Woohoo, I got my DVDs! First of all I must say that the commentary track is fabulous. I usually don't like commentaries much, but this one was exceptional. It's hard to imagine that any official release could do much better. Your insights were really interesting, especially the info into who animated what and where. Since I'd only seen the Youtube version before I was surprised at many of the new music choices - a lot of them worked really well.

I also got a chance to see the Williams workprint for the first time, as well as part of the Fred Calvert workprint (oh my God! The calamity!) and... well, I'm sure you've heard this one before, but just a comment:

The Calvert version has that subplot with the nanny dissaproving of the princess's attraction to Tack, while in the Williams workprint she seems to genuinely like him. There's one scene in particular, right after Nanny says "your bath is ready, my dear", where the Recobbled Cut follows the Calvert story and character interpretation more closely. We see Nanny get very angry, and Yum Yum blush for what must be the 20th time before she gets pushed away by Nanny. In Williams' version Nanny does not get angry and Yum Yum waves Tack a little goodbye before leaving of her own accord. Yes, I know that you used Calvert animation where you could, and I don't disagree with the sentiment but the entire scene lasts only a few short seconds and yet keeping the Calvert footage in those few short seconds is enough to completely change Nanny's personality for the worse, as well as make Princess Yum Yum appear to be less independent.

Sorry about that - I don't really have any right to mention what I think you did wrong when there are SO many more things that you did right with this restoration, but now that I've seen the Williams workprint I feel quite strongly that his cut should've been used - even though it's storyboards, a few seconds of them can't hurt when the alternative is to screw up a character (also, the scene flows better with the Williams cut, since there's less repetition - how many times can Yum Yum blush?). Just in case you ever do make a Mk. III, I think you should consider it.

I haven't looked at most of the stuff on the DVDs yet... I'll get around to it, it's quite a lot! One thing that intrigued me was an image of a DVD cover for the Recobbled Cut that used the Cannes brochure painting on the front and had all sorts of intricate designs, as well as the "Once..." logo on the back. I've never seen that one online anywhere - is that the case that you sent to Richard Williams?