zerocool said:

yooo this so so hype. Donation sent i cant wait to see the results.

does this have the dolby digital 5.1 track to be scanned on it too or will that need to be sourced from a laserdisc for the theatrical mix?

Thank you so much! Glad you’re as excited about it as I am 😁

As far as I can tell the print only has an analogue audio track, so we’ll probably want the laserdisc audio. There was also a DTS laserdisc if we wanted to use that.

Info/FAQ

What’s the big deal?

This is a really important project to me because Toy Story is an entirely different-looking film on film as opposed to the DVD/Blu-Ray releases. This is because of the unique film-out process Pixar used at the time to print each rendered image onto film, whereas with the DVD and onward they directly transferred the digital files onto the disc.

As a result, Toy Story on 35mm has a very unique look to it, and also looks far better than the DVD in my opinion. The colors have a very filmic look to them, and it makes many of the scenes pop out compared to the DVD version’s vey dull palette. Additionally, the grain present on the film print makes a lot of the low-res textures and makes them look less noticeably fake compared to the DVD.

Here are some comparison images to show what I’m talking about, with screenshots from a scan of the theatrical trailer by FT Depot. Some differences are more subtle while others are plain as day– particularly, notice in the “YOU ARE A TOY” scene how much Woody stands out against the background in the film version. Also, notice in the “Out the window” scene how much redder the glow of the sunset is on film, whereas in the DVD/Blu-Ray film you can hardly tell there’s a sunset.

This is all to say that Toy Story on film was and is an entirely different beast than Toy Story on Blu-Ray, and again, arguably far better-looking. Naturally, the VHS and Laserdisc releases used a film print to transfer the movie, but both are obviously very low-quality by today’s standards, and this scan will give us a nice, clean look at how the film looked in theaters.

The Print/Scanning

Our print of Toy Story is an original theatrical print from Australia (meaning presumably in English). Here’s a link to the eBay listing where you can see pictures of the print– it looks like it’s in pretty nice condition aside from a loose wind in one of the reels. It also seems a bit pink in some of the pictures, although this could just be due to lighting.

Anyways, the print was bought for AU$1500 (just under US$1000 at the time), and is currently being held onto by our Aussie friend Valeyard (RU.08) who will be shipping it to the US when appropriate.

Scanning will be done by Quazza with his Scanstation 6.5k. Ultrasonic cleaning will be done by Flix35.

Donations

UPDATE: DM me if you’re still interested in donating!

Donations are being accepted on PayPal right now– the two links are at the top of this post. Shoot me a PM if you’d like to use another method of payment!

I suggest using Link 1 if you have a PayPal account, as with Link 2 there’s a fee for each donation made. Also, be sure to select Family and Friends instead of Goods and Services, as the latter also incurs a fee.

If you choose to donate and are interested in getting a copy of the print, please include your OT account name if you have one (or just PM me/reply to this thread). Otherwise, try to include any other way I can contact you (email, Discord, etc.), as PayPal messaging is a bit weird and doesn’t really notify you when you get a reply.

I encourage anyone interested and willing to donate, even if it’s just a few dollars. I’ll be equally matching every donation under $5 with my own money, so any amount you send really does count!

UPDATE (6/5/24): I’m sorry it took me so long to edit this, but I am unfortunately not taking donations at the moment. I totally forgot I hadn’t put this update here and I apologize to people who thought donations were still open. We have enough money for the time being, but I appreciate your guys’ interest and I will inform you all if I reopen for donations.

UPDATE: We’ve reached $1300! Expect an update soon, regarding what’s next as well as addressing some recent events that need addressing.

Howdy partners!

PM me if you’re interested in donating!

I have recently purchased a full 35mm film print of Toy Story– an absolute classic and one of my all-time favorite animated films– and we’re currently raising funds to have it scanned in 4K. More information can be found below!

We’ve currently raised $1325 out of our $1300 goal. PayPal links are at the top of the post if you’re interested in donating– which please consider doing so. Every bit helps, whether it’s $5 or $100!

This is a huge passion project for me– like I said, Toy Story is one of my favorite animated films ever made, and I’m incredibly excited to see it the way it was originally presented in theaters. Judging from the support so far, it looks like you guys are as well– thanks!

I’ll be posting updates here from now on– consider the previous thread effectively dead, so follow this one if you want to keep posted on progress. Feel free to DM me with any questions, concerns or suggestions you have.

Cheers,
~Tristan

By the way, I’ll be starting a new thread very soon. I’ll edit in a link here once that’s been done.

EDIT: Ok, new thread is up! Link

zerocool said:

this is pretty neat I’ll have to donate once its pay day!

Cheers, that’d be great. As I’ve said, any amount helps!!

By the way, I’m happy to that since my post from the other day, a few more donations (including a very generous $100 one from a Discord member), we have now reached $200 in donation money! Huge thanks to everyone who’s donated so far!!

DM’d you about donating. Beauty and the Beast is the film I care the SECOND most about seeing a film print version of (the first being a certain story about a bunch of toys… 😄).

Hey all!! Big update– I’m happy to say that we’re starting to get things worked out. I’ve been in contact with a scanner (Quazza in the US) who has agreed to take up the scan. We’re also going to try and get the print ultrasonically cleaned beforehand.

Regarding the print itself, Vale still has it in the land down under. We haven’t worked out a plan for shipping yet, but what will probably end up happening is Vale will ship the print straight to the cleaner to save a round of shipping. On the OTHER hand, if I save some money up then I might have him send it to me first, just so I can see the print for myself. 😁

Anyways, all of this means that we can now have a rough goal for raising money– a very temporary goal, mind you, as we haven’t worked out any of the shipping costs. It’ll probably be quite a bit more in the end, as there will be a TON of shipping between different parties, plus the cost of a hard drive.

For now, though, scanning will cost $428 for 107 minutes of film, plus $285 cleaning– that puts us at roughly $700. We’re already at $75, so we’re making pretty good progress. I’m gonna figure out a cool bonus for people who contribute, though no promises yet. PayPal links are in the top message, so feel free to donate if you’d like!

Also, as I promised, I’ll be starting a new thread for the scanning project now that we’ve started to get a concrete goal/plan. I’ll add a link once I’ve created it, and that’ll be the main thread going forward.

Expect lots more very soon. Until then, cheers!

Tristan

SlashMan said:

Thanks for the update, just donated. I’d like to help get the word out, but I also don’t know how much publicity is too much before the mouse takes notice.

Hey, I got it! Wow, that’s the biggest donation yet I think- either way, thanks a ton.

Yeah, I’m kind of in the same camp in terms of promoting it. I was thinking of making a trailer on my YouTube channel at some point, as I know Mango did the same for their Shrek scan a while back.

Alright, another brief update. Once again, super happy about all the interest and support I’ve gotten. We’ve already received $45 in donations– I’ll be matching a $5 donation with my own money, which will bring us to $50. To all the donors so far– you’re my favorite deputies! 😉

Anyways, I mainly wanted to share that I’ve started a donation page for the PayPal, which you can use to donate without an account. Here’s the link for those who wish to use it.

Nothing crazy regarding progress, but expect more deets pretty soon! Vale should be getting things secured on his end soon, as well as getting the print in for a cleaning at some point. As Vale/RU said, he’s apparently got a good scanner lined up (though I myself have no information regarding this anonymous entity at the moment 😂). I’ll post another update when I’m able to, so until then stay tuned.

Cheers,
Tristan

rwzmjl said:

Sent a bit to your paypal to help. Interested to see how it turns out! I have labs I could recommend in the US (https://thenegative.space is someone I have worked with professionally many times before, although I have never sent them copyrighted materials), but RU.08 knows what they are doing.

ShiftyEyes said:

Sent a donation to the Paypal link 😃

Hey, super late reply, but thanks, guys! That makes you our second and third donors respectively, and puts us at $40. 😁

I’ll reach out if I need any help finding a scanner. It sounds like Vale has someone good in mind, but I’ll still be asking around a bit to see what my options are.

Hey guys– update time!

First of all, huge thanks to everyone for the friendly and helpful messages over the past week. I already have a far better sense of how these project work than I did when I made the post, particularly in terms of the scanning and restoration process. Glad some folks are interested in the project, I think it’ll turn out great.

As for the Toy Story print– I’m happy to say that it’s been fully paid for and is currently in great hands. I’ve been coordinating with our Aussie friend Valeyard (@RU.08), who very kindly offered to pick the print up and hold onto it for me. He drove a hell of a long distance in order to do this, so huge shout out to him!

Anyways, Vale is currently holding onto the print, along with another very exciting one which he picked up…^^ He’s going to secure some canisters for the film reels since they didn’t come with any, and then we’re going to work out a plan from there for cleaning+scanning.

In other news, I’ve set up a PayPal for donations! If you want to contribute, you can do so right here. There’s certainly no obligation to contribute, but any amount will help a ton, so I’ll appreciate anything I can get. If you do donate, be sure to include your OT username in the payment description as well so I can thank you/give you shoutouts!

I’ll be posting another update as soon as possible, so stay tuned. Again, many thanks for all the messages and support I’ve gotten. The road looked rough ahead, but I’m glad I’ve got a friend in you all! 😁

Much love,
~Tristan

potatowes said:

I am very interested in this project and would love to support as well

Hey, thanks! Expect an update fairly soon… 😉

SlashMan said:

Super excited about this. Count me in for donating (might I suggest Toy Story on Genesis for streaming?) Thank you for sharing with the community as well.

Thanks, glad to have your planned future support! And yes, definitely either that or the SNES version– I figured I’ll stream that game and maybe the TS 2/3 games if there’s enough interest.

Not to shill my own post, but you guys will definitely want to see this: https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Toy-Story-on-35mm-Exciting-news/id/103540

Hey all- first post here, but I’ve been following this place for a few months now, and I have something very cool to share with you guys.

So a few months back, a 35mm print of the original Toy Story went up on eBay for I believe AU$5000? I don’t quite recall for sure… either way, this is pretty significant because it’s a version of the film that essentially hasn’t been available at all since it first released to theaters in 1996.

Here’s a link to the listing for those who are curious. It looks like it’s from Australia, so presumably an English print of the film, and looking at the pictures it seems to be in pretty great condition aside from some noticeable pink fading on some of the reels.

Anyways, I’m happy to say that after 3 months of saving up eBay funds, watching the price gradually go down and hoping no one else would beat me to the punch, I’ve finally sent an offer and committed to buying this print! I initiated a transfer of funds to my bank account earlier today, and as soon as that processes I plan on sending payment to the buyer. Naturally, my plan is to raise/save up money and eventually get the film transferred digitally, and I’ll likely be making another, more “official” post once I’ve actually secured the print.

That being said, I’m actually starting this post not only to share this news with you guys, but also because I have a number of questions about the process of digitally transferring 35mm film prints. As you can imagine, I have exactly zero experience with this sort of thing, but I’m hoping to learn how it’s done and maybe even use what I learn for other transfer projects in the future. I think it’s something I can pull off with enough help from this community.

As for my questions about the whole process, here are some that come to mind:

• First of all (and probably most importantly), I’m wondering how I would want to store something like this. I think I understand that it’s best to have it in a low-temperature environment away from ground level, but does anyone have any corrections or other tips they can give?
• From what I’ve read on here, I think I’ve picked up on the fact that you guys usually pay to have these prints sent in and scanned by another person. How does that work? How can I get hooked up with someone who scans 35mm prints? What does it usually cost to do this?
• What about donations? I guess that should be pretty self-explanatory, but I’d like to know how people usually go about it, as with college and other personal expenses I’ll definitely need some help raising money for this. I’m guessing PayPal would suffice? I thought it’d also be fun to stream Toy Story games for donations if y’all would be interested in that… 😛
• How are these things usually distributed? After all I’m sure at least some of you will be interested in seeing the finished product, and I’m not planning any donor-only shenanigans, so I’d like to know how I’ll want to share it with anyone who asks.
• Finally, would anyone be able to touch-up/restore the scan a little bit in the future? I mentioned that the print seems to be a tiny bit pink, so it could probably use some level of restoration, but I am very much unskilled in that regard, so I’d be willing to pay someone else to do it.

Any other advice you guys have would be greatly appreciated. Seeing the original theatrical print of this movie is something I’m extremely passionate about, and I’m sure some of you reading are as well, so I’m very excited about this and hoping we can achieve something amazing. I’ll try to post updates (and maybe a little blurb explaining the differences between versions if anyone’s curious), and like I said I plan on making an “official” thread for the actual scanning project once I’ve gotten my hands on the print. Until then, cheers y’all.

~Tristan