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Santa Claus The Movie

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hello i try my luck on the group
I am looking for the european version of santa claus the movie 1985
it was broadcast only once in the world on TV
on for the british.
this version would have more scenes and would only be on the japanese laserdisc
also this version will have been broadcast in 1988 on the bbc 1

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what would be higher quality, the tv boradcast if it was captured or Jap laserdisc?

Fate is best Anime/Visual Novel.

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Are you sure the UK broadcast & Japanese LD has extra footage? IMDB doesn’t mention any alternate versions.

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Moiisty said:

what would be higher quality, the tv boradcast if it was captured or Jap laserdisc?

The Jpn Laserdisc: provided that Laser Rot hasn’t ravaged the disc… It has Dolby Surround and even in NTSC, superior picture quality to a TV recording which would be in mono because the BBC didn’t begin unofficial, limited NICAM broadcasts till the following year and made on a VHS/BETA tape that might be worn out.

RossDaBoss said:

Are you sure the UK broadcast & Japanese LD has extra footage? IMDB doesn’t mention any alternate versions.

It’s possible - because extra footage does exist…

There are seven minutes of deleted scenes on the Blu-ray and the Jpn LD reportedly has a running time of 108 minutes:

https://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/24025/SF088-5099/Santa-Claus:-The-Movie

The US LD is listed as 104 minutes:

https://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/09571/I5054/Santa-Claus:-The-Movie

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  • Howard Berk
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Europe BluRay has running time of 108 Minutes, imdb states 107 minutes…
Maybe the LD was wrongly encoded from a pal source. PAL runtime was 104 minutes…

"I kill Gandalf." - Igor, Dork Tower

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 (Edited)

BBC broadcast ran 105 mins PAL (109 mins NTSC) So not much room for 7mins of extra footage.
I think I might have a copy of the BBC broadcast somewhere in my collection.

https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/service_bbc_one_london/1988-12-24#at-17.45

As for the Japanese LD some times they have the theatrical trailer added on the end.
Also the LD will have burned in subtitles.

WAIT A SEC!

The US LD IS 104 mins
https://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/09571/I5054/Santa-Claus:-The-Movie

The bluray is 108:19 mins
http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=15294

so there you have it… 2 different versions of the film.
US cut 104 mins
International cut 108 mins

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this version would have appeared only once on television in 1988 on BBC 1 on Christmas Eve for the British
a lot of british talk about it
I myself remember having seen more scenes before the DVD and bluray releases … but only twice on television
Too bad I didn’t keep
the VHS
this version would be the european cup
a bit like the superman or the long version passed once or twice it seems to me at the time

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The Brits told me this cut would be on the Japanese laser disc
for my part I have never heard of this long version on laserdisc or dvd and bluray except only on television in 1988 and in the audio comments of the blu-ray
for the record jeannot szwarc would not have been aware of the passage on tv of this long version