing to a boutique blu-ray label and we were genuinely moved to see that folks considered “Supporting a small label” the biggest benefit. Thank you so much.

Our first full year of offering subscriptions is coming to an end and we’ve learned a lot!

Going forward subscriptions will now be offered directly through our shop and we’ll be offering 6-Month Domestic/US subscriptions only.

A full year is quite difficult to predict schedule-wise. Adjustments to our schedule required frustrating “add-on” titles -- and despite all our best efforts, titles sometimes drop out or have to be rescheduled.

We will also no longer be able to offer the International Quarterly subscriptions, but fear not! We’re working on other solutions for you loyal international folks. Stay tuned.

New and Improved!

6-MONTH DOMESTIC SUBSCRIPTION - $325 (includes shipping)

For US/Domestic Customers Only

Subscription Benefits:

Price is locked in. No matter what happens with tariffs.

Early shipments - Subscriptions ship early - as soon as we have them in our warehouse!

Set it and Forget It - You'll never have to worry about missing a release! Subscribe once and then sit back and relax for the next six months! You will receive all of our new Deluxe Limited Edition releases.

Access to our new Members Only Discord server - We'll be sharing sneak peeks of upcoming projects, offer OOP titles and goodies (as we can) and we'll even show off cover artwork as it's being created. If you like to see how the sausage is made, you won't want to miss out.

The lineup…

THE DEVIL'S BRIDE - 1970s Lithuanian rock opera!

THE PIED PIPER & The Short Films of Jiří Barta (2-disc set)

TREASURES OF SOVIET ANIMATION Vol. 2 - Lev Atamanov's THE SNOW QUEEN + 2 others

SIRIUS- rare Hungarian sci-fi romance

ALRAUNE and THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE - German silent genre films (2-disc set)

THE 2551 TRILOGY- post apocalyptic subterranean sci-fi epic! (4-disc set)

THREE FILMS BY TUEVO TULIO: CROSS OF LOVE, RESTLESS BLOOD, and SENSUELA (3-disc set)

TREASURES OF SOVIET ANIMATION Vol. 3 - Films of Yuri Norstein (HEDGEHOG IN THE FOG)

Please note: Reprintings and non-disc items such as merch, pins, boxes, stickers, etc are not part of the subscription, and title line up is subject to change (not if we can help it!).

And a new service called Romero’s Club

Spoiler

All-New Memberships Coming!

The second place finisher in that poll we conducted was “Save Money”. Not surprising. So we put our thinking caps on and came up with a plan that combines saving money for you and helping our cash flow for us.

We’re very excited to announce an all-new Membership program- ROMERO’S CLUB!
Memberships will be available with the launch of our new shop on May 15th.

Available in four different tiers with savings and benefits increasing with each tier.

Here are the details:

Benefits Included in ALL Tiers:

Save money! - Your shop credit goes towards our already discounted prices!

Exclusive 'Members Only' trading card

Buy What You Want When You Want - Use your credit however you like. You're not locked in to purchasing every title.

Access to our new Members Only Discord server - We'll be sharing sneak peeks of upcoming projects, offer OOP titles (as we can) and we'll even show off cover artwork as it's being created. If you like to see how the sausage is made, you won't want to miss out.

MEMBERSHIP LEVELS


FILM LOVER - $300 - Save 15%

$350 Shop Credit

CELLULOID CHAMPION - $400 - Save 20%

$500 Shop Credit

FREE Exclusive Subscriber/Member Only Deaf Crocodile Pin

CINEMA CONNOISSEUR - $750 - Save 25%

$1000 Shop Credit

FREE Exclusive Subscriber/Member Only Deaf Crocodile Pin

FREE Deaf Crocodile T-Shirt

PATRON SAINT - $1000 - Save 33%!

$1500 Shop Credit

FREE Exclusive Subscriber/Member Only Deaf Crocodile Pin

FREE Deaf Crocodile T-Shirt

FREE Dave McKean PIED PIPER Limited & Numbered Edition print (while supplies last)

Receive a special thank you in one of our upcoming releases (you choose the title)!

[What A Disgrace]

I wonder if any of the upcoming titles will be UHD releases.

[DJBillyMac]

Didn't they say they were doing some films from India at some point? That seems to have dropped off of their radar for whatever reason. I was interested to see what those were.

[TechnicolorAcid]

Didn't they say they were doing some films from India at some point? That seems to have dropped off of their radar for whatever reason. I was interested to see what those were.

It’s suspected based on that information and a hint given that they were releasing a young filmmaker’s filmography that it may be a release of the work of Achal Mishra. They also have a couple other Indian films on Streaming Only but doesn’t seem that they’ll be released anytime soon.

[kuzine]

Do I understand it correctly (or not) that you would be able to use the Romero's club credit towards the 6-month subscription (and future ones)?

[TechnicolorAcid]

Do I understand it correctly (or not) that you would be able to use the Romero's club credit towards the 6-month subscription (and future ones)?

One guy on the other forum seems to have been to buy the subscription with his club credit so I have reason to believe the answer is yes.

[swo17]

I don't know that the 6-month subscription is much of a deal. It looks like pretty much the cost of buying each month's deluxe edition at the normal price plus $6 shipping. To the extent that some of these titles might be UHD (which typically has a $5 premium associated with it) or that the 3 or 4-disc sets end up costing more, it looks a little better. (2-disc sets typically haven't cost any more than 1-disc sets do.) There is now also a $2 tariff offset fee added to each item if you make individual purchases. And shipping appears to be free when you spend over $150 (typically at least 5 deluxe editions). So the average cost per release might be something like this:

Individual purchase each month: $42
6-month subscription: $40.63
Individual purchase every five months: $36

The subscription only becomes a better deal if the added costs from UHD and/or multi-disc sets exceed $37, which seems unlikely to me. Of course, you're also taking a risk if you wait several months to place each order. I don't think it took that long for Cathedral of New Emotions or one of the Gottfried Kolditz cover options to sell out.

Either way, the membership options ARE a great deal, assuming the label doesn't go under anytime soon

[What A Disgrace]

The 3rd quarter subscription for international buyers includes The Devil's Bride, Pied Piper, Soviet Animation Vol 2 and Sirius.

[DJBillyMac]

I got the 6 month subscription and joined the Discord. They post in there pretty regularly and they've shared a few behind-the-scenes things, at least one with a 'please don't share this' disclaimer (so naturally I will not share it). If you're getting a membership or a subscription and you have Discord it's worth checking out.

[MichaelB]

Although presumably there's no point in international purchasers getting a membership, if they can't ship anything outside North America?

(My subscription will continue to be handled by Diabolik - I don't think they're calling it a subscription any more, but the deal is the same: you preorder three months' releases, which are shipped together when ready.)

[Calvin]

Is Sirius the Frantisek Vlacil film?

Sent from my SM-S938B using Tapatalk

[MichaelB]

“Rare Hungarian sci-fi romance”, so no.

The Vláčil Sirius is a 50-minute kids’ film, so I’d be surprised if anyone released it on its own.

[What A Disgrace]

The Sirius in question is a Hungarian time travel film from 1942.

[TechnicolorAcid]

Specifically described in the Deaf Crocodile podcast as a Hungarian version of the Christopher Reeve film, Somewhere in Time.

[Calvin]

“Rare Hungarian sci-fi romance”, so no.

The Vláčil Sirius is a 50-minute kids’ film, so I’d be surprised if anyone released it on its own.

Thanks, I'd missed that part.

A release of Sirius paired with The Legend of the Silver Fir would be dreamy

[Yakushima]

I received my copy of Treasures of Soviet Animation Volume 1 and couldn't resist watching the films right away. Very happy with the restorations and the encodings. My childhood favorite, The Mystery of the Third Planet, looks and sounds absolutely marvelous. The colors appear just a touch less saturated than I remember, but it's hard to say with certainty after 40 years.
One minor gripe - the English subtitles are forced and cannot be switched off, which is annoying to those of us who don't need them. I wonder if this was contractual or an oversight?
I am looking forward to the future volumes in this series. The first volume is truly a treasure - well done, DC!

[Mark L.]

Bill Plympton has directed eight feature length films so far, making him one of the more prolific directors of animated features, the best case scenario would be for all of his features to be released on blu-ray. I hope The Tune is just the start of this.

I watched an interview with Bill Plympton by James Hancock and he said that there’s not any plans, at the moment, for another release of any of his films.

Plympton stuck around a bit after his screening(s) at Metrograph today and I asked him if the plan was for Deaf Crocodile to release all his features and he said something along the lines of “I think that’s the plan?”

I read that to mean it’s not totally his call, but he seems to think at least a couple more releases are coming. He also said he really enjoyed working with the DC team. I had him sign a trading card that came with one of the releases and he was really tickled by it, read the whole back and commented about being on a trading card.

Really delightful guy who was really generous with his time. I recommend attending any screenings advertising his appearance. He was even offering free personalized doodles! The person he works with mentioned they’re planning a couple more appearances this year.

[beamish14]

Bill Plympton has directed eight feature length films so far, making him one of the more prolific directors of animated features, the best case scenario would be for all of his features to be released on blu-ray. I hope The Tune is just the start of this.

I watched an interview with Bill Plympton by James Hancock and he said that there’s not any plans, at the moment, for another release of any of his films.

Plympton stuck around a bit after his screening(s) at Metrograph today and I asked him if the plan was for Deaf Crocodile to release all his features and he said something along the lines of “I think that’s the plan?”

I read that to mean it’s not totally his call, but he seems to think at least a couple more releases are coming. He also said he really enjoyed working with the DC team. I had him sign a trading card that came with one of the releases and he was really tickled by it, read the whole back and commented about being on a trading card.

Really delightful guy who was really generous with his time. I recommend attending any screenings advertising his appearance. He was even offering free personalized doodles! The person he works with mentioned they’re planning a couple more appearances this year.

He’s wonderful. There is an amazing coffee table book on his career from being a newspaper cartoonist to poster child for independent animation in North America

[Yakushima]

Just saw a new message from Deaf Crocodile on X:

"We've paused the tariff offset fee that applied to purchases in our shop. If things change (again) we may need to bring it back, but it is/was not meant to generate profit, so as of now, it is on hiatus pending future absurdities from the Orange Fuehrer. As always thank you so much for your support."

[swo17]

Soviet Animation Vol. 1 and Tragedy of Man are "selling briskly" and "likely won't be around for months"

[TechnicolorAcid]

Binged out the first Soviet Animation set and I thought I’d share some thoughts.

The Return is probably the weakest of the three included primarily because it feels like the style is vastly outweighing anything else (including the animation where half of the film is composed of stills) and you can tell it was the main reason this was made. But at the same time, that style is memorizing, you could probably take any image from this film, hang it up in an art gallery and no one would question it, from the slick and almost metallic astronaut to the warm picturesque home in his dream sequence. The film also happens to create a sense of disassociation throughout its 10 minute runtime, especially in how it’s edited, at its extremest becoming worthy of being labeled seizure-inducing. I imagine watching this with LSD or Acid flowing through your body would make you ascend to the next plane of existence or something.

The Mystery of the Third Planet on the other hand is completely different from The Return, not only being very fluidly animated with the sense that not a single corner in it was cut but also in the sense of pure scale. It flows with little character details and new rules for each planet our main trio visits. Not on the level of Tolkien obviously, but certainly far more detailed than the initial setup would have you except, and that’s excluding any mention of how striking the character designs in this are from the sinister Dr. Vesselchuck to the adorable Chatterbird to the behemoth multi-armed wonder of Gromozeka. There’s also a very relaxed quality to this that I really loved, freely flowing through each world in a wistful, childlike warmth where you can really feel the influence of Roman Kachanov, a director made famous by his singular brand of cuteness in the Cheburashka series, and I can only how captivating it would’ve been to someone who viewed this as a child.

The Pass is a film that I share many of the same opinions on as the The Return (funnily enough both done by Vladimir Tarasov) but the added benefits of The Pass though come from 2 things besides being written by Kir Bulychyov (the man behind MotTP). Firstly, there are actual characters in this with genuine traits to them, the film allowing the viewer an opportunity to care about them which makes the set pieces in it a lot more engaging than had they been blank slates. And secondly, there’s a clearer sense of tone and atmosphere in this, each frame during their pass is given a sense of an undefinable (maybe even Lovecraftian) menace to them, all of which as mind boggling to the viewer as our Earthly stuff is to the children born in this wasteland of a planet before building to a moment of beauty when during the first appearance of the key abandoned ship. If there’s a strength to Tarasov’s work it’s that he knows how to create an image and I also want to quickly shout out his use of light and shadows which become memorizing in his hands. At the very least he’s become a man I’m willing to watch more from, if only because I want to know what happens when a man who did this shifted his focus on directing the final episodes of Well Just You Wait!

[The Curious Sofa]

I want to get the Aleksandr Ptushko box set. Living in Germany, I guess my best option is Amazon.com, but despite Deaf Crocodile releasing this in June, Amazon says it won't ship until September. Is it normal for Deaf Crocodile releases to be available later on other platforms, or is this just an Amazon hiccup?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FBMZLJTV/?c ... _lig_dp_it

[MichaelB]

My current Deaf Crocodile supplier, going back more than a year now, is Diabolik DVD, whose service has been faultless (at least in my experience).

[The Curious Sofa]

Thanks, good call!

[swo17]

There's always a delay of several months before these releases are available on Amazon