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.