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Looking for Info on Once Upon a Time (Windaria) DVD Release




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Ggultra2764
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Joined: 21 Jan 2004
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Location: New York state.
PostPosted: Fri Oct 19, 2012 8:37 pm Reply with quote
After reading up on an old Buried Treasure article on Windaria, I have interest in wanting to snag up the movie for my growing stockpile to check out at some point and I understand that the title has some infamy among older anime fans for being released in an edited format and targeted for children by Streamline Pictures in the 1990s. However, I do see that ADV re-released the movie on DVD a while back. Is there anyone who knows if the ADV release was released in an unedited format?
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Blood-
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 19, 2012 8:50 pm Reply with quote
I have the ADV DVD release which is called Once Upon a Time. I haven't watched it, yet. However, the Buried Treasure column you linked to appears to answer your question:

Quote:
Unfortunately the only legal release of Windaria in English was one produced by Harmony Gold's Carl Macek back in the late 80s and released by Streamline Pictures in 1992 on VHS, then on DVD by ADV Films in 2004 (as "Once Upon a Time"). Harmony Gold, of course, was intending on selling the film to children's television syndication markets, and so Macek cut out about 7 minutes (of mostly nudity and violence), rearranged footage and changed the character names. He also laid on a truckload of narration, trying to bend the story into something less relentlessly depressing. Despite the sub-par dub and the editing, there was no way to make the film happy enough to be suitable for children, and the storybook look of the film and it packaging turned off potential American fans who were, at the time, longing for the next Akira. The DVD is now out of print, and a little challenging to find even online.


I interpret the bolded part to mean that the DVD is the same as the Streamline Pictures VHS. Not only that, but on the back of the DVD cover it says, "Once Upon a Time produced by Harmony Gold Inc. in association with Idol Co., Ltd." It seems clear there never was an unedited R1 version released, sadly.
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Ggultra2764
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 19, 2012 9:11 pm Reply with quote
Blood- wrote:
I interpret the bolded part to mean that the DVD is the same as the Streamline Pictures VHS. Not only that, but on the back of the DVD cover it says, "Once Upon a Time produced by Harmony Gold Inc. in association with Idol Co., Ltd." It seems clear there never was an unedited R1 version released, sadly.


So rather than fork up money to get the original uncut version with a Japanese audio option, ADV just lazily took Streamline's version and stuck with it? A bit disappointing. Evil or Very Mad

If that's the case, then I'll have to go the not-so-legal route to watch it then.
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 19, 2012 9:24 pm Reply with quote
Kinda bummed I read this thread. If I hadn't, when I did go to watch Once Upon a Time, I'd probably be none the wiser about it being edited. Now, I'll know. Confused
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walw6pK4Alo



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PostPosted: Fri Oct 19, 2012 11:43 pm Reply with quote
I'm hoping it can get relicensed some day, properly, with none of that edited and shoddy dub hack job garbage. I thought Once Upon a Time was a pretty mediocre to bad film, but once I finally watched Windaria, it was like seeing the light, like scrubbing years of rust, grime, and feces off of a gilded lamp. The more OUaT is sent to Mike Toole's "Dubs that Time Forgot" panel, the better.

Actually, it took me until my second watching of Windaria that I began to truly appreciate the film, and I think that was after I read Justin's column on it and saw Genmu Senki Leda, another Yuyama classic, lending me a new perspective. The first time I saw it unedited was close after the ADV release, so I hadn't yet forgotten all of the issues there. Also, it was the remastered R2 version, which looks about the best we could hope for from a DVD, but this is still near the top of my list for analog anime that require BluRays. I'm not sure if Rightstuf still has Leda's license (they released VHS tapes in 1997, never any DVD), but that needs an R1 release here as well using the recent remaster. Given that Rightstuf seems unafraid to release 33 old gems, I'm hoping they'd see fit to give that OVA another shot. Apparently Japanese fans have, Leda is mega popular on pixiv and in doujin compared to its contemporaries, which were likely just forgotten. This isn't something that occurs often.

In any case, don't bother tracking Once Upon a Time down, it's not some now classic novelty like Nausicaa's edit, it's just not very good and removes most of the feeling from the film.
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