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.