Well, it's been a couple of weeks and I never heard from that person on youtube. Damn shame :( On the bright side, I have attained two "new" (they are to me) copies of the movie, which I had some questions about. Whenever there are references to sources for the movie there is always mention of the Japanese releases (both VHS and LD) and then to the UK PAL VHS tape, however there is never any mention of the other VHS releases. I have discovered that the movie was also released in German, Italian, Spanish, and French (this one is of particular interest to me as it's NOT a PAL transfer.)
After much searching all over the internet, I have acquired VHSrips of the German PAL VHS release (circa 1991 like the UK release) which is in a very nice 1.8GB xvid file and a French SECAM VHS release (circa 1981) which is in an ok 1.2GB mp4 file.
I don't speak either language, but was curious to see if the transfer suffered from the same issues as the UK VHS release. Does anyone know whether the German release used the same video as the UK release? I am leaning towards yes, due to the fact that most of the title cards are still in English in beginning of movie (where the cast names are, as I'll illustrate in screencaps below) However, what about the French release. It's NOT PAL, but SECAM, so whole different transfer process (was the SECAM copy from the UK PAL transfer or from original NTSC transfer?) I am wondering if the French SECAM VHS might be a good frame reference and am willing to share these two releases with anyone that wants them (just shoot me a PM)
here are six screencaps that I took, demonstrating alternate language versions:
1) The "Walt Disney Presents" title card (French left-German right)
2) The "Song of the South" translated title cards
3) Entire "book" with title of movie title card (looks like they got lazy on the German release as the whole bottom half is missing, unlike the French release)
4) the "starring" title card (notice that ONLY the French one is translated)
5) Introduction title card
6) "The End" title card (notice, again, that ONLY French one is translated)
I really think that the German release might be using same transfer as the UK release, but that French one might be promising for a copy with a proper transfer. Anyone have any input on this please?