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Fantasia - Special Edition laserdisc (Released) — Page 2

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Charles Threepio said:

If this “perfect” edition isn’t the 1990 reissue edition with the uncensored Pastoral Symphony, I’d be much interested in making that one of my (admittedly very many) projects at some point in the near future.

By all means if you want to take that task and come up with something, please do so. As I’ve said before it amazes me how many versions of Song of the South and OT Star Wars we have. Yet almost nothing for Fantasia.

IMO this is the perfect Fantasia:

Blu Ray footage
Sunflower scenes from HD 35mm inserted in
LD Audio for most of the footage (including Deems where available)
DVD audio or 90s CD soundtrack audio for the Sunflower scenes where missing from LD audio
DVD audio dub for missing Deems voice

This basically restores Fantasia to the 1940 as much as possible using all the best available elements today.

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Could you PM me the 35mm footage you’ve got, for good measure? Thanks!

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OK, so as soon as I have all the materials gathered together, I’ll do the following with the visuals:

  1. Attempt to align the 35mm footage I’ve received in digital form as closely with the Blu-ray footage as possible, and crop accordingly (hopefully, very little, if any, of the 35mm footage should be trimmed);
  2. Clean up the same 35mm footage;
  3. Recolor the Blu-ray footage to match the 35mm footage as closely as possible; and
  4. For the 1990 theatrical version, recreate the closing credits.

My release, once complete, will consist of the uncensored roadshow version with the unedited Pastoral Symphony and as much of the original Deems Taylor audio as possible, and the 1990 theatrical version, also with the unedited Pastoral Symphony. The main audio track will be as close a recreation of the original Fantasound experience as possible, with additional tracks in mono 1.0, stereo 2.0, Dolby Stereo 4.0, and Dolby Digital 5.1.

ETA: I almost forgot to mention, apart from being the main audio source where possible, the laserdisc release will also be used as a timing reference for the 1990 theatrical version.

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 (Edited)

Charles Threepio said:

OK, so as soon as I have all the materials gathered together, I’ll do the following with the visuals:

  1. Attempt to align the 35mm footage I’ve received in digital form as closely with the Blu-ray footage as possible, and crop accordingly (hopefully, very little, if any, of the 35mm footage should be trimmed);
  2. Clean up the same 35mm footage;
  3. Recolor the Blu-ray footage to match the 35mm footage as closely as possible; and
  4. For the 1990 theatrical version, recreate the closing credits.

My release, once complete, will consist of the uncensored roadshow version with the unedited Pastoral Symphony and as much of the original Deems Taylor audio as possible, and the 1990 theatrical version, also with the unedited Pastoral Symphony. The main audio track will be as close a recreation of the original Fantasound experience as possible, with additional tracks in mono 1.0, stereo 2.0, Dolby Stereo 4.0, and Dolby Digital 5.1.

ETA: I almost forgot to mention, apart from being the main audio source where possible, the laserdisc release will also be used as a timing reference for the 1990 theatrical version.

Sounds awesome. Hope you make this your priority project, cause as I mentioned, Fantasia is in dire need of some releases.

Not sure if you need it, but I have the 2000 DVD release with the censored bits added back. I got that from myspleen. The source for censored bits is fairly bad but it is VERY well inserted. Maybe you could see how well that is done. Or maybe you’d need it for the audio source? In any case if you need it I can get it to you.

Also, what’s this about closing credits recreation? Educate me.

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The 1990 release had closing credits, unlike other releases. AFAIK the US VHS and laserdisc are the only places where said closing credits can be found.

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Charles Threepio said:

The 1990 release had closing credits, unlike other releases. AFAIK the US VHS and laserdisc are the only places where said closing credits can be found.

Since LD will be your main audio source, what source would you use to fill the gaps for the missing audio in the pastoral symphony and where no Deems available?

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I would love to see this finished project.

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Now that I have my internet upgraded, I will get the audio uploaded this weekend. Download links will be available to anyone who wants them. I will post again when they are.

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PCM tracks successfully uploaded! Do not clog the thread with requests, please ask only in PM. These links are not to be publicly posted anywhere without my permission, thanks.

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Where were you in '77?

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 (Edited)

SilverWook said:

PCM tracks successfully uploaded! Do not clog the thread with requests, please ask only in PM. These links are not to be publicly posted anywhere without my permission, thanks.

Awesome, thanks so much! It’s great that this is finally made into digital form.

Now we literally have all best available elements to restore Fantasia to its 1940s glory.

Blu Ray
DVD
LD sound
HD Sunflower footage

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Any updates on this project? Looking forward to it!

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Spookyking said:

Any updates on this project? Looking forward to it!

Not very much. Spoke to a guy on myspleen who authored the uncensored DVD version on there and made sure that he has all the material and info he needs. Said he would work on it. This was a while ago though haven’t heard back. IMO if anyone can do what needs to be done it’s him. He even talked about multiple audio tracks.

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Here’s an update from him, and I quote

Basically, all the material is gathered up and awaiting its turn in my queue of crazy projects. I should be ready to start playing around with it soon. The good news is that once I do get started, I’m really not anticipating much of a lengthy gestation period. Of course, if some other fanboy geek over at originaltrilogy gets to it before I do, that’s cool too… but you can let them know I haven’t forgotten about it (in fact, the bluray and the old DVD box are sitting on a shelf two feet away from me along with the DVD for my other Blu-Ray project awaiting its turn, the long cut of Bedknobs and Broomsticks).

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Just wondering if there was an update on this? Still looking around to find the ripped audio tracks (both the stereo and mono) from the LD. In the meantime I have ripped both the mono and dolby surround tracks from my VHS copy but I though the LD versions would be a bit cleaner.

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So, to update everyone, the two prior guys I was working with disappeared long ago. But on comes Starbond9 and posts here.

I sent him the full 9GB laserdisc release that was on myspleen along with other materials he could use. Seems to be skilled enough and knows what he is doing. I thank him for taking on this project when no one else would.

He is using his skills to patch up the laserdisc audio tracks (both mono and stereo) to remove gaps due to a few seconds censorship and also to insert back the censored Sunflower scenes into the laserdisc video.

Now this won’t be the best looking version of Fantasia, but it will be, to my knowledge, the most authentic version that has ever existed.

The LD is closest we ever got to the original as far as Disney releases go. The images are most faithful to the original (ie no retouched “updates” of the DVD and blu), the audio is based on the early 90s recreation of Fantasound, and Deems Taylor talks. Plus it has the shortened intros which are generally preferred over the longer ones of the DVD and blu.

So once he is done with this, if all goes well (pray to the lord it does) then it will be the closest Fantasia has come to ever existing in its original form since the 40s/50s. That is until this project comes to fruition: https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Fantasia-35mm-Project-Help-Needed-a-WIP/id/73694

On a side note, those patched up laserdisc audio tracks Starbond9 is working on could also be used as alternate tracks for this ambitious 35mm project.

Also, here is the write up on the laserdisc release on myspleen (which forms the bulk of what this release will be):

This is the 1990 remaster of Fantasia transferred from the CAV LaserDisc boxset, released in January of 1991. This serves not only as a preservation of the 1990 remaster, but of the LaserDisc itself as this is one of numerous disc sets that has disc rot issues which will intensify with time.

Several noticeable differences to other, more modern releases include:

-Color timing is much brighter, especially in the “Nutcracker Suite” section of the film
-A recreation of the 1940 intermission card is used as a title, as opposed to the 1941 “RKO” titlecard used for the 81-minute cut and all post-2000 releases
-Alternate shots with the orchestra in darkness are used for Taylor’s narration; later cuts restore Taylor’s speaking footage
-Deems Taylor’s narration, which was replaced by an actor’s redub in post-2000 releases of the film due to deteriorated optical soundtracks
-A ~115 minute runtime made to resemble the 1946 release of the film (which restored Toccata and Fugue), as opposed to the 124-minute 1940 Roadshow version
-An end credits sequence, which all other versions lack

This boxset suffers laser rot to some degree due to the glue used; thankfully here, it’s contained to the very beginning of each side. It will be most noticeable in the beginning of the film but each subsequent disc/side has less visual “disc rot”.

Transferred using a DVL-90 player, DMR-ES15 passthrough to an AJA Kona LHe card using the S-video input.
Captured as a raw image sequence which was then ran through QTGMC and exported as a 10-bit 4.2.2 H.264 video through ffmpeg (Placebo setting).
(The film runs at 59.94p to better preserve the LaserDisc image as the high framerate and raw modulated image combine to create a “clearer” picture to the eye.)

Digital audio track piped from the DVL-90 to an X-fi Titanium card, bit-matched and recorded as a 44100Hz 16-bit PCM; the file is directly muxed to the .mkv.
Analogue audio was transferred using the AJA KONA LHe card and exported as a monaural Opus file.
Captions were transferred by way of DVD burning on the Panasonic DMR-ES15, ripped using MakeMKV/MKVCleaver and corrected to the .mkv timing in SubtitleEdit.
Chapter stops and titles are direct from the “Chapter Index” insert in the CAV boxset.

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Good news everyone! This is done, this is up, and this looks AWESOME! I figured since February is a politically correct month it’s only fitting to release a restored Fantasia in February! I don’t think we’re allowed to post Mega links here. But I do have a link ready. Here is the write up of this release. If you release it on torrent sites please keep the following write up along with it:

Hello everyone. My username is Class316, and over the years it has bothered me that there was been no authentic version of Fantasia available for viewing (officially or otherwise). Unlike the Original Star Wars Trilogy, Song of the South, and many others, Fantasia never got the same love. So over the years I took it upon myself to find a way to change that.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, I present to you something that is not only long overdue, but also making its Internet debut! Disney’s timeless classic Fantasia with Fantasound, Deems Taylor’s voice, AND all the censored scenes restored!

As most of you may know, in what is probably one of the earliest cases of cartoon censorship in the name of political correctness, the “offensive” scenes from the Pastoral Symphony of Fantasia were cut out in 1969, never to be seen in official form again. Additionally, Fantasound was lost to time.

In the early 90s Disney would recreate Fantasound theatrically in two theaters, one in New York and one in Los Angeles. This would be dubbed as “Fantasound 90”. And this would be the basis of the audio in the VHS, Laserdisc, and soundtrack CD released in the early 90s. Although a few seconds of audio is missing from the Pastoral Symphony of those releases due to the censorship. Regarding the intros, these home releases use the shortened (and generally more preferred) intros by Deems Taylor.

In 2000, Disney released Fantasia on DVD. This was dubbed “original and uncut” on the cover. Was it uncut? Debatable. It PANNED the “offensive” scenes (thus yielding complete audio at least) but it is anything but “original” as Disney blatantly falsely advertised on the front cover. Additionally, unlike the LD, the DVD audio is far gone from Fantasound. To boot, Disney chose to use the longer intros. In itself perhaps not necessarily a bad thing as some might prefer that. But the audio of said intros were so deteriorated that they couldn’t be used. So rather than work with what was still usable, Disney decided to completely dub Deems Taylor’s voice entirely with that of actor Corey Burton.

Here is a youtube comparison of the uncensored Pastoral Symphony segment compared to the modern-day censored versions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyPFibRadto

In 2010 Fantasia was released on blu ray and its audio was even more far gone from Fantasound than the DVD release (and of course retained the dubbing and censorship of the DVD release).

Another “feature” of both the DVD and blu ray releases is the visual “retouching” that Disney is infamous for when it comes to their older films. Meaning the laserdisc more so reflects the work of the original artists than the more modern releases do.

Now there have been projects on the Internet that have restored all the censored scenes back into Fantasia. But all those releases use the DVD or blu ray release as the basis. Meaning there has yet to be a fully authentic version of Fantasia that is available, officially or otherwise. That is up until February 2021!

Over the years I had collected many Fantasia related things, these include but are not limited to:

In December 2018, I was given (by someone who has long disappeared) a great looking HD version of the censored scenes.

In August 2020, Myspleen.com user AlanGrant released a wonderful rip of the early 90s CAV laserdisc. Here is his write up of it, and I quote:

-start-

This is the 1990 remaster of Fantasia transferred from the CAV LaserDisc boxset, released in January of 1991. This serves not only as a preservation of the 1990 remaster, but of the LaserDisc itself as this is one of numerous disc sets that has disc rot issues which will intensify with time.

Several noticeable differences to other, more modern releases include:

-Color timing is much brighter, especially in the “Nutcracker Suite” section of the film

-A recreation of the 1940 intermission card is used as a title, as opposed to the 1941 “RKO” titlecard used for the 81-minute cut and all post-2000 releases

-Alternate shots with the orchestra in darkness are used for Taylor’s narration; later cuts restore Taylor’s speaking footage

-Deems Taylor’s narration, which was replaced by an actor’s redub in post-2000 releases of the film due to deteriorated optical soundtracks

-A ~115 minute runtime made to resemble the 1946 release of the film (which restored Toccata and Fugue), as opposed to the 124-minute 1940 Roadshow version

-An end credits sequence, which all other versions lack

This boxset suffers laser rot to some degree due to the glue used; thankfully here, it’s contained to the very beginning of each side. It will be most noticeable in the beginning of the film but each subsequent disc/side has less visual “disc rot”.

Transferred using a DVL-90 player, DMR-ES15 passthrough to an AJA Kona LHe card using the S-video input.

Captured as a raw image sequence which was then ran through QTGMC and exported as a 10-bit 4.2.2 H.264 video through ffmpeg (Placebo setting).

(The film runs at 59.94p to better preserve the LaserDisc image as the high framerate and raw modulated image combine to create a “clearer” picture to the eye.)

Digital audio track piped from the DVL-90 to an X-fi Titanium card, bit-matched and recorded as a 44100Hz 16-bit PCM; the file is directly muxed to the .mkv.

Analogue audio was transferred using the AJA KONA LHe card and exported as a monaural Opus file.

Captions were transferred by way of DVD burning on the Panasonic DMR-ES15, ripped using MakeMKV/MKVCleaver and corrected to the .mkv timing in SubtitleEdit.

Chapter stops and titles are direct from the “Chapter Index” insert in the CAV boxset.

-end-

So here I had the most authentic looking and sounding version of Fantasia that Disney put out (ie a HQ LD rip), I had a great looking clip of the censored scenes, among other things.

After many attempts of trying and failing to find someone with the necessary skills and patience to insert the scenes back into the LD and patch up the missing LD audio, on comes user Starbond9 of originaltrilogy.com. I sent him all Fantasia related materials I had collected over the years, and he did a fantastic job. To summarize, he reinserted all the “offensive” scenes into the LD, he patched up the missing audio of the stereo/Fantasound track with that of the DVD audio (the next closest thing we have to Fantasound after the LD), and he patched up the missing audio of the mono track with audio from his own vinyl record!

Here is his write up on what he did, and I quote:

-start-

-Added 5 individual scenes featuring Sunflower and Otica (the centaurette who assists Bacchus)

-Sources on these clips are the audioless HD clips floating around online, color adjusted for LD (adjusted by originaltrilogy.com member Brodnation). The scene with the carpet was from a personal source found on the internet

-3 of said clips were inserted by removing panned/zoomed/and looped existing animations

-2 clips required expanding the video track and inserting a stereo and mono dub as the audio tracks of the movie were physically shortened, see below. (this is also heard on the 1990 CD and Legacy Collection versions of Pastoral)

-Used the DVD stereo audio track as dub source for the missing Fantasound track. These few seconds are NOT Dolby Prologic so listeners with the setting will notice a loss of spatial surround when the two dub spots play. Regular stereo listeners will not notice an issue

-Used a personal copy of a 1961 Mono LP of Pastoral as the dub source for the mono audio track

-Adjusted chapter and subtitles beyond the Pastoral Sunflower clip insert to match the ~8 second shift

-Technical: demuxed individual tracks, remuxed with MKVtoolnix, project assembled in Vegas Pro 14

-end-

I would like to thank him for his time and effort, and for finally bringing an authentic version of Fantasia that showcases, in all its glory, all three of Fantasound, Deems Taylor’s voice, AND the full video/audio of the Pastoral Symphony.

Hopefully someone can also use these two patched up audio tracks for any future Fantasia projects, such as HD 35mm film scans or edits of the blu ray footage.

Please feel free to release this on Torrent, my only request is you keep this write up along with it.

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Is it possible to have a link in PM ? 😉

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Really?

February a “politically correct” month? A lot of work must have been put into this, but you lost me with that bullshit. Fuck off with that garbage.

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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bkev said:

Really?

February a “politically correct” month? A lot of work must have been put into this, but you lost me with that bullshit. Fuck off with that garbage.

Ahem…

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Where were you in '77?

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Wouldn’t the CLV release be a better source for the video? I captured the PCM from my copy a couple years ago and no rot.

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Where were you in '77?