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Topic: Was there an Intermission in....
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Paul Linfesty
Phenomenal Film Handler
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Posts: 1383
From: Bakersfield, CA, USA
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 06-24-2002 02:08 PM
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art ran this "new" completed version of Fantasia during their big Disney animation tribute in FebruaryFrom their web site: .The most controversial animated feature ever made has always been Fantasia. Whatever its much-debated merits and faults, there is no doubt that many sections are among the most incredible visions ever presented on motion picture screens. Walt's original concept was to have "the concert feature" in continuous release by periodically updating it with new segments, but the film's initial failure negated that. The idea seems to have stuck, however, as Fantasia has been cut, enlarged, rescored, excerpted, censored, and anamorphized for numerous reissues and other purposes. This is the roadshow edition and includes more restored footage than has been seen since its 1940 release. http://www.lacma.org
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Frank Angel
Film God
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Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 06-27-2002 11:02 AM
I don;t know for sure, but I can't imagine that Disney would settle for telco copper to make a master. Why not just go to Bell Labs with a mobile recording studio? We are talking Disney here -- when they did THE LION KING on three huge screens in Central Park one summer, they brought in enough equipment to outfit a dozen theatres and a rock and roll concert. Even if for some reason they wanted to go with land lines, Dolby had perfected a system that allowed CD quality transmission over telco copper years before. Or they could have used the PBS network transmission system -- in other words, there are lots of alternatives to conventional, noisy telco lines that would certainly provide hum-free recording for such an important and prestigious release as this was for Disney. The phase shifting was a problem with the original masters. I am not sure if the original Fantasound recording system was a Westrex optical vane recorder that was modified to record 8 tracks plus the control onto a single strip of film, or if there were multiple film records running in interlock. If it were the latter, this certainly would account for the phase shift problem (which is abundant, hence Disney's strong admonition never to play the print in Mono). But I can tell you that I got to run the mag print sometime in the late 70s (it was released in that format in the 50s), and the phase shift distortion was definitely present; the mag format predated any of the Anniversary work that might have been done at Bell Labs. I saw the version with the Irwin Kostal digital recording and found it very satisfying, if only they hadn't messed around with the order of the pieces and the removal of all the Deems Taylor sequences. The FANTASIA lovers went bizerk, and rightfully so. Adding a very well recorded new soundtrack was a great idea, especially since Kostal vowed that he would be true to Stokowski's interpretation, which I feel he did accomplish. You wind up with a superb sounding soundtrack to the classic animation. Disney and Stokowski were experimenting with untested technology from the beginning of this project. I think they would have approved updating the sound with new technology as it became available. Too bad they didn't re-record the soundtrack when Stokowski was still alive conduction the American Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall (like I suggested to Tippie Spirty [yes, that was his real name] head of Buena Vista here in New York). Had Disney made the re-recording with Stokowski when he was alive, it would have shut the purists up. Only if they also left the rest of the film alone, that is. Just for my own enjoyment, I've married the Kostal digital recording (available on CD) with the Laserdisc picture, recording it onto SuperVHS tape. It's quite a thrill to see that incredible imagery and at the same time able to hear a robust symphonic performance in pristine digital stereo sound. It took awhile to get the timing right, but I got it so close it is indistinguishable from the original soundtrack.
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Paul Linfesty
Phenomenal Film Handler
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Posts: 1383
From: Bakersfield, CA, USA
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 06-27-2002 04:23 PM
Frank Angel wrote:"Even if for some reason they wanted to go with land lines, Dolby had perfected a system that allowed CD quality transmission over telco copper years before." This transfer technique was performed in the mid-50's when Disney was preparing for a SuperScope magnetic stereo release. Apparently the original optical stereo tracks had since been either lost or destroyed after this transfer, since the 50th Anniversary release used these 50's mag phone line transfers (which had also been used for the 70's 4-track mag re-release).
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