Disney's Theatrical Animated Features: Best Sources List

Please look at this thread instead: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Recommended-Editions-of-Disney-Animated-and-Partially-Animated-Features/post/644607/#TopicPost644607

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Original Post:

There's clearly some interest in the best sources for Disney's theatrical animated features, as evidenced here and here.

(For now, let's say that "best" means "most accurate to the original theatrical presentation".)

I'd like to start a list here to document my/our findings. For now, I'd like to focus on Walt Disney Animation Studios productions; specifically, the theatrical animated features produced prior to the arrival of Roy E. Disney in 1985.

Let's compare LDs, DVDs, and BDs. Other obscure formats (e.g., CED and VHD) will only be entertained if they demonstrably have the best source for a particular feature.

1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
2. Pinocchio: 4/87 CAV LD [239 CS]
3. Fantasia
4. Dumbo
5. Bambi
6. Saludos Amigos
7. The Three Caballeros
8. Make Mine Music
9. Fun and Fancy Free
10. Melody Time
11. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
12. Cinderella: 4/95 Remastered CAV LD [4964 CS]
13. Alice in Wonderland
14. Peter Pan: 11/99 Limited Issue DVD
15. Lady and the Tramp
16. Sleeping Beauty
17. One Hundred and One Dalmatians
18. The Sword in the Stone
19. The Jungle Book
20. The Aristocats
21. Robin Hood
22. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
23. The Rescuers
24. The Fox and the Hound
25. The Black Cauldron

I don't know how much I can contribute because all I've really got are my VHS tapes. Most of them aren't even that old, they're from the Masterpiece Collection series in the '90s. I understand that series was remastered, but I have no idea to what extent.

That said, according to this wikipedia page "Saludos Amigos" "Make Mine Music" and "Melody Time" are censored on the DVD editions (unless a rerelease after the first time undid this; if so, it is not mentioned in the article.) It might be worth looking to see if that was previously available unaltered.

bkev said:

I don't know how much I can contribute because all I've really got are my VHS tapes. Most of them aren't even that old, they're from the Masterpiece Collection series in the '90s. I understand that series was remastered, but I have no idea to what extent.

That said, according to this wikipedia page "Saludos Amigos" "Make Mine Music" and "Melody Time" are censored on the DVD editions (unless a rerelease after the first time undid this; if so, it is not mentioned in the article.) It might be worth looking to see if that was previously available unaltered.

Thanks for replying, bkev.

I believe that this LD of Saludos Amigos is uncut. Furthermore, this LD of Make Mine Music is uncut. And... to top it all off, this LD of Melody Time is uncut, too.

The problem is, of course, that they're quite expensive purchases. O_O

AntcuFaalb said:

...

(For now, let's say that "best" means "most accurate to the original theatrical presentation".)

Which original theatrical presentation? Lady and the Tramp had two...

Moth3r said:

AntcuFaalb said:

...

(For now, let's say that "best" means "most accurate to the original theatrical presentation".)

Which original theatrical presentation? Lady and the Tramp had two...

Good to know. Thanks!

How bad? The kind where it's not salvageable if you switch it back?

animebuff said:

AntcuFaalb said:

bkev said:

I don't know how much I can contribute because all I've really got are my VHS tapes. Most of them aren't even that old, they're from the Masterpiece Collection series in the '90s. I understand that series was remastered, but I have no idea to what extent.

That said, according to this wikipedia page "Saludos Amigos" "Make Mine Music" and "Melody Time" are censored on the DVD editions (unless a rerelease after the first time undid this; if so, it is not mentioned in the article.) It might be worth looking to see if that was previously available unaltered.

Thanks for replying, bkev.

I believe that this LD of Saludos Amigos is uncut. Furthermore, this LD of Make Mine Music is uncut. And... to top it all off, this LD of Melody Time is uncut, too.

The problem is, of course, that they're quite expensive purchases. O_O

Saludos Amigos is uncut as a supplement on the DVD release of the Walt & El Groupo documentary.

Make Mine Music and Melody Time are uncut on PAL DVD in Europe. Unfortunately, they seem to be poor NTSC conversions.

Wow, cool! How good is the Saludos Amigos transfer? Do you know if it's better than the LD?

animebuff said:

bkev said:

How bad? The kind where it's not salvageable if you switch it back?

Yes.  Screengrabs from DVDizzy post.

Yuck! :-(

You_Too said:

It's funny how LD was considered such a premium format and got so many releases of almost everything, yet when DVD went popular it got way more popular than LD ever was, but on DVD we aren't spoiled with all those nice releases. Same with blu-ray! :(

True.

It's a shame we still haven't seen a proper release of The Green Hornet (1966-1967) on any home video format.

The Aluminum Falcon said:

AntcuFaalb said:

(For now, let's say that "best" means "most accurate to the original theatrical presentation".)

By your standard of best, here is what I know.

2. Pinnochio

1987 CAV LD- Technicolor Color Timing

12. Cinderella

1995 Special Collector's Edition CAV- RKO Logo, Original Timing, No Restoration Errors, and Original Mix Available (as LD Audio track option).

14. Peter Pan

1999 DVD- Original Color Timing (blue/non-revisionist and not yellow shifted) in DVD Video Quality (not sure about audio).

I know the above isn't much, but hope it helps.

Thanks for this information! It's a start!

Let's focus on video accuracy for now. We'll move on to audio later.

The following links might help:

1 http://caps-a-holic.com/index.php?search=Disney

2 http://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?s=be76926c0b52e8e023f4584be5fc18cf&p=6402859&postcount=2

Does the HDTV rip of The Aristocats (here: http://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=6130587&postcount=83) seem to have pumped saturation?

How is this movie supposed to look? Do we have any good references?

Edit: It's probably faded, but here's a start:

SilverWook said:

AntcuFaalb said:

You_Too said:

It's funny how LD was considered such a premium format and got so many releases of almost everything, yet when DVD went popular it got way more popular than LD ever was, but on DVD we aren't spoiled with all those nice releases. Same with blu-ray! :(

True.

It's a shame we still haven't seen a proper release of The Green Hornet (1966-1967) on any home video format.

The episodes edited into movies to cash in on Bruce Lee's fame did come out on Laserdisc overseas. There were also DVD releases of the the movie edits several years ago, but apparently the distributor ran into rights problems, and they were pulled from the market. I only snagged one of them.

The show aired on SyFy last year, and looked pretty good, so new video masters must have been made. No idea if they were edited.

I have AVIs of all 26 episodes, actually. They're OK quality-wise.

animebuff said:

bkev said:

How bad? The kind where it's not salvageable if you switch it back?

Yes.  Screengrabs from DVDizzy post.

That might be salvageable (using Srestore, for example). Would need to see a short clip rather than two screengrabs.

You_Too: Wow, awesome! Thanks!

Would you be able to help out with some Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 35mm filmstrips?

I'm referring to the first 23 here: http://tx0.org/585

We can use your color-corrected cells as a reference when comparing LD, DVD, and BD releases. I can't think of a better reference than a color-corrected scan of an actual 35mm print.

Thanks again!

From the Aristocats photos, I'd say the Golden Collection and Special DVDs look most accurate to how I remember and believe the film should appear. The HDTV caps look all kinds of awful and lose detail. The BD restores this but has a paler tone overall and seems to have also smoothed out some detail.

Most of all these Disney classics with multiple aspects should have been preserved in each format. Most of us grew up seeing them in Academy via VHS to boot.

Lady and the Tramp has separate Cinemascope and Academy versions, that were done independently and thus have different animation entirely. In many ways I think the lesser seen Academy is equal to or better than the Scope version. This is only found on the late 90's VHS and LD, but the pressings seem to be hard to identify.

As TAF pointed out, it seems the 1987 CAV of Pinocchio is closest to some grabs of an IB print. The 1993 restored version is likely more how the film was intended to look. I don't think you can really go wrong with either. The BD is an abomination.

I appreciate this listing idea, as I had felt myself wanting to track down some of these. Gosh, I just realized haven't really seen these since I was about 5.

^I believe Molly has a copy of the Academy Lady and the Tramp. Or, at the least, did a preliminary capture of it. There's comparisons between the two here http://web.archive.org/web/20120413045648/http://animatedviews.com/2006/lady-and-the-tramp-50th-anniversary-platinum-edition/ (messy, I know, but OT doesn't like archive.org.)

Does anyone know of an "LDDB for DVDs"? If so, please post the hyperlink here!