Info: Long lost original (first world release) french dub from Fantasia finally found

Yes. For a long time, this original, earlyest (circa 1940s, probably 1946-48) french dub was considered lost decades ago because of several edits following the different releases. Nearly every classic Disney pre-1970s were always dubbed for several reasons for foraing market. Some of those have actuall 3 to 4 dubs in different counties.

About Fantasia and this french dub. This is sourced fron a 35mm print belonging to a private collector. The people who discovered this are all Disney fans or french dub fans. They of course, do this against Disney approval and will only be presented to some fans in private circles like fanres & originaltrilogy. More details about the print & restoration coming soon.

This project might be really interesting for Poita’s restoration as a nice addition and supplematal element for his restoration. I corresponded with the guy and I think he’s trustworthy. Would everyone (interested) here agre if I share Poita’s project with his by inviting him here ?

What do you think ?

Thanks to let me know

I don’t believe any 1940 Fantasound prints exist. The Fantasound mix was supposedly already deteriorating even in the 50s, which is why they backed it up by running it from the studio to RCA over a direct phone line.

Disney has certainly never been able to locate any original Fantasound elements. They replaced Deems Taylor’s voice because they only had usable picture elements for the roadshow scenes, not sound. (This leads me to assume the Fantasound source used in the phone transfer was the general-release edit?)

And I’ve heard stories from two knowledgeable sources that most/all of Disney’s backup positive elements were junked - during the early years of the Eisner regime? - either out of nitrate storage concerns, or a belief that they were redundant and useless because all the negatives existed. I am not sure if any Fantasound copies of Fantasia were trashed, or if they were all already gone.

I don’t know the whole story. Maybe it was nitrate decomposition - I don’t believe the master audio reels were magnetic, I thought they were optical. I just know they were on film (tape didn’t exist yet).

The nitrate destruction thing is also something I can’t find the info on, the description of what happened (by David Gerstein) may have been on a message board or blog which is no longer around.

Also, it could have even been before Eisner came in, in the Ron Miller era or something. And some of it could have been due to decomposition, not just bean-counting. (One animator/historian saw some Disney-held nitrate prints of old B&W Mickeys in 1969, and I think he said they were starting to decompose even then?)

And I have no idea of anything Fantasound-related was tossed at the time. All I know is that B&W Mickey Mouse short titles had to be recreated for laserdisc in the 90s because the original title elements couldn’t be located in the Disney vaults, yet at least one of the cartoons turned up with original titles in the early years of the Disney Channel, suggesting they had access to elements in 1983 that were missing a decade later.

(Steve Hoffman’s separate claim that they disposed of original IB Tech backup positives going all the way up to 1974, which would have included stuff on SAFETY, is more troubling.)