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Toy Story (1995) 1.5K restoration in 3D (a WIP; v1.0.3 currently available)

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OK, in honor of the release of Toy Story 4, I’m working on a logo restoration of the original movie, in 3D and its original 1.5K resolution. Preliminary planned languages are English, French Canadian, Mexican Spanish, Castilian Spanish, German, and Italian.

Sources I plan to use include:

  • Toy Story 3D Blu-ray (for the bulk of the restoration)
  • Toy Story UK R2 DVD (for the logo restoration and the Dolby Stereo Digital English track)
  • Histoire de jouets Canadian pan-and-scan VHS (for reference when framing to the theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1, as it appears to be sourced from a 35mm release print which was apparently pre-cropped to the aspect ratio from the original 1.66:1)
  • Recreated rating slides, including MPAA G card

I may have to recreate some stuff from and/or use lower-quality sources for the finished product, so bear with me. I’ve already created a preliminary version of the zooming-out Disney logo at the start, and it looks a little rough with the stereo separation I applied for the zoomout/transition to the opening scene. PM me for a WeTransfer link to the stereo 3D opening logo recreation, which should be ready as early as the next day for those who request it.

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Noice

“Get over violence, madness and death? What else is there?”

Also known as Mr. Liquid Jungle.

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I may do similar restorations for other Pixar films progressively (i.e. in order of release); they shall have their own threads, when they’re underway, and they shall be accompanied by their respective initial theatrical shorts.

After I finish with this restoration, I was thinking of doing Tiny Toy Stories next; course, I gotta do some research on the original resolutions of each short from Red’s Dream onward, plus I gotta recreate the titles for both the US and international versions.

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This sounds awesome! The original theatrical fade from the Disney logo to the wallpaper is engrained in my head no matter how many times I watch the blu. Thanks for taking on this project!

EDIT: Are you by chance planning a 2D version as well?

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Planned preshow program (US version):

  • “Coming Soon” snipe
  • Jumanji final theatrical trailer
  • Muppet Treasure Island theatrical trailer
  • James and the Giant Peach theatrical trailer
  • Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco theatrical trailer
  • Flipper teaser trailer
  • Sailor Moon SuperS: The Black Dream Hole theatrical trailer
  • Policy trailer
  • “Feature Presentation” snipe
  • Dolby Train
  • THX Cimarron (Dolby Digital variant)
  • The Adventures of André and Wally B.

Correct me if I got any positions flip-flopped, and I want to try to include the Pacific Theatres snipe(s) if at all possible, preferably from a 35mm scan.

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Heh, I never really finished my version, but I was mostly just gonna do a color restoration. You won’t mind if I do that too will you? I’ve got other projects to finish first, but I never exactly gave up on Toy Story. Of course, I don’t think any of us would have even thought about restoring Toy Story if it weren’t for swazzy’s
post several years ago.

BTW, I ripped my laserdisc of the film recently and its a great source for color reference. Let me know if you want me to send it to you.

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I think Toy Story may have had alternate language titles on its 3D Blu-ray release, but right now the only release where I’m 100% positive about that is the Spanish release, which has English, German, and Castilian Spanish titles. I might need some help creating clean (textless) versions of the opening credits, the message on Buzz Lightyear’s spaceship, the Magic 8-Ball, and the Buzz Lightyear commercial (all in 3D, remember, so textless frames need to be created for each eye), but that depends on the translation instances I can verify.

For example, the French Canadian version has its credits subfont replaced by a serif font, and when Woody is pulled offscreen to reveal the film’s logo behind him it’s just the background for a split second before “Histoire de jouets” appears onscreen. However, at present I’m not sure if the French Canadian text appears on the American and/or Canadian 3D Blu-ray as well.

In addition to sourcing from any 3D Blu-ray release around the world as necessary, I’m also going to need to hunt for the following tapes to verify the extent of the translation work that needs to be done for each language:

  • Castilian Spanish VHS
  • European French VHS
  • German VHS
  • Italian VHS
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Just got the Mexican Spanish VHS in the mail, and it looks thus far like only the “Walt Disney Pictures presents” and “a Pixar production” cards got translated into Spanish there. I’ll have to watch further to get a better idea of what the Mexican Spanish print looks like (I’m not even ten minutes into the feature presentation at present), but I suspect it uses the same print as that released later in the decade in anticipation of its sequel (which I don’t have, I only have any hint of what the 1999 VHS print looks like because of YouTube videos).

ETA: They also translated the Buzz Lightyear spaceship text, the Magic 8-Ball (“No cuentes con ello”), and the commercial, and there are also dubbing credits at the start and end of the closing credits.

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With Jonno’s help, I’ll soon be able to make a list of things that will appear in the UK version preshow. The one thing I already knew for sure is that Roller Coaster Rabbit might have been the short subject that preceded the feature in the UK.

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I found the discussion where someone remembers seeing RCR before Toy Story, and this is somewhat backed up by IMDB.

On the other hand, the print that I saw at the time had no short at all, so it must not have been a universal thing. Perhaps we should have it anyway to represent an optimum screening experience…

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Well… (as I said in my PM) I was working at a cinema at the time, which means I have a general recollection of what was being used but not so much that’s screening-specific.

Toy Story had a relatively late release in the UK - 22nd March 1996. Looking at what was released over the following weeks and months, along with the standard distributor associations (Disney would have given priority to Odeon theatres but they’d have been less likely to show a Warner film, for instance), this is what I’d use.

Sgt Bilko (UIP 29/3/96)
Balto (UIP 29/3/96)
Dunston Checks In (Fox 29/3/96)
Muppet Treasure Island (Buena Vista 24/5/96)
James and the Giant Peach (Guild Pathe 2/8/96)

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Not at the local cinemas I frequented. Dolby Digital might have been used (immediately before the BBFC certificate) in larger theatres, e.g. in London. THX is very uncommon in the UK, due to the lack of certified screens - can’t think of a single time I’ve seen that in the cinema, in fact (and I’ve been to most of the larger London cinemas).

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Charles Threepio said:

OK, in honor of the release of Toy Story 4, I’m working on a logo restoration of the original movie, in 3D and its original 1.5K resolution. Preliminary planned languages are English, French Canadian, Mexican Spanish, Castilian Spanish, German, and Italian.

Sources I plan to use include:

  • Toy Story 3D Blu-ray (for the bulk of the restoration)
  • Toy Story UK R2 DVD (for the logo restoration and the Dolby Stereo Digital English track)
  • Histoire de jouets Canadian pan-and-scan VHS (for reference when framing to the theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1, as it appears to be sourced from a 35mm release print which was apparently pre-cropped to the aspect ratio from the original 1.66:1)
  • Recreated rating slides, including MPAA G card

I may have to recreate some stuff from and/or use lower-quality sources for the finished product, so bear with me. I’ve already created a preliminary version of the zooming-out Disney logo at the start, and it looks a little rough with the stereo separation I applied for the zoomout/transition to the opening scene. PM me for a WeTransfer link to the stereo 3D opening logo recreation, which should be ready as early as the next day for those who request it.

That’s gonna be so good! I’m doing a DTS LaserDisc to 1080p MKV project, and Toy Story is among the titles, so Threepio, is it okay if your transfer is the source for the main feature on the Blu-ray copy of the classic animation for the project I’m doing? Also, may I have a WeTransfer link to the stereo 3D opening logo recreation (but I don’t know how to PM you!)?

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Those who requested the preliminary stereo zooming-out Disney logo should have the WeTransfer link in their inboxes soon. It’s essentially the right eye view thereof (we all know what the left eye view looks like from those old prints).

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Jonno said:

Not at the local cinemas I frequented. Dolby Digital might have been used (immediately before the BBFC certificate) in larger theatres, e.g. in London. THX is very uncommon in the UK, due to the lack of certified screens - can’t think of a single time I’ve seen that in the cinema, in fact (and I’ve been to most of the larger London cinemas).

On my DTS LaserDisc to Blu-ray copy of this film (which your restoration will be the main source), I am going to use a 35mm scan of the Tex Robot trailer (just to pay homage to the deluxe CAV LaserDisc boxset) as the disc’s THX trailer. What do you think?

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BTW for the 3D version, should I use the 3D closing credits or the 2D closing credits? And if I should use the latter, should I apply 3D enhancements or leave them as they are?

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OK, the following subtitle tracks are confirmed:

  • English SDH
  • English with titles
  • English (titles only)
  • French
  • French (titles only)
  • German
  • German (titles only)
  • Italian
  • Italian (titles only)
  • Japanese (based on the subtitles on the VHS release)
  • Spanish (Castellano)
  • Spanish (Castellano) (titles only)
  • Spanish (Latino)
  • Spanish (Latino) (titles only)

Some of the subtitles for each version may hew closer to dubtitles than to the official subtitle tracks, depending on what I’m able to decipher from each dub track. For example, “To infinity and beyond!” will be translated in the subtitles as “¡Al infinito y más allá!” in the Spanish (Latino) subtitle track and as “¡Hasta el infinito y más allá!” in the Spanish (Castellano) subtitle track. Also, I’m considering the use of other foreign English-language sources, including from Italy (yes, Disney released some of their films there on VHS in the original English language, believe it or not), as sources for foreign language subtitles, but only if those sources are what I think they are.

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Man I really want this to get released, well in the words of April O’Neil from the first TMNT NES game “You have my support”