CMGF

Any updates?

TonyWDA said:

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)

monks19 said:

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.

monks19 said:

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

stretch009 said:

Class316 said:

On Cartoon Chaos they just added this: Song of the South 1946 [Thunderbean BD25]

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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.

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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?

Class316 said:

On Cartoon Chaos they just added this: Song of the South 1946 [Thunderbean BD25]

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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.

Class316 said:

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.

jamesxphoto said:

CMGF said:

Class316 said:

jamesxphoto said:

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:

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“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…”

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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.

Class316 said:

jamesxphoto said:

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.

This is odd. V2 is 1080p, so it can’t be just a laserdisc.

You may have downloaded the wrong version, the quality of V2 is great. V3 was supposed to be the same scan, but with further clean up and color correction.

EPho3nix said:

Isn’t v2 the laserdisc? v3 or what it was going to be was from a film scan. Though not actually scanned by Notelu.

No V2 was from a 35mm scan as well.

If it is with no dirt removal or color correction, how does it differ from V2?

There were many fan made Blu Rays of Song of the South, some might be just a copy of V2. But the one that I am talking about is, as far as I know, a seperate restoration: https://www.songofthesouth.net/news/2020/11/12/song-of-the-south-turns-74-blu-rays-abound/

Class316 said:

I’m looking on archive.org

There’s

[V2] Notelu’s Song Of The South Restoration

This is regarded as the best version out there. Added on there in 2018.

I also see

Song Of The South (4K Restoration)

Added in 2021. But honestly looks inferior to the V2 Notelu at least in terms of color. And may even be in upscale I don’t know.

Am I missing another better version?

The 4K restoration is an upscale, and I think it’s also out of sync, at least during “Zip a Dee Doo Dah”. There is also a fan made BluRay which was reviewed at songofthesouth.net and described as the best way to watch the film currently, but it didn’t make it to the internet as far as I know and I didn’t manage to get a copy.

I skimmed it and it seems like during the 2nd movement of The Pastoral Symphony, it goes completely out of sync. Has anyone else noticed that?

This is so touching… I was always glad to be a part of this, but never in my dreams did I think that it would have such a meaningful result! Please ask the PM sender to update when his grandfather has watched it.

Thanks for the nice words! The ending credits were created especially for the 1990 re-release.

Glad there’s interest in this! We also want to make a V2 of this project, but for this, we’re going to need some help. I want to clean up the dust and scratches, but I don’t have the tools and skills to do that. Anyone who can offer some help or guidance, please? would be very appreciated! (You will be credited.)

As stated in the main post, we used a 1956 print (which is not Thunderbean) as the main source for video. We could not use Thunderbean’s release because about a half of it has a severe color fading, but a very few scenes were replaced with it due to the lens switches the 1956 print has. Those scenes were color corrected to match the rest of the video and the fading was fixed.
TonyWDA has posted a great sample of how the lens switches look, and you’ll get immediately why we had to get rid of those:
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1512017/action/topic#1512017