UPDATE (04/10/2025): Okay, plan B, rather than just use Disney’s official 4K remaster, I’ll use the original 1080p Thunderbean scan, mostly because of more detail in the image and how it looks really cool to me. I do have proof about the AI upscale of the scan here just to let you know.
So yeah, apologies to anyone who wanted to see it in 4K.
For this new source, I’ll use the 1998 Japanese DVD master for the grading since, from what I can guess, it is the same transfer used on the LaserDiscs, which is why it’s non-anamorphic, especially since the scan is way too saturated and bright. The JP DVD will be used for patching the missing frames.
Actually, I need to find a remux of it, since I don’t know if the 1080p file I got and the reported 720p file had their frame rates to 23.976, since the 35mm scan of the 1969 re-release of Peter Pan has it in 24fps. In case you want to know, here’s the MediaInfo of the 1080p version.
General
Unique ID : 305061685722160848457308697892272960038 (0xE580BE58C0A43A32BBD40CCA675B7226)
Complete name : C:\Users\Sam\Videos\The Nightmare Before Christmas.1993.35mm.1080p.mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 4
File size : 10.2 GiB
Duration : 1 h 16 min
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 19.2 Mb/s
Frame rate : 23.976 FPS
Encoded date : 2023-11-28 00:14:55 UTC
Writing application : mkvmerge 68.0.0 ('The Curtain') 64-bit
Writing library : libebml v1.4.2 + libmatroska v1.6.4
Video
ID : 1
ID in the original source medium : 4113 (0x1011)
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings : CABAC / 4 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames : 4 frames
Format settings, Slice count : 4 slices per frame
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 1 h 16 min
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 17.4 Mb/s
Maximum bit rate : 29.0 Mb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Active width : 1 777 pixels
Active height : 1 069 pixels
Active display aspect ratio : 5:3
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.350
Stream size : 9.26 GiB (91%)
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709
Original source medium : Blu-ray
Audio #1
ID : 2
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name : Dolby Digital
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 1 h 16 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 256 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel layout : L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 139 MiB (1%)
Title : MVO Карусель
Language : Russian
Service kind : Complete Main
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Dialog Normalization : -31 dB
dialnorm_Average : -31 dB
dialnorm_Minimum : -31 dB
dialnorm_Maximum : -31 dB
Audio #2
ID : 3
ID in the original source medium : 4352 (0x1100)
Format : PCM
Format settings : Little / Signed
Codec ID : A_PCM/INT/LIT
Duration : 1 h 16 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 536 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 30.000 FPS (1600 SPF)
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 837 MiB (8%)
Title : Original
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No
Original source medium : Blu-ray
Menu
00:00:00.000 : en:Chapter 01
00:04:07.205 : en:Chapter 02
00:11:06.832 : en:Chapter 03
00:13:50.120 : en:Chapter 04
00:17:36.513 : en:Chapter 05
00:24:14.661 : en:Chapter 06
00:32:07.467 : en:Chapter 07
00:40:33.722 : en:Chapter 08
00:47:41.149 : en:Chapter 09
00:54:43.113 : en:Chapter 10
00:59:37.282 : en:Chapter 11
01:05:01.105 : en:Chapter 12
01:08:36.946 : en:Chapter 13
and here for the 720p version
General
Unique ID : 64375619929596748989707303955415704265 (0x306E4B1CFD3CBC32D43046B6D79C22C9)
Complete name : The Nightmare Before Christmas 1993 Thunderbean Scan Open Matte 720p BluRay FLAC2.0 x264-R40.mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 4
File size : 3.81 GiB
Duration : 1 h 16 min
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 7 162 kb/s
Movie name : The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) [Thunderbean Scan Open Matte]
Encoded date : UTC 2022-05-20 16:53:25
Writing application : mkvmerge v67.0.0 ('Under Stars'[Image: wink.gif] 64-bit
Writing library : libebml v1.4.2 + libmatroska v1.6.4
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings : CABAC / 9 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames : 9 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 1 h 16 min
Bit rate : 6 466 kb/s
Width : 1 224 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 1.700
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.306
Stream size : 3.44 GiB (90%)
Writing library : x264 core 164 r3094+49M 0246926 devel [(8 & 10)-bit@all X86_64]
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=9 / deblock=1:-3:-3 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=11 / psy=1 / fade_compensate=0.00 / psy_rd=1.15:0.05 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=24 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-3 / threads=22 / lookahead_threads=3 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=0 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / fgo=0 / bframes=8 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc=crf / mbtree=0 / crf=19.0000 / qcomp=0.70 / qpmin=10:10:10 / qpmax=51:51:51 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30 / aq=1:0.80 / aq-sensitivity=10.00 / aq-factor=1.00:1.00:1.00 / aq2=0 / aq3=0
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color range : Limited
Matrix coefficients : BT.709
Audio
ID : 2
Format : FLAC
Format/Info : Free Lossless Audio Codec
Codec ID : A_FLAC
Duration : 1 h 16 min
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 694 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel layout : L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 10.417 FPS (4608 SPF)
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossless
Stream size : 378 MiB (10%)
Writing library : Lavf58.45.100
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Though I did compare both the 1080p and 2160p versions here
and I can tell right off the bat there could be a chance I can get access to the original raw open matte scans somewhere. If anyone happens to have a Blu-ray of the open matte scan from Thunderbean’s official website, please PM me either an ISO rip or a remux using MakeMKV (recommended for BD remuxes).