Universal Pictures Celebrating 100 Years of Filmmaking

When Carl Laemmle started Universal Pictures in 1912, I wonder what he imagined the future of the then young moviemaking business would be.  He had already seen it evolve from nickelodeon novelties into a mass medium for entertainment.  Did he envision sound, let alone color or 3D?  Here we are now, 2012, and films have come a long way.  Universal will be celebrating its centennial with a spruced up new logo.  It also announced that it would be restoring a number of classics from its impressive library.

The 13 movies announced for restoration span the rich history of the studio:

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Dracula (1931)
Dracula (Spanish version, 1931)
Frankenstein (1931)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Buck Privates (starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, 1941)
Pillow Talk (1959)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
The Birds (1963)
The Sting (1973)
Jaws (1975)
Out of Africa (1985)
Schindler's List (1993)

I think it's a great thing to celebrate the pillars of cinema history, and especially laudable to invest in their preservation.  As long as the folks at Universal don't get any bright ideas to convert those classics into 3D monstrosities, I'm all for it.  They will likely be released on Blu-Ray and hopefully toured in actual movie theaters so people can witness them first hand the way they were meant to be seen -- on the big screen.

Happy 100th birthday, Universal.  Mr. Laemmle would be proud.