BVHE Press Release: Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 Special Edition (Blu-Ray) (1 Viewer)

[MBrousseau]

Indeed, the 1982 CD existed.
As for the original 1940 soundtrack is concern, it will never sound good. Not even on Blu-ray. Since there has been a new recording in 1982, why not offering it for the fist time? I'm only suggesting it because it existed. It is not like asking a new recording! You make me sound like an iconoclast. It may be my lost, but I assume it completely.

 

[Matt Hough]

I seem to remember at the time that reviews of the new Kostal track attached to the original images were not positive. Seems like with a different emphasis on key passages from the conductor, the music didn't fit the images nearly as well as on the original recordings. As I say, I'm operating on a decades-old memory about that release, but I don't think it was received heartily.

 

[MBrousseau]

Even though the Kostal version had some negative reviews in the 80's, I still can't understand that Disney is acting like they never presented that version to the world, Think of it, so many people saw Fantasia for the first time in their life with the Kostal soundtrack version. At that time, Disney was so proud to bring a new sound to the movie and I remember it was fabulous. I remember the new rendition to Ave Maria gave me goose bumps. Now, Disney acts like it never existed? THAT would have been a great bonus to the Blu-ray edition. It's just sad...

 

[bigshot]

The Kostal version is seriously out of sync with the action in the Rite of Spring, and the rearrangement of Toccata and Fugue doesn't match the scale of the imagery at all. Even as a teenager, I could tell that the soundtrack was all messed up. It's best left buried. This is Stoki's picture. Disney has never had any sense for classical music. Only a total idiot would replace one of the greatest conductors who ever lived with the guy who conducted Mary Poppins. The reason Kostal did it was that no one better would have had the gall.

 

[MBrousseau]

Originally Posted by bigshot

The Kostal version is seriously out of sync with the action in the Rite of Spring, and the rearrangement of Toccata and Fugue doesn't match the scale of the imagery at all. Even as a teenager, I could tell that the soundtrack was all messed up. It's best left buried. This is Stoki's picture. Disney has never had any sense for classical music. Only a total idiot would replace one of the greatest conductors who ever lived with the guy who conducted Mary Poppins. The reason Kostal did it was that no one better would have had the gall.

Wow... I'm speechless. Excuse me for beeing such an uncult.

 

[Bryan Tuck]

Although their exclusion would never prevent me from buying Fantasia on Blu-Ray, there might have been some value presenting the Kostal recordings on an alternate audio track. I believe the interstitial segments were cut differently in the 1982 version, but I'm pretty sure the animated segments were all the same length, so it wouldn't have been too difficult. The Kostal recordings should, of course, never be presented as definitive, but they are an interesting footnote in the history of this film.

 

[FoxyMulder]

Originally Posted by MBrousseau

Indeed, the 1982 CD existed.
As for the original 1940 soundtrack is concern, it will never sound good. Not even on Blu-ray. Since there has been a new recording in 1982, why not offering it for the fist time? I'm only suggesting it because it existed. It is not like asking a new recording! You make me sound like an iconoclast. It may be my lost, but I assume it completely.

It sounded good to me last time i heard it on DVD, sure it may not have the range of a modern mixed soundtrack but to say it didn't sound good is wrong.


Anyway you will at least get a new recording of the Mickey Mouse segment on Fantasia 2000. ( at least it sounded more dynamic and new to me )

 

[FoxyMulder]

Originally Posted by MBrousseau

Indeed, the 1982 CD existed.
As for the original 1940 soundtrack is concern, it will never sound good. Not even on Blu-ray. Since there has been a new recording in 1982, why not offering it for the fist time? I'm only suggesting it because it existed. It is not like asking a new recording! You make me sound like an iconoclast. It may be my lost, but I assume it completely.

If we take your logic to it's extreme then why don't we also go in and remix all those older movies to make then sound like new film mixes, hey let's remix Lawrence Of Arabia and bring it to modern audiences with deeper bass and more surround sound!

 

[MBrousseau]

Originally Posted by FoxyMulder




If we take your logic to it's extreme then why don't we also go in and remix all those older movies to make then sound like new film mixes, hey let's remix Lawrence Of Arabia and bring it to modern audiences with deeper bass and more surround sound!

Your statement proves you don't get my logic. I'm talking of an existing soundtrack. That same soundtrack that has been shown in every theaters in the 80's, for goodness sake.

 

[Craig Beam]

Originally Posted by MBrousseau




Your statement proves you don't get my logic. I'm talking of an existing soundtrack. That same soundtrack that has been shown in every theaters in the 80's, for goodness sake.

Logic? You are refusing to buy the blu-ray because it doesn't include an alternate/modern version of the soundtrack (created 42 years after the film was made!), and you consider that logical?

 

[bigshot]

The problem with the Kostal soundtrack goes to the core of what Fantasia is- animation to music. When the film was made, Stokowski arranged and recorded the music before the film entered production. The animators broke down Stokowski's performance to a 24th of a second and animated exactly to it. Every accent in the music is reflected on the screen.

When Kostal re-recorded it, first of all, he didn't have permission to use Stoki's arrangement of Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. He came up with his own arrangement that was not only awful, it didn't match the visuals on the screen. But that wasn't the worst. He was unable to precisely match the accents and rhythms, so the soundtrack keeps falling in and out of sync with the visuals. This didn't matter much in gentle bits like the Sugar Plum Fairies, but in the Stravinsky it turned into a car wreck. Rite of Spring is difficult enough to control for any conductor, but to try to precisely match an existing performance was impossible.

The only kind of person who would have even attempted to re-record Fantasia would be 1) not an animator and 2) not a musician. Only an executive would decide to attempt something that is both wrong headed and impossible.

Even if they wanted to include the digital track, it wouldn't work with the Pastoral sequence because the edits to eliminate the racial characters were different then than they are now. They would have to include two versions of that sequence.

 

[Bryan Tuck]

Originally Posted by bigshot

Even if they wanted to include the digital track, it wouldn't work with the Pastoral sequence because the edits to eliminate the racial characters were different then than they are now. They would have to include two versions of that sequence.

I didn't realize that; did the timing change? At any rate, like I said, this is the furthest thing from a deal-breaker for me (in fact, I had never even thought about the possibility of Disney including the Kostal recordings before I saw this thread) but the film history buff in me is always interested in alternate presentations of classic films. I'd even be interested in seeing the 1942 cut, just out of curiosity (but I'm sure that would never happen).

 

[Brian Borst]

Before there's talk of alternate audio options for a movie, I would prefer that the studio release the original uncut in the first place. A true special edition would feature everything, the cut segments, the Deems Taylor audio, and the Irwin Kostal re-recorded soundtrack, but Disney apparently doesn't think the movie's worth it.

 

[MatthewA]

I suppose, in a perverse way, Walt's vision for Fantasia was realized. It is never complete, and it is always changing.

 

[bigshot]

Just about every Disney movie has been altered. Usually the soundtracks are the most worked over, but colors, effects animation and backgrounds are fair game.

 

[Craig Beam]

Originally Posted by MatthewA /forum/thread/303573/bvhe-press-rel...-2000-special-edition-blu-ray/90#post_3738613

 

[Ronald Epstein]

As part of the upcoming FANTASIA & FANTASIA 2000: 2-MOVIE COLLECTION SPECIAL EDITION on Blu-ray on 11/30/10, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment will be releasing for the first time the short film DESTINO, a collaboration that began in 1946 between Walt Disney and the famed surrealist painter Salvador Dali that was not completed until 2003.


CLICK HERE


Here are some images of Dali creating Destino as well as photos

of taken of the artist with Walt Disney.


















Here are some letters from Dali to Walt Disney

 

[bigshot]

Destino really looks more like Pocahantas than Dali. Is the New set going to include the Claire de Lune sequence? I'd much rather have that.

 

[Matt Hough]

Originally Posted by bigshot

Destino really looks more like Pocahantas than Dali. Is the New set going to include the Claire de Lune sequence? I'd much rather have that.

I'm working on the set now. It's not on disc one (which is the Fantasia disc). I'm guessing it has not been included. It may be in the BD-Live accessible Legacy Vault.

 

[Sumnernor]

Originally Posted by MattH. !