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TWICE UPON A TIME (Released)

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Has anyone ever preserved the ORIGINAL version of this film?

It was the first project George Lucas produced after Star Wars. It’s a really cool animated film that was pretty much made for a PG audience, but it failed at the box office, almost no one saw it, and when it finally was released on home video, it was cleaned up into a G rated version (which really squeezed a lot of life out of the film).

No DVD has ever been announced.

The unedited version was aired on HBO a few times so there are people out there who have it.

I’ve got a second generation VHS copy that I am willing to clean up and turn into a DVD, but I wanted to check here first and see if anyone had already done it!

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nope. I only have the VHS edition.

The HBO is the holy grail... if you have it.. DO IT!


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Just looked around a little and I suggest anyone looking for it check out the IMDb message board and follow the links

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Thanks, Beastly... I did check and it seems that someone HAS made a DVD from a VHS of the original HBO version. There is a torrent at:

http://zerotracker.com

I looked into it and there are 16 leechers and 0 seeders, so it's going to take god knows how long to get it. I'd also like to know if he was using a first generation VHS and if he did any digital cleanup, because it definitely would need it.

"Twice Upon A Time" (the unedited version) is probably one of the truest "lost classics" there is, considering it was Lucas. It's a great candidate for a preservation effort, since it is unlikely to ever see the light of day.

Someone out there must have a better-than-VHS copy...
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There's a bunch of people are at 17%. The seeder will probably return, or maybe he's super-seeding (and showing up as a downloader).

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It was at 17% four hours ago, so the seeder's been disconnected for a while...
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It was only uploaded a week ago, so I doubt the seeder's totally deserted the whole thing.

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Originally posted by: ReverendBeastly
It was only uploaded a week ago, so I doubt the seeder's totally deserted the whole thing.

Does seem a tad lame for someone to start seeding something and then stop after a week without anyone getting this thing.
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I am also one of the leechers hung up at 17%. I'd like to see what this guy did, he better come back soon!

Just in case he never returns, or his transfer is poop, as I type this I am copying my VHS copy of the unedited version to DVD right now.

It was sourced from an original Betamax recording, so it's slightly better than second gen VHS... but it does show it's age, there are a few dropouts and mistrackings here and there.

Still, the film is totally watchable and I'll do what I can with cleanup filters.

If our seeder never returns, we DO have a backup plan for this film!
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I'm not sure it even got a wide release or a chance to fail. (Much like Rock and Rule got pissed on by MGM.) The only ads I ever saw were a for a special screening sent to members of the old Star Wars fan club. (Mailed out on Lucasfilm stationery too!) Is the only difference between versions just the cursing? No footage was actually cut?
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Where were you in '77?

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I've never seen the unedited version, but I've read about the changes and in order to cut some of the more "PG" dialog, they would have had to cut out footage.

Also, Ibor the Video Gorilla was always showing clips from other films and TV shows (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Happy Days) and I think some of those were cut because they didn't have home video legal clearance (at least the Happy Days one was cut).

It really is a fun movie and the language helped make it more unique and twisted. And it's funny!

And it didn't have much of a release... the studio didn't know how to market it. Essentially, it is a kids's movie, but with a lot of adult language and a few mature scenes. I think they just gave up on it and cut out all the adult stuff for the video release so they could strictly market it as a kidvid.

But we will get the original out there!
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I would love to see the original. I love the version I have, so this sounds magic.


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Well it's being seeded again right now, so hopefully within the next 24 hours it will be complete.

I'll let everyone know if it's worth downloading. If not, I have my VHS ripped and ready for processing...
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Originally posted by: Mojo_LA
Well it's being seeded again right now, so hopefully within the next 24 hours it will be complete.

I'll let everyone know if it's worth downloading. If not, I have my VHS ripped and ready for processing...


Thank you. The extra effort is appreciated.
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The HBO-sourced version was also on MySpleen. I was able to download it recently and was surprised that it was still active (my previous attempt some time before got sidetracked).

I'd totally be able to seed it right now for you, too, but the system we have it on here is down indefinitely.

--SKot

Projects:
Return Of The Ewok and Other Short Films (with OCPmovie) [COMPLETED]
Preserving the…cringe…Star Wars Holiday Special [COMPLETED]
The Star Wars TV Commercials Project [DORMANT]
Felix the Cat 1919-1930 early film shorts preservation [ONGOING]
Lights Out! (lost TV anthology shows) [ONGOING]
Iznogoud (1995 animated series) English audio preservation [ONGOING]

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All of Ibor's video clips, including the Happy Days footage of Fonzie, seem to be intact on the Laserdisc version.
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Where were you in '77?

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Originally posted by: SKot
The HBO-sourced version was also on MySpleen. I was able to download it recently and was surprised that it was still active (my previous attempt some time before got sidetracked).--SKot

No it wasn't. It's a dead torrent, but a search with the "include dead torrents" checkbox checked turned up the posting for it.

It states that it's the censored ("official") version in the torrent title and description.



This is the official release of the film. While not quite as hilarious as the HBO version...
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Well, he stopped seeing at 78% last night and it had been dead ever since... but now he's seeding again and if he can keep it going for another 9 hours I may finally have it tonight.

Maybe he just got home from school or something :-)
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I have under 4 hours to go on this and I upped my max download speed. If he stays on for the next 4 hours, I should have it complete. Then I'll just seed until everyone else has it complete.
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Originally posted by: tweaker
No it wasn't. It's a dead torrent, but a search with the "include dead torrents" checkbox checked turned up the posting for it.

It states that it's the censored ("official") version in the torrent title and description.



This is the official release of the film. While not quite as hilarious as the HBO version...
Aw, nuts... I guess that answers that, then. I suppose I'd better get started on the download of the uncensored version...

--SKot

Projects:
Return Of The Ewok and Other Short Films (with OCPmovie) [COMPLETED]
Preserving the…cringe…Star Wars Holiday Special [COMPLETED]
The Star Wars TV Commercials Project [DORMANT]
Felix the Cat 1919-1930 early film shorts preservation [ONGOING]
Lights Out! (lost TV anthology shows) [ONGOING]
Iznogoud (1995 animated series) English audio preservation [ONGOING]

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Ok, I got it.

It's ok.

Yes, it's the uncensored version, but the quality is mediocre. For some strange reason his left and right sides are clipped a little and it doesn't look like he did any filtering of the image to make up for the fact that it's from a 20 year old VHS tape. Plus I think his MPG encode is poor, I see lots of breakup on edges when there is fast motion.

Maybe I am being hypercritical, if anyone else gets it tell us what you think.

Right now I am experimenting with filters on my VHS grab. Animation is very forgiving of noise reduction and so far I think I can at least have a cleaner image (with no clipped sides) which will also help with the MPG encode.

I also know I can clean up the audio and make it a bit punchier.

When I finish my test I'll post clips of his work and mine and you guys can decide if I should go ahead and do the whole movie.

In the meantime I'll keep seeding with a high upload speed!
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Ok, it's a case of apples and oranges.

I think his VHS tape is first generation, which shows in the clarity of his edges and chroma integrity. But his lack of noise reduction and mediocre MPG encode really hurt what is essentially a good source.

Mine is a second gen VHS and no amount of cleanup is going to fix that.

The solution would be to get his VHS in the hands of someone who really has good capture and cleanup skillz. I'll post on to his torrent and maybe he'll see it.

Still, far and away, his is better than nothing! I'll keep seeding.
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Ok I left him a PM at the torrent site... hopefully he'll be up for letting us re-capture and clean up his VHS tape!
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If you never hear back from him--

While you admit that you can't turn a second-generation source into a first-gen source (obviously), do you think you can surpass the quality of his encode by cleaning up yours? Or would it be more worthwhile to simply clean up his encode?