Toy Story (1995) (Digital Theatrical Reconstruction) (v1.0) (Released) (v2.0 in progress)

While I was waiting for Trist’s 35mm preservation, I decided to do my own take, mostly for anyone who preferred to see the theatrical reconstruction of the digitally sourced version. I originally wanted to start this once I got my hands on those lost pre-2009 HDTV broadcasts, but then I was like, never mind, I’ll do it now.

Here are the video sources I used in this preservation:

• 2010 UK BD (main source)
• 2011 UK 3D BD (for restoring the original theatrical shots that had problems in the digital re-render back in 2000. Though I had to zoom them in to mask out the dynamic floating windows, which was used in many 3D films at the time.)
• 2005 UK 10th Anniversary Edition DVD (for the Disney logos at the beginning and end; upscaled using Topaz Video AI)
• Geri’s Game (Pixar Short Films Collection Vol. 1 UK BD) (for the closing Pixar logo)
• 2005 UMD Video (for closing credits; upscaled using Topaz Video AI)

And for the audio, I made my own lossless theatrical reconstruction back in January, though the original file I made ended up being lost due to my iMac’s HD being corrupted, but thankfully I was able to save it through an MKV file where it syncs with the UHD footage, though I edited out the ending so it uses audio from the closing Disney and Pixar logos used from post-2009 prints to sync with the UHD footage, so I decided to do it again by cutting out the modern closing logos and brought back the original closing logos from scratch as I originally did.

For this audio reconstruction, I originally made this since the DTS LaserDisc release has ALOT of problems with the audio. At first I thought that noogai3 (the person that did a direct capture of the raw DTS audio stream) might have problems he didn’t recognise with the wav2dts software he used to decode the raw WAV capture, but since the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection, DTS and THX logos sound fine, it seems that there was a problem with processing the raw analog 6-track audio reels to DTS. I would explain the problems, but I already did, so here’s my quote from LDDB.com:

“…the entire film would have the right channel 8.5dB lower than the rest, resulting in some confusion in your speaker. Even worse is that on side 1, you can hear constant buzzing on the right channel, and on side 2, there is constant [VHS-like] noise on the same channel. I should also mention that even though the right channel would be at -8.5dB for a while, it would start to increase a decibel after the “Strange Things” song, possibly due to a reaction it had after Rex’s loud roar during the song. Then, between Woody getting up coughing after feeling dizzy from the Pizza Planet truck with a plastic cup on his head, to the Pizza Planet animatronic bot saying “You are—“, the right channel would be silent for a while, as originally on theatrical prints, this is a sign that reel 2 ends and reel 3 begins, and it seems like the right channel couldn’t handle the transition. Speaking of transition, there was also a brief audio stutter as the Pizza Planet doors open, possibly done as a way to make sure that the whole audio syncs perfectly to the movie. Then, just as side 1 ends, the right channel becomes silent again, just as Buzz is about to say, “I set my laser from stun…to kill.””

In fact, once I bought myself a copy of the DTS LaserDisc and tested it out, the problems were also there. So what I did was that I used noogai’s AC3RF capture from the Deluxe CAV LaserDisc to fix the right channel’s volume and to use it to fix the problems that the DTS audio had, including patching in the missing segments as well as noise reducing the constant noises from that same channel, and then save it into a 24-bit 6-channel WAV file and then convert it into DTS-HD MA.

And speaking of audio, here are the audio tracks that you’ll expect once you receive the link:

• English (Original Theatrical Reconstruction v1.1) (DTS-HD MA 5.1)
• English (Audio Description) (2005 UK DVD) (Dolby Surround 2.0)
• Isolated Sound Effects Track (R1 UTB DVD) (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Commentary (Deluxe CAV LaserDisc) (FLAC 1.0)
• Commentary (R1 UTB DVD) (Dolby Digital 2.0) (Same as the CAV LD, but higher quality, is in stereo, but references to LaserDisc have been cut out)
• English (Workprint Audio; Partial) (Unknown VHS Source) (Dolby Digital 1.0)
• Audience Reaction (CAM Bootleg VHS) (Dolby Digital 1.0) (I wanted to include this since I was influenced by Cinemassacre when they included an audience reaction track on the Blu-ray release of Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie.)
• Danish (2000 UK DVD) (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• French (Canada) (R1 UTB DVD) (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Greek (2000 UK DVD) (Dolby Surround 2.0)
• Hebrew (2000 UK DVD) (Dolby Surround 2.0)
• Hindi (2010 UK BD) (Dolby Digital 1.0) (patched to include audio from the original theatrical logos)
• Norwegian (2000 UK DVD) (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Portuguese (Brazil) (2000 R4 Latin American DVD; DVDR Arakawasam) (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Russian (Unknown VHS Source; originally from “Istorija.Igrushek.1995.DUAL.DVDRip.XviD.AC3.-HQ-ViDEO”) (Dolby Digital 1.0) (isolated the center channel of the Russian 5.1 track, pitch corrected, and changed the credits medley to match the quality of the dub’s audio, since the original Russian track made for this rip just used a lower quality version of the English version’s medley)
• Spanish (Latin America) (R1 2000 Standalone DVD) (Dolby Digital 5.1)

I mainly only want to include audio that uses the original 1995 5.1 mix or Dolby Surround downmixes to recreate the original theatrical experience. This includes post-2005 releases that use foreign dubs of the film that still use the original mix instead of the new 6.1 matrixed remix made specifically for the 10th Anniversary DVD (and later the 3D re-release and Blu-ray release). The 2010 UK BD does have foreign tracks that used the original mix. These are the Hungarian, Hindi and Flemish dubs, even though I already included Hindi in there since it seems Disney used an old bilingual Hindi/English VHS transfer, since the Hindi audio is only playing on the left channel, as well as the noise. But I decided not to include Hungarian and Flemish since, for Hungarian, it was only a Dolby Pro Logic upmix to 5.1 EX of the original Dolby Surround mix while using the LFE channel from the 2005 mix, so the best bet is to find a pre-2005 copy that uses the original Hungarian Dolby Surround mix, and for Flemish, since this is Dutch for the speaking people of Belgium, I thought it would make sense to also include Dutch in there, but the BD uses the 2005 mix, so I’ll have to wait until I grab a DVD copy with the original Dutch and Flemish mixes.

And for subtitles:

• English (2000 UK DVD)
• English (SDH (White; 2000 R4 Latin American DVD; DVDR Arakawasam))
• English (SDH (White; 2000 UK DVD))
• English (SDH (Yellow; R1 UTB DVD))
• Danish (2000 UK DVD)
• Greek (2000 UK DVD)
• Norwegian (2000 UK DVD)
• Portuguese (Brazil) (2000 R4 Latin American DVD; DVDR Arakawasam)
• Spanish (Latin America) (2000 R4 Latin American DVD; DVDR Arakawasam)
• English (Closed Captions; R1 UTB DVD)
  All, except the CC, are in VobSub. The CC is in SRT format.

Of course, it will be updated once I include more foreign dubs and subtitles from the pre-2005 DVD releases, as well as foreign dubs that are exclusive to TV and VHS, which, of course, could be extremely rare to find.

If any of you have those rare releases, feel free to PM me so I can include them in the next update.

And of course, make sure to PM me if you want the link to my preservation.

Love the audio options! Picture wise, what are the main differences between the original theatrical presentation of TS '95 and the later home media releases?

waffle said:

Love the audio options! Picture wise, what are the main differences between the original theatrical presentation of TS '95 and the later home media releases?

The Boundary Break guy himself, Shesez, actually did a video showing off those different versions here (https://youtu.be/6w4bzm6ewRQ). In fact, I forgot to mention that this video is actually one of the reasons why I made this preservation in the first place.

The things I should point out that he hasn’t pointed out are that the ending credits have been changed from scratch for the 2010 BD, including recreating the MPAA and Dolby Stereo Digital SR logos, so this is why I included the original ending credits from the 2005 UMD Video release, as the UK 10th Anniversary DVD has the credits in 50 frames interlaced.

In fact, even though Sheesez talks a little bit about the colour grading from the VHS to the THX DVD and 3D BD release, it was mainly since the official transfers of the film used for the VHS (and LaserDisc) were from a 35mm source, and depending on the film stock, it would change the colour from its original raw digital frames. But since there was a difference with the colour grading between the DVD and Blu-ray, I’d assume this was a YUV to Rec.601 NTSC colour space conversion when transferring the raw 2K digital source to DVD, especially since the UMD Video release uses the YUV colour space, which would later be used for the identical Rec.709 colour space when the film was released on Blu-ray, so that is why I used the colour space from that source as reference, though I would assume the lost HDTV rips might use the same colour space as the forthcoming BD, but we’re not sure yet.

Didn’t the 2009 Blu-Ray copy of Monster’s Inc have the 1995 Walt Disney Pictures logo in 1:78:1?

HAttackontheBun said:

Didn’t the 2009 Blu-Ray copy of Monster’s Inc have the 1995 Walt Disney Pictures logo in 1:78:1?

First of all, no, the whole film was shown in 1.85:1. And secondly, the Disney logo used in this film is the same zoomed-in version of the logo used since Toy Story 2. Although the HDTV open matte version of Cars does have it in 1.78:1, like I said, it also used the same zoomed-in version.

UPDATE (28/06/25): I have just bought the 2000 Japanese, Spanish, Dutch and German DVD releases of the film (though the Dutch is a 2-pack with the second film), which means more foreign dubs of the film will be included in the upcoming V2.0 update, I may also include the Digital LaserDisc tracks once the new ESI U24XL I just recently bought arrives and captures PCM audio perfectly. Other things that will be included in this update are a new closed captions track ripped from the raw LD capture I did, which was decoded and exported using VEGAS Pro (since SubtitleEdit is terrible at converting .SCC to .SRT), then saved to an .ASS file, using a CC style I made. And because of the Dutch DVD, it will now include the 5.1 Flemish track alongside the 2.0 track the Dutch DVD has. I even made V3.2 of the theatrical reconstruction audio since I did one minor change to it. Why did I switch to 3.2? Well, it’s because I remember that I actually did 2 versions before it. V1.0 is just the untouched DTS LD track with the right channel increased to 8.5dB, V2.0 being the one that was close to V3.0, while V3.0 itself is the same as 2.0 restored from the MKV file, while restoring the closing logos as close as possible. V3.1 changes the right channel again so that the mono parts sound mono enough, while 3.2…well you already knew. I decide to go with V2.0 because of the huge amount of dubs I’m expecting to include once they arrive, however I will do 2.1 as well once I got the Italian release and the French Anthologie set, since the French/Australian release include the Arabic dub and subtitles (I think) as well. Though I still need a quest to find the other pre-2005 DVD releases, including the Finnish/Swedish release to complete the inclusion of Scandinavian dubs, all NTSC releases including the Korean, Hong Kong and/or Taiwanese DVDs, and the Mainland Chinese VCD for the Mandarin dub for the Mainland dialect, though I don’t know if that dub was also included on those Chinese DVDs. If any of you happen to have those DVDs, feel free to PM me the link, but I highly recommend you decrypt them into an ISO file using MakeMKV’s backup feature since they would obviously be copy protected, and for VCD, use ImgBurn. The Blu-ray releases are welcome too, but make sure that the foreign tracks that Disney used is based on the 1995 theatrical mix. For easy spotting, compare the LFE channel from any theatrical 5.1 English track to the foreign track you have, if they match, then it’s the 1995 mix. If more samples of the LFE channel were used, such as the sound of Rex stomping as he’s about to scare Woody (as it was not in the theatrical mix), and something like Buzz punching Woody, the deep rumble from the claw machine, then the dub used was based on the 2005 mix, especially since I know about it a long time ago when I was scanning the channels for the Flemish dub, since it seems Disney didn’t bother to remix the dub to match the new mix, similar to what they did with the Hungarian dub. Of course, TV exclusive dubs are also allowed, but since they might be Dolby Surround downmixes, make sure you listen carefully to the out-of-phase surround channel of those dubs. If you hear the out-of-phase surround channel coming from the footsteps for Andy and his friends as they head back downstairs after playing around with Buzz for the first time, or the sound of the claw coming down as it’s about to catch Buzz, then the downmix is based from the 2005 mix. The theatrical mix don’t has those sounds coming from the rear channels as well. Oh, and VHS is welcome too, but make sure you have the best sound quality possible, such as a well calibrated VCR, a 24-bit audio capture card, and has to be saved in lossless FLAC, since I’m pretty sure none of the other foreign dubs are available on DVD, nor even officially until broadcasted on TV, though I would love to see a higher quality stereo VHS or DVD recording of the original 2004 Russian dub, since the mono one I have from an old torrent, is the best that I got. And yes, I know someone did try a stereo mix, and all it does is add a stereo spread filter, implying that the low quality speed adjusted (no pitch change) mono mix from its custom 5.1 mix is the best we have. Voiceovers are welcome too, but make sure they’re the ones that are officially approved by Disney themselves and were broadcast on an authentic TV channel that legally broadcasts programs. And for dubs, this means than the bootleg Persian and Albanian dubs, and the Russian voiceovers are not allowed, unless one of them was authentic since I got no detail about those Russian voiceovers from The Dubbing Database wiki, aside from the Yuri Zhivov voiceover, since that was a bootleg. So yeah, hope to keep you updated once it’s finally ready. And yes, you are free to do bit-perfect LD PCM (or analog if it doesn’t have that) of the foreign LD releases too. Though I would like to know what the second Japanese language option was on the Japanese version of the Deluxe Edition LD. Is it the mono downmix of the Japanese dub, or a Japanese isolated voiceover track for the commentary, similar to the Japanese Star Wars Definitive Collection LD set.

Oh and remember when I included the AD track from the 2005 UK DVD? I want to include it not just to support the visually impaired and blind, but because it uses the Dolby Surround downmix of the original theatrical mix, and since the narration was done presumably in-house by Buena Vista Home Entertainment themselves, hence the American narrator and no credit from the company that did the AD track, it would obviously work for American viewers too since I’m from the UK. Though I might think that there might be others before this one as well, such as one made by WGBH Media Access for the Descriptive Audio VHS release that I presume exist, considering that they’re extremely rare to find on eBay, and a British audio description track made by the Royal National Institute of Blind People and IMS as proven here: (https://web.archive.org/web/20030609082532/http://onlineshop.rnib.org.uk/display_product.asp?prodid=1742), which were also extremely rare.

Hopefully we’ll get these audio tracks as soon as we can.

Is the workprint audio from that “workprint” floating around for years? Because that one is fake. Also, which audience reaction bootleg did you use? Because 2 bootlegs with audience reactions exist.

YoshiKiller2S said:

Is the workprint audio from that “workprint” floating around for years? Because that one is fake. Also, which audience reaction bootleg did you use? Because 2 bootlegs with audience reactions exist.

Yes, it’s the one I got from Internet Archive, which was originally split into parts by YouTuber, Rare Toy Story after other parts of it were found by him. Also, the audience reaction track was from the one uploaded by ToastyBoii from the same site, which is now taken down by Disney, if I am correct, especially since this is the best I can find of the full version instead of clips.

Sambarker04 said:

UPDATE (28/06/25): I have just bought the 2000 Japanese, Spanish, Dutch and German DVD releases of the film (though the Dutch is a 2-pack with the second film), which means more foreign dubs of the film will be included in the upcoming V2.0 update, I may also include the Digital LaserDisc tracks once the new ESI U24XL I just recently bought arrives and captures PCM audio perfectly. Other things that will be included in this update are a new closed captions track ripped from the raw LD capture I did, which was decoded and exported using VEGAS Pro (since SubtitleEdit is terrible at converting .SCC to .SRT), then saved to an .ASS file, using a CC style I made. And because of the Dutch DVD, it will now include the 5.1 Flemish track alongside the 2.0 track the Dutch DVD has. I even made V3.2 of the theatrical reconstruction audio since I did one minor change to it. Why did I switch to 3.2? Well, it’s because I remember that I actually did 2 versions before it. V1.0 is just the untouched DTS LD track with the right channel increased to 8.5dB, V2.0 being the one that was close to V3.0, while V3.0 itself is the same as 2.0 restored from the MKV file, while restoring the closing logos as close as possible. V3.1 changes the right channel again so that the mono parts sound mono enough, while 3.2…well you already knew. I decide to go with V2.0 because of the huge amount of dubs I’m expecting to include once they arrive, however I will do 2.1 as well once I got the Italian release and the French Anthologie set, since the French/Australian release include the Arabic dub and subtitles (I think) as well. Though I still need a quest to find the other pre-2005 DVD releases, including the Finnish/Swedish release to complete the inclusion of Scandinavian dubs, all NTSC releases including the Korean, Hong Kong and/or Taiwanese DVDs, and the Mainland Chinese VCD for the Mandarin dub for the Mainland dialect, though I don’t know if that dub was also included on those Chinese DVDs. If any of you happen to have those DVDs, feel free to PM me the link, but I highly recommend you decrypt them into an ISO file using MakeMKV’s backup feature since they would obviously be copy protected, and for VCD, use ImgBurn. The Blu-ray releases are welcome too, but make sure that the foreign tracks that Disney used is based on the 1995 theatrical mix. For easy spotting, compare the LFE channel from any theatrical 5.1 English track to the foreign track you have, if they match, then it’s the 1995 mix. If more samples of the LFE channel were used, such as the sound of Rex stomping as he’s about to scare Woody (as it was not in the theatrical mix), and something like Buzz punching Woody, the deep rumble from the claw machine, then the dub used was based on the 2005 mix, especially since I know about it a long time ago when I was scanning the channels for the Flemish dub, since it seems Disney didn’t bother to remix the dub to match the new mix, similar to what they did with the Hungarian dub. Of course, TV exclusive dubs are also allowed, but since they might be Dolby Surround downmixes, make sure you listen carefully to the out-of-phase surround channel of those dubs. If you hear the out-of-phase surround channel coming from the footsteps for Andy and his friends as they head back downstairs after playing around with Buzz for the first time, or the sound of the claw coming down as it’s about to catch Buzz, then the downmix is based from the 2005 mix. The theatrical mix don’t has those sounds coming from the rear channels as well. Oh, and VHS is welcome too, but make sure you have the best sound quality possible, such as a well calibrated VCR, a 24-bit audio capture card, and has to be saved in lossless FLAC, since I’m pretty sure none of the other foreign dubs are available on DVD, nor even officially until broadcasted on TV, though I would love to see a higher quality stereo VHS or DVD recording of the original 2004 Russian dub, since the mono one I have from an old torrent, is the best that I got. And yes, I know someone did try a stereo mix, and all it does is add a stereo spread filter, implying that the low quality speed adjusted (no pitch change) mono mix from its custom 5.1 mix is the best we have. Voiceovers are welcome too, but make sure they’re the ones that are officially approved by Disney themselves and were broadcast on an authentic TV channel that legally broadcasts programs. And for dubs, this means than the bootleg Persian and Albanian dubs, and the Russian voiceovers are not allowed, unless one of them was authentic since I got no detail about those Russian voiceovers from The Dubbing Database wiki, aside from the Yuri Zhivov voiceover, since that was a bootleg. So yeah, hope to keep you updated once it’s finally ready. And yes, you are free to do bit-perfect LD PCM (or analog if it doesn’t have that) of the foreign LD releases too. Though I would like to know what the second Japanese language option was on the Japanese version of the Deluxe Edition LD. Is it the mono downmix of the Japanese dub, or a Japanese isolated voiceover track for the commentary, similar to the Japanese Star Wars Definitive Collection LD set.

Oh and remember when I included the AD track from the 2005 UK DVD? I want to include it not just to support the visually impaired and blind, but because it uses the Dolby Surround downmix of the original theatrical mix, and since the narration was done presumably in-house by Buena Vista Home Entertainment themselves, hence the American narrator and no credit from the company that did the AD track, it would obviously work for American viewers too since I’m from the UK. Though I might think that there might be others before this one as well, such as one made by WGBH Media Access for the Descriptive Audio VHS release that I presume exist, considering that they’re extremely rare to find on eBay, and a British audio description track made by the Royal National Institute of Blind People and IMS as proven here: (https://web.archive.org/web/20030609082532/http://onlineshop.rnib.org.uk/display_product.asp?prodid=1742), which were also extremely rare.

Hopefully we’ll get these audio tracks as soon as we can.

I’m also thinking of including the Dolby Surround downmix of the Latin American Spanish dub from the UMD Video release as well, since that mix is still from the theatrical mix, not the 2005 remix that the English track has.

Ok. So, I compared the UMD release of this film to the Blu-Ray release and turns out that while both releases use the Rec.709 colorspace (or at least utilizing similar colorspaces), the Blu-Ray was more vibrant than the UMD.

HAttackontheBun said:

Ok. So, I compared the UMD release of this film to the Blu-Ray release and turns out that while both releases use the Rec.709 colorspace (or at least utilizing similar colorspaces), the Blu-Ray was more vibrant than the UMD.

I actually noticed it as well. I’m guessing that it was because it could be in reality a colour grading from the final digital master before they went back to the raw frames for the 2D remaster for the 2010 Blu-ray release. I already did a re-render of the whole video with the colour grading of the credits to match the ones on the Blu-ray, and it turns out great from my eyes. That would finally explain to me why I’m calling this upcoming update v2.0.

Speaking of updates, I just got the Japanese DVD. It was a budget re-release from 2004 since one of the pamphlets included were ads for the home media release of Finding Nemo. Interestingly enough, it not only has the Japanese dub, but also the Korean dub as well, both only in Dolby Surround. I honestly found it interesting since Japan had already started to get into Dolby Digital in 1995 with Whisper of the Heart, and since Toy Story came out in Japan several months after that movie, I’d assume that if the Japanese dub only being in Dolby Surround was either Disney’s choice when they released it to DVD, or it’s the only source they had at the time, since Disney’s Japanese division may not have the budget for Dolby Digital yet. In fact, the Japanese dub of the second film was in 5.1 EX on its DVD release, and since I can confirm the Flemish dub on the UK BD was the original 5.1 theatrical mix with the Surround EX flag, despite the Dutch DVD release only being in Dolby Surround, it seems that Disney might did do the Japanese dub in 5.1 at some point, until it got lost in favor of the 2005 remix. Though for the dub only being in Dolby Surround on this DVD release, and since the Japanese language is recognisable enough to get a 5.1 treatment akin to French and German, I can tell that Disney Japan just isn’t ready for DD yet at the time.

Sambarker04 said:

Speaking of updates, I just got the Japanese DVD. It was a budget re-release from 2004 since one of the pamphlets included were ads for the home media release of Finding Nemo. Interestingly enough, it not only has the Japanese dub, but also the Korean dub as well, both only in Dolby Surround. I honestly found it interesting since Japan had already started to get into Dolby Digital in 1995 with Whisper of the Heart, and since Toy Story came out in Japan several months after that movie, I’d assume that if the Japanese dub only being in Dolby Surround was either Disney’s choice when they released it to DVD, or it’s the only source they had at the time, since Disney’s Japanese division may not have the budget for Dolby Digital yet. In fact, the Japanese dub of the second film was in 5.1 EX on its DVD release, and since I can confirm the Flemish dub on the UK BD was the original 5.1 theatrical mix with the Surround EX flag, despite the Dutch DVD release only being in Dolby Surround, it seems that Disney might did do the Japanese dub in 5.1 at some point, until it got lost in favor of the 2005 remix. Though for the dub only being in Dolby Surround on this DVD release, and since the Japanese language is recognisable enough to get a 5.1 treatment akin to French and German, I can tell that Disney Japan just isn’t ready for DD yet at the time.

On the Japanese poster, it has the Spectral Recording Dolby Stereo Digital logo, so I assume the Japanese dub’s mixed into 5.1 or the technology’s limited to the English track since there are screenings that contain the original soundtrack with subtitles.

Also, around 1996, Japanese dubs of both Disney and non-Disney animated films like Balto got the digital surround sound treatment (assuming that the aforementioned Hollywood/British produced animated production was the first to do so) and by 1998, prints of films started to utilize all of the 3 digital surround formats (Dolby Digital, DTS, and SDDS), so I do think the Japanese dub mixes are ported to them. I don’t know if Lion King or Pocahontas’s Japanese dubs got the Dolby Digital treatment albeit uncredited since I think there are theaters that screen Hollywood films in Digital Sound pre-Whisper of the Heart?

HAttackontheBun said:

Sambarker04 said:

Speaking of updates, I just got the Japanese DVD. It was a budget re-release from 2004 since one of the pamphlets included were ads for the home media release of Finding Nemo. Interestingly enough, it not only has the Japanese dub, but also the Korean dub as well, both only in Dolby Surround. I honestly found it interesting since Japan had already started to get into Dolby Digital in 1995 with Whisper of the Heart, and since Toy Story came out in Japan several months after that movie, I’d assume that if the Japanese dub only being in Dolby Surround was either Disney’s choice when they released it to DVD, or it’s the only source they had at the time, since Disney’s Japanese division may not have the budget for Dolby Digital yet. In fact, the Japanese dub of the second film was in 5.1 EX on its DVD release, and since I can confirm the Flemish dub on the UK BD was the original 5.1 theatrical mix with the Surround EX flag, despite the Dutch DVD release only being in Dolby Surround, it seems that Disney might did do the Japanese dub in 5.1 at some point, until it got lost in favor of the 2005 remix. Though for the dub only being in Dolby Surround on this DVD release, and since the Japanese language is recognisable enough to get a 5.1 treatment akin to French and German, I can tell that Disney Japan just isn’t ready for DD yet at the time.

On the Japanese poster, it has the Spectral Recording Dolby Stereo Digital logo, so I assume the Japanese dub’s mixed into 5.1 or the technology’s limited to the English track since there are screenings that contain the original soundtrack with subtitles.

Also, around 1996, Japanese dubs of both Disney and non-Disney animated films like Balto got the digital surround sound treatment (assuming that the aforementioned Hollywood/British produced animated production was the first to do so) and by 1998, prints of films started to utilize all of the 3 digital surround formats (Dolby Digital, DTS, and SDDS), so I do think the Japanese dub mixes are ported to them. I don’t know if Lion King or Pocahontas’s Japanese dubs got the Dolby Digital treatment albeit uncredited since I think there are theaters that screen Hollywood films in Digital Sound pre-Whisper of the Heart?

I honestly think the logo was added since Japan usually tends to prefer watching Hollywood movies subtitled anyways, hence some Japanese cinemas maybe equipped with Dolby Digital. I did check on the opening credits for the dub on the DVD and I noticed it’s a telecine transfer, meaning that the dubbed version was also screened simultaneously with the subtitled version, so maybe since the Japanese dub was only in Dolby Surround on this DVD, my guess was that since Japan already had cinemas equipped with Dolby Digital, the dubbed version was only in Dolby Stereo due to Disney Japan not feeling like dubbed films should get the digital surround treatment yet. And for the pre-WotH comment, I honestly don’t know if there are any reports that Japanese cinemas were screening Batman Returns in that format as it was known to be the first film in that format or any American film after that. In fact, I noticed that the earliest Japanese DVDs of The Lion King and Pocahontas had their Japanese dubs in 5.1 surround, so maybe Toy Story’s Japanese dub was only in Dolby Stereo at the time due to possibly not being profitable enough to do a 5.1 mix of the dub considering Disney and people thought the film would be a massive flop pre-release.

Whisper of the Heart is in Ac3 in the Ghibli Ga Ippai boxed set, so is on your mark. And Mononoke Hime was released separately in Ac3, all on laserdisc, not to derail the thread. Mononoke is 1998. and the big box set is 1996.

The only other AC3 is the English Dub on Kiki from Disney in 1998 also. Just talking laserdisc, not dvd or blu-ray.

Howls was Dolby 6.1 EX. And Spirited Away was DTS ES. 6.1 I no longer have those DVD. on the first Japanese DVD.