Lucked into a copy of The Many Adventures of Winnie-The-Pooh Friendship Edition for $1 at my church rummage sale and it looks pretty much untouched and uncropped, unlike the Blu-Ray which I have in my collection. I’ll take a closer look as soon as I can.
Here’s a quick post spitballing ideas about potentially making fanedits of Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith to a) make certain things make WAY more sense, and b) make the motivations of Anakin turning into Vader a tad bit more believable. If this has already been done, then please tell me.
First, let’s deal with Episode II: Attack of the Clones. My thoughts are to take a lightsaber to just about every scene with Anakin and Padme in them as is humanly possible that make sense in context. So, basically, keep the opening scene with the attempt on Padme’s life, keep the scene with Anakin musing about Padme and how long it’d been since he’d seen her, keep the scenes explaining how they want Anakin to keep watch over Padme, and keep the beginning of the Clone Wars on Geonosis as well as the secret wedding at the end, and clip out every last scene with either Anakin or Padme or both in them otherwise. Those scenes will still become useful, methinks, but by NO means will they stay within Episode II. So now that we’ve cleaned out that nasty bit of business, that takes the length down a peg and that leaves a far more intriguing story, of an almost Obi Wan Kenobi-turned-Batman kind of nature. I actually think THAT movie (which I have temporarily dubbed “The Lightsaber Edit” in my mind) would have actually made a much more compelling and interesting movie than the Episode II that we got.
Second, I am of two minds with respect to Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. I almost want to keep the movie almost as-is, with maybe a couple of scenes getting moved around (it’s been awhile since I’ve seen Episode III, so forgive me), but I was thinking I might add the Shmi Skywalker storyline BACK in, but put it in Episode III, where it actually makes a whole lot more sense to add a tiny bit more depth and pathos to Anakin’s motivations as he turns to the Dark Side and becomes Darth Vader that frankly wasn’t there in Episode III as it was screened in theaters.
The other mind is I make not one, but TWO movies out of Episode II and basically do the same thing to Revenge of the Sith, where II-A would be the main storyline, where the Attack of the Clones subtitle would actually make a tiny bit more sense, and II-B would be ‘The Story of Anakin and Padme, Part 1’. Then, we could do the same thing with Episode III, where III-A would be therein storyline, with the whole Revenge of the Sith thing still in place, but III-B would actually tie off the loose plot threads left at the end of Episode II-B and basically have III-B be “The Story of Anakin and Padme, Part 2” (or I could take that entire Anakin/Padme storyline and just stuff it into II-B and then just have that be a Rogue One side-story type movie that would be optional and take a lightsaber to Episode III as well). And because the Shmi Skywalker storyline makes literally NO sense in the context of Attack of the Clones in my opinion, I think it would work even better as a flashback of sorts in Episode III-A.
Again, this is just me spitballing ideas, but I think that, given how much hatred I have for Episode II, I might actually enjoy making a fan edit that I would rather watch in place of the original Episode II, and maybe I just keep Episode III as is (or I take a lightsaber to much of the Anakin/Padme plot, or I change a few scenes around) and add the Shmi plot line in from Episode II to make the turn to Darth Vader make so much more sense.
Honestly methinks I am rambling here, but I wanted to brain dump this and see if people actually might want this before I try this particular undertaking.
BJ
Hey, does anybody out there possibly still have the pre-BD HD version of Mickey’s Christmas Carol saved somewhere? I thought it was on streaming prior to the BD, with the grain intact, but I can’t find a rip of it anywhere…
No… I have my copy still from the Walt Disney Treasures Mickey Mouse in Living Color Volume 2 DVD set… would that count?
What about Fox and the Hound? I have the PAL fullscreen french laserdisc (“Rox et Rouky”); how is it ranked?
I’m not the most well-versed on PAL releases, so I wouldn’t be able to tell you one way or the other. DoctorM or Molly would probably help you out more than I could. I’ve been starting to buy PAL Region 2 Doctor Who DVDs because they’re getting ridiculously expensive here in Region 1 land.
BJ
Okay, looked into it on Blu-Ray.com and the new Snow White Blu-Ray is basically the same master as the Diamond Edition. Which, given your recommendation of the Diamond Edition as an acceptable alternative DoctorM, seems like a “must-buy” for me. Been wanting Snow White back in my collection of Disney movies for awhile. Had the VHS (really it was a good restoration for its medium, dunno why they decided to continually monkey with it for future releases) and now I’ll probably have the Signature Collection Blu-Ray. Hopefully that stupid DMR-exclusive bonus feature is still there.
BJ
EDIT: Would have been nice had I enclosed a link. http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Snow-White-and-the-Seven-Dwarfs-Blu-ray/144704/#Review
Snow White is a problem because there really is no know original version outside of some film prints. Disney ‘restored’ this film early.
Yeah, I am aware of that being an issue, but I am probably going to have to start putting my money where my mouth is in terms of not buying aggressively restored DVDs and Blu-Rays. And while Snow White was one of the first aggressive restorations, this looks to be the best option for now.
BJ
Okay, looked into it on Blu-Ray.com and the new Snow White Blu-Ray is basically the same master as the Diamond Edition. Which, given your recommendation of the Diamond Edition as an acceptable alternative DoctorM, seems like a “must-buy” for me. Been wanting Snow White back in my collection of Disney movies for awhile. Had the VHS (really it was a good restoration for its medium, dunno why they decided to continually monkey with it for future releases) and now I’ll probably have the Signature Collection Blu-Ray. Hopefully that stupid DMR-exclusive bonus feature is still there.
BJ
EDIT: Would have been nice had I enclosed a link. http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Snow-White-and-the-Seven-Dwarfs-Blu-ray/144704/#Review
My goodness… This would be amazing. I’d love to see what could be done by someone wanting to do this very thing, especially for Charlie Brown Christmas.
Oh my… Looks like I’m picking up the Emmy Honored Collection… Looks like the colors are less blown out, and man that single solitary Flashbeagle clip looks SO GOOD! (Sorry, I’m biased. Been a fan of Flashbeagle for years.)
Is “A Charlie Brown Celebration” the same as “It’s Your 20th Television Anniversary, Charlie Brown”?
So… Stupid question incoming but here you go: Is this more of a preservation of how it originally was shown in the cinemas than the “original theatrical version” they’re supposedly putting onto that new Blu-Ray come this September?
Wow, really? Is there some sample of how bad of a shape the print is in? I’m really, really fascinated by the various versions of Fantasia and am beyond saddened that we will possibly never get to see certain versions of the movie.
Okay, maybe someone else can watch The Three Caballeros on its original VHS or Laserdisc release(s) a couple dozen times to verify this for me (and confirm that I am in fact NOT crazy in this instance), but I thought that there was a frame that WAS edited out on the DVDs.
Specifically, it was during the Flying Gauchito sequence and when the title character and his mount fly through the frame in this one instance, there was a smoking man and his horse, and when the flythru happens, the HORSE is the one smoking. I have NOT seen it on either DVD release, which is quite worrying that they didn't do a proper Walt Disney Treasures release for this movie and the other 'package features" because we will very likely never get a proper, nice-looking release for these amazing movies ever again.
BJ
Well I'm at least marginally interested... since Z keeps getting mangled with every new release from FUNi... (Probably that's the reason why I prefer the original DB... it's not badly messed with every time its rereleased).
Man... your trials / travails with this is starting to make me want to do the same with Muppet Babies (which would be my first project of this nature), which really badly needs a preservation that's closest to the best quality and could (possibly) be used as a proper DVD master if Disney ever got off their butts and did something with the show. That's going to be a Google search and a half to get me started on learning the ropes.
Anyways, I'm rambling now. I'll subscribe so that I can keep better in the loop on your project, which is very important to me because I loved this show as a kid.
BJ
I tried watching this movie in high school... may as well give this movie a shot now, as close as possible to the original theatrical cut. (Also, I'm new here, hi!)
BJ