Star Wars (1977 Original Version) Theatrical Rerelease Discussion — Page 9

Over on the The Star Wars Trilogy Discord, someone got the special privilege of touring Disney/Lucasfilm and included a pic which confirms that the original trilogy has in fact been restored to its original state.

JackNapier said:

Over on the The Star Wars Trilogy Discord, someone got the special privilege of touring Disney/Lucasfilm and included a pic which confirms that the original trilogy has in fact been restored to its original state.

Yes! This matches all the info we got about the physical restoration that happened. Disney has finally (atleast) restored the negative of ep4 to its original state!

What is the content of the image that confirms restoration? Any chance you can post it here.

Why would the Esb negative be 2.35 instead of 1.33 like SW? Also it shows esb is conformed as Special Edition still. Plus it says TAR after episode IV? (“Theatrical aspect ratio”?) A little confusing. Glad SW is literally in the can but not sure what the info for esb means. Thanks for sharing, am looking forward to more info as it arrives!

TAR is likely to mean ‘Trilogy Archival Restoration’. I think doubleofive has a post or thread on it here somewhere.
 

JF_Sanderson said:

Why would the Esb negative be 2.35 instead of 1.33 like SW? Also it shows esb is conformed as Special Edition still. Plus it says TAR after episode IV? (“Theatrical aspect ratio”?) A little confusing. Glad SW is literally in the can but not sure what the info for esb means. Thanks for sharing, am looking forward to more info as it arrives!

We go into more detail in the Discord, but as past leaked “documents” have hinted at. Only Star Wars was reconformed to its original cut; ESB and perhaps ROTJ will only be “de-specialised” in the editor for the DI.

The difference in aspect ratio is probably just a different way to label the same overall aspect ratio…
But these images are 100% of the original negative, and not copies. They’re listed as “Cut Negatives,” wich refers to the original negative made up of first generational elements that are “cut” to match the workprint.

BedeHistory731 said:

DarthSmaul said:

SonnyGFunk said:

JF_Sanderson said:

What is the content of the image that confirms restoration? Any chance you can post it here.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18c49X5zqc/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Interesting, along with Star Wars and ESB, it appears they’re restoring the theatrical (Touchstone) cut of Nightmare Before Christmas too.

Didn’t Disney do a really good 4K of the movie? What’s different about the Touchstone cut?

Pretty sure it’s the same, except the Disney logo replaces the Touchstone one…
The fact that these blue canisters are “newly restored” does not necessarily mean they’re part of upcoming releases, as the restorations are purely physical.

DarthSmaul said:

BedeHistory731 said:

DarthSmaul said:

SonnyGFunk said:

JF_Sanderson said:

What is the content of the image that confirms restoration? Any chance you can post it here.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18c49X5zqc/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Interesting, along with Star Wars and ESB it appears they’re restoring the theatrical (Touchstone) cut of Nightmare Before Christmas too.

Didn’t Disney do a really good 4K of the movie? What’s different about the Touchstone cut?

Per a Facebook thread:

The changes happened in 2006 for the 3D rerelease and were never undone so don’t be fooled by any recent DVD or Blu Ray that says “Theatrical cut.”

First the opening logos. Danny Elfman and Tim Burton have a tradition that Danny Elfman’s music plays over the opening logos. Disney removed the Touchstone logo in 2006 and slapped on a Disney castle intro with their own intro music. Danny’s music now doesn’t start until after the Disney logo, breaking tradition.

The opening text used to be a pale orange. Now it’s more redish, perhaps to make it more Christmasy. “Touchstone Pictures Presents” has been replaced with “Walt Disney Pictures Presents”.

Wires have been removed from bats during “This is Halloween”.

The audio splicing is slightly off, particularly with Oogie Boogie’s line “I am the Shadow on the moon at night.”

Theres a bass reduction in the songs to make them sound slightly more “modern”. This is especially noticeable during “This Is Halloween” when you compare it to the VHS releases.

Note: The last unaltered release of Nightmare before Christmas on home video was the 10th anniversary Special Edition DVD from 2003.

None of these alterations would warrant a re-scan of the negatives, so I believe that for Nightmare, it’s just a case of archival cleanup.

Verboten said:

That guy with no name said:
Only Star Wars was reconformed to its original cut; ESB and perhaps ROTJ will only be “de-specialised” in the editor for the DI.

Why? As a layman, that comes off as weird and possibly bad.

It’s not weird. ANH is the only negative that’s in dire need of restoration. ESB and ROTJ were filmed on better stock, and I guess there isin’t as much incentive to disassemble them and re-conform them to the theatrical cut. Not sure why this is “possibly bad”?- We know for a fact the theatrical cut of all three films is happening, we’ve literally seen the clips…

Verboten said:

Because, as someone who doesn’t know all the ins and outs of film restoration, it sounded like they took a half-assed approach to Empire and Jedi.

No, not really. They might re-conform them in the future.

Some Interested Observer said:

Wow, great images there.

To be honest, I never expected the film to actually be reconformed. Can anyone explain how that would work exactly for the scenes that no longer exist from the OCN? Just cutting in from different sources? (I thought they wouldn’t do that to preserve the IPs etc, but maybe that’s just the way it is)

The pieces cut out originally were put in storage, not thrown out. There are no scenes that “no longer exist” they’re all still there, they’ve just been recut into the negative.

kali9615 said:

That guy with no name said:

The pieces cut out originally were put in storage, not thrown out. There are no scenes that “no longer exist” they’re all still there, they’ve just been recut into the negative.

If that’s the case, why does the ALI restoration rely on IP, CSM, VVI, etc. sources for many unaltered shots if those portions of the OCN still exists? Unless it’s just in that bad of a condition?

IP: used for color timing since the ON isn’t timed
VV: Vista Vision plates are higher fidelity since those shots were then reduced to 35mm for the negative
CSM… not sure what this is

kali9615 said:

That guy with no name said:

The pieces cut out originally were put in storage, not thrown out. There are no scenes that “no longer exist” they’re all still there, they’ve just been recut into the negative.

If that’s the case, why does the ALI restoration rely on IP, CSM, VVI, etc. sources for many unaltered shots if those portions of the OCN still exists? Unless it’s just in that bad of a condition?

The VVIs ARE the first-generational material found in the negative for the effect shots finished on that format. The IP and CSM are used for damage cleanup. I don’t think those sources were used to replace missing shots? which there aren’t any according to the docs. They in no way “rely” on those secondary sources…

Some Interested Observer said:

That guy with no name said:

kali9615 said:

That guy with no name said:

The pieces cut out originally were put in storage, not thrown out. There are no scenes that “no longer exist” they’re all still there, they’ve just been recut into the negative.

If that’s the case, why does the ALI restoration rely on IP, CSM, VVI, etc. sources for many unaltered shots if those portions of the OCN still exists? Unless it’s just in that bad of a condition?

The VVIs ARE the first-generational material found in the negative for the effect shots finished on that format. The IP and CSM are used for damage cleanup. I don’t think those sources were used to replace missing shots? which there aren’t any according to the docs. They in no way “rely” on those secondary sources…

I believe they may be referring to the notes at the beginning of the earlier leaks, when usually it shows “OCN/IP Conform” at the top for the unaltered scenes, whereas some replaced scenes seemed to show different sources being used (CRI/IP being a common example there).

OCN/IP shows up for every single clip that is not a VVI or CRI. This doesn’t mean that the shot is being replaced with an IP shot.