Who Framed Roger Rabbit 4K UHD (1988)

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by King O.A.

Which version has absolutely no cuts or censors?

The laserdisc. CLV and CAV versions. The CAV discs could be freeze framed to get pretty clear images on each video frame. That's why the film was censored later on.

[King O.A.]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

The laserdisc. CLV and CAV versions. The CAV discs could be freeze framed to get pretty clear images on each video frame. That's why the film was censored later on.

Forgive me but what do you mean CLV and CAV?

[ZANTHERA]

Bloody hell finally!!! I've been waiting for this for so long, this film absolutely deserves a 4K release and it'll most certainly be a day one purchase. I'm looking forward to seeing what the Zavvi steelbook will look like as I have the original Blu-ray release as a steelbook from them too.

I have a feeling it may still be the same 4K master that is available as a digital version at the moment but I'm kind of hoping it'll be a full blown restoration where they've gone back to the source elements and recomposited all of it since at the moment the version on Disney+ really shows signs of heavy DNR every time there's a toon in a scene.

It's such a stark contrast to the toonless scenes where the grain looks amazing but then the as soon as a scene starts that will have a toon in it there's very heavy noise reduction even when the toon hasn't entered the scene or has long left it.

If they scanned each of the various reels and did digital compositing they could completely avoid the need to use DNR when there are toons in the scene. It was ILM that did it and from what I can remember there were six reels total, live action, toons on a blank background, highlights, shadows, contours and the sparkles for Jessica's dress in the club scene.

This would be the best case scenario but we'll have to see, there should be more info in the next few months. I'm hoping this will be the case and the reason why the original 4K master that was apparently made for an anniversary release in 2018 got cancelled, they were able to do a full restoration of it so waited until that one was done to release it physically.

[Monterey Jack]

Originally Posted by King O.A.

Which version has absolutely no cuts or censors?

Only the CAV laserdisc, sadly.

[Monterey Jack]

Originally Posted by King O.A.

Forgive me but what do you mean CLV and CAV?

CLV meant you could get to an hour per laser disc side, but could not freeze-frame or slo-mo the image (the image just went blue when you paused). CAV meant you could, but you could only get a half-hour per side.

[Jlouisbarrett]

I really love the standard edition cover art.

[Deciazulado]

Originally Posted by King O.A.

Forgive me but what do you mean CLV and CAV?

Laserdiscs came in CAV (each frame could be individually accessed and viewed back and forth in various speeds, but the discs could only hold ~half an hour per side, one hour total) or CLV (which extended the time to one hour per side but then you lost the frame encoding, and to have various speeds you had to have a player with digital video circuitry to present the speeds/frames (at half resolution) for 2 hours total per disc)

[King O.A.]

Originally Posted by Deciazulado

Laserdiscs came in CAV (each frame could be individually accessed and viewed back and forth in various speeds, but the discs could only hold ~half an hour per side, one hour total) or CLV (which extended the time to one hour per side but then you lost the frame encoding, and to have various speeds you had to have a player with digital video circuitry to present the speeds/frames (at half resolution) for 2 hours total per disc)

Oh damn so the censors exist on the DVD and such? SMH.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by King O.A.

Oh damn so the censors exist on the DVD and such? SMH.

Yup.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by King O.A.

Forgive me but what do you mean CLV and CAV?

Like said above plus... CLV means Constant Linear Velocity, and CAV means Constant Angular Velocity.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by Monterey Jack

Only the CAV laserdisc, sadly.

CLV too, but the player generated stills (when the model included the feature) were not as sharp and detailed.

[Deciazulado]

Well you could these days record the CLV output now to digital video and then see the full 480 frame resolution stills then from that, vs the 240 doubled digital output stills of the player, if you don't have the CAV disc.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by ZANTHERA

Bloody hell finally!!! I've been waiting for this for so long, this film absolutely deserves a 4K release and it'll most certainly be a day one purchase. I'm looking forward to seeing what the Zavvi steelbook will look like as I have the original Blu-ray release as a steelbook from them too.

I have a feeling it may still be the same 4K master that is available as a digital version at the moment but I'm kind of hoping it'll be a full blown restoration where they've gone back to the source elements and recomposited all of it since at the moment the version on Disney+ really shows signs of heavy DNR every time there's a toon in a scene.

It's such a stark contrast to the toonless scenes where the grain looks amazing but then the as soon as a scene starts that will have a toon in it there's very heavy noise reduction even when the toon hasn't entered the scene or has long left it.

If they scanned each of the various reels and did digital compositing they could completely avoid the need to use DNR when there are toons in the scene. It was ILM that did it and from what I can remember there were six reels total, live action, toons on a blank background, highlights, shadows, contours and the sparkles for Jessica's dress in the club scene.

This would be the best case scenario but we'll have to see, there should be more info in the next few months. I'm hoping this will be the case and the reason why the original 4K master that was apparently made for an anniversary release in 2018 got cancelled, they were able to do a full restoration of it so waited until that one was done to release it physically.

You know that's not gonna happen. It'd be akin to post-producing almost the entire movie from scratch. But as the VFX were done on VistaVision there shouldn't even be that much degradation, there's always some with an optical composite but it doesn't deserve being smacked with DNR as in this case it means that most of the movie will be a wax fest. *le sigh*

[BNex99]

Originally Posted by Brian81

That link only has a couple censored bits. I thought more was censored in this?

The only other one I know of for sure is the brief frame or two of Betty Boop nudity that didn't even make it to the first VHS and laserdisc releases.

Supposedly, there was someone's real phone number on the bathroom wall right before Eddie falls from the top of the building in Toontown, and that's never showed up on any video version, either. I've seen the movie multiple times in 35mm over the years, but I can't remember if I saw it or not.

Originally Posted by King O.A.

Which version has absolutely no cuts or censors?

Theatrical prints.

I've said this before, but the censored bits honestly don't bother me that much. Normally, I'm against that sort of thing, but in this case, the changes are so incredibly minor and subtle that I don't think I ever would have noticed if I hadn't read about them.

[captainsolo]

I was going to say wouldn't it be nice if this was finally fully uncut.
There's no way in heck it would be but one can dream.

No video version is fully uncut. I have the CAV original LD (The CLV is the same but lesser quality) which is the closest but there is some blurring on the Baby Herman shot for example. More things were rumored to have been snuck in to the original release but without seeing a print up close on a Steenbeck in person they remain rumors. (The bit about a phone number as graffiti in the background being Michael Eisner's number is so good I really hope it's true)

Once they did the hard to find CLV reissue on LD that added ac3 5.1 and a commentary the changes on DVD were implemented. I have both the CAV original LD and the ac3 reissue.

[AVmovies2]

Originally Posted by BNex99

I think the only Touchstone movie they've ever "rebranded" as Disney is The Nightmare Before Christmas. I guess if they were going to do it to another one, it'd be Roger Rabbit, but fortunately, that looks not to be the case.

I've always loved the Touchstone logo sliding in as that bass plucking starts.

Disney's name did appear on a UK Blu-Ray re-release of the film, even though the film itself has the Touchstone logo.

[Geoff D]

I get some major nostalgia kicking in when I see/hear the Touchstone logo.

[bleakassassin]

Originally Posted by danman227460

Don't know why anyone is surprised about lack of Disney stuff. There were always the stories of them ignoring catalogues. I am just grateful they are even releasing Unbreakable, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Speed. They could have completely abandoned those.

The true test would be to see if they actually release anything next year that isn't Heat which is the only ready made 4K catalogue they have left.

The writing was on the wall since 2020. If Disney didn't see much need to release catalogues to cover up missing revenue from lack of theatrical 4Ks, there wasn't much hope going forwards.

It is disappointing when the biggest catalogue holder with enough titles to really push 4K forward is ignoring it.

Huh? Disney/Fox has several other movies that they already have ready to go in a 4K/HDR state that haven't hit physical media. The Die Hard sequels, for starters.

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by King O.A.

Oh damn so the censors exist on the DVD and such? SMH.

Considering that you could only see 1 frame when it was passed on Laserdisc, you're not missing anything important, except crying "censorship" (which it isn't, and wa sonly put I the film by animators because no one would ever see it before laserdisc anyway).

The baby not sticking his fingers up a woman's dress? If you're really wanting that back in the film, you have more issues than "censorship" in art.

(Also, changes to art aren't necessarily "censorship." What Lucas did to Star Wars wasn't "censorship." Disney taking out a few frames the animators snuck in as a joke isn't "censorship." As Inigo said, "I do not think it means what you think it means.")

[danman227460]

Sorry. My mistake. I meant the last rumoured readied 4K physical. There was a list circulating around that Disney had Speed, Roger Rabbit, Unbreakable and Heat all planned to be released but got shelved/delayed.

There hasn’t been much circulating around of any other Disney releases planned after that list. Heat is the last one standing. Unless the Home Alone 2 rumours turn out to be true.

Originally Posted by bleakassassin

Huh? Disney/Fox has several other movies that they already have ready to go in a 4K/HDR state that haven't hit physical media. The Die Hard sequels, for starters.