FANTASIA 75th Anniversary Blu-ray release -- wish list (1 Viewer)

[FoxyMulder]

An interesting article about Fantasound with some archival images.

http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/sound/fantasound1.htm

 

[Ray H]

Pipe dreams, I'm afraid. Disney isn't interested in selling their films to serious collectors anymore.

 

[FoxyMulder]

Pipe dreams, I'm afraid. Disney isn't interested in selling their films to serious collectors anymore.

I liked your post, even though i don't like what you wrote, though it is the truth, they are only interested in the mass market and they perceive film grain in animation as being evil, they also think censoring their history and being politically correct is good.

 

[Ray H]

I think it'd be rare to find any studio, let alone Disney, that would be willing to go to the effort to create a true archival release that the film deserves. Maybe a smaller boutique like Criterion could put one together, but Disney showed with the 70th Anniversary release that they didn't care much at all. If memory serves, it was originally supposed to be a 3-BD set with the old extras and additional animated shorts but was eventually delayed and released as the fairly lackluster 2-BD set that it is. The Disney of the late 90's and early 00's gave collectors solid DVD editions with guys like Michael Pellerin and Jeff Kurtti producing their discs, but the attention and care that would go into including the different film presentations and audio options we all want has always been rather rare on any home video format.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

The big problem with restoring the censored portions lies with the fact that the censorship was done a very long time ago, and done optically. Whether or not suitable elements can be found for transfer remains to be seen. I would not be surprised in the least if Disney supplied an Atmos track with the next release, as historical documents suggest that the surround effects, while not object based, were certainly steered towards the surround speakers in the auditorium. Atmos could be seen as the next logical progression.

 

[JeffT.]

I breezed through this discussion thread and wonder why can't the original "Fantasound" be restored? Doesn't Disney maintain the original negatives for FANTASIA (1940)?

There seems to be some (similar) controversy with HOUSE OF WAX (1953) pertaining to Warners not being able to reproduce (or restore) the original "stereophonic" (or whatever it was) soundtrack or some such. Why not?!

What's with these film companies and their older movies?

Jeff T.

 

[Patrick McCart]

Apparently, while Disney kept good care of picture elements, they didn't exactly do the same with the sound.

I think the easiest thing to do is to just branch the 1940 and 1947 versions. The 1940 version plays with Burton's redub, the 1947 version has Taylor's original voice. Barely will take up any extra effort in encoding.

 

[Danny Burk]

Isn't it ironic that Walt originally saw FANTASIA as a film to be continually reissued in ever-changing versions...and that's what it finally became?

 

[Jim*Tod]

Given the history of how the original soundtrack has been altered and not so carefully preserved, it is a wonder it sounds as good as it does on the current blu ray, which goes for a more balanced sound than earlier versions where the sound was panned back and forth rather primitively. That though may be closer to what the original tracks were like.

 

[SilverWook]

Recreating the lost narration is a dubious bit of restoration. The longer bits essentially tell you way too much about what you're going to see.
And I thought trailers that give a movie's plot away were bad!

Between this and the longer cut of Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Disney seems to have a hard time finding voice talent that sounds like the originals.

 

[Brian Kidd]

Between this and the longer cut of Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Disney seems to have a hard time finding voice talent that sounds like the originals.

Honestly, I have a feeling it comes down to budget. The restorations of both films were a labor of love, especially in the case of Bedknobs. It's much more cost efficient for them to hire someone reliable with whom they've worked in the past than to have a lengthy and expensive casting call in order to find the perfect voice. With Fantasia, especially, the differences between the Roadshow and Release versions of the narration were such that switching back and forth between Burton and Taylor would have been a patchwork nightmare. Scott MacQueen, who handled the original restoration on both films, was a true fan who did amazing work with what he was given.

 

[FoxyMulder]

To be honest the narration does not matter to me anymore, on both Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 i always skip by it, now from a collectors point of view i would want everything but i'd still skip the narration, i like these films for the animation and music.