The Knick Knack Boobs Restoration — Page 2

C'est la vie ... besides, if it actually had been the original version, then I would've died from financial shock!  :D   But thanks for keeping an eye out for info and such.

Unfortunately, finding information is like picking through pebbles in that goldfish bowl at the end of the film. I'm still finding bits and pieces even while writing this up!

The original version premiered in 3D (more accurately stereographic) at SIGGRAPH (1st source says 1988; 2nd source says 1989 -- I'd go with 1989) and was formally released in November 1989.
Pixar Talk: Knick Knack - http://www.pixartalk.com/shorts/knick-knack/
Pixar Wiki: Knick Knack - http://pixar.wikia.com/Knick_Knack

Was there a later 2D version to be tacked onto the ends other movies or TV broadcasts? (I would think.) What film format? What aspect ratio?

About aspect ratio, this picture from a workstation monitor of the 1989 original shows the viewport as 16x9 widescreen ..

It is accurately portrayed. Note that the spherical objects are fully round. That means the VHS  and possible laserdisc  postings on YouTube were pan&scan (cropped) 4x3 fullscreen. Here it is again, but with the representative YouTube videos overlaid ..

An interesting puzzle piece of Knick Knack's history was that the 1991 Pixar VHS tape on Page 1 was not a commercial product, but a  low-volume-run give-away for the early showings.
Big Screen Animation - Curiouser: Rare 1991 Pixar Shorts VHS - http://www.bigscreenanimation.com/2012/07/curiouser-rare-1991-pixar-shorts-vhs.html  [read the comments, too]

I have the Toy Story LD box that has shorts on it.  It is always a treat to watch.

Cool! Would you verify which aspect ratio was put onto the laserdisc (US or JP)? And, better yet, could you cap & post the shot like what I posted here? (It's at the beginning -- the 1st close-up shot of Knick the snowman as he turns his head over to the other knick-knacks' party.)

Also, the workstation monitor picture (snagged from one of those Pixar info sites) has videotape's tell-tale data-noise at bottom-frame. It's possible it's from a documentary on the VHS. Is something like this also on your laserdisc? If so, would you cap & post that, too? (The snagged picture looks like a geometrically distorted screener snapshot.)

God's honest truth, this is probably the skeeziest preservation I've ever heard of.

I actually have a bit more respect for Lasseter now. Maybe one day he'll repair the damage Cars did to my opinion of him.

I agree with you...except Cars wasn't that bad.  Cars 2, on the other hand...

It is what it is.  It's a product from a different time.  I don't think Pixar thought these would become so popular that they could make money on them by putting them all on a bluray or dvd.

I don't have an issue with someone wanting the way it was .... it's not dirty or anything, it's just a Pixar animated short, not Hentai. 

Spaced Ranger said:

Cool! Would you verify which aspect ratio was put onto the laserdisc (US or JP)? And, better yet, could you cap & post the shot like what I posted here? (It's at the beginning -- the 1st close-up shot of Knick the snowman as he turns his head over to the other knick-knacks' party.)

Also, the workstation monitor picture (snagged from one of those Pixar info sites) has videotape's tell-tale data-noise at bottom-frame. It's possible it's from a documentary on the VHS. Is something like this also on your laserdisc? If so, would you cap & post that, too? (The snagged picture looks like a geometrically distorted screener snapshot.)

 I have this one, US version .....

I am not setup to cap as of yet due to some issues I had a ways back but I could setup and see what happens.

As for the picture .... I have a widescreen tv, 42 inch, and the entire screen was filled while watching the shorts.  I believe the movie is 1:77:1, per the director.

http://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/07257/8847-CS/Toy-Story:-Deluxe-Edition-%281995%29

Jetrell Fo said:

... US version ... I have a widescreen tv, 42 inch, and the entire screen was filled while watching the shorts.  I believe the movie is 1:77:1, per the director.

http://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/07257/8847-CS/Toy-Story:-Deluxe-Edition-%281995%29

Thanks, that's confirmation enough! I couldn't expect LDDb's aspect ratio for Toy Story to apply to the laserdisc extras as well. I'll update my above graphic to reflect this.

.

@ DavidMerrick & TV's Frink

Sorry to be the one to break this to you both, but ...

"Lasseter exclaims. '... why do we even want to attempt to do another one?' That question gets right to the heart of a recurring criticism leveled at Pixar in recent years. ... And in addition to original upcoming projects ... Pixar’s slate includes ... 'Cars 3' ... " -Variety, March 10, 2015

:O

first thing - the Bobby McFerrin song is now truncated by two lines worth of "blah" in the end credits, which is extremely off-putting for me, its absence is sorely missed having binge-watched this short in my earlier days ... is there some sort of blah quotient I'm not aware of that reaches an eventual level of offensiveness?

second thing - though J.L. has saved our children's sensitive eyes from what was obviously a back-breaking breast augmentation for the poor lady, he is now promoting a very unhealthy level of anorexia, much worse than what Barbie suffers from in general proportion.

My sentiment is this ...... parents are supposed to raise and guide their children, not film makers or any others.  Now, our children do find influences outside the home, which is natural, but as parents it is OUR job to sit with them and explain and/or at least monitor and discuss their reactions to things.  My daughter has NEVER complained or even mentioned the large "brestacles" these knicknacks have.  She LOVES the humor, music, and the story idea of that snowman trying to free himself to hang with what he considers a pretty girl.

Nuff said in my opinion.

:)

One could also be upset that the female character appears to be snob and don't really care about what happens to the hero. I say that's sexist! So let's make her care about him more. No, wait, that is sexist too in a way because then the female character would willingly be like a reward... So let's replace her by a pile of money! No, then the snow man would look greedy, that's not good for kids to have a greedy hero, so why not a chocolate bar?! Not wait too much chocolate is not good for kids...

Honesly, I think only adults can be shocked by a female character who have breast. Children would find this normal. Because it is. And adults would understand the sexual "subplot" that is behind the reaction of the hero. That little short movie was perfect from the beginning. If the director wants to make changes I can understand and respect his point of view even if I don't share it but I can also understand someone who would want to make a presevation of the original. Honestly I saw that short movie back in 89 or 90 (it was the first really cool and beautiful Pixar movie with a real little story so it made an impression on me) and when I saw the new version years later I thought it looked bad.

What shocked me the most is that TV's Frink is shocked. ;)

TMBTM said:

Honesly, I think only adults can be shocked by a female character who have breast.

 This is not having breast.

This is having a ridiculous disproportionate I don't even know what.  It was dumb when they made it, and it's dumb to try and save it.

TV's Frink said:

This is having a ridiculous disproportionate I don't even know what.  It was dumb when they made it, and it's dumb to try and save it.

 That's like saying it's okay to not release Song of the South because it has  dumb racist caricatures. It's just a product of both the times and the creator(s) at the time. It belongs in a certain context. I can't say that someone owes us the OUT and at the same time say that we should not restore the original version of Knick Knack. As stupidly over-proportioned as the mermaid is, that's part of what the short is. It may be dumb, it may be unrealistic, but it's important nonetheless. 

TMBTM said:

What shocked me the most is that TV's Frink is shocked. ;)

Yeah, it stuck out to me too.  Mr. Frink .... meditation is the answer.

:)

TV's Frink said:

TMBTM said:

Honesly, I think only adults can be shocked by a female character who have breast.

 This is not having breast.

This is having a ridiculous disproportionate I don't even know what.  It was dumb when they made it, and it's dumb to try and save it.

Well, if you take the head of the character as a reference point for proportion, she have big boobs, indeed, but they are not ridiculously disproportionate. Plus this is a cartoon, her hip size is almost the size of her neck. And the character is a kind of a snob bimbo. She's not sympathetic. I really don't think a little girl would want to take this character as a model in life. Even the shape of her sunglasses makes her look unfriendly despite the large smile on her first shot. But anyway, each one have an opinion that is valid somehow. I just think preserving this old Pixar short is not something to be shameful about. Even if it was only the color correction it would worth it.

Sheesh.

I give up.  You guys have fun watching this.

Rick2525 said:

... the Bobby McFerrin song is now truncated by two lines worth of "blah" in the end credits ...

Thanks, I was going to mention that. I originally thought the song was truncated. After a closer listen through the previous YouTube links, it confirms that the last "blah" stanza was actually seamlessly excised to shorten the song, which otherwise ends normally. Too bad. The final ...   bl-l-l-l-lah!   bl-l-l-l-lah!   ... was the kicker.  :D

.

Finding 2003+ editions is allot easier than was hunting for the 1989 original-version ones. This first finds Knick Knack it in the supporting role of Extras ..

                           
Finding Nemo Collector's Edition DVD     Finding Nemo Collector's Edition Blu-ray

But fear not, Knick Knack takes center stage (with other Pixar shorts) under Pixar's own banner ..

                              
Pixar Short Films Collection Vol.1 DVD     Pixar Short Films Collection Vol.1 Blu-ray

.

BTW, you may have noticed YouTube not having 1080p as a viewing option anymore. That is, not for everybody. Why? Well ..

googlesystem said [October 26, 2013]:

YouTube Drops Support for 1080p Streams in the Regular HTML5 Player

"YouTube switched to adaptive streams in the Flash player and now does the same thing for the HTML5 player, but this requires Media Source Extensions. The adaptive DASH player uses separate chunked streams for audio and video ... YouTube removed the non-DASH streams for 480p and 1080p. This means that you'll no longer be able to watch 1080p videos in YouTube's HTML5 player if you use Firefox or Safari."

But there seems to be a working solution for Firefox in an available plug-in ..

Complete YouTube Saver 5.5.1 (or whatever version by the time you read this)
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-Us/firefox/addon/complete-youtube-saver/

"Download YouTube videos in various formats including 480p/1080p (DASH formats). Convert audio track from videos to MP3 or WAV, or save audio track in native format (Ogg Vorbis, AAC/M4A, MP3). Save YouTube page, video, and comments pages to one folder."