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Fantasia 1991 Laserdisc Narrated By Deems Taylor?

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I am not positive; but I believe the 1991 laserdisc is the only version to feature Deems Taylor's actual voice. You can compare it to THIS YOUTUBE RCA VICTOR ORTHOPHONIC LP DEMO DISC to see (or rather hear) the real Deems Taylor for yourself. I'd have to do a side-by-side comparison; but IMO the voice on that link sounds like the voice on the Fantasia laserdisc.


The laserdisc also had the "Fantasound" audio with the music moving all around the room.
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That laserdisc boxset is a treasure.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NagysAudio /forum/post/19452022



Who can get to the bottom of this, it's been bothering me for a while now.
Click to expand...

I don't think anyone will get to the bottom of it. Either we believe Disney when they say the Taylor audio is lost or we don't. If Hugh Douglas sounds just like Deems Taylor, then comparison of the RCA LP and the 1991 laserdisc is pointless. I wonder why would Taylor's audio be lost and nothing else? For that matter, how do we know the music track on the 1991 laserdisc is Stokie conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra?
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I'm confident the music track on the LD is legit. Disney did a digital re-recording of the music with another conductor and orchestra, and while it is alright for the compact discs I have of it, it is WRONG for the movie. The LD has it right, even though the sound quality is not nearly what we're accustomed to these days...
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The LD is the General Release version which has Deems Taylor's voice.


The DVD is the Roadshow Version which has additional footage of Deems Taylor for which the audio tracks have been lost or damaged beyone repair. Disney said they had two choices: Either use subtitles for the sections for which no audio of Taylor's voice exists, or re-dub the entire film to provide a more consistant presentation.


The 1982 version of Fantastia is irrelevant as it has never been on home video nor have elements from it been used for any video release.


The LD does indeed include the unaltered Fantasound track as heard by audiences in 1940. Well, an adapted version of it at least as in 1940, they used only ONE surround speaker.


Hope this clears things up a bit!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NagysAudio
Cougartiger - That's one side of the argument. But there have been quite many reports that the voice on the 1991 Laserdisc is Hugh Douglas and not Deems Taylor. I wonder if Disney would answer this question?
My name is Ernest Rister and I am an animation historian. While I don't pretend to be an expert on Fantasia, I can tell you with absolute certainty Deems Taylor's voice is what you hear on the 1991 laserdisc.


I'm not sure how Hugh Douglas has become associated on the internet with voicing the 1982 version of Fantasia, because according to Leonard Maltin, Tim Matheson reads the Deems Taylor narration in the 1982 version of Fantasia, not Hugh Douglas.


"Musical purists quarreled with this revision of Stokowski, but Disney purists were even more upset. Deems Taylor was no longer in the film. If one accepted the premise that Fantasia needed modernizing, this might have made sense - after all, Taylor is virtually unknown today - but his narration, in some ways the most dated aspect of Fantasia, remained intact, spoken by an unidentifed voice (actor Tim Matheson). Surely some tasteful rewriting would have been as welcome as any musical recording." (Maltin, The Disney Films - 4th Edition, pg. 45)


So, in other words, there was no ADR dubbing of Deems Taylor in 1982 by Hugh Douglas, because Deems Taylor isn't even in that version. Matheson read Taylor's narration while the camera showed various shots of the silhouetted "orchestra" during the interstitials.


1982 - Digital re-recording. No Deems Taylor, narration read by Tim Matheson

1990 - 50th Anniversary version. Deems Taylor returned to film, audio is Taylor's voice.

2000 - 60th anniversary presentation of original 1940 roadshow version. Taylor's voice replaced by Corey Burton.

2010 - 70th anniversary presentation of original 1940 roadshow version. Lather, rinse, repeat.
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The 1991 LaserDisc version is most assuredly Deems Taylor on all of the introduction parts.


He voice was replaced by Corey Burton for the DVD release that included the Roadshow footage.


I have the old LaserDisc in my possession and I am glad I still have it for that reason.
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I own this disc

I purchased this Fantasia Laserdisc back when it was new, with anticipation of purchasing the player later. All these years later I never owned the player.
Is this disk worth holding on to because of the naration? Will the value ever go up? (I know this is a guess)
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Josh Z
DVRuger said:
I purchased this Fantasia Laserdisc back when it was new, with anticipation of purchasing the player later. All these years later I never owned the player.
Is this disk worth holding on to because of the naration? Will the value ever go up? (I know this is a guess)
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Unfortunately, copies of the Fantasia Laserdisc were highly prone to laser rot. Even if you bought a player now, the disc itself may be unplayable.

As for value, it's virtually nil unless you can confirm that it's a clean copy.
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Josh Z said:
Unfortunately, copies of the Fantasia Laserdisc were highly prone to laser rot. Even if you bought a player now, the disc itself may be unplayable.

As for value, it's virtually nil unless you can confirm that it's a clean copy.
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Not kept up on Laserdiscs, but Laser Rot is a new term to me. Is this from normal use as the laser reads the disc, or is it just the disc destroying it's self? This disk has never been played ( I know this because it's been in my possesion since new) and has hardly even been out of the cover.

That being said, thanks for the info on the value. I might just keep it as a memento as what once was lol.
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Josh Z
DVRuger said:
Not kept up on Laserdiscs, but Laser Rot is a new term to me. Is this from normal use as the laser reads the disc, or is it just the disc destroying it's self? This disk has never been played ( I know this because it's been in my possesion since new) and has hardly even been out of the cover.
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Laser rot was a manufacturing defect that caused discs to degrade over time. The glue that holds the two disc halves together breaks down and allows air and impurities to get inside, which prevents the player's laser from reading the pits and lands on the disc. It starts with colored speckles in the picture and continues to get worse until the disc won't play at all.

This can happen whether you've watched the disc or not. An LD can rot in its package without ever having been removed from the shrinkwrap.

Not every Laserdisc rots. This was something that happened during manufacturing due to bad glue. Some pressing plants had more problems with it than others, and some specific disc batches were known to be likely "rotters." Unfortunately, most copies of the Fantasia box set have proven to be susceptible to rot.

As a general rule, laser rot manifested within two years of a disc's manufacture. If a disc was going to rot, it would have done so by now. If you manage to play the disc and it doesn't have any symptoms, you should be in good shape.
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Josh Z said:
Laser rot was a manufacturing defect that caused discs to degrade over time. The glue that holds the two disc halves together breaks down and allows air and impurities to get inside, which prevents the player's laser from reading the pits and lands on the disc. It starts with colored speckles in the picture and continues to get worse until the disc won't play at all.

This can happen whether you've watched the disc or not. An LD can rot in its package without ever having been removed from the shrinkwrap.

Not every Laserdisc rots. This was something that happened during manufacturing due to bad glue. Some pressing plants had more problems with it than others, and some specific disc batches were known to be likely "rotters." Unfortunately, most copies of the Fantasia box set have proven to be susceptible to rot.

As a general rule, laser rot manifested within two years of a disc's manufacture. If a disc was going to rot, it would have done so by now. If you manage to play the disc and it doesn't have any symptoms, you should be in good shape.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info! Good to know. I have no way to play this disc, and nobody I know owns one, so for now it's a souvenir :)
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Josh Z
DVRuger said:
Thanks for the info! Good to know. I have no way to play this disc, and nobody I know owns one, so for now it's a souvenir :)
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Yeah, it would be really difficult for me to recommend you invest in a Laserdisc player now just to test this one disc, which is more likely than not rotted. The disc's sentimental value is probably the only value it has. :)
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