Since Halloween and Christmas are nearby, as well as since I’m of what I did to Toy Story, I decided to do another of my favourites that unfortunately gets butchered by Disney with every new re-release…well you know what it is.

Back when the film was originally released, it was going to be a pioneering moment in Disney’s animation techniques, according to the company’s favourite nutball, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and the 1992 sneak preview. But then the test screening came where the children got traumatised that Disney decided to release the film under the Touchstone label to prevent further trauma. I do honestly see why though, since the film’s extremely macabre tone didn’t fit well with the style of films released by the mouse house, especially with hearing “When You Wish Upon a Star” with current versions of the film when Disney decided to finally release the film under their original label since the 3D re-release. In fact, I’m honestly not a fan of the master used for the 2008 Blu-ray and later the UHD release, not only because it brought back the Disney credit from the re-release, but also its new 7.1 remix, mainly because of noticeable changes when compared to the original Dolby Stereo (and later the identical 1997 5.1 remix) mixes, such as how it did The Simpsons Movie thing where it starts out mono in the opening narration, up to when we enter Halloween Town it goes full 7.1, parts of vocals where it has a chorus effect (e.g. from The One Hiding Under Your Bed), and strangely (if you listen closely) the vocals can be heard all over the speakers, instead of the front and center speakers. I do understand this was done so that Disney can show off that Blu-ray can go “up to 7.1 surround sound” in their advertising, but I think how it was remixed felt uncomfortable for me. Though I did enjoy the remaster in both the BD and UHD releases, despite the changed opening credits having a strange zoom-in effect, which obviously was originally done for the 3D version, but I don’t know if the team that updated the film felt like the effect felt comfortable too when it came time for the BD. Though, I think the UHD was way better because of its authentic HDR from the original negatives.

So I decided to make this preservation for fun, and this time, the main source would be 4K HDR instead of 1080p. Yes, I am aware of the 4K HDR 35mm scan where it shows more image and it is the original theatrical version, but I’m not a fan of it, though, due to the bitrate being very crappy, and the amount of nits seem to be very limited when compared to the official 4K remaster.

Video sources for this preservation:

Ultra HD Blu-ray (main film)
4K HDR 35mm scan (opening logo and credits, also closing logo and MPAA card)

Audio tracks that will be included:

English (Original Theatrical; Deluxe CAV LaserDisc) (FLAC 2.0)
English (1997 5.1 Remix; US DTS LaserDisc) (DTS 5.1) (This is a direct copy done trimmed using delaycut and merged using Audacity by combining the raw data. Thankfully it didn’t have problems like what the Toy Story DTS LD unfortunately have)
Commentary (Deluxe CAV LaserDisc; FLAC 3.0)
Commentary (2000 Special Edition R1 DVD; Dolby Digital 2.0)
Arabic (POWER’s Disney+ rip; Dolby Surround 2.0)
Russian (Dub) (ТНТ Screener DVD; Dolby Digital 5.1) (There was an official voiceover by NTV+ that Disney used on official streaming platforms, even though I can confirm Disney didn’t release the film physically in Russia, despite The Dubbing Database claiming that it does, though I need to check to see if it uses the 1997 or 2008 mixes.

…and more to come!

Every subtitles and captions from every DVD and LD release I can get access will be included as well.