Wonder why Disney went after your 2.1 release, but left the others alone?
You and I both.
So recently Thunderbean released a 35mm scan of Fantasia on blu ray disc (uncensored). The full disc has found its way online.
Who here can help with clean up? The eventual goal will be to use the cleaned up footage and synch it with the patched up laserdisc audio tracks.
I may as well cancel 2.1 at this point and release 2.2 when CMGF improves it based on TonyWDA’s instructions. Since I never put it elsewhere besides archive.org where it got deleted.
The Fantasound is very… interesting. But I’ll wait for v2.2 where you fix the frame rate.
25fps with one duplicate frame every second? So much jitter.I have to assume there is pitch altered speed up in the audio as well, but I haven’t compared it to any other sources.
The audio wasn’t touched at all. It’s the same as the first release.
Am I missing something? What is the link to the archive?
It’s on archive.org.
But Disney took down 2.1. Others still there.
You just gave the main page and the search on there does not find it (not sure if I searched before it was removed or not) nor the others. (It could possibly be one of the nearly 1200 Fantasia movies it brings up, but having to seek through those…)
If Disney took down 2.1, is there another way to obtain it? Is there a file host link available? If so, would it be possible to get that please?
Right now I don’t have it elsewhere but you can still get the others on archive I cannot post links on here but if you search you can find them.
Am I missing something? What is the link to the archive?
It’s on archive.org.
But Disney took down 2.1. Others still there.
It’s on archive if anyone wants it.
Restored laserdsic 1.0, 2.0, and 2.1 are all there.
Hopefully next will be Restored DVD and Restored blu ray (where the footage is uncensored and synched to the laserdisc audio tracks).
Class316 said:
However, Thunderbean released a 35mm scan of the full uncensored fantasia, and the censored parts had much better colors than the old HD transfer.Thought you should know that the source used in Thunderbean’s uncensored Pastoral scenes is from the same .wmv video file making rounds since 2014, not from a new scan. Yes, the color has been improved somewhat, but it’s still the same proxy sample footage from poita’s SuperScope print scan. You can even see the same scratch lines, markings, and miscellaneous debris in both transfers.
(This is less a dig on you and more an exposé on where the Thunderbean release got its uncensored footage. You’d be much better off cleaning up the proxy footage and then color-correcting it to match the surrounding LaserDisc footage.)
Poita (green squiggle in the top left, blue mark near the top right)
Thunderbean
Poita (black blotch near the lower left)
Thunderbean
Oh, damn. Thanks for the info.
Not long after V2 laserdisc edition was out, respawn40 on cartoon chaos released the blu ray of Thunderbean’s 35mm scan in 720p. They used an existing source to insert the censored bits back and these look better than what we have. CMGF of originaltrilogy.com replaced those scenes in 2.0 with that of Thunderbean’s release, and voila, 2.1!
Here is his write up:
start
Recently the 2nd Class316 Fantasia restoration has been released, and it used an Australian DVD as a video source instead of the old laserdisc. Video-wise they were the same, but for obvious reasons the DVD had better quality and more details. For the censored sunflower segments, Class316 gave me an HD transfer. However, Thunderbean released a 35mm scan of the full uncensored fantasia, and the censored parts had much better colors than the old HD transfer. While the 35mm scan itself has its faults, the sunflower segments look great. So that gave the idea to upgrade V2 release with these. Very oddly, every sunflower segment in the 35mm scan had about 2 missing frames, so I had to slow it down a bit. But no one can notice a 2-frame difference, and it really does look great.
end
Again, I think him for his work. Hoping for more Fantasia projects in the future. Please feel free to release this on Torrent, my only request is you keep this write up along with it.
V2 write up:
Hello everyone, Class316 is back with another awesome Fantasia release!
In 2021 I was excited to finally be able to present to the Internet and the planet Earth an authentic version of Walt Disney’s Fantasia for the first time ever since 1969. As approved by Walt himself! Please see my 2021 write up (bottom of this write up) for info on that if you haven’t read it already (and please do so before reading further).
How do we top that in 2022? Improve the video quality and make it even MORE authentic and accurate to Walt Disney’s theatrical release in 1946.
As already stated in my original write up, the 2000 DVD release’s video does not reflect the original artists work due to Disney’s retouching. The audio is no longer Fantasound, longer (and less preferred) intros are used, and Deems Taylor has been dubbed in said intros.
BUT somehow an oddity that is the PAL DVD exists. The video in this release uses the same video source as the laserdisc, but much better quality! The audio is unfortunately the same audio as its NTSC counterpart, dub and all, but edited town to reflect the shorter intros and even the missing audio in the censored bits of the pastoral symphony (just like its laserdisc predecessor). Not sure how this version exists, but it is a great thing that it does.
AlanGrant from myspleen comes through again and released a rip of the Australian DVD. Here is his write up, and I quote:
start
This is the 2000 Australian “Walt Disney Classics” release of Fantasia. Unlike most other releases, this uses the 2 hour long 1990 home video master, albeit sped up for a PAL frame rate- ending up with a runtime of 1 hour, 54 minutes and 30 seconds. The audio is a butcherization of the already butchered 2000 5.0 audio track (ft. Corey Burton overdubbing Deems Taylor) that has been cut to match.
Several noticeable differences to other, more modern releases include:
-Color timing is much brighter, especially in the “Nutcracker Suite” section of the film
-A recreation of the 1940 intermission card is used as a title, as opposed to the 1941 “RKO” titlecard used for the 81-minute cut and all post-2000 releases
-A ~115 minute runtime made to resemble the 1946 release of the film (which restored Toccata and Fugue), as opposed to the 124-minute 1940 Roadshow version
This is a substantial upgrade to the LaserDisc transfer I did and, even for the small size of the DVD, it looks great. It may or may not be an upscale of an NTSC source- however, since there is no proper release of the 1990 version on DVD format in an NTSC territory, this is the next best thing.
The only processing done was running the DVD through DVD Decrypter.
end
Now with the V1 release we have Starbond9’s patched Fantasound and mono tracks from the laserdisc. So a better quality version of Fantasia was now attainable with DVD quality video and the tracks from V1. On comes CMGF from originaltrilogy.com to tackle this task. Not only did he do a great job in restoring the “offensive” scenes back in the Pastoral Symphony of the PAL DVD, but he made the whole thing even more accurate to Walt’s 1946 approved version by restoring the RKO title card for intermission after the Rite of Spring segment (as seen in the 2000 US DVD and the more recent Blu Ray releases). Here is his full write up on what was done, and I quote:
start
This write-up is presenting the V2 release of Class316’s restoration of Disney’s Fantasia. The purpose of this restoration is to make an authentic version of the film, with the censored scenes, Terry Porter’s recreation of fantasound and Deems Taylor’s own voice. Here’s a list of all the things were done to create this V2 improvement of the restoration:
-The Australian 2000 DVD was converted into a full MKV file to replace the laserdisc video used in the previous version.
-Then, it was slowed down to NTSC.
-Modern titles and end credits were cut off as they were not in the original film.
-The fantasound and mono tracks were sourced from the V1 laserdisc edition, then successfully synced to match the video.
-Censored bits were accurately inserted, sourced from the V1 laserdisc restoration.
-The intermission RKO card, sourced from the 2000 US DVD, was inserted but extended to 15 minutes.
-Some minor pixelation was caused as a result of the slowing-down process at some short, specific parts - However the pixelation was fixed in editing. The two soundtracks were multiplexed using MKVToolNix GUI.
-The video format of this release is a bit interlanced - Most of the time It’s not even visible, but if it bothers you, in VLC just turn on the “deinterlance” option and it goes away.
end
I thank him for this release that improved an already great V1 release. This will exist side by side with V1 in case anyone prefers the rougher laserdisc video. Please feel free to release this on Torrent, my only request is you keep this write up along with it.
V1 write up:
Hello everyone. My username is Class316, and over the years it has bothered me that there was been no authentic version of Fantasia available for viewing (officially or otherwise). Unlike the Original Star Wars Trilogy, Song of the South, and many others, Fantasia never got the same love. So over the years I took it upon myself to find a way to change that.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, I present to you something that is not only long overdue, but also making its Internet debut! Disney’s timeless classic Fantasia with Fantasound, Deems Taylor’s voice, AND all the censored scenes restored!
As most of you may know, in what is probably one of the earliest cases of cartoon censorship in the name of political correctness, the “offensive” scenes from the Pastoral Symphony of Fantasia were cut out in 1969, never to be seen in official form again. Additionally, Fantasound was lost to time.
In the early 90s Disney would recreate Fantasound theatrically in two theaters, one in New York and one in Los Angeles. This would be dubbed as “Fantasound 90”. And this would be the basis of the audio in the VHS, Laserdisc, and soundtrack CD released in the early 90s. Although a few seconds of audio is missing from the Pastoral Symphony of those releases due to the censorship. Regarding the intros, these home releases use the shortened (and generally more preferred) intros by Deems Taylor.
In 2000, Disney released Fantasia on DVD. This was dubbed “original and uncut” on the cover. Was it uncut? Debatable. It PANNED the “offensive” scenes (thus yielding complete audio at least) but it is anything but “original” as Disney blatantly falsely advertised on the front cover. Additionally, unlike the LD, the DVD audio is far gone from Fantasound. To boot, Disney chose to use the longer intros. In itself perhaps not necessarily a bad thing as some might prefer that. But the audio of said intros were so deteriorated that they couldn’t be used. So rather than work with what was still usable, Disney decided to completely dub Deems Taylor’s voice entirely with that of actor Corey Burton.
Here is a youtube comparison of the uncensored Pastoral Symphony segment compared to the modern-day censored versions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyPFibRadto
In 2010 Fantasia was released on blu ray and its audio was even more far gone from Fantasound than the DVD release (and of course retained the dubbing and censorship of the DVD release).
Another “feature” of both the DVD and blu ray releases is the visual “retouching” that Disney is infamous for when it comes to their older films. Meaning the laserdisc more so reflects the work of the original artists than the more modern releases do.
Now there have been projects on the Internet that have restored all the censored scenes back into Fantasia. But all those releases use the DVD or blu ray release as the basis. Meaning there has yet to be a fully authentic version of Fantasia that is available, officially or otherwise. That is up until February 2021!
Over the years I had collected many Fantasia related things, these include but are not limited to:
In December 2018, I was given (by someone who has long disappeared) a great looking HD version of the censored scenes.
In August 2020, Myspleen user AlanGrant released a wonderful rip of the early 90s CAV laserdisc. Here is his write up of it, and I quote:
start
This is the 1990 remaster of Fantasia transferred from the CAV LaserDisc boxset, released in January of 1991. This serves not only as a preservation of the 1990 remaster, but of the LaserDisc itself as this is one of numerous disc sets that has disc rot issues which will intensify with time.
Several noticeable differences to other, more modern releases include:
-Color timing is much brighter, especially in the “Nutcracker Suite” section of the film
-A recreation of the 1940 intermission card is used as a title, as opposed to the 1941 “RKO” titlecard used for the 81-minute cut and all post-2000 releases
-Alternate shots with the orchestra in darkness are used for Taylor’s narration; later cuts restore Taylor’s speaking footage
-Deems Taylor’s narration, which was replaced by an actor’s redub in post-2000 releases of the film due to deteriorated optical soundtracks
-A ~115 minute runtime made to resemble the 1946 release of the film (which restored Toccata and Fugue), as opposed to the 124-minute 1940 Roadshow version
-An end credits sequence, which all other versions lack
This boxset suffers laser rot to some degree due to the glue used; thankfully here, it’s contained to the very beginning of each side. It will be most noticeable in the beginning of the film but each subsequent disc/side has less visual “disc rot”.
Transferred using a DVL-90 player, DMR-ES15 passthrough to an AJA Kona LHe card using the S-video input.
Captured as a raw image sequence which was then ran through QTGMC and exported as a 10-bit 4.2.2 H.264 video through ffmpeg (Placebo setting).
(The film runs at 59.94p to better preserve the LaserDisc image as the high framerate and raw modulated image combine to create a “clearer” picture to the eye.)
Digital audio track piped from the DVL-90 to an X-fi Titanium card, bit-matched and recorded as a 44100Hz 16-bit PCM; the file is directly muxed to the .mkv.
Analogue audio was transferred using the AJA KONA LHe card and exported as a monaural Opus file.
Captions were transferred by way of DVD burning on the Panasonic DMR-ES15, ripped using MakeMKV/MKVCleaver and corrected to the .mkv timing in SubtitleEdit.
Chapter stops and titles are direct from the “Chapter Index” insert in the CAV boxset.
end
So here I had the most authentic looking and sounding version of Fantasia that Disney put out (ie a HQ LD rip), I had a great looking clip of the censored scenes, among other things.
After many attempts of trying and failing to find someone with the necessary skills and patience to insert the scenes back into the LD and patch up the missing LD audio, on comes user Starbond9 of originaltrilogy.com. I sent him all Fantasia related materials I had collected over the years, and he did a fantastic job. To summarize, he reinserted all the “offensive” scenes into the LD, he patched up the missing audio of the stereo/Fantasound track with that of the DVD audio (the next closest thing we have to Fantasound after the LD), and he patched up the missing audio of the mono track with audio from his own vinyl record!
Here is his write up on what he did, and I quote:
start
-Added 5 individual scenes featuring Sunflower and Otica (the centaurette who assists Bacchus)
-Sources on these clips are the audioless HD clips floating around online, color adjusted for LD (adjusted by originaltrilogy.com member Brodnation). The scene with the carpet was from a personal source found on the internet
-3 of said clips were inserted by removing panned/zoomed/and looped existing animations
-2 clips required expanding the video track and inserting a stereo and mono dub as the audio tracks of the movie were physically shortened, see below. (this is also heard on the 1990 CD and Legacy Collection versions of Pastoral)
-Used the DVD stereo audio track as dub source for the missing Fantasound track. These few seconds are NOT Dolby Prologic so listeners with the setting will notice a loss of spatial surround when the two dub spots play. Regular stereo listeners will not notice an issue
-Used a personal copy of a 1961 Mono LP of Pastoral as the dub source for the mono audio track
-Adjusted chapter and subtitles beyond the Pastoral Sunflower clip insert to match the ~8 second shift
-Technical: demuxed individual tracks, remuxed with MKVtoolnix, project assembled in Vegas Pro 14
end
I would like to thank him for his time and effort, and for finally bringing an authentic version of Fantasia that showcases, in all its glory, all three of Fantasound, Deems Taylor’s voice, AND the full video/audio of the Pastoral Symphony.
Hopefully someone can also use these two patched up audio tracks for any future Fantasia projects, such as HD 35mm film scans or edits of the blu ray footage.
Please feel free to release this on Torrent, my only request is you keep this write up along with it.
https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Help-with-Fantasia-35mm-film-scans-anyone/id/94410
https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Help-with-Fantasia-35mm-film-scans-anyone/id/94410
As most of you know by now, using best available materials we managed to get done an authentic version of Fantasia in 2021, and improved upon in 2022.
BUT would be nice to bring Fantasia into HD. While it’s definitely a good thing to uncensor the blu ray footage and synch it to the audio tracks of the laserdisc, the blu ray sadly suffers from digital scrubbing/enhancement.
To illustrate, here is an example comparing the blu ray to 35mm:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kM8yCzr1DjesN-UWuUBx3oQyfLNldGV_/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kFtVqp5ShTai5dpghL2wWDSvwR7vBz1i/view
So, wondering if anyone here has or can obtain Fantasia in 35mm format so it can be scanned for our use? Thunderbean Animation did just that (and a 720p torrent is out on cartoon chaos). But that version isn’t cleaned up and even seems to be missing some frames (making it hard to work with).
If someone could obtain a print and do a better scan, the best elements can be used for both. And the final product can be synched with the audio tracks of the laserdisc.
Thunderbean actually released a 35mm scan of Fantasia (uncensored). There’s a 720rip of it on cartoon chaos. It comes with a 1.0 track and a 5.1 track.
How’s it look?
Also I assume the 1.0 is the optical track, what’s the 5.1 from?
It has its faults they didn’t do clean up. But it looks good where it looks good.
I don’t know but my guess is the 5.1 is from the DVD.
Thunderbean actually released a 35mm scan of Fantasia (uncensored). There’s a 720rip of it on cartoon chaos. It comes with a 1.0 track and a 5.1 track.
An invite to cartoon chaos would be nice…
Would be. I have no invites though.
Thunderbean actually released a 35mm scan of Fantasia (uncensored). There’s a 720rip of it on cartoon chaos. It comes with a 1.0 track and a 5.1 track.
I would love to help in this release too if you wish!
Hopefully the opportunity arises.
Someone on myspleen was saying that the 1990 version is available on NTSC DVD in Asian countries like Hong Kong and Japan. Hopefully this version surfaces and we can have V2.1
They almost never use a laserdisc for a DVD or Blu-Ray except in rare cases. They are usually component or composite masters. Star Wars was D1 component for Gout. I have no idea if Fantasia is D2 composite or the former.
Correct the theatrical OT Star Wars dvds used the same masters as the 1993 laserdisc boxset and the 1995 faces laserdiscs.
Whatever the case with Fantasia, the pal dvd is obviously superior to the LD, as seen in the comparison shots.
My guess is it’s similar to Star Wars.
Curious, if V2.0 uses the Aussie DVD than how come it’s still called a Laserdisc Restoration?
They use the same video source. But one is better quality for obvious reasons.
Plus it’s the LD audio used. So I figured I’d keep the name.
Is “Fantasia Special Edition Laserdisc Restoration With Sunflower V2.0” the best version of the film so far?
Affirmative!
It’s even better than what they have at the library of congress.
V2 is up on archive!
Some comparison shots between the laserdisc and the PAL DVD
V2
Hello everyone, Class316 is back with another awesome Fantasia release!
In 2021 I was excited to finally be able to present to the Internet and the planet Earth an authentic version of Walt Disney’s Fantasia for the first time ever since 1969. As approved by Walt himself! Please see my 2021 write up (bottom of this write up) for info on that if you haven’t read it already (and please do so before reading further).
How do we top that in 2022? Improve the video quality and make it even MORE authentic and accurate to Walt Disney’s theatrical release in 1946.
As already stated in my original write up, the 2000 DVD release’s video does not reflect the original artists work due to Disney’s retouching. The audio is no longer Fantasound, longer (and less preferred) intros are used, and Deems Taylor has been dubbed in said intros.
BUT somehow an oddity that is the PAL DVD exists. The video in this release uses the same video source as the laserdisc, but much better quality! The audio is unfortunately the same audio as its NTSC counterpart, dub and all, but edited town to reflect the shorter intros and even the missing audio in the censored bits of the pastoral symphony (just like its laserdisc predecessor). Not sure how this version exists, but it is a great thing that it does.
AlanGrant from myspleen comes through again and released a rip of the Australian DVD. Here is his write up, and I quote:
start
This is the 2000 Australian “Walt Disney Classics” release of Fantasia. Unlike most other releases, this uses the 2 hour long 1990 home video master, albeit sped up for a PAL frame rate- ending up with a runtime of 1 hour, 54 minutes and 30 seconds. The audio is a butcherization of the already butchered 2000 5.0 audio track (ft. Corey Burton overdubbing Deems Taylor) that has been cut to match.
Several noticeable differences to other, more modern releases include:
-Color timing is much brighter, especially in the “Nutcracker Suite” section of the film
-A recreation of the 1940 intermission card is used as a title, as opposed to the 1941 “RKO” titlecard used for the 81-minute cut and all post-2000 releases
-A ~115 minute runtime made to resemble the 1946 release of the film (which restored Toccata and Fugue), as opposed to the 124-minute 1940 Roadshow version
This is a substantial upgrade to the LaserDisc transfer I did and, even for the small size of the DVD, it looks great. It may or may not be an upscale of an NTSC source- however, since there is no proper release of the 1990 version on DVD format in an NTSC territory, this is the next best thing.
The only processing done was running the DVD through DVD Decrypter.
end
Now with the V1 release we have Starbond9’s patched Fantasound and mono tracks from the laserdisc. So a better quality version of Fantasia was now attainable with DVD quality video and the tracks from V1. On comes CMGF from originaltrilogy.com to tackle this task. Not only did he do a great job in restoring the “offensive” scenes back in the Pastoral Symphony of the PAL DVD, but he made the whole thing even more accurate to Walt’s 1946 approved version by restoring the RKO title card for intermission after the Rite of Spring segment (as seen in the 2000 US DVD and the more recent Blu Ray releases). Here is his full write up on what was done, and I quote:
start
This write-up is presenting the V2 release of Class316’s restoration of Disney’s Fantasia. The purpose of this restoration is to make an authentic version of the film, with the censored scenes, Terry Porter’s recreation of fantasound and Deems Taylor’s own voice. Here’s a list of all the things were done to create this V2 improvement of the restoration:
-The Australian 2000 DVD was converted into a full MKV file to replace the laserdisc video used in the previous version.
-Then, it was slowed down to NTSC.
-Modern titles and end credits were cut off as they were not in the original film.
-The fantasound and mono tracks were sourced from the V1 laserdisc edition, then successfully synced to match the video.
-Censored bits were accurately inserted, sourced from the V1 laserdisc restoration.
-The intermission RKO card, sourced from the 2000 US DVD, was inserted but extended to 15 minutes.
-Some minor pixelation was caused as a result of the slowing-down process at some short, specific parts - However the pixelation was fixed in editing. The two soundtracks were multiplexed using MKVToolNix GUI.
-The video format of this release is a bit interlanced - Most of the time It’s not even visible, but if it bothers you, in VLC just turn on the “deinterlance” option and it goes away.
end
I thank him for this release that improved an already great V1 release. This will exist side by side with V1 in case anyone prefers the rougher laserdisc video. Please feel free to release this on Torrent, my only request is you keep this write up along with it.
V1 write up (2021):
Hello everyone. My username is Class316, and over the years it has bothered me that there was been no authentic version of Fantasia available for viewing (officially or otherwise). Unlike the Original Star Wars Trilogy, Song of the South, and many others, Fantasia never got the same love. So over the years I took it upon myself to find a way to change that.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, I present to you something that is not only long overdue, but also making its Internet debut! Disney’s timeless classic Fantasia with Fantasound, Deems Taylor’s voice, AND all the censored scenes restored!
As most of you may know, in what is probably one of the earliest cases of cartoon censorship in the name of political correctness, the “offensive” scenes from the Pastoral Symphony of Fantasia were cut out in 1969, never to be seen in official form again. Additionally, Fantasound was lost to time.
In the early 90s Disney would recreate Fantasound theatrically in two theaters, one in New York and one in Los Angeles. This would be dubbed as “Fantasound 90”. And this would be the basis of the audio in the VHS, Laserdisc, and soundtrack CD released in the early 90s. Although a few seconds of audio is missing from the Pastoral Symphony of those releases due to the censorship. Regarding the intros, these home releases use the shortened (and generally more preferred) intros by Deems Taylor.
In 2000, Disney released Fantasia on DVD. This was dubbed “original and uncut” on the cover. Was it uncut? Debatable. It PANNED the “offensive” scenes (thus yielding complete audio at least) but it is anything but “original” as Disney blatantly falsely advertised on the front cover. Additionally, unlike the LD, the DVD audio is far gone from Fantasound. To boot, Disney chose to use the longer intros. In itself perhaps not necessarily a bad thing as some might prefer that. But the audio of said intros were so deteriorated that they couldn’t be used. So rather than work with what was still usable, Disney decided to completely dub Deems Taylor’s voice entirely with that of actor Corey Burton.
Here is a youtube comparison of the uncensored Pastoral Symphony segment compared to the modern-day censored versions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyPFibRadto
In 2010 Fantasia was released on blu ray and its audio was even more far gone from Fantasound than the DVD release (and of course retained the dubbing and censorship of the DVD release).
Another “feature” of both the DVD and blu ray releases is the visual “retouching” that Disney is infamous for when it comes to their older films. Meaning the laserdisc more so reflects the work of the original artists than the more modern releases do.
Now there have been projects on the Internet that have restored all the censored scenes back into Fantasia. But all those releases use the DVD or blu ray release as the basis. Meaning there has yet to be a fully authentic version of Fantasia that is available, officially or otherwise. That is up until February 2021!
Over the years I had collected many Fantasia related things, these include but are not limited to:
In December 2018, I was given (by someone who has long disappeared) a great looking HD version of the censored scenes.
In August 2020, Myspleen.com user AlanGrant released a wonderful rip of the early 90s CAV laserdisc. Here is his write up of it, and I quote:
start
This is the 1990 remaster of Fantasia transferred from the CAV LaserDisc boxset, released in January of 1991. This serves not only as a preservation of the 1990 remaster, but of the LaserDisc itself as this is one of numerous disc sets that has disc rot issues which will intensify with time.
Several noticeable differences to other, more modern releases include:
-Color timing is much brighter, especially in the “Nutcracker Suite” section of the film
-A recreation of the 1940 intermission card is used as a title, as opposed to the 1941 “RKO” titlecard used for the 81-minute cut and all post-2000 releases
-Alternate shots with the orchestra in darkness are used for Taylor’s narration; later cuts restore Taylor’s speaking footage
-Deems Taylor’s narration, which was replaced by an actor’s redub in post-2000 releases of the film due to deteriorated optical soundtracks
-A ~115 minute runtime made to resemble the 1946 release of the film (which restored Toccata and Fugue), as opposed to the 124-minute 1940 Roadshow version
-An end credits sequence, which all other versions lack
This boxset suffers laser rot to some degree due to the glue used; thankfully here, it’s contained to the very beginning of each side. It will be most noticeable in the beginning of the film but each subsequent disc/side has less visual “disc rot”.
Transferred using a DVL-90 player, DMR-ES15 passthrough to an AJA Kona LHe card using the S-video input.
Captured as a raw image sequence which was then ran through QTGMC and exported as a 10-bit 4.2.2 H.264 video through ffmpeg (Placebo setting).
(The film runs at 59.94p to better preserve the LaserDisc image as the high framerate and raw modulated image combine to create a “clearer” picture to the eye.)
Digital audio track piped from the DVL-90 to an X-fi Titanium card, bit-matched and recorded as a 44100Hz 16-bit PCM; the file is directly muxed to the .mkv.
Analogue audio was transferred using the AJA KONA LHe card and exported as a monaural Opus file.
Captions were transferred by way of DVD burning on the Panasonic DMR-ES15, ripped using MakeMKV/MKVCleaver and corrected to the .mkv timing in SubtitleEdit.
Chapter stops and titles are direct from the “Chapter Index” insert in the CAV boxset.
end
So here I had the most authentic looking and sounding version of Fantasia that Disney put out (ie a HQ LD rip), I had a great looking clip of the censored scenes, among other things.
After many attempts of trying and failing to find someone with the necessary skills and patience to insert the scenes back into the LD and patch up the missing LD audio, on comes user Starbond9 of originaltrilogy.com. I sent him all Fantasia related materials I had collected over the years, and he did a fantastic job. To summarize, he reinserted all the “offensive” scenes into the LD, he patched up the missing audio of the stereo/Fantasound track with that of the DVD audio (the next closest thing we have to Fantasound after the LD), and he patched up the missing audio of the mono track with audio from his own vinyl record!
Here is his write up on what he did, and I quote:
start
-Added 5 individual scenes featuring Sunflower and Otica (the centaurette who assists Bacchus)
-Sources on these clips are the audioless HD clips floating around online, color adjusted for LD (adjusted by originaltrilogy.com member Brodnation). The scene with the carpet was from a personal source found on the internet
-3 of said clips were inserted by removing panned/zoomed/and looped existing animations
-2 clips required expanding the video track and inserting a stereo and mono dub as the audio tracks of the movie were physically shortened, see below. (this is also heard on the 1990 CD and Legacy Collection versions of Pastoral)
-Used the DVD stereo audio track as dub source for the missing Fantasound track. These few seconds are NOT Dolby Prologic so listeners with the setting will notice a loss of spatial surround when the two dub spots play. Regular stereo listeners will not notice an issue
-Used a personal copy of a 1961 Mono LP of Pastoral as the dub source for the mono audio track
-Adjusted chapter and subtitles beyond the Pastoral Sunflower clip insert to match the ~8 second shift
-Technical: demuxed individual tracks, remuxed with MKVtoolnix, project assembled in Vegas Pro 14
end
I would like to thank him for his time and effort, and for finally bringing an authentic version of Fantasia that showcases, in all its glory, all three of Fantasound, Deems Taylor’s voice, AND the full video/audio of the Pastoral Symphony.
Hopefully someone can also use these two patched up audio tracks for any future Fantasia projects, such as HD 35mm film scans or edits of the blu ray footage.
Please feel free to release this on Torrent, my only request is you keep this write up along with it.
Subject: THE ONLY REAL WALT DISNEY APPROVED VERSION
This is hands down THE BEST version of Fantasia. Yes even better than the Blu-ray and DVD. Both the DVD and Blu-ray have altered the colors and pushed their tone to a lot brighter than was ever intended. The film was also DNRd like crazy to the point that a lot of detail was lost. The audio on the Blu-ray, while good, is still altered and remixed to sound nothing like the original Fantasound experience.
The 1990 Laserdisk was the best format that the Fantasound was ever released on and the picture is identical to the original film and colors as was intended by the artists. The slightly longer 1940 Deems Taylor intros are nice on the Blu-ray but without the original audio they are worse than worthless and do indeed make the film run a bit too long as most of the comments are still included on the 1946 version. The rerecorded audio also sticks out like a sore thumb to anyone that has seen and heard the original.
The 1946 version was the very first wide release of Fantasia that was fully approved of by Walt Disney himself. The first 1940 version was a very rare limited run of only 12 screens, so it was more a premier event than a real release and when RKO took over in 42 and wanted to edit it way down by cutting all of Deems Taylor out and one of the animated musical numbers, Walt couldn’t do it. So that wasn’t approved of by Walt himself. However, in 1946 for the new wide rerelease, a completed version was overseen by Walt with more reasonable length introductions by Deems Taylor and with all the animated sequences intact as Walt had originally in 1940. This version shown here is missing the actual intermission, but for those that want to reenact it, they need only pause for 15 minutes after the right of spring. That’s where it was except it had the title card seen in the intro with RKO included on it. Aside from that, and the added end credits, this is exactly as it would have been seen and heard in 1946. After the last number, it would have just ended with no credits.
Your work on obtaining the deleted sections and your friends work on restoring them and the proper audio cues is simply outstanding. Could a bit more cleanup have been done on the added sections? Perhaps, but then you run the risk of ruining the film and doing the same thing the modern company is guilty of.
Finally, at long last, the world has WALT DISNEY’S fully approved version complete and uncensored as it was shown in 1946. Would Walt himself have changed it had he lived? Perhaps, but that is doubtful as it was rereleased multiple times even up through the 60s and he hadn’t ever changed it. Roy O. Disney is not Walt Disney and never was. He should have had no right to approve an alteration to his brothers masterpiece. What he did was wrong even if it was to make it more politically correct for changing times.
Comedy and other forms of art are often controversial and sometimes come at the expense of someone or something else. Walt knew once you went down the path of changing old works, no art or work would be safe. He kept it as is, up until his death and that’s the way it should have stayed. Children were never the intended audience and I have never once seen a child that could ever make it towards the end. It is an adult experience and was always intended as such even from the very beginning.You sir have righted a tremendous wrong in the cause of film preservation. I salute you and have absolutely no doubt if Walt Himself were here today, he would commend you as well for a job very well done!
I couldn’t agree more with the review about the importance of this release. And I am very happy to be a part of this project. But if “fantasia” is not for children, then I was never a child (exept for one thing, the release I used to watch was censored).
Sadly unless you were a child in the 60s you would not have seen it uncensored. Hopefully we all change this!
Glad to have you working on it. Fantasia definitely deserves to have releases in the same manner as the likes of Star Wars OT and Song of the South. Prior to all this, the only releases were basically the US DVD and blu ray with the censored bits inserted back in.
