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Pokemon: Mewtwo Strikes Back (!) - Original Theatrical Version (Released)

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 (Edited)

Yeah. Pokemon. I suppose I’m wasting my time and breath, but hey, it is a preservation of an original version of a movie!

Some time ago, well, a little over a year ago, I was given a copy of an HK that preserved the rare Japanese theatrical version of this movie. Obviously HKs aren’t the best of quality so I did the best I could to clean it up, the result was a 640x360, 700 MB AVI with a slightly shoddy audio track and a sharp and bright but rather grainy video track.

A little history on the movie might make it a little clear as to why.

For the US release, a lot of scenes were reanimated with CG at the request of the American producers. At this time there was no release to DVD in Japan yet. When the Japanese DVD was released, it was essentially the American edition, with the Japanese title card - and an additional 10 minutes of footage added to the beginning. The English dub was included on the DVD. (It is, btw, uncut. The only differences from the R2 to the R1 are the title card, credits and the aspect ratio; the R1 is pan-and-scan. The subtitle of the movie, “Mewtwo Strikes Back”, is the same in both versions, and is said to be a nod to “The Empire Strikes Back” - the Japanese titles match too - Mewtwo no gyakushuu, Teikoku no gyakushuu.)

Essentially we have somewhat of a Lucasized anime movie.

I decided to take what I had and combine my sources, so atm, I have a dual-audio OGM, with the Japanese and English 2.0 mixes. I can probably pull up some good comparison shots if anyone’s interested.

By the way…the theatrical short that preceded this movie was mostly unaltered…so less of a need there. A couple signs (one in Japanese) were painted-over, the title card and credits redrawn, no real biggie.

I might torrent this sometime with the improved audio and English - might wait until I’ve finished work on subtitling it, been doing that too.

"Right now the coffees are doing their final work." (Airi, Masked Rider Den-o episode 1)

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LOL!

No, seriously, I would watch this if you made it, if only to see how angry I can get at the thought of the millions of kids who were suckered by the Japanese.
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I'm debating: release now or finish re-editing the old fansub script...

Meantime I made 4 cuts to show the difference. The times referenced here are approximately where they are located in the US DVD release. They're OGM and have both the Japanese audio track (took it from the DVD as it's much better quality and at least the audio track wasn't altered) and the English audio track (also taken from the DVD)

Mewtwo conjures up a storm 17:51 15.1 MB
New Island Castle and Mew flying in the clouds 25:34 2.2 MB
Entering the Castle's main hall, CG's especially blatant here 28:02 13.5 MB
You can't do this, Mewtwo... I won't let you 51:34 12.8 MB

Most of these clips are a little over a minute long, the second's only 20 seconds.

"Right now the coffees are doing their final work." (Airi, Masked Rider Den-o episode 1)

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Thanks for that. Would be neat to at least get a DVD using the Japanese visuals along with the Japanese track if possible with the English (subtitles would be nice if ever). I actually bothered seeing the film when it went to the theaters (after having seen the original on tape) and got all pissy at the CGI sequences that were stuck in. Just felt it wasn't needed (let alone the newbie music which replaced the graceful silence and splendor the Japanese audio had).
Yours truly,
Chris Sobieniak

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What irks me more than the CG is that the original un-CG'd version never made it to an official DVD, not even in Japan.

"Right now the coffees are doing their final work." (Airi, Masked Rider Den-o episode 1)

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Originally posted by: Molly
What irks me more than the CG is that the original un-CG'd version never made it to an official DVD, not even in Japan.

It was released on VHS otherwise (unless it was a rental-only type), all I know is that it's the copy I have personally I got years back.
Yours truly,
Chris Sobieniak

For more mindless entertainment....
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Yeah, aware of that...

I wonder if it was ever on LD? That would be the bee's knees.

"Right now the coffees are doing their final work." (Airi, Masked Rider Den-o episode 1)

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Now this would be cool to have on dvd. I recall someone had tried this on asian dvd club, but i think it was just an ogg and not a DVD (and only with the much later films).
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I think someone put fansubbed dual audios of movies 6-8 on Asian DVD Club?

Any rate, I did a bunch of OGM dual audios (no subs), you might even have seen some of them. I released I think up to about episode 40, plus all of the 9th season.

(But in fact, I did up to 160, plus several 6th, 7th and 8th-season eps including the last 15 eps of the 8th season, plus movies 6-9. Not all of this stuff's been released though. I also subtitled episode 1, but finding a translator for Pokemon is like finding a needle in a haystack. I also have a quality-upgraded English dub Episode 18, which was never released to DVD.)

I suppose I should start releasing more of these too, they do give Pokemon a somewhat different feel.

"Right now the coffees are doing their final work." (Airi, Masked Rider Den-o episode 1)

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Originally posted by: MollyThat would be the bee's knees.


I love that expression!

Not to highjack this thread, but do you have the English version of Unico 1 or 2, Molly? I've only been able to find avi's with faded video.

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/1113/userbar381851ln2.gif
http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/8653/userbar381853dp6.gif
Super Mario Bros. - The Wicked Star Story
"Ah, the proverbial sad sack with a wasted wish."
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Unico? Never heard of it.

"Right now the coffees are doing their final work." (Airi, Masked Rider Den-o episode 1)

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Originally posted by: Molly
Unico? Never heard of it.

I do! I have both movies and in excellent condition!

Though I have yet to try subbing them or getting someone to translate the dialogue, I was able to make MKV-formatted video files of both films with Japanese and English language tracks to switch between. I stuck them up on MySpleen if you're interested in checking them out. I wish I could do better with the English audio personally, but I only had copies to work from.

I have most of Sanrio's other feature films as well including "The Mouse & His Child", "Ringing Bell", "The Legend of Sirius" (a.k.a. "The Sea Prince & The Fire Child"), "Winds of Change" and "A Journey Through Fairyland" that I converted to AVI format (Legend of Sirius is an MKV featuring English and Japanese audio tracks with English subs). I only wish Sanrio bothered digging this up here (they sell them for decently cheap prices on DVD in Japan currently).
Yours truly,
Chris Sobieniak

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Originally posted by: Studio Toledo
Originally posted by: Molly
Unico? Never heard of it.

I do! I have both movies and in excellent condition!

Though I have yet to try subbing them or getting someone to translate the dialogue, I was able to make MKV-formatted video files of both films with Japanese and English language tracks to switch between. I stuck them up on MySpleen if you're interested in checking them out. I wish I could do better with the English audio personally, but I only had copies to work from.

I have most of Sanrio's other feature films as well including "The Mouse & His Child", "Ringing Bell", "The Legend of Sirius" (a.k.a. "The Sea Prince & The Fire Child"), "Winds of Change" and "A Journey Through Fairyland" that I converted to AVI format (Legend of Sirius is an MKV featuring English and Japanese audio tracks with English subs). I only wish Sanrio bothered digging this up here (they sell them for decently cheap prices on DVD in Japan currently).


Cool - thanks! I'll have to check it out. My wife was a huge fan of Unico when she was little. Where did you source the English from? From as far as I know, it wasn't available on DVD. And maybe this should be a in a different thread, or PM's.

Sorry to get off topic, Molly.

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/1113/userbar381851ln2.gif
http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/8653/userbar381853dp6.gif
Super Mario Bros. - The Wicked Star Story
"Ah, the proverbial sad sack with a wasted wish."
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Originally posted by: andy_k_250
Originally posted by: Studio Toledo
Originally posted by: Molly
Unico? Never heard of it.
I do! I have both movies and in excellent condition!

Though I have yet to try subbing them or getting someone to translate the dialogue, I was able to make MKV-formatted video files of both films with Japanese and English language tracks to switch between. I stuck them up on MySpleen if you're interested in checking them out. I wish I could do better with the English audio personally, but I only had copies to work from.

I have most of Sanrio's other feature films as well including "The Mouse & His Child", "Ringing Bell", "The Legend of Sirius" (a.k.a. "The Sea Prince & The Fire Child"), "Winds of Change" and "A Journey Through Fairyland" that I converted to AVI format (Legend of Sirius is an MKV featuring English and Japanese audio tracks with English subs). I only wish Sanrio bothered digging this up here (they sell them for decently cheap prices on DVD in Japan currently).


Cool - thanks! I'll have to check it out. My wife was a huge fan of Unico when she was little. Where did you source the English from? From as far as I know, it wasn't available on DVD. And maybe this should be a in a different thread, or PM's.

Actually they came from the older VHS releases that came out in the 80's. In the case of the Unico movies, it would also be a nice treat to see them in widescreen as they were cropped in the hold VHS releaeses and Pay-TV airings.

Sorry to get off topic, Molly.

That's alright. I do that a lot too.

Yours truly,
Chris Sobieniak

For more mindless entertainment....
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Hey Molly,
any progress/news? I want to see the Japanese version.
And also, is there ANYone who can sub it? The American dub changed the entire plot's moral. It went from "even-though-I'm-a-copy-I-can-live-a-normal-life" to "Z0MG FIGHTING IS TEH WRONG!"
I thank you for this in advance; now I can see the movie in 16:9.
EDIT: OH. MY GOD. I LIKED THE DUB MUSIC MORE! THIS IS THE ODDEST MOMENT OF MY LIFE!

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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If I do release it, it'll prolly be as an ogm, without subtitles...as I'm nowhere near getting them ready for release :/

"Right now the coffees are doing their final work." (Airi, Masked Rider Den-o episode 1)

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so, no dubtitles either?
Would you plan on releasing it later on with the subs and burnable, as a v2?
Forgive me for being hyper, I'm just excited.

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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Possibly.

I do have the dubtitles, but I don't think they'd be very interesting. (Both Japanese and American DVDs have dubtitles. The Japanese DVD even has Japanese subs ... for the English dub!)

"Right now the coffees are doing their final work." (Airi, Masked Rider Den-o episode 1)

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So, do you have an estimated release date for a v1?
Is there something I can use to burn OGMs?

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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I think your best bet would be to convert the video to avi (direct stream copy) in virtual dub mod and demux the mp3s, then encode it all separately...

I got some stuff to do tonight but remind me and I'll see about getting it up tomorrow morning.

"Right now the coffees are doing their final work." (Airi, Masked Rider Den-o episode 1)

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You'll find my .ogm on TokyoTosho, Mininova and TorrentSpy. Should be toward the top of TokyoTosho. Filename is [usotsuki] Gekijoban Pocket Monsters 'Mewtwo Strikes Back' (orig. ver. with DVD audio Japanese-English) [B852708D].ogm and it's 771 MB.

"Right now the coffees are doing their final work." (Airi, Masked Rider Den-o episode 1)

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Are you SURE it's uncut? I'm watching it right now and I don't see any of the scenes with AmberTwo... or for that matter, where they found the Mew fossil to make the clone. It was taken out of the American version due to it's 'G' rating.
Otherwise, thank you Molly; this seems like it was definitely worth downloading.
EDIT: if you're interested, here's a translated script: http://www.geocities.com/soulofaitwo/script.html
EDIT (again): Does the Japanese official (CGed) DVD have English subtitles?

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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Believe it or not...

Those scenes were *added later*, and first appeared on the R2 DVD release. They're not part of the original movie.

(I do have this separate from the movie, however, and dual audio.)

"Right now the coffees are doing their final work." (Airi, Masked Rider Den-o episode 1)