Záhradka: episode masters over the years

Here's a blast from the past: a VHS tape! Some of you have surely already forgotten this relic of the past. I still used VHSs about ten years ago, mostly to record cartoons. Nowadays, my VCR is, although still completely usable, retired. I have had this tape for many, many years, since around 2003. It was part of a 7-casette collection which included the first 35 episodes of the series. Let's see its covers:

I am sure you recognized the promotional photo as being from Střecha. Indeed, that's the final episode on this VHS. It is preceded by, in order, Obraz, Záhradka, Dážď and Hrnčiari. However, this is not a post about this VHS or my VHS collection, for that matter. The topic of this post concerns the second episode featured on the VHS, Záhradka (or Zahrádka in Czech - or The Garden in English). In fact, what I will be talking about today is how this episode has been presented on home video and other official releases throughout the decades.

You might think that only one master exists for each ...a je to! episode, but you would be quite wrong, especially when talking about this episode. Now, there is a reason why I started this post with my old VHS tape. As you can see, it was produced in 2001. A lot of time - nineteen years - has passed since it arrived to stores and its medium has long become obsolete. Yet, if you were to buy a DVD with this episode today, you would get the same master as on the ancient 2001 tape. Two decades have passed, VHSs have bitten the dust and the DVDs are not far behind. HD television devices have become commonplace, yet we are still watching prehistoric copies of this series. By "we", I mean the vast majority of the world, but, as it turns out, not the whole world. Stick with me if you want to find out more, but first, let's go even further back in history.

I don't know what was Záhradka's first release on home video. Given all the different countries this series was shown in, it's hard to even think where the episode might have appeared on video first. My Polish friend Rakso says that ... a je to! first appeared on tape in Poland way back in 1985 (judging by a copyright date on the VHS cover) and if that's indeed true, it's quite possibly the oldest release of this episode as well. Let's skip a bit to the 1990s, where we have some concrete information:

Back when Lubomír Beneš was still alive, his studio aiF started issuing VHSs of the episodes. In fact, judging by this title card, VHSs might have been the first thing they produced. On this VHS (which I've only "seen" from rips posted online), the opening and closing titles were cut and replaced by newly filmed opening titles for each episode, with this closing title being present only at the end of the VHS. The copyright date is 1990:

(1) aiF VHS (1992)

In 1992, the studio produced seven new episodes, which went straight to video and were then shown on Česká televize. These episodes were released as VHS #6, with the previous episodes occupying VHSs 1 to 5. Záhradka was placed on VHS #2. When the studio finished seven new episodes in 1994, it released them as VHS #7, with the six previous volumes getting a re-edition. Perhaps I'll post more images of those tapes later on, but for now, here is VHS #2 from 1994:

The images are courtesy of Mateush, who recently bought the whole 7-tape collection through an online auction. Unfortunately, I cannot show you a good representation of what Záhradka looked like on this VHS. Mateush hasn't been able to transfer the tape to digital yet. I can, however, offer someone's rip from the first part of the 2000s - 2003, it seems. The quality of the video is, as such, limited to the technology of the time:

Update: Here's a much better rip, courtesy of a gracious YT uploader and aiF fan:

Before continuing, I should point out that the opening titles of the episode are messed up, being completely off-sync and with each card lasting much shorter than it should. This is not a consequence of any mastering, just the way the episode was originally filmed.

It seems the copies used for these VHS releases were 16 mm prints. That's nothing unusual. Even though all Pat & Mat episodes shot on film were shot on 35 mm, 16 mm prints were surely much cheaper to use and transfer, especially in the early 1990s. The episodes from these masters, therefore, look pretty much the worst they have ever looked. The colors are yellowish and there is a lot of dirt, while splices (sections where the film was damaged and then had to be manually glued back together, creating a distracting jump of a number of frames) are also common. Overall, everything is a bit off.

It seems the prints used for these VHS releases were TV prints managed to this day by Slovenská televízia. Please note that by "print", I mean a physical, film copy of an episode. Some episodes (curiously, not Záhradka as well) feature cue marks on the closing titles. These were used to signal when a particular film is going to reach its end and were typically placed 8 seconds before the film's end. Cue marks are not part of the original films and their inclusion shows us these are TV prints. There was even a big mistake with the mark for Grill, which was placed much too early and, as a consequence, the closing title was cut early as well. You can see this copy here.

typical appearance on a 1979 episode

mistake on Grill

The practice seems to have been discontinued in 1982, with only Voda and Maľovanie receiving cue marks from that copyright year. Interestingly, the cue mark from Voda is round, not rectangular and this is what brings me to how I learned that these prints came from Slovenská televízia, STV.

Skip this part if you don't want to know why these are prints by STV: In 2010, someone from Slovakia uploaded several of their airings of .. a je to! episodes. I was shocked to find out that these were the same prints from the 1990s VHSs, only they have been remastered (i.e. transferred from film again, now not on tape, but on digital) and looked twice as bad. Case in point: Voda. That episode's print is probably the worst in terms of dirt, with no frame being spared. This is what it looked like in 1992. By the time STV aired it again around 2010 (link to video - sorry for the distorted sound, this was not downloaded from YouTube properly and the original video has long since been deleted), the colors had been washed up twice as bad and there was even more damage: compare the damage at 8:44 and 8:42 in the respective videos. While in the 1990s, a couple of damaged frames were still somehow held together by glue, by the 2010s, these frames had to be cut from the film and you can notice a jump cut. This damage, the dirt and the same cue mark convinced me this is the same print from the 1990s. The fact that STV aired it in the 2010s (and maybe still does?!) is quite a shame - none of the episodes deserve to be presented in such bas shape. End of STV section.

Unfortunately, I have not seen an STV airing of Záhradka, so I can't make a comparison for that episode (Update August 20: it turns out that STV simply aired ABZ's master (2) in the 2010s, as evidenced here). All in all, the episodes never looked worse on home video than on the 1990s releases, with the 1979 episodes faring the worst (with very faded colors even then) and the 1981-85 episodes looking only marginally better. New masters just had to be made! P.S. There are surely some other prints of Záhradka which I won't discuss much as they don't really fit into this story. For instance, Dutch TV VPRO as of recently still used their old, 1980s print with dubbed voices and that one again looks completely different. Here's a link to it.

(2) standard Ateliéry Bonton Zlín master (cca. 2000)

In 2000 or 2001, Ateliéry Bonton Zlín (I'll call them ABZ to save some space) got their hands on the copyrights of the first 35 episodes after the fallout from aiF Studio's bankruptcy. If you are less than 25 years of age, the possibility that you have ever seen Záhradka from some other master other than this one is quite marginal. Here's a link to it, from Bonton's official channel. Unfortunately, the official channel uploaded the episodes with off-sync audio! It is not something they can be proud of. Notice that this copy also has an insipid final title card added on to the credits to attest ABZ's copyright (this was present only on Czech DVD releases, as far as I know). This, apart from the off-sync audio, is the familiar print that has been used on all releases produced by or licensed from Bonton.

If you opened this video, did you notice a big difference from the previous one? Rather than seeing it, did you hear it? The reason I chose Záhradka for this comparison post specifically is its sound quality. ABZ's master of the episode has incredibly bad sound quality. This thing sounds like it was recorded by Edison's phonograph or something from that age - unbelievably muffled and distorted. Really, no other episode sounds even remotely as bad as this. From a visual standpoint, the episode definitely looks better than in the 1990s releases. This is obviously not the same print used by STV. Where did ABZ get their prints? I won't try to guess as the possibilities seem endless. However, I will say that they did not make new masters for all the episodes, or at least they did not make masters from other prints for all the episodes. It seems that the source material for some 1983 episodes (and maybe some later ones) was the same. For instance, the large jump cut at the end of Veľké pranie is identical on aiF's and ABZ's releases. Tělocvična, Raňajky v tráve and Práčka also all look to have been transferred from the same prints. Also, as the series progresses, the quality of the source materials seems to go down - the 1985 entries are in much worse shape than 1979 entries. The 1979-81 episodes definitely don't have cue marks on ABZ's releases, I should say. All in all, the episodes look better than in the 1990s, but even by the early 2000s standards, these copies were obsolete. They also probably came from 16 mm materials. You have never seen anything better, so maybe you think I am overreacting and this is just what the episode looks and sounds like. Keep reading - this is where things take a turn and get interesting.

(3) Ateliéry Bonton Zlín master with great sound quality (2018?)

Years and years passed before I saw any improvement from Záhradka or any other episode for that matter. I was convinced better materials exist somewhere. There was even this hint about the original negatives dropped by Vladimir J Rott back in 2014 (source):

Perhaps, there may soon be a BD/4K video edition of all his [Beneš's] 49 shorts from the 35 mm master negatives...

Unfortunately, Rott never returned any of e-mails, so I never got to know more. We do know that nothing about updating the masters happened in the end. Almost nothing. It was in autumn 2018 when RTL Kockica, a Croatian kids' channel, bought the rights to air episodes 1-78. Previously, P+M were shown by HRT, so this was the debut of the series on Kockica. I had a tinge of hope that I would see some new copies of the episodes on that channel. Of course, I was immediately disappointed when Tapety turned out to be same faded, ancient copy I had seen on all DVD releases. However, by pure stubbornness (and enjoyment of classic episodes), I stuck by and eventually, Záhradka came along. While watching it on my HDTV, I couldn't believe my ears. The sound was really nice and sharp! The visuals were same old, same old, but the audio was brand new! Later on, as RTL Kockica also operates a streaming service for some of their broadcasts, I managed to record the audio from their copy. Here's a link to it and here's how the episode more-or-less looks when they air it - old visuals matched up with new audio:

No amount of digital work could have made that rubbish audio track sound as good as this. After Záhradka had easily the worst sound quality of any episode for many years, it suddenly has significantly better sound quality than any other episode! I don't know where this track came from, but it sounds great, which means it was newly mastered from a high quality source. Original negatives or something similar sounds not only plausible, but probable. Unfortunately, this master was never issued on an official DVD release (or release of any other kind), so Croatia might be the only country where it was ever shown.

I asked Bonton's marketing team about this copy and their masters in general, but received only a short non-answer, which can be summed up as:

Restoration of the series is not planned. We have different priorities.

Generally, I would be almost content with that info, begrudgingly noting that I can't do much else anyway. However, the existence of other masters, unseen in almost all corners of the world, is about to turn everything on its head.

(4) TDK Deep Impression master (2001)

Cover of the TDK DVD which featured Záhradka 

Before continuing, I have to mention the patron saint of Pat and Mat fans worldwide, Jürg Schaeppi. If it weren't for him, this section of the post wouldn't even exist. You see, somewhere around 2003 Jürg came to know that some DVDs of Pat and Mat were also issued in Japan. So, what did he do? Well, spend bucketloads of money to bring them to his home in Switzerland, of course! The DVDs themselves were really expensive and that's not even counting shipping. I had known of their existence as he also discussed them on his Pat & Mat fansite years ago. The collection was released in 2001 (also in the form of VHS tapes) and the interesting thing is that the copyright holder for ... a je to! is listed as Slovenská televízia on all of the covers. Jürg's notes (about the masters being different from the masters on the Czech DVDs) made me believe that TDK somehow got the old masters (1) and issued them on DVD. So, I wasn't expecting much. Luckily, I got in touch with Jürg through this blog and, in the end, he showed me what one of the episodes looked like there. Instead of describing my reaction, here is what I originally wrote in response:

OMG, it looks amazing, 10 ten times better than the ABZ copy! This is definitely NOT from the same batch that STV has been airing. These Japanese DVDs have completely stumped me now! It is a real revelation.

This is the master used for Záhradka on that Japanese DVD. I would just like to point out that the episode is slowed down due to a different frames per second standard (Japan uses NTSC) and, of course, the video suffered some compression artefacts for it to get to YouTube:

I hope you were as surprised to see this as me. This master isn't perfect (don't forget, it's from 2001!), but it beats ABZ's (2) in every aspect without a single doubt. There's a simple explanation why: the source materials used for this master were of far, far better quality than whatever ABZ has been handling. It is quite obvious when you compare this master with the previous ones. Overall, it is a bit on the dark side, but the picture is static, splices are nowhere to be found and there is no noticeable damage. These masters were definitely made from 35 mm prints and I believe from materials held by the original producer, Krátký Film Praha. More on that later on. If you are somehow still unconvinced that the ABZ master is far inferior to TDK's, here's a small comparison: the left side of the frame is from TDK's master, while the right side is from ABZ's. Actually, part of the right side is also taken by TDK's master, as it features much more of the frame! Thanks to Rakso for making this video:

Just the difference in color reminds me of this gag from Tex Avery's 1948 cartoon Lucky Ducky: two dogs are chasing a duckling into a forest. During the chase, everything suddenly turns black and white, the trio having passed a sign indicating Technicolor ends here. On the left is a colorful world, while on the right everything is colorless.

It's a neat way of illustrating how ABZ's masters can't hold a candle to TDK's in most cases. A further post, where I will specifically talk about TDK's DVDs, is coming soon!

However, (3) still features better sound quality than (4), so here's our own mash-up of those two:

(5) Unofficial: (4)'s video and (3)'s sound:

The verdict

Of all the official releases, (4) is the undisputed winner. (5) is the best an .. a je to! episode can look and sound and overall, the best condition of an episode imaginable right now. It's a pity that in this day and age such condition can only be achieved by video editing and it's an absolute shame that almost all of the world is still stuck with (2), almost 20 years after much, much better masters were issued in Japan. May I remind you that TDK's DVDs were published before ABZ's?! As more time passed, I become more angry that I had to watch the series in such a sorry state as (2) when better copies were available elsewhere. I can't shake off the feeling that, had more care been given by ABZ, the TDK masters could have also been shown in Europe, although it's quite possible ABZ didn't even know they existed, which would maybe be an even sorrier state of affairs. In any case, Pat & Mat is beloved around the world, and ABZ (which seems to have been closed in a reshuffling of companies under the Bonton umbrella some years ago) have been open in saying that the series is highly profitable:

Pat and Mat are watched by children all over the world! And the licensee, Ateliéry Bonton Zlín, have their hands full. "We sell Pat and Mat all over the world. People are interested in them everywhere and the series earns us a lot of money," said Katarina Morvai, CEO of Ateliéry Bonton Zlín. 

And how much does one episode of Pat and Mat cost? "There are licenses where the price is in the tens of euros per episode, but also those where the price is in the thousands of euros per episode," said David Budský, an employee of the international department of Ateliéry Bonton Zlín, to Šíp yesterday.

But with Pat and Mat licenses, it's not that simple. Several people took part in the creation of this ingenious work at once, so each episode must be accounted for separately. "Only misters Jiránek and Beneš are the authors of the original. However, four other people took part in each episode, and we must take them into account as well", Budský added.

And what about the rumor that the licensing rights to this series are owned by Disney? "This is complete misinformation. We negotiated with them about selling several episodes, but we will never sell the license for Pat and Mat. It basically feeds us", he said regarding the four-year-old rumor that the popular Czech show is in the hands of Americans.

What you just read comes from an article in Šíp magazine dated August 10, 2007 (link), so exactly 13 years ago. From the way ABZ has presented the series over the years and from their own words, the feeling I get is that the old episodes will never receive an update as long as they bring in good profit. To be fair, that's certainly not unusual in classic animation circles. The aforementioned Tex Avery, one of the best cartoon directors of all time received a Blu-ray release of some of his work from the best available materials only half a year ago. It was the first proper release of his work. That set features 19 cartoons from his days at MGM, when he was at his wildest and most popular. Overall, Avery directed 65 cartoons at MGM, so that collection is far from complete. As you see, even if Pat and Mat were owned by Americans, things would hardly be any different.

I am writing this during the week in which we are celebrating the 44th anniversary of the characters' debuts. The 50th anniversary is only six years away. I don't hold out much hope that anything will change when it comes round, but maybe, just maybe it gets the copyright owners to reconsider and try to create new masters of the series. Otherwise, you will be stuck rewatching the VHS tape from the opening of this post over and over without even realizing it.