Fantasia Laserdisc Question

drfsupercenter · Post by **drfsupercenter** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 8:50 pm

OK, this one really gets me.

A couple people from a certain unnamed project found a Japanese laserdisc of Fantasia and had it shipped over here. It's PILA-1111. Apparently, though, this laserdisc is still edited and doesn't have those centaur scenes as found here:
http://geocities.com/disney_laserdiscs/fant.htm

Does anyone know which laserdisc those came from then? I tried asking mvealf some things about the Japanese laserdiscs but got no reply... According to LDDB, the only two laserdiscs of Fantasia released in Japan are PILA-1111 and PILA-1112, 1112 being the subtitled one subsequent to the USA release.

Was there some other release I'm missing here?

disneyfella · Post by **disneyfella** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 9:17 pm

From my understanding the unedited centaur sequence showcasing "Sunflower" in all her glory was accidentally aired on a Disney Channel special in the mid to late 1980s. However, only part of the edited centaur sequence was aired (I believe the shot where they are all carrying Bacchus down from the throne). The last time apparently that this whole sequence was ever shown completely unedited was in a reissue I think in the 1950s. However, this was an edit that Walt himself made. What is now surfacing of this "lost" or "forgotten" sequence (however you want to call it) is from someone's private collection of a 35mm print of the film from one of its original reissues (the quality on it is very poor).

I've heard rumor that it was available on some Japanese laserdisc, but as I've found out from experience....often a rumor is just a misinterpreted fact. It came from somewhere, but I remember reading that this rumor got debunked because these scenes came from a collector in Japan....not a laserdisc that was available in Japan. I'm not sure, though.....again this was just a "rumor".

Total bummer on package.......I hope it didn't cost TOO much. If you do find out which one you're looking for, though, let me know....I'd love to help. I think I can track down a copy of just that sequence unedited if you want. Then you could probably edit it all back in....the main thing would be to get those shots right? PM me if you're looking for it from a non-laserdisc source and it doesn't have to be the whole Fantasia....just that one sequence.

Escapay · Post by **Escapay** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 9:41 pm

disneyfella wrote:From my understanding the unedited centaur sequence showcasing "Sunflower" in all her glory was accidentally aired on a Disney Channel special in the mid to late 1980s.

In addition, the low-quality clips that are online everywhere (the site drf listed, as well as wideescreen.org and other sites) are from a late 1980s German broadcast (you can see the RTL logo in the corner).

Albert

drfsupercenter · Post by **drfsupercenter** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 9:43 pm

Hmm.

mvealf seemed to make it sound like the Fantasia JLD was uncensored. So we looked into it. I don't think it cost that much... like $20 total... it isn't that rare in Japan, it's the equivalent to buying a Fantasia USLD on eBay. (We even had it sent to a guy in Japan then relayed over here to save on shipping)

So I guess that Geocities site lies? I was under the impression that there was an uncensored LD somewhere.

Mollyzkoubou · Post by **Mollyzkoubou** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 9:45 pm

All we need's the shots in question (preferably without too much noise) and a little context to help us put them in the right place.

Escapay · Post by **Escapay** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 9:50 pm

drfsupercenter wrote:Hmm.

mvealf seemed to make it sound like the Fantasia JLD was uncensored. So we looked into it. I don't think it cost that much... like $20 total... it isn't that rare in Japan, it's the equivalent to buying a Fantasia USLD on eBay. (We even had it sent to a guy in Japan then relayed over here to save on shipping)

So I guess that Geocities site lies? I was under the impression that there was an uncensored LD somewhere.

The Geocities site is mvealf's, but on the Uncensored Disney page, he doesn't show any Fantasia laserdiscs, just a link to the uncensored clips. Perhaps it would have been better if he mentioned it's not on laserdisc (and that the clips were from a German RTL broadcast), as I can see how one would think the fact that there's a link to the clips make it seem like it's on laserdisc.

Albert

drfsupercenter · Post by **drfsupercenter** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:35 pm

I know the site's by mvealf, that's why I mentioned him to begin with...

The reason I thought it came from a laserdisc is that when I emailed him, he said something like "The Japanese laserdisc is cut, but it does contain the original Deems Taylor narration", I thought that was at me asking if it has the full-length version or the VHS edit... but maybe he was referring to the centaur scenes too?

So the uncensored one never made it to home video?

Escapay · Post by **Escapay** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 4:27 pm

drf wrote:I know the site's by mvealf, that's why I mentioned him to begin with...

Ah, my mistake. I thought you spoke to mvealf about other things, and also cited his site but thought it was run by someone else.

drf wrote:The reason I thought it came from a laserdisc is that when I emailed him, he said something like "The Japanese laserdisc is cut, but it does contain the original Deems Taylor narration", I thought that was at me asking if it has the full-length version or the VHS edit... but maybe he was referring to the centaur scenes too?

He's referring mainly to the Deems Taylor narration. AFAIK, the laserdiscs are all based on the 1990 theatrical re-release/1991 VHS, in that it is "full" except for the centaur scenes and for the narration/interstitials (which are shortened). The 2000 R1 DVD has the restored narration scenes, but since some audio elements couldn't be found, they dubbed over all of Deems Taylor with Corey Burton (sounding like Deems Taylor) in order to keep it consistent.

drf wrote:So the uncensored one never made it to home video?

Only in bootlegs (ISTR The Lizard King working on one).

Albert

nunval · Post by **nunval** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 4:00 am

drfsupercenter wrote:OK, this one really gets me.

A couple people from a certain unnamed project found a Japanese laserdisc of Fantasia and had it shipped over here. It's PILA-1111. Apparently, though, this laserdisc is still edited and doesn't have those centaur scenes as found here:
http://geocities.com/disney_laserdiscs/fant.htm

Does anyone know which laserdisc those came from then?

I can answer for you. The scenes come from an ITALIAN broadcast (on the "Retequattro" channel , you can see the logo on right bottom corner) of 1982 of the complete episode "Music and magic" from the "Wonderful world of color" series. In Italy Disney had the old complete master with the italian dubbing. Probably no one paid attention to the uncensored segment of "Fantasia".

drfsupercenter · Post by **drfsupercenter** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 1:46 pm

Did that get released in any form in Italy?

nunval · Post by **nunval** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 4:55 pm

No, unfortunately not, in Italy we had the censored version since the 1973 reissue, the only way to see the black centaurette was a bootleg super 8mm taken from the 35mm reissue of 1966 and this TV broadcast that was never released on VHS.

drfsupercenter · Post by **drfsupercenter** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 8:05 pm

Wait, someone actually got ahold of a 35mm film reel?

I wonder if they still have it... with today's technology, getting a good rip from that would be fairly easy (Heck, my scanner can even do 35mm camera negatives, and from what I hear that's the same size as film... except those aren't negative)

Mollyzkoubou · Post by **Mollyzkoubou** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 8:07 pm

Ugh, Super 8... that would be grain city (but mb better than what's online)

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