MovieChat Forums > Song of the South (1946) Discussion > Any Official copies on video or dvd?

Any Official copies on video or dvd?


I ordered a couple of copies and what was recived is a pirated copy. Fuzzy looking inkjet printed cover on jacket and disc. Any Information would be helpfull. thanks.

reply

Most copies, like mine, are taken from the VHS tape from England. I went to England and bought the movie at a Disney store and my parents had it converted when we get back. Since then I have put it on DVD. This, as i have read, is the most popular "bootleg". The movie looks clear, but there will be a little fuzz on either side of the screen. It's better then nothing! Thank you political corretness nazi's!

Check out my blog: http://briantheoldmovieguy.blogspot.com

reply

There was also a laserdisc release in Japan back in the 90's.

reply

The JP LD is the best version to own, for one reason, and only one reason: No PAL speedups.

reply



That is my dvd. Its a dvd off the Japan Laserdisc.

reply

My copy was sourced from this; it's the best in terms of image quality.

-------------------------
"It's better not to know so much about what things mean." David Lynch

reply

I checked out a DVD copy from my local library (I live in Louisiana). It was a bit bizarre reading on IMDB and elsewhere that it had never been released on DVD in the United States while I was holding the box in my hand. The front said "Disney Classics" and the back said "distributed by Buena Vista Home Entertainment". It clearly wasn't a bootleg. Then as I continued to read the fine print on the box I saw that it was from the London branch of Buena Vista "made in England, distributed in the U.K.". The release date was 2006 and since then it had managed to somehow make its way to the United States and into the Louisiana public library system. I can't imagine that other British copies didn't also find their way here. It looks like about three minutes of the original 94 minute running time has been snipped from this copy.

P.S. I find it ironic that supposedly the reason this movie has never been released on home video in the U.S. is because it is offensive towards blacks (I personally don't see it, but I'm white so I guess I wouldn't) yet included on this British DVD is one of the most offensively racist Warner Brothers cartoons I had ever seen called "Coal Black and the Sebbin Dwarves". It was jaw-droppingly appalling.

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.

reply

The front said "Disney Classics" and the back said "distributed by Buena Vista Home Entertainment". It clearly wasn't a bootleg.

heykincaid: Nothing you have stated proves that this is not a bootleg.

1. Authentic looking artwork and labeling is not hard to achieve by anyone with a computer and some "photo shop" skills. I've seen Disney knock-offs that even an expert couldn't spot.

2. A real UK DVD would not be playable on most US players as it would be encoded
as Region 2 and with PAL format rather than Region 1 with NTSC format.

3. The "Coal Black And The Sebbin Dwarves" short is typically included with bootleg editions. As you stated, it is a Warner Bros. cartoon. Do you think Disney would have included anything so objectionable in 2006?

That you found this in a public library does surprise me...they should know better.

From the Songofthesouth.net site: "The movie has been released on video and laserdisc in various foreign countries, but never in the United States."

For more info: http://www.songofthesouth.net/faq/index.html#4




I don't think I want to go to the pictures. Oh?Why not? I've seen everything worth seeing.

reply

[deleted]

"That you found this in a public library does surprise me...they should know better."

Know better than what? To have a copy of an entertaining movie about a nice old man who befriends two children? You seem to assume that the library is obligated to share your PC concerns.

reply

You seem to assume that the library is obligated to share your PC concerns.


liscarcat-2, what PC concerns? I was merely expressing my surprise that professional librarians failed to recognize the DVD as being an unauthorized copy.

I should think that my previous posts would tell you that I care about the film and the quality of its presentation. I'll leave the long, boring, and futile debates about the film's political correctness issues to others.

Excuse me for talking while you're interrupting.

reply

regardless of that.. I believe it would be "know better than to have in their possession a DVD that is CLEARLY and illegal bootleg of a film that has never legitmitely been released on that format ANYWHERE in the world."

reply

What you saw is one of the earliest and most copied DVD bootlegs of SOTS. I believe this one first showed up in 2004. It is not edited. The source for this DVD was an official Chinese NTSC laserdisc. This laserdisc was made from a PAL source which plays slightly faster than NTSC. So the movie is just sped up, not edited.

The artwork on the box was most likely taken from the official UK VHS release and then altered for the DVD.

Also, Disney would never have put a Warner cartoon on one of there own DVD releases, even as an easter-egg like the disc you viewed.

A DVD sourced from the official Japanese laserdisc would sport better picture quality, but would have Japanese subtitles during the opening credits and songs.

More recently, I've seen NTSC DVDs sourced from the UK broadcast. They were converted from PAL and (in my opinion) look better than the Japanese laserdisc transfers.

reply

Amazon says that on July 15 the DVD on Song of the South will be sold

reply

Amazon says that on July 15 the DVD on Song of the South will be sold



This was an error and was pulled on 7/12/12

http://www.songofthesouth.net/news/2012/07/12/amazon-com-briefly-lists -song-of-the-south-dvd-release-date/

Excuse me for talking while you're interrupting.

reply

The UK broadcast looks just like the UK VHS and is oversaturated with color.

The Japanese LaserDisc is as close to the original Technicolor print as anyone is going to get until Disney releases this officially on DVD/Blu-Ray.

There were two releases of Song of the South to the Japanese market; the earlier one was an analogue transfer, and the later one was a digital transfer.

I have a copy of the digital transfer.

If anyone is interested in a high quality DVD with laser printed cover of the digital transfer Japanese LaserDisc please contact me with a PM. You'll need to leave me with your e-mail address so I can personally respond with screenshots from the transfer to DVD.

reply

It looks like about three minutes of the original 94 minute running time has been snipped from this copy.
This is most likely because it is PAL and not NTSC, rather than because it has been cut.

Let Zygons Be Zygons.

reply

Does this help?

http://www.amazon.com/Song-South-Ruth-Warrick/dp/B00003CX5G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342314039&sr=8-1&keywords=song+of+the+south

reply

You can get it here http://arabbittrail.com/shop/product/song-of-the-south/. They have a video sample down at the bottom so you can see what you're getting first.

reply

[deleted]

The DVD copy of the rare Japanese laserdisc offered by AlanO on this thread is the best among the 4 versions I've seen. It comes the closest to capturing the natural beauty of the original technicolor print (which I've seen in a theater) and is definitely the one to choose if you care about quality. Best of all it is reasonably priced.

Excuse me for talking while you're interrupting.

reply

I once had a Japanese laser disc, too, that was very good.

reply

Are there any versions of the Japanese laserdisc with the subtitles taken out? I have a subtitle free copy with washed out colors so I'm assuming it's from the Hong Kong laserdisc.
If you have seen Nostalgia Chicks review of the movie, her footage looks like the same source as mine.

But I'm wondering if anybody took the Japanese Laserdisc footage and then overlayed other footage to paint out the subtitles.

To be honest I'm surprised that a laserdisc would look better than a PAL digital broadcast captured in 2006. And if the colors are oversaturated in that version, I'm sure it would be easy today to adjust them to how they should look, based on the laserdisc.

Hell, a lot of the "digitally restored and remastered" Disney classics look oversaturated and very jarring and unnatural. I prefer to watch Pinocchio on VHS for this reason.
Then you have movies like Jungle Book, Aristocats, Robin Hood, Fox and the Hound and Sword in the Stone no longer released in the full 4:3 aspect ratio.

www.youtube.com/user/Knightmessenger

reply

Are there any versions of the Japanese laserdisc with the subtitles taken out?

I haven't heard of any and don't know if it's technically possible. Keep in mind the Japanese characters appear during the songs only. I don't find them obtrusive or perhaps one just gets used to them.



 Excuse me for talking while you're interrupting.

reply

I just received a copy of SOTS on DVD from VintageSouthern.net. I don't know the original source, but the quality of this DVD is excellent.

"Forget it, Jake - - it's Chinatown!"

reply

Was I hallucinating, or did I actually see the film (or extensive excerpts) on THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISNEY, say back in 1963 or '64? I would've been 7 or 8 years old.

"May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?"

reply

you probably did. you could have also been watching the movie.

reply

There's this new thing on the interweb now called "torrents". You can download/burn ANYTHING EVER MADE. I've had this on DVD since 2008. Had to print the cover myself, (freecovers.net) but that cost a nickel. Just google the word "torrent". pretty much the entire library of recorded history is there for free.


Son, you can't polish a turd

reply

[deleted]

You do have great imagination, lol!
If you knew how many films are not available...

reply

I got a bunch of Disney VHS tapes some years ago. All Original version with Dutch subs. Song of the South was one of them.

reply

classicmoviereel.com has good copy for 14.95

reply

What's wrong with a bootleg copy? You get to screw over Disney. I'm not seeing a problem there.

reply