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Info: Films re-released with alterations — Page 5

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Updated to include more known alterations in the Terminator 2 4K master.

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The Tin Drum (Die Blechtrommel) is a 1979 German film that won the Oscar for best foreign film. On blu ray I believe that only the extended director’s cut is available.

EDIT: Sorry, I didn’t realize this was mainly a digital alterations thread.

The Person in Question

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crissrudd4554 said:

It’s been confirmed here that the 40th Anniversary release of Grease replaces the previously blurred Coke posters with Pepsi posters.

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=302343&page=10

Since my Grease 40th Anniversary DVD arrived today, figured I’d post some grabs. As most know, Grease for the last 40 years has had ‘blurred’ posters in the Frosty Palace scenes. That’s because the posters displayed Coca-Cola logos and there was a product placement deal with Pepsi. Here’s screen shots without the blurs that have surfaced online (none of the video releases are without the blurs).

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Here’s how it appeared from 1978 'til now.

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Here’s how it appears on the 40th Anniversary release.

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Some more examples.

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Here you can see a Coke cooler not only has the logo removed but has been changed from red to a dark orange.

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When Danny talks to Sandy at the jukebox, another Coke logo is blurred on the menu in the background. The logo appears untouched later in the film.

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However here it is earlier in the film.

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For the 40th Anniversary release the blurred areas are replaced by menu text.

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Also note that a shadow of a microphone has been digitally erased from the jukebox?? This may have been done for the Rockin’ Rydell edition judging from the Audio Commentary.

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This is utterly crazy considering there’s a skit on the Saturday Night Live Season 4 DVD set that has both Coke and Pepsi products shown in it! That had to have been cleared for the video release. Maybe NBC/Universal was willing to cut both companies a check?

Chris Solo had been working on restoring the Coke signs, but has been away for quite some time.

At least we’re allegedly getting the original sound mix back after all these years?

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Where were you in '77?

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SilverWook said:

This is utterly crazy considering there’s a skit on the Saturday Night Live Season 4 DVD set that has both Coke and Pepsi products shown in it! That had to have been cleared for the video release. Maybe NBC/Universal was willing to cut both companies a check?

Yeah, using the original posters would be fair use. There’s no need to clear licensing on anything. The only reason they were blurred to begin with is the movie had a deal with Pepsi, and that deal is definitely not in effect today. I wonder if they don’t have the original, un-blurred negative, and figured that replacing the blurs would be less distracting. It still doesn’t explain why they removed the coke logo from the cooler. I guess for consistency.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture DE - The Anti-DNR Fanedit
Duel (1971) - The Hybrid Cut
The Phantom of the Opera - 1925 Version Reconstruction - Rare Scores Collection - Roy Budd Score

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Just checked the Italian PAL laserdisc (released in 1990); the blurred poster is there, but the Coke cooler is untouched - it is definitely not orange, and, albeit resolution is low, the logo can be seen.


(sorry for the horrible picture, can’t capture it right now…)

And the mix is the original one - at least, according to that youtube video; no added choir, for example. Of course it is dubbed in Italian, but songs are in English.

Sadly my projects are lost due to an HDD crash… 😦 | [Fundamental Collection] thread | blog.spoRv.com | fan preservation forum: fanres.com

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They didn’t change the Coke cooler until the 40th Anniversary release. My guess consistency as well although if it was left untouched for the last 40 years what’s the point??

And yes my guess is the added Pepsi poster wasn’t done from scratch. You can clearly still see some matting effects so my guess is the Pepsi poster was placed over the optical as opposed to the unaltered poster.

Also looks like I was right about the mic shadow on the jukebox being added to the Rockin’ Rydell edition. The grabs I used above for the ‘original’ are from the 2002 DVD yet here’s a video that still shows the blurred logo on the menu yet the mic shadow is gone.

https://youtu.be/x0q2x_8zvcY

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Here’s some grabs from the Sing-A-Long version. The Coke poster is digitally replaced with the wall while the Coke cooler is left untouched. The Coke logo on the menu is still blurred and the mic shadow on the jukebox is also missing from this version. Additionally the Coke poster is still in the background later on. Image size may vary as I had to use a snipping tool for these.

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The rotoscoping around them is pretty obvious. Does it look as bad in motion?

Grease sure sounds like it should again based on those youtube clips. 😃

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Where were you in '77?

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JayArgonaut said:

How can we forget to include this? 😮

Back to the Future

The Babylon 5 DVD’s have been visually altered (mutilated, really) in order for WB to market them as “16:9.”

http://babylon5.wikia.com/wiki/Babylon_5_DVD_Releases

http://home.iae.nl/users/starcat/b5tvm/

https://www.modeemi.fi/~leopold/Babylon5/DVD/DVDTransfer.html

The title seen during the closing moments of the Scarface Special Edition DVD, “this film is dedicated to Howard Hawks and Ben Hecht” has a different screen position and text colour from the version featured on the 1998 widescreen VHS release. I suspect but can’t confirm 100% that the VHS (and LD, presumably) title text is very likely from the theatrical print and de Palma probably created a new version for the SE DVD. Sadly I no longer have a copy of the W/S VHS release from which I could produce a comparison screen grab.

I have the '98 Scarface DVD which i’m pretty sure uses the same transfer as the laserdisc. I know it’s non animorphic and looks alot rougher than the 2003 Anniversary Edition transfer. I could screencap it for you if you’d like, I’d just have to do a little digging in my closet as I’m not sure which box it’s in at the moment.

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SilverWook said:

The rotoscoping around them is pretty obvious. Does it look as bad in motion?

Grease sure sounds like it should again based on those youtube clips. 😃

It’s not terrible but far FAR from great. IMO they softened the edges of the people too much that they almost look like ghosts. The tracking of the Pepsi poster is off in a few spots. The shot where Rizzo says ‘With relish’ the poster shifts slightly. I guess the Sing-A-Long version with the poster removed altogether is a bit believable although by a tiny margin.

And yes there’s been an almost unanimous praise of the sound. It’s great to hear the film this way again without all the distractions of the '98 mix. Honestly, the sound and restoration of the original Paramount logos are what sold me on this release.

Looking closer does this look like a digital alteration or perhaps a result of restoring or color adjusting?? This may date back to the RR edition but on the SAL and 40th anniversary releases the light glare on the glass that partly covers the Coke/Pepsi poster is much fuller and brighter compared to the 2002 DVD to where you can’t see through it.

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Also there’s been a lot of complaints about this. Look at Danny’s face. This is on the 40th Anniversary release.

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Here it was previously.

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So yeah apparently a coloring error on the new release.

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It was probably easier to make it opaque so they had less work to do on the new Pepsi sign?

Danny’s Face: Yikes! And I thought the pink tennis ball in The Shining was a colossal screw up!

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Where were you in '77?

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SilverWook said:

It was probably easier to make it opaque so they had less work to do on the new Pepsi sign?

I initially thought it was a 40th Anniversary change but the glare appears that way on the Sing-A-Long version, before the Pepsi sign was added, so I’m not sure.

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Nien Nunb said:

JayArgonaut said:

The title seen during the closing moments of the Scarface Special Edition DVD, “this film is dedicated to Howard Hawks and Ben Hecht” has a different screen position and text colour from the version featured on the 1998 widescreen VHS release. I suspect but can’t confirm 100% that the VHS (and LD, presumably) title text is very likely from the theatrical print and de Palma probably created a new version for the SE DVD. Sadly I no longer have a copy of the W/S VHS release from which I could produce a comparison screen grab.

I have the '98 Scarface DVD which i’m pretty sure uses the same transfer as the laserdisc. I know it’s non animorphic and looks alot rougher than the 2003 Anniversary Edition transfer. I could screencap it for you if you’d like, I’d just have to do a little digging in my closet as I’m not sure which box it’s in at the moment.

That’s really nice of you to offer. Yes, if you can, please do. 😃

Does the '98 DVD contain the English intro text crawl? Universal erased it from the 2003 DVD and they replaced it with DVD generated subtitles, depending upon the language selection. This completely skipped my mind, till the theatrical version aired on TV recently. I don’t know what the case is with the Blu-ray. It’s insane the amount of subtle or glaring revisions that are visited upon films.

“Logic is the battlefield of adulthood.”

  • Howard Berk
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LordZerome1080 said:

And I was thinking only Star Wars had it bad.

I know of at least one movie that’s been altered far worse than even Star Wars.

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Where were you in '77?

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Pretty close. 😉
There’s a stop motion animated adaptation of The Nutcracker from Japan that msycamore and I were wanting to restore the American cut from 1979. There was only a Japanese DVD on the market and the Japanese cut is very different. That version got thoroughly mangled by it’s owner for an anniversary re-release. Questionable 3D cgi was added and the original Japanese dub re-recorded with new actors.
https://youtu.be/q-AEzTcb93Q

Fortunately, there is finally a domestic DVD of the American cut.

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JayArgonaut said:

That’s really nice of you to offer. Yes, if you can, please do. 😃

Does the '98 DVD contain the English intro text crawl? Universal erased it from the 2003 DVD and they replaced it with DVD generated subtitles, depending upon the language selection. This completely skipped my mind, till the theatrical version aired on TV recently. I don’t know what the case is with the Blu-ray. It’s insane the amount of subtle or glaring revisions that are visited upon films.

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403 Forbidden?

“Logic is the battlefield of adulthood.”

  • Howard Berk
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JayArgonaut said:

403 Forbidden?

Sorry, After I realized the links didn’t work, the internet went out on me last night. I’ll have to figure it out when I get home. I still can’t figure out how to post the image links so they display properly.

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I watched my 1985 Rocky laserdisc (Japanese) recently and noticed during the final scene that some of the audio was different from the version on blu ray and dvd.

After the final bell in the Rocky\Apollo fight, a piano piece plays briefly before the main music kicks in. IMDB mentions this was removed for the surround sound versions for DVD.

The next thing I cant find any reference to online. On the Laserdisc after the final bell rings, Apollo says "Aint gonna be no rematch" just once and Rocky replies "Dont want one" twice, the second time sounding quite emotional and like he REALLY doesnt want one.

Does anyone know when they changed that to the version that is on every DVD\Blu Ray\youtube upload that I can find of the scene. Apollo saying “Aint gonna be no rematch" twice, followed by a single relatively nonchalant "Dont want one” from Rocky?