Fantasia is going to be beautiful on Blu ray

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Fantasia is set to be released on November 30th on Blu ray, and I went to the restoral screening the other day at the Disney Digital Theater. Boy, this movie is going to be absolutely beautiful when it hits the Blu ray format. The PQ was absolutely astounding, and the audio sounded very good for a 1940's movie. After this presentation, I am looking forward to getting the Blu ray when the screeners are available. The only complaint I heard on the presentation was the fact that Deem Taylor's original voiceovers in the live scenes was not included. Since they original dialog tapes have deteriorated to the point they became unusable, Corey Burton's 2000 re-recorded dialog was used instead.

We also saw scenes from Beauty and the Beast, and it looked and sounded beautiful as well. One of the things that make me proud to be a Disney employee is the incredible amount of meticulous work they put into the restoral process. They really spit and polish the old negatives to give them a new shine, and it shows up in their Blu ray releases.

(Thank you for allowing me the shameless plug, now back to your regularly scheduled program).

[Woochifer]

Thanks for the heads up. I saw that the BD release will include both Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 in the same set! If this has the usual week-of-release discounting, we're looking at ~$25 for a BD-DVD combo pack with digital copy for two movies. I'm all over this one, because I love both movies, and don't have either one on home video. My toddler (yes, she's now THREE years old!) loves the music for Sorcerer's Apprentice and loves Mickey Mouse -- scary to think of how many times she'll want me to play Fantasia, since it has both in one cartoon.

I know that Fantasia 2000 is much maligned for simply not measuring up to the level of craftsmanship with the original, but I really liked how they did Rhapsody in Blue (the graphic animation style is a big departure from the original Fantasia) and Pomp and Circumstance with Donald Duck on Noah's Ark. I haven't seen Fantasia 2000 since its original IMAX run, but I also recall that the performance with the mighty Chicago Symphony was their usual excellence and the sound mix was quite good.

Also been a while since I've seen Fantasia with the original Leonard Stokowski soundtrack, so it will be interesting to hear how it holds up. Last time I saw it in theaters, it was the rerecorded digital version, and I've yet to hear the Stokowski soundtrack on a decent sound system.

[ForeverAutumn]

Thanks for the heads-up. I'm looking forward to this release.

Just in time for Christmas too! I'm sure that's no coincidence.

[Groundbeef]

At first glance I thought your thread was going to be about:



Glad you were referring to this:



Looking forward to it.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

At first glance I thought your thread was going to be about:



Glad you were referring to this:



Looking forward to it.

Hey Beef, glad to see ya posting again.

Hey the first Fantasia is a pretty darn good movie, the second one is a killer singer. I wish there were more like her in her generation.

[kelsci]

Hi Sir T.T.; Is the BD of Fantasia going to have a 5.1 track rather than or 2.0 stereo Dolby Surround track or will include both. I have the LD of Fantasia which was one of my best laser discs and still have an operating LD player, the CLD-M90.

[Woochifer]

I'd already seen the short preview for the upcoming Fantasia/2000 that came with Princess and the Frog. But, last night I downloaded the new longer 1080p preview via BD-Live -- wow! (I also downloaded the 1080p preview for Tron Legacy -- can't wait for that one!)

While the image quality for the original Fantasia looks quite good, I was stunned by what I saw with Fantasia 2000. The bitrate was hovering somewhere around 15 Mbps, so the actual BD should look even better.

Don't have a fix on the audio yet since the new preview was in 2.0 DD, but the newer tracks from 2000 packed a lot more punch ... of course, those tracks are also nearly 60 years newer than the original Stokowski recordings.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Hi Sir T.T.; Is the BD of Fantasia going to have a 5.1 track rather than or 2.0 stereo Dolby Surround track or will include both. I have the LD of Fantasia which was one of my best laser discs and still have an operating LD player, the CLD-M90.

Kel,
Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 will have 7.1 Dts-HD Master audio soundtracks encoded at 24/48khz when released on Bluray. Terry Porter did the restore of the individual dialog, music, and effects tracks, and he and I worked on the final 7.1 mix for the Blu ray.

[kelsci]

Kel,
Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 will have 7.1 Dts-HD Master audio soundtracks encoded at 24/48khz when released on Bluray. Terry Porter did the restore of the individual dialog, music, and effects tracks, and he and I worked on the final 7.1 mix for the Blu ray.

Thanks for getting back to me. Yes, you mentioned in another thread that you worked for Disney. That's fantastic. On the original laserdisc, FANTASIA looked superb. Its Dolby Surround track was fine. It was really something to hear stereo from 1940 and see Mickey exit stage left from Stowkoski with audio directionality. If any picture deserved a 7.1 remix, FANTASIA is it. I did not see FANTASIA 2000.

By the way, I had an elderly friend who saw FANTASIA in a theatre in NYC in 1940 that was equiped with the fantasound system and said it performed very well. Interesting too was that his father whose last name was Dolgoff was part owner of the Wallace Bros. circus. Gene Autry performed at this circus but told his father that he could make in short time the same money in movies that he could make in a year at the circus. I would have thought this was 1935. Actor Lee Powell also worked for the circus. He would get drunk and ride a horse. His parents actually gave him some money since he didn't have an acting job for some time. This must have taken place just before WW2. Powell died in the pacific theater in WW2.