Info: Recommended Editions of Disney Animated (and Partially Animated) Features — Page 36

FrankT said:

I’m a little confused about the filmout part of the reproduction process. Why bother printing it onto film if they’re just going to transfer it to video anyway? Would it have made any difference to go straight from workstation to video?

If you’re talking about Snow White, there were several likely reasons - film was still the preferred storage medium, the technology for HD video storage wasn’t yet advanced enough/too expensive, and they had to make a film-out anyway because the restoration was for the 1993 theatrical re-release.

Far as I know, Snow White was the only pre-CAPS Disney film to go through digital cleanup, be put back out to film, and transferred to video again for the home release. I think (correct me if I’m wrong) The Little Mermaid just went through photochemical cleanup for the 1997 re-release, Oliver & Company probably had the same, BATB/TLK only had film-out for IMAX and were ported from the revised computer files for DVD, and nothing else from 1993 on had a theatrical re-release.

Doctor M said:

That drop out and return with lower quality sounds like your bitrate dropped because of internet quality/traffic. You probably need to re-capture.

It was a TV broadcast, not an internet stream 😉

So no, it’s not bitrate related at all, it’s in the master they were broadcasting. It’s obvious that restoration on the second half of the movie wasn’t finished… it looks more filmic (grain and dirt are visible) , but unfortunately vertical resolution was lower, since it was vertically blurred (while horizontal res was still the full 1920 pixels). I’m not sure why they would even allow an unfinished master to be broadcasted, but I was hoping that the iTunes version (or the Amazon Instant Video version, which is also available in HD, as well as on VUDU at “HDX” quality) uses a “finished” master.

Do you mean the 1997 restoration of Sleeping Beauty? Was that even digital, or was it just a straight photochemical restoration? (I’m also not clear whether they worked off any restoration work done for that aborted 1993 theatrical re-release that was promoted on the Beauty and the Beast VHS.)

The sound mixes would have been stored separately - digital audio storage being much easier and more feasible than digital video storage.

Because they wanted to restore the original 1940 roadshow cut, but did not have audio (or at least, usable audio) for the deleted Deems Taylor introductions. They only had picture.

Really, they should have left those scenes out and presented the Corey Burton redubs in the bonus features, and an explanation why they’re redubbed and why they’re not in the movie. It’s not like kids give a crap about those extra scenes anyway, they were the most boring part when I was a kid and it took me years to appreciate them.

On some future release they should just include the shorter cut with seamless branching or on another disc, with Deems Taylor’s voice intact. It wouldn’t be that hard.

I’ve mentioned a few times about last August when I went to the D23 expo I attented a film restoration presentation. One if the things I asked the guy was about the original “fantasound” soundtrack with the Deems Taylor narration.
The guy said that he wants nothing more than to be able to present the film with that original narration, but that they simply don’t have the original stereo tracks or the master tapes for the deems Taylor narration. That at some point before anyone he knows started working there, they were lost or destroyed somehow. He said it makes him extremely sad and that even though Corey Burton is a fantastically talented voice-over actor, he wishes they could track down that original narration in any kind of usable, high quality form. He did say they’ve been trying to track it down for years, with no luck, but that it makes it considerably harder when the powers that be don’t seem to care as much about it as the people restoring it and won’t fund a wild goose chase.

He seemed throughout the presentation to have a certain disdain for Disney executives and their lack of appreciation for the integrity of their own cinematic history.

To quote him directly “if we had it, we would use it. Unfortunately we just don’t right now”

The footage was from the 1940 roadshow version. It was released. The Fantasound masters no longer exist, evidently whatever was backed up in the 50s was either only the music segments, or was already cut down to the shorter reissue runtime.

Doctor M said:

Actually, I found two that might be different releases (one in a bundle of several Disney films), but this one had full sized screenshots.  (You can check them out on RuTracker if you want.)

I could be wrong, but I think the screenshots are from an entirely different transfer, compared to the 1988 and 1995 editions of “Cinderella”. It was also used in the 1992 UK VHS; because they both use the 1990 Walt Disney Pictures logo (like the 1995 master), but cut out the Buena Vista logo and opening music (like the 1988 master).

They really ought to consider a seamless-branching release of Fantasia; that way they could satisfy those who want both (or either) version(s). Where’s the great difficulty in that?

Frankly, I don’t care for the “Roadshow” version. All that’s really added is that Deems Taylor (errr… Corey Burton) describes “what you are about to see” for each segment. (“Ummm, yeah, dude - I have every intention of watching it and seeing for myself. So if you’d kindly STFU and let’s get on with it, shall we?”)