Thanks!
Ah, well… most Disney classics are not yet released on 4K, and I doubt Song of the South is going to be the next as they didn’t even give it an HD or DVD release.
I see now that all Fantasia releases were taken down from Archive except the Special Edition Laserdisc V1.
Feel free to PM me for the direct link if you don’t have a MySpleen account, I may release it also on Archive in the future!
A few days ago, I released the first version of my Song of the South project. However, some pointed out to me that there are interlacing artifacts which I didn’t notice. In this upgrade I re-done the video to get rid of the interlacing, improved the color correction a bit and also fixed a syncing issue in the ending scene. Enjoy!
Original V1 write up:
Hello everyone!
I’m very glad to annouce the release of a new 35mm version of Song of the South, which as far as I know, is the best way to watch the movie as of 2023! Unlike other versions such as Notelu’s restoration, in this release I used Thunderbean’s recent 35mm scan, which is much cleaner and has better color than the previous scan.
Here’s what was done to create this version:
Thunderbean’s scan was slightly cropped to get rid of the rounded corners, which look quite bad.
Missing scenes patched up from the old 16mm scan, which I color corrected to match the 35mm better.
For the audio, the same missing scenes were patched from the BBC broadcast audio.
A minor color correction has been done on the 35mm scan to fix some brightness/contrast issues
Video and audio multiplexed using MKVToolNix
Released on MySpleen, and I can send you direct download links in PM. Feel free to upload this anywhere you want.
Hope you all enjoy!
Yes everything is print sourced, the interlacing was a mistake on my end but I didn’t notice it because of VLC’s automatic deinterlacing. I’m currently re-doing this release to fix that, it should take me several days.
So is it still worth donating to this or is the project dead?
I released V1 of my own Song of the South 35mm project a few days ago, but would very much like to see how it compares to yours.
Some folks on MySpleen complained about interlacing artifacts I didn’t notice. An updated version to fix that is coming, I’ll let you all know when it’s done.
Hello everyone!
I’m very glad to annouce the release of a new 35mm version of Song of the South, which as far as I know, is the best way to watch the movie as of 2023! Unlike other versions such as Notelu’s restoration, in this release I used Thunderbean’s recent 35mm scan, which is much cleaner and has better color than the previous scan.
Here’s what was done to create this version:
Released on MySpleen, and I can send you direct download links in PM. Feel free to upload this anywhere you want.
Hope you all enjoy!
Words like “I don’t know” and “my friend in another country told me” are not very encouraging.
I firmly doubt there was a recent theatrical showing of Fantasia in the UK which had both Deems Tayler’s voice and the longer intros.
I know, but it raised my expectations somehow. Just brought it up here to see if anyone else than this guy on MySpleen knows anything about such a release.
Yeah, that would be weird if Disney released a 4K restoration of Fantasia quietly. The guy who started this rumor was asked about it and replied:
I don’t know, one of my friends in the UK got to see a theatrical reshowing recently and told me it had Deems Tayler.
as for the release date, that’s the rumoured date that all of the 4K restorations are being added to Disney+
Whether the Disney+ rumor is true or not, if this guy is right about the Deems Taylor audio and it was actually found… then, is there any way we may be able to get our hands on it? That would quite a huge progression in the preservation of Fantasia.
There are rumors on MySpleen that Fantasia is going to get a 4K restoration released on Disney+ in the next few days which might finally have the full Deems Taylor audio. I could’t find anything about it on the internet, but may worth keeping eyes on it?
Any updates?
Sometime today, or perhaps later this week, I’ll post a “to do” list of sorts at the end of the original post, to make it easier for those who have followed this project since early pandemic, and newcomers who are just discovering it, to keep track of where it stands and what needs to be done next.
Are you still going to post this list? I thought it was a good idea, would make it easier to follow the project without asking for updates all the time (and will also give those who “can’t wait” an idea why they should, I guess)
Hello all. I hope you’re doing well. Any fresh news on this project ? I’ve been able to see the last result and all I can say WOW!!! Terrific work on this. I’m looking forward for any future work/improvements on this one. The only things I think that still need some works are the parts that are still looking rough on the image (dammages and splices are quite presents at the beginning of the movie) and of course the Fantasound sound track that still needs some patches and adjustmants here and there.
Otherwise, terrific work and huge improvement over the Thunderbean release indeed (which, to be fair was only scanned without any work/manipulations at all).
Thank you for sharing this with us all. Let’s hope they’ll be 2.0 version coming soon.
I would sure love to see a V2 with clean up, but I haven’t got the skills and right tools to do this properly. So unfortunately for now, the only way we can have a V2 is if anyone who saw this release would like to help with this.
As for the audio, I’m not sure I understand what’s wrong because it is the Fantasound track from the laserdisc, which is already restored and shouldn’t need patching. Also I looked many times when I edited the video and there was only one splice (and quite a big one), which I patched up with Thunderbean’s 35mm.
Hello all. I hope you’re doing well. Any fresh news on this project ? I’ve been able to see the last result and all I can say WOW!!! Terrific work on this. I’m looking forward for any future work/improvements on this one. The only things I think that still need some works are the parts that are still looking rough on the image (dammages and splices are quite presents at the beginning of the movie) and of course the Fantasound sound track that needs some patches and adjustmants here and there.
Otherwise, terrific work and huge improvement over the Thunderbean release indeed (which, to be fair was only scanned without any work/manipulations at all).
Is this released already? Where?
I thought of contacting Thunderbean on that. Then someone on MySpleen suggested that it should be done by someone who bought the disc. Class316, maybe the original uploader on Cartoon Chaos did?
The colors can look potentially great if would be corrected a bit, but the fake coreners are quite dissapointing. If anyone knows how to contact the creator, perhaps we could ask him to release it without the corners?
I thought before you meant it had round corners and they cropped them out, now I’ve got you.
Checked this out, and yeah it’s quite odd, most of the time it seems like the round corners are fake. But in some scenes it seems like there’s at least one corner that seem like it was there. So maybe thunderbean applied the mask to make it look more consistent? IDK
On Cartoon Chaos they just added this: Song of the South 1946 [Thunderbean BD25]
This is a newer scan (2022) from a 35mm IB Technicolor print by Thunderbean. It restores a segment that was missing from the previous scan that is around.
What previous segment are they talking about that is missing?
It’s up now on the spleen.:
“It includes a sequence of about 25 seconds starting at around 54:22 that’s missing from the previous HD rip.”
It’s also cropped on the four corners like I’ve seen before on other releases like Puggo’s. I don’t understand why they do that. I’ve never seen a Song of the South 35mm cropped like that.
The previous 35mm scan had no round corners as well. So I guess it was also cropped?
On Cartoon Chaos they just added this: Song of the South 1946 [Thunderbean BD25]
This is a newer scan (2022) from a 35mm IB Technicolor print by Thunderbean. It restores a segment that was missing from the previous scan that is around.
What previous segment are they talking about that is missing?
The previous 35mm scan had a few cuts, which Notelu fixed in his release. There are a few missing frames during the opening titles, and also a few seconds from the scenes where Jonny runs away and where Brer Fox throws Brer Rabbit into the briar patch are missing.
Yea there’s a 16mm version that’s a small filesize (which is on myspleen), whether or not that’s the one on either the stinkytuna blu reviewed on youtube or the “2021 version” DVD is anybody’s guess.
The “2021 version” DVD can’t possibly be better than Notelu V2 on archive since it’s DVD sized (whatever version they may have used for it).
The stinkytuna blu is described as the Japanese laserdisc by the youtube review (though seems odd given that there are no burnt in subs during songs) and is described as a “16mm film print” on the songofthesouth.net review. A good guess is that it’s not better than Notelu V2.
Whether any of them is better than Notelu’s version depends on the restoration. There is always a chance that Stinkytuna or the one who released the “2021 version” did further cleanup or color correction to make it look closer to an official release. However, I personally would not spend money on a release that, in 2021, claims that Song of the South will never be available in HD when it has been available since 2018.
I guarantee that’s probably Notelu’s version they obtained and just said its their own.
That’s what I was thinking. Buy why put it on a DVD not a blu?
Yeah that’s weird. I guess they are most likely not telling the truth, because they say that this movie will never be available on HD, while we have Notelu’s version since 2018/17.
And we still don’t know the source of that Japanese blu reviewed on youtube.
I may have the answer.
The songofthesouth.net review said:
“I had an opportunity to review one such copy, produced by Stinky Tuna. The quality is by far the best out there to date, owing in part to its source — a 16mm film print originally remastered…”
Because the Blu Ray is (as far as I know) not produced by them, I guess they have no interest to lie. There is also a seperate review for Notelu’s version there, so most likely this is a different restoration.
okay if they state its the 16mm print that’s been floating around for a while now so thats why its on dvd. because its a small file.
I meant the stinkytuna Blu Ray, not the DVD. I don’t know if it is the same 16mm scan that is available on torrent sites or a different print.
I guarantee that’s probably Notelu’s version they obtained and just said its their own.
That’s what I was thinking. Buy why put it on a DVD not a blu?
Yeah that’s weird. I guess they are most likely not telling the truth, because they say that this movie will never be available on HD, while we have Notelu’s version since 2018/17.
And we still don’t know the source of that Japanese blu reviewed on youtube.
I may have the answer.
The songofthesouth.net review said:
“I had an opportunity to review one such copy, produced by Stinky Tuna. The quality is by far the best out there to date, owing in part to its source — a 16mm film print originally remastered…”
Because the Blu Ray is (as far as I know) not produced by them, I guess they have no interest to lie. There is also a seperate review for Notelu’s version there, so most likely this is a different restoration.
It could have been an upscaled and color corrected japanese laserdisc, but it does not make much sense because it has no japanese subtitles.
I don’t think it is the Japanese laserdisc. As seen in the TV capture in the same review, the colors are quite different from the LD. I have seen this review and from what I remember they did mention the LD, but they did not say that it was the video source used for the Blu-Ray.