Really interesting to see the full frame in these clips, and the transfer looks great! I’m sure the Blu-Ray is accurate to what was released theatrically, but some shots have always seemed a little too cropped down. Would love to see the full film like that, whenever you decide to put it out there.
Do you have particular examples of season three episodes missing scenes?? Never heard of this being the case before.
I made my own Alvin set but hadn’t yet slowed them down to their original speed (outside of the first half of season five, I did slow those down) I’d love to help in whatever way I can!
I do have some of the opening bumpers you’re looking for, I believe around half the ones from s01 and one or two from s02? From the Cartoon Network reruns you mention. One from s03 (the premiere ep, Film Flam/Secret Life of Dave Seville) survives in the syndication package as aired in Canada, the source I have.
I’d love to get a hold of the German Junior sources, and I know they’re out there, but I’ve yet to get them.
Surprised I haven’t seen any sort of preservation for the series before now, figured I may as well give it a go.
Muppet Babies, like many cartoons aired during Saturday mornings in the 1980s, lacks any official release. Both Muppet Babies and Alvin and the Chipmunks (my last preservation project, also on the site!) will likely never get releases, as they’d have huge copyright hurdles to leap through. This is where I’d like to step up the plate, and offer a definitive Muppet Babies experience!
What exists online seems to be a (nearly) complete set of episodes, albeit in pretty mediocre quality. Mediocre video is something that could be gotten around, but audio can only be repaired to a certain point. I’ve acquired everything I’ve been able to find, and I’m still sorely in need of quite a lot of upgrades.
On the upside, I do have a batch of episodes from the first three seasons with perfectly useable audio (pulled from Playhouse Disney UK during the early 2000s); those episodes are as follows.
104 - Raiders of the Lost Muppet
105 - Scooter’s Hidden Talent
106 - Case of the Missing Muppet
107 - Eight Take Away One Equals Panic
108 - What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
112 - From A Galaxy Far, Far Away
113 - Good Clean Fun
201 - Once Upon An Egg Timer
203 - Fozzie’s Last Laugh
204 - The Great Cookie Robbery
205 - Out of This World History
206 - Snow White and the Seven Muppets
207 - I Want My Muppet TV!
211 - The Muppet Museum of Art
212 - By The Book
301 - Pigarella
302 - The Best Friend I Never Had
305 - The Muppet Broadcasting Company
307 - Fozzie’s Family Tree
310 - Treasure Attic
311 - Around the Nursery in 80 Days
312 - Fine Feathered Enemies
313 - Muppet Goose
315 - Of Mice & Muppets
401 - Muppetland
There are also four episodes officially available on DVD:
107 - Eight Take Away One Equals Panic
110 - Gonzo’s Video Show
202 - Piggy’s Hyper Activity Book
308 - The Daily Muppet
The quality on these is pristine, and won’t be needing any work. This leaves quite a lot of episodes in need of upgrades; I will be attempting restoration on the best VHS-sourced episodes I have available, but even those could stand to be quite a lot better. There are also a few episodes that only seem to exist in shorter (around 2 minutes of cut footage) syndicated runs:
101 - Noisy Neighbors
404 - Where No Muppet Has Gone Before
418 - Nanny’s Day Off
504 - Is There A Muppet In The House
713 - Nice To Have Gnome You (only copy I’ve seen to found was pulled from a retail VHS, which looks to have been edited on the tape program to include an incomplete start)
I feel like the odds of finding upgrades for episodes neccesary and completing the syndicated episodes are pretty good? The show aired, uncut, on Nickelodeon for 8 years (1992 - 1999), where they showed every episode outside of the final season (which could use upgrades, but the only shot there is original CBS broadcasts or international airings), so my hope is to find more Nickelodeon broadcasts (I do already have a few). I’m also looking to find Spanish and German broadcasts; I know captures of them exist, I have 80/107 episodes in Spanish, and I’ve seen dozens of clips from German captures (via Junior), so I’m hopeful more things will become available soon.
There are also a handful of episodes available on retail VHS, some of which I do have. I’m going through sources now to see exactly what I still need to get a capture of, I’ll have an update on that soon.
I’ll update this with any developments, which hopefully won’t be a dreadfully long wait!
I assume it’s not the Russian release. No audio or subtitle options on my set; only English audio is available. It seems like a fan set to me, but if that’s the case, I’d have no real way of verifying who made it or where it’s from. Like I said, I’ve had it for a few years so unfortunately I don’t know a thing. Maybe it shares some sources as the Russian set? I’m uploading the ISOs over the next few days so I’m insanely curious if there’s anything interesting included (I love The Muppets and TMS, however I’m actually not super familiar with all the changes done to later broadcasts and DVDs.) I could happily offer more screengrabs in the meantime, if there are specific things to go for.
BestArchivist15 said:
That looks great! Are you able to provide a link to all the logoless versions of Seasons 4 and 5 episodes available, or at least the logoless version of the Chris Langham episode?
Yep, can definitely do that! Can’t share links publicly bc the site doesn’t allow it but when they’re up I’ll shoot DMs to everyone involved in the thread right now. Fair warning, it may take a few days, the files are pretty large and my internet isn’t stellar haha. They seem to be sitting in prepacked PAL ISOs with menus and chapters so I may just leave them as-is and offer the ISOs if that’s alright? Would probably save me some time in uploading instead of extracting them all from the ISOs (I only have a few extracted as MPEG it seems, but those few are also on the discs). I’d wager there’s a good bunch of episodes in here worth value to a preservation project and it may be easiest to just send everything I have 😃
I’m not sure if this project is still being worked on at all by anyone, but I have the Chris Langham episode logoless. MPEG format, interlaced, from PAL broadcast so original framerate is intact! Quality isn’t too bad to my eye, but maybe someone else would feel differently. No clue where I picked this file up, had it for a year or two. I also have the rest of season 5 and 4 in the same format, I think all logoless, if needed for said project. Some from official releases (I assume the NTSC DVDs but my copies are PAL so I dunno?), the rest from broadcast.
That looks fantastic, thank you so much for giving it a go! Are you using add-on Virtualdub filters, or just what’s built in? Been years since I’ve touched VD, so my memory is fuzzy on what’s included.
I did notice last night that a lot of backgrounds in the trailers are entirely different; was quite tired and forgot to mention it. I don’t think there’s any fixing that without just using trailer footage, but personally I’m fine with the final backgrounds; my concern lies with the palette.
I think I’ve decided on using the 16:9 version of the film for now; would’ve preferred 4:3, considering the original colors are more true to the Rugrats show, it’d probably give it a more show-esque look overall. Would’ve also given me opportunity to re-insert the TV broadcasted deleted scenes. Unfortunately, the only 4:3 master is on DVD/VHS in 480i, and what was broadcasted on TV up until 2016 or so.
If anyone has a decent source for those deleted scenes (aired on CBS in 2001 and on Nickelodeon until 2015), please let me know!! Finding those in decent quality may change my perspective on the whole 4:3/16:9 ordeal.
There was a thread about this made way back in 2017 by myself, going under a different name while quite inexperienced in this sort of thing. Probably could’ve continued that thread, but I really wanted to start fresh.
I’ve personally never been a big fan of how the original Rugrats Movie looks. Something about the colors has always been off to me; interestingly, original trailer footage reveals a quite different color palette.
https://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/11474/
In my opinion, this looks miles better than the home video release; I’m entirely unsure how it looked in theatres, but I’d love to know; a camrip does exist, however I don’t have a copy of it. (Anyone who saw it in back in 98 have any memory?)
My goal with this project is to come as close to the original color palette as possible, and fill in the blanks for what footage isn’t available in trailers; frankly, I’m not amazingly experienced with color grading, but here’s some quick proof of concept pieces I threw together tonight in Sony Vegas. Nowhere near as good as I’d like, but a start for sure.
https://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/11473/
As I said, color grading isn’t something I’m super experienced with, but I’m happy to learn for a project that I’m passionate about. I have to ask though, does anyone know of the best software for color grading? I’ve been using Vegas for years, but I’m not opposed to other software if it yields better results.
I’m not sure yet if I’d be using a 4:3 transfer or 16:9 (hence using both in the early mockup), they have different framing and I’m not sure which I prefer. 16:9 is more likely, as I don’t think an HD 4:3 transfer exists anywhere.
One more upgrade for the time being:
s08e08 - ST, The Space Traveler
Upgraded video quality! My old source was an ancient Spanish VHS rip that’s circulated online for nearly a decade now. There was also a German broadcast available online, although I had no access to it myself until last night. Someone I asked about it months ago came through with a copy, and while it’s not perfect (it’s an AVI encode circa 2009 with hardcoded frame blending from NTSC>PAL conversion), it’s a definite step up.
https://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/10894/
Screenshots 3 and 4 are actually comparative of the original 1990 NBC broadcast (which was very low quality) and the German source, as those scenes were entirely missing from the Spanish transfer. Until now, all I had for those scenes was the NBC broadcast, so I’m grateful something much better turned up.
I’ve also entirely recleaned the songs in the episode! A lot of songs from the last three of seasons come from Italian broadcasts, where they weren’t dubbed. I try to pull from the best sources, and a lot of English episodes tended to have inferior audio to the Italian recordings. However, I have no Italian broadcast for ST, only Spanish and as of recent, German. When doing the original cleanup, I spliced the NBC broadcast and Spanish together; the Spanish capture was done far too loud, the audio constantly peaking and destroying the bass and background music. NBC had the opposite problem, far too bass-heavy and entirely lacking higher frequencies. Felt the best case scenario was to put them together, it was all I could really do.
Sadly, Germany dubbed the songs, so I figured there was no real use for the audio; late into editing, I decided to try something kinda off the wall. I manually removed the vocals from the German songs, and spliced the instrumental underneath; the NBC/Spanish versions both lost almost all their instrumental from degradation so it brought a lot back to the sound immediately. I then equalized and cleaned the vocals the best I could, and I think it’s certainly a lot better.
https://streamable.com/4lfjmk [First half is the original mix, the second half is newly cleaned]
I had had to splice back in the proper English title card; the German one removed it, but thankfully the Spanish broadcast did not. I’ve spliced that to the best of my ability, and it’s serviceable.
V2 of ST is now available in the Alvin folder, so if you already downloaded it, feel free to upgrade to the new one!
I’m also working on a soundtrack compilation of all the show’s songs, as a bonus. I have seasons four through eight finished, only the first three to go. I’ll make that available to all who’ve already downloaded the episodes and anyone else who asks for them.
As for the last handful of episodes with very low quality audio…
s06e18a - Uncle Adventure
s07e04 - Bye, George + A Day in the Life
s07e07a - Maltese Chipmunk
s07e09a - Inner Dave
s07e11 - The Return of Uncle Adventure/Princess and the Pig [11a needs an upgrade, 11b is missing entirely in English]
s08e08 - S.T. The Space Traveler [video is better but the dialogue is still pretty miserable quality]
s08e11 - Gremlionis
There’s not much I can do without better sources, which I doubt will appear anytime soon. These shows only aired once in the US so it’s unlikely at least. They did air on BBC in the UK until at least 2003 however, and for many years in the 90s in Australia, so there’s hope. If new sources appear, I’ll definitely update the set. Still, I am incredibly thankful for the wonderful people on originaltrilogy who have helped me upgrade quite a few episodes with better sources, and with any luck, one day that’ll happen again with more episodes.
To those who already got links and are downloading episodes, this week I had to fix a few minor issues with episodes.
s06 - Alvin’s Obsession + Alvin’s Not So Super Hero: Second segment had a splice where I forgot to apply color correction so the colors shifted for a few seconds; I’ve now fixed this. Also did some volume equalization I didn’t do back in 2019 (this was one of the first episodes I worked on).
S07 - Home Sweet Home + All Worked Up: My source for this ep was a shoddy UK VHS transfer that had gone through a few conversions and wasn’t great because of it. Figured there wasn’t much I could do when I got to it, so I left it untouched. Discovered recently that the original file was missing end credits so I went in this week to add those, and ended up touching up the video and audio a bit.
S07 - Alvin in Neverland: Vegas had a weird rendering issue in where the credits were placed, so they started abruptly, slashing the last second off the episode; I’ve fixed this.
S08 - Batmunk, Star Wreck, Funny We Shrunk the Adults: These were DVD rips simply lacking credits; I’ve attached them.
I’ve uploaded the new versions so feel free to redownload 😃
I’ve also been considering working on an extras folder, with all the random goodies I’ve compiled the past year or two working on this. Nothing too major, not sure if there’d be any interest.
I’d also eventually like to pick up any s08 episodes released officially on VHS (Funny We Shrunk the Adults, Daytona Jones, Star Wreck) and splice in the VHS audio; for whatever reason, the DVD masters use a very compressed down audio track, nearly mono I own the Batmunk and Back to Alvin’s Future videos and the stereo sound is far more open; however, that’s more of a nitpicky side thing I’ll get to down the road. As is, they sound perfectly fine.
Man, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?
I’m glad to say I’ve finished compiling all of the Alvin shows with what resources I’ve had available to me. Took until two weeks ago to finish the project, 2020 was a busy year. Obviously I won’t be posting links in this thread, doesn’t seem like it’d be allowed. However, feel free to DM me and I’ll happily send you the shows.
I’m keeping this project open for the future, if better sources happen to pop up online. As for what could be improved…
s06e18a - Uncle Adventure
s07e04 - Bye, George + A Day in the Life
s07e07a - Maltese Chipmunk
s07e09a - Inner Dave
s07e11 - The Return of Uncle Adventure/Princess and the Pig (11a sounds pretty bad, 11b is missing entirely in English)
s08e08 - S.T. The Space Traveler
s08e11 - Gremlionis
These are all have pretty poor audio quality; I’ve done my best to clean them in my copies, and synced it to Italian sourced video, but it’s still not great. If these episodes appear anywhere and are an improvement, I will recompile them with said better sources. Or heck, if any episodes get improvements available, I’ll do them. But for the time being, the project is complete.
Major thanks to those who offered me both support and resources, it was greatly appreciated. 😃
Took a break for a few months for the holidays and personal affairs, will be back to finishing a set after Christmas 😃
Still looking for anything on the above list, just a small fyi.
Recieving a higher quality copy of Alvin in Neverland from someone offsite, removing it from the wanted episode list.
Thanks to the grateful contributions of jordan200, I can remove these episodes from the wanted list:
s07e05a - Like Father, Like Son
s07e09b - The Legend of the Sleeping Brittany (I’m still missing the first second or two of audio, but this isn’t apparent enough to keep looking for another source, in my opinion)
s08e09 - Irrational Buffoon’s European Vacation
I’ve also finished editing the following episodes:
s06e17 - Vinny’s Visit
s06e19 - Theodore and Juliet + Quarterback in Curlers
s07e11a - The Return of Uncle Adventure
s07e12 - Alvin in Neverland
s08e11 - Gremlionis
I’ll keep the problematic ones on the list of wanted episodes, as the audio on them still isn’t very good; better after cleanup, but improvement would be ideal. I seemed to have not mentioned it before, but international (non English) broadcasts are also of major help, as I can use them for better video/cutting the higher quality English songs (songs were undubbed in almost all countries, only Germany dubbed those) into the low quality English audio. I have decent quality song sources for every episode except Uncle Adventure and ST The Space Traveler, but upgrades to any extent, regardless of the episode, are welcome!
EDIT 2021: Project complete! Upgrades could be made with better sources but with what’s available, all work is finished. Working on an extras set but that’ll come a bit later. DM for more info!
Hey, everybody! Kinda new here, was here a while back but never really said/did much. Anyway, I’m currently working on a preservation/restoration project for the 1980’s cartoon incarnation of “Alvin and the Chipmunks”. The show ran for 8 seasons, which would sound like a lengthy process, but the first five seasons are readily available in consistently solid quality. I’m mostly working on seasons 6 - 8; I may work on the early shows a bit later, but the later stuff is the worst in quality/availability so that’s where I’m starting.
What I’ve already completed:
s06e12 - Dave’s Getting Married (DVDrip)
s06e13 - No Chipmunk is an Island + Babysitter Fright Night (DVDrips)
s06e14 - Alvin’s Summer Job (retail VHSrip)
s06e15 - Once Upon a Crime (DVDrip)
s06e16 - Mad About Alvin + The Phantom (NBC broadcast)
s06e17 - Vinny’s Visit
s06e19 - Theodore and Juliet + Quarterback in Curlers
s06e20 - The Wall + The Amazing Chipmunks (NBC broadcast audio/Italian retail video)
s06e22 - Psychic Alvin + A Special Kind of Champion (retail VHSrip/DVDrip)
s06e23 - Alvin’s Obsession + Alvin’s Not So Super Hero (NBC broadcast audio/Italian retail video)
s07e01 - Cookie Chomper III (DVDrip)
s07e02 - Home Sweet Home + All Worked Up (UK VHSrip, not mine)
s07e05 - Like Father, Like Son + Dr Simon & Mr Heartthrob (NBC audio+Italian video/DVDrip)
s07e06 - Too Hip To Be Dave + Hearts & Flowers (NBC audio/Italian video)
s07e08 - Unfair Science + Shaking the Family Tree (retail VHSrip/NBC broadcast)
s07e11a - The Return of Uncle Adventure
s07e12 - Alvin in Neverland (LOW QUALITY NBC AUDIO+Italian video)
s07e13 - Merry Christmas, Mr Caroll (DVDrip)
s08e09 - Irrational Buffoon’s European Vacation (Australian Broadcast - thanks to jordan200 for this one!!)
As for s08 (Chipmunks Go To The Movies), I have everything done in high quality, except two episodes.
s08e08 - S.T. The Space Traveler
s08e11 - Gremlionis
Kong (s08e03) is my own personal VHSrip, but the rest are DVDrips from the US discs.
Only episode I’m entirely missing in English is s07e11b - The Princess and the Pig. However, I’m still looking to upgrade the audio on some of my English episodes:
s06e18a - Uncle Adventure
s07e04 - Bye, George + A Day in the Life
s07e07a - Maltese Chipmunk (worst one I have)
s07e09a - Inner Dave
s07e11 - The Return of Uncle Adventure/Princess and the Pig (11a sounds pretty bad, 11b is missing entirely in English)
s08e08 - S.T. The Space Traveler
s08e11 - Gremlionis
These in particular vary from not great to nearly unbearable. The s08 episodes are nearly unusable, but better than nothing. If anyone has access to any of these episodes in English (or any other languages, as I could always benefit from upgraded video), please lemme know, as they may be of great value to the project!
My main sources right now are Retail Italian VHS tapes for the best video (sadly the only Italian rips are on YouTube so they’re sorta compressed, but still better than the US off air recordings I have, for the most part), English audio from original NBC broadcasts (some sound great, but others are from third generation tapes so they’re not ideal), and retail VHS/DVDrips, almost all from my own discs. There’s also a UK tape I’m looking for (it has Home Sweet Home/All Worked Up on it), but I can’t really afford to buy a PAL VCR for transferring, so I’m stuck on that regard.
The Chipmunks Go To The Movies (season eight) did air on the USA Network, on the USA Cartoon Express block in 1994 and 1995, so if anyone has some of that, that’d be amazing top priority stuff.
I’m not entirely sure where I’ll release these when I’m done, but definitely on Myspleen and via my Twitter (which would be the public alternative for them; I’ve already started offering them there).