JF_Sanderson

Never need a reason to celebrate Rotj! Happy 40 very soon.

Strange they are using the 1995 logo. I had no problem with the new branding on the THX set besides the “faces” were all masks/puppets/IP instead of the actors. Still strange it’s not the classic logo that’s copied by much other Star Wars media.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Return_of_the_jedi_logo.png

I’ve seen a few 2.35 movies presented in 1.78 pan/scan in the last decade. Some examples are Sound of Music, Enter the Dragon, and Stargate. I’m sure, like me, many of you here were introduced to the OT in pan/scan 1.33, and later amazed what widescreen brings. All because the consensus of the TV or home video market was “the whole screen needs to be filled.” Sometimes leading to creative (or necessary) pans from one character to another within a normally static shot, look at Star Trek IV or Ghostbusters. Now tv shows use 2.35 ratio to look “cinematic,” for better or worse. Black bars be damned.

So tell me has there been any officially broadcast/streamed/whatever 1.78 versions of the OT or PT? (Funny how Back to the Future trilogy in “full frame” had open-matte normal scenes, but pan/scan visual fx scenes. The prequels would probably be reversed.)

moviefreakedmind said:

Killing Indiana Jones would be like killing James Bond.

Oh dear

I would like a version of Rotj with Yub Nub minus the choir. That silly choir rubs (or yubs) people the wrong way, although the music is excellent. There’s a very good version by a different orchestra/conductor on this cd. https://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Return-John-Williams/dp/B000003F46

Yeah, IMDb does say Aladdin was Dolby Stereo. Old-time laserdisc forum be damned. There is so many conflicting reports about Disney releases it’s hard to know where to begin, and what info to trust. I’ll go off the working assumption that the 5.1 mixes from LD or DVD, before the era of “Disney home theater mixes,” are expanded 4.0 (or original 5.1) and seek those out. With exceptions for mono movies, and the 70mm movies. I’ll have to look up which were mono, Dolby Stereo, “regular” stereo, etc for the ones I’m interested in. I can live with a certain amount of manipulation if it keeps the image crisp. (The Little Mermaid Blu-ray looked very good to me.) Poor audio on the other hand can just ruin the experience, and the remixes always seem to have something funky going on.

stwd4nder2 said:

JF_Sanderson said:
Q1: better choices for soundmix on these two movies?

For Aladdin the best sounding audio is from the 35mm scan. You can find a version of that synced to the UHD. For TLM, probably one of the LDs.

Hmm I found a 35mm film scan of Aladdin, with 2.0 optical and 2.0 Laserdisc audio. I’ll compare them when I can use my hifi. The optical still has the censored lyric.

Doctor M said:

Little Mermaid and Aladdin were orignaly Dolby stereo. Everything since then is an upmix.

I do know the Little Mermaid had a surround up/re-mix for the theatrical re-release and that track was included on the first DVD. After that you start getting Disney’s crap home theater mixes instead.
I’m not sure about the history of Aladdin, I’d assume it’s identical since the 35mm transfer is also a 5.1 DTS track.

Most of the audio coming from the from would be the most accurate.

Btw, I’ve seen the 35mm audio track of Aladdin, but where I found it they don’t have it synced to any video because of site rules (or something). You may have to sync the track yourself, but it’s worth it since there were lyric and dialog changes. Little Mermaid, afaik, doesn’t suffer from that.

Have not found the Aladdin theatrical 5.1. On an old laserdisc site I read mention that it did have some 5.1 theatrical presentations, not just Dolby Stereo, and this 5.1 carried over to LD and the first DVD (which also had a separate home theater 5.1 mix.)

I could sync it myself if I had it available. So anybody feel free to pm me. My only real frame of reference (besides the 7.1) is the vhs and old cassette soundtrack. I suppose what I’m seeking is a version of the film as dynamic as the soundtrack album, but I don’t know of one exists.

As for Little Mermaid, it wasn’t just heavy fronts, it was the mono vocals coming out all the speakers. I read Lion King had that same 7.1 remix problem but haven’t seen/heard it.

Hello without reading dozens of pages here. Tonight I’ve been enjoying some Disney for the first time in decades, first Aladdin then Little Mermaid. I know there’s a ton of revisionism to the audio. Well Aladdin, the music used to sound so bombastic was now very neutral and boring, but with a ton of swishy surround fx. Little Mermaid has much better discreet, hifi music but the dialogue/singing comes out all the front speakers. And Sebastian’s lead vocal on Under the Sea is very low volume for some reason. These are both the Signature Blu Ray 7.1 mixes.

Q1: better choices for soundmix on these two movies?

Q2: Is there a guide somewhere that shows the different mixes available for all Disney animation, which home video have which audio mix, which movies there’s a theatrical preservation etc etc? The OP seems to focus on visuals and is also not up to date with 4k releases, Disney+, digital releases, etc. I know it’s a wide world (and a big ask) for this kind of thing but I know there’s a lot of super fans, and wonder if anybody with more expertise can point me in the right direction. Or maybe we can aggregate more info right here?

Thanks
JFS

Superweapon VII said:

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/N'Kata_Del_Gormo#Behind_the_scenes

I remember drawing an alien for this contest! Unfortunately I was not a very good artist and never sent it in for one reason or another (embarrassment.) Maybe one day I’ll find it in an old box in the basement somewhere. So much cool stuff came from SW Galaxy magazine. Unfortunately my copies are old and mangled from wear, cutting out posters etc. Maybe I’ll try to acquire better copies somewhere. I wonder how collectible they are. Ok that’s enough off-topic for now.

Nothing’s going to magically make this show into HD but I think this is a great version, compared to many VHS->Digital efforts, and other versions of the show. pro: I could not expect too much better from an official release. con: copious edge-enhancement halos. And some glitching at the very start of the cartoon, though it could be my pc playback.

AdmiralWasabi10191 said:

Darth telly said:

35mm scan, tho you would need to get the blu-ray set first.

Wouldn’t having the DVD be totally fine with getting the 35mm scan after? Myself, I have both already, 2001 DVD release and 2011 BD set which is the 2015 re-packaging, but not the scan yet.

You can own any or every home video version, but it will never change the legality of downloading copyrighted material. The whole idea hinges on selective enforcement, lax oversight, and “getting away with it.”

Maybe neither Snake-Man nor Yoda are indigenous to Dagobah, but the abundant life there makes it closer to the Force so it’s a cool place for Force users to hang out. What’s this Snake-Man image from? There is that one trading card that showed Yoda “on his home planet” from mid-90s, recalled/withdrawn supposedly at the behest of Mr Lucas himself. (I read about this in Star Wars Galaxy magazine.)

Also sorry but not sorry just have to Ps. All the 90s trading card sets were bitchin and should be collected as books

When I was a dumb(er) kid, I thought that Obi-Wan was just using Luke’s lightsaber, i.e. holding for him except for the training on the Falcon, until Luke knew how to use it. Then of course I wondered how Luke got it back in Empire Strikes Back. Why would a retired Jedi have his own lightsaber? 🤔😉 I forgive myself now as there are only four lightsabers in the OT and the two that are blue are never used simultaneously.

WookieeWarrior77 said:

There are a few exceptions to this (the first two Spider-Man and Harry Potter movies)

I had grown from being a movie-loving kid/teen into cranky college-age when someone loaned me a video of the first Harry Potter movie. It very much felt authentic, with a sense of adventure to a period 15-20 years before, though you must forgive some sad cgi. Now, if Cerberus was stop-motion animated… chef’s kiss! [edit. John Williams music definitely helped.]

I saw Chamber of Secrets in the theater. It was even better, including awesome sets/sfx that would have been vfx under Lucasfilm-- even Dobby was a technological improvement upon Jar Jar (and maybe Weta’s Gollum too.) I don’t think any of the later Potter books made good adaptations, or even sensical movies. Columbus’ tone was perfect, and given his resume he was in a kind of unique position to deliver such audience-pleasing adventures. Imagine him doing Attack of the Clones.

Sure while we’re at it, hire Sam Raimi for Revenge of the Sith. Spider-Man was another movie I really liked on VHS in college, a very retro adventure. Then I found out “wow is that really the Evil Dead guy?!” So don’t blame the calendar, it’s not that the 80s have passed. It is that certain directors just don’t accept the Spirit of the 80s. Bear in mind Lucas himself directed little in the 80s, except second unit on Return of the Jedi, and possibly a few fill-in days on Return to Oz.

I’ve only seen this special with the Fontaine audio. (On that Faces set tie-in vhs.) I know there’s a version on YouTube with a different narator. Any reason it was redone? Mono/stereo maybe?

Voyage of the Damned (a true story about Jews trying to escape the holocaust on a trans-Atlantic boat ride, and not having much luck sadly) apparently has a single release from 1980 with a version almost half an hour longer.

https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=441340

This edit made me enjoy the movie for once. It’s still kind of dumb but not “stupid” if that makes sense. All the little (and sometimes big) trims add up to a much snappier film. Everything between Marion’s intro and the jungle chase used to drag this movie horribly, that section is drastically improved with the omissions. I think Mutt works much better as a character now. Honestly I would have cut out as much as possible of the “ninja monkeyman cryptkeeper” fight in the cemetery and the scorpions as well. Cut too much stuff and I guess there’s nothing left, though.

I tried Spence’s edit which was not as extreme as 15MaF, his was well done but still had too much fluff for me, though he did improve the colors which ideally this version could use too. My applause again to all the editors out there.

Hello folks. I’ve been entertaining the idea of doing a new audio mix for a movie, with total music replacement. Ideally I’d have isolated speech and sound fx, so is there a way to get the stems from an Atmos mix, either disc or streaming? (I would be willing to get a uhd disc drive for PC, if such a thing exists, and it would be of use.)

I’m not too familiar with its methodology so please correct me --rather than mixing the various audio to mono, stereo, surround, etc. Atmos instead has an unlimited number of isolated elements that are combined to the speaker setup indicated by hardware. Are the audio elements divisible by software before they go through Atmos processing? Otherwise I’d be using the center chanel of 5.1 which would not be ideal but possibly workable.

I believe the Funimation Blu-ray has the hypersonic mix in 16 bit, even though the box claims 24 bit. What is the total size for this package?

There’s no search in the menu; sorry, but am I missing something somewhere?

Superweapon VII said:

Vampires combusting in sunlight’s one of my least favourite tropes in vampire lore. I don’t begrudge Nosferatu for introducing it, but it’s become grossly overused in the decades since.

I can remember Interview with the Vampire and Let the Right One In, which were both very effective in terms of drama and not just “defeating the boss.” I’m curious where else is this depicted? I do recall many vampire movies that merely show them avoiding sunlight, and Coppola’s Dracula literally dismisses the idea. Haven’t seen any of the Hammer movies.

I will say the new groundhog-free into is most welcome, but the movie can’t help but get worse from there. (I would eliminate the other groundhog appearances too.)

I applaud SpenceEdit for making this film more palatable. However it still stinks. No edit can change the laughable direction, horrible scripting, or godawful lighting in this movie. If this flick wasn’t a sequel, the consensus would be “zero out of ten.” Its plot borders on complete illogic, the audience has no reason to care about anything, the gratuitous callbacks are unfounded, the action has no danger, and the dialogue is anything but natural. People said Temple of Doom was racist, well this film has “natives” jumping up & down and jabbering like monkeys. Indy has been wearing the same clothes for 30 years, though they look new and clean and fit for an old man. If that’s a metaphor for this movie then I’m being generous.

Tldr. Even if the bones are ok, the meat of this film is diseased and to consume it invites illness.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is essentially the same story as Dune, but better.

Sorry haven’t listened yet so I don’t know if this is adressed. I can’t remember where I heard, so I don’t know if this is just a rumor, but Michael Jackson wanted to appear in Phantom Menace as Jar Jar in live action with prosthetics before Lucas decided to go with an all CGI character. Since Lucas had a hand in Captain Eo I can’t help but think Jackson would’ve actually had a role in 80s prequels, similar to casting Samuel L Jackson as a popular actor/fan in a supporting role in the actual prequels. Imagine if Star Tours was actually a vehicle to hype 80s prequels instead of the last gasp of OT era. Maybe those prequels would even find a role for Pee-Wee Herman.

A new Return of the Jedi. basically the same movie but with some different exposition. In the past, the “real” Darth Vader kidnaps and has his wicked way with Mrs. Skywalker. Anakin has to free her but is killed. Obi-Wan of course wouldn’t know that Anakin is not the daddy.

So in ROTJ we have Darth Daddy rather than Obi-Wan The Liar. Leia wouldn’t even be a sibling to Luke. Maybe she is the real progeny of Anakin Skywalker. Or maybe she’s just Bail Organa’s biological daughter. Leia hates Luke because he reveals he is the son of Vader (instead of her brother) but at the end she knows the hate is misguided. But she’s already got with Han, which leaves room for romantic questioning in the future.

So we shall put this fantasy into an idea where Luke has a more ambiguous flirtation with the dark side. Sequels continued coming out every three years 1986 1989 etc. There is no OT but an ongoing triennial series of movies in various episode order so as to foment maximum anticipation. The prequels would end up being more in line with all the hints we hear from Ben and Yoda. Anakin was a cool dude, and Obi-Wan’s friend, but is not Darth Vader or Luke’s dad.