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by Philfrog
What is it about? The notorious Keanu Reeves/Drew Barrymore bastardization of Victor Herbertâs 1903 operetta, sourced from the original, uncut NBC broadcast .
original film name: Babes in Toyland
film studio name: Orion
Faneditor: Dasjr
Date Original Film Was Released: Fall 1991 (original telecast: 12/19/86)
Original Runtime: 96 min
New Runtime: 143 min
Amount of time Cut/Added: 47 min (+3min of special features)
Cuts added/extended: restores 80 cutsâ worth of âlost footageâ includingâ¦.
* * little brother Joeyâs single scene is longer and whinier than ever
* * longer scene at the toy store with the sleazy shop manager Barney
* * all of Humpty Dumptyâs scenes/lines
* * longer wedding ceremony scene
* * entire song about breaking Jack out of jail
* * entire love song/dance number between Jack and Mary
* * entire sub-plot of Barnaby forcing Jack to write an un-love letter to Mary
* * entire scene between Mother Hubbard and Barnaby
* * entire song from Lisa before entering the dark forest
* * longer sequences involving the dark forest and escape from Barnabyâs
* * extra dialogue in all of the Toymasterâs scenes
* * longer March of the Wooden Soldiers theme at Toymasterâs shop
* * post-battle dialogue between judge, Jack, and Mary
* * both reprises of Toymasterâs song and Toyland song
* * and numerous shots edited from about every scene for the VHS release
(full list of cuts comingâ¦eventuallyâ¦.)
Conceptual improvements/advancements of edit over original:
Some think it was charming; others say it eats your soul. I say both. This is the âBabes in Toylandâ of my generation (though I more often watched the original Laurel & Hardy adaptation), which has made it a must-watch every holiday season amongst me and some (more enthusiastic) friends. However, those friends never got to see this movie like I did, when it was originally aired on NBC. Thankfully, someone in my family decided to run a tape (missing the beginning and end credits), which was left recording while our family went shopping, so most of the commercial breaks (all but three) were taped as well. Iâd always though that the Orion release of five years later simply cut out the fades to each ad break. But when an Amazon site review told me there was a missing song, I dug out my parentsâ 21 year-old VHS and decided to do a composite edit, adding the missing material to the better-quality Orion footage. Lo and behold, one song became two, then three, then five, and nearly every scene was longer in one way or another. It was a lot of work for some painfully silly TV movie, but it was fascinating to discover the 80-plus cuts that were made to create the official, shorter version. As I finished the composite, a fellow editor sent me their wifeâs tape of the original broadcast, which is far superior to mine. I decided to make an entirely new edit using the newly received tape as the main source.
Technical info:
Video and audio were captured straight from three different VHS tapes. The sunday256 tape is the main source, with my own tape of the broadcast used to replace a damaged part of the other cassette. The official OOP Orion VHS was used for the end credits segment. Video was left as-is, but audio was boosted, with 50 percent hiss removal. All commercials were edited out, but all the unique bumpers (plus trailers and alternate end credit audio) appear as bonus clips. Due to my limitations of my software (Ulead), this is a 2-DVD set, at 72 minutes per disc (Luckily, a TV movie allows itself to be split up like that). Menus are simple but decent.
Notes on the main source:
The picture has some minor ghosting, making it slightly less sharp than the official version. In darker shots, you will see a transparent black rectangle. There will also be some rare and tiny, singular jitters here and there in the picture. These are all minor issues since this tape is still the best source for the full broadcast in brightness, color, audio, tape speed (LP vs my EP/SLP), etc.
What is it about? The notorious Keanu Reeves/Drew Barrymore bastardization of Victor Herbertâs 1903 operetta, sourced from the original, uncut NBC broadcast .
original film name: Babes in Toyland
film studio name: Orion
Faneditor: Dasjr
Date Original Film Was Released: Fall 1991 (original telecast: 12/19/86)
Original Runtime: 96 min
New Runtime: 143 min
Amount of time Cut/Added: 47 min (+3min of special features)
Cuts added/extended: restores 80 cutsâ worth of âlost footageâ includingâ¦.
* * little brother Joeyâs single scene is longer and whinier than ever
* * longer scene at the toy store with the sleazy shop manager Barney
* * all of Humpty Dumptyâs scenes/lines
* * longer wedding ceremony scene
* * entire song about breaking Jack out of jail
* * entire love song/dance number between Jack and Mary
* * entire sub-plot of Barnaby forcing Jack to write an un-love letter to Mary
* * entire scene between Mother Hubbard and Barnaby
* * entire song from Lisa before entering the dark forest
* * longer sequences involving the dark forest and escape from Barnabyâs
* * extra dialogue in all of the Toymasterâs scenes
* * longer March of the Wooden Soldiers theme at Toymasterâs shop
* * post-battle dialogue between judge, Jack, and Mary
* * both reprises of Toymasterâs song and Toyland song
* * and numerous shots edited from about every scene for the VHS release
(full list of cuts comingâ¦eventuallyâ¦.)
Conceptual improvements/advancements of edit over original:
Some think it was charming; others say it eats your soul. I say both. This is the âBabes in Toylandâ of my generation (though I more often watched the original Laurel & Hardy adaptation), which has made it a must-watch every holiday season amongst me and some (more enthusiastic) friends. However, those friends never got to see this movie like I did, when it was originally aired on NBC. Thankfully, someone in my family decided to run a tape (missing the beginning and end credits), which was left recording while our family went shopping, so most of the commercial breaks (all but three) were taped as well. Iâd always though that the Orion release of five years later simply cut out the fades to each ad break. But when an Amazon site review told me there was a missing song, I dug out my parentsâ 21 year-old VHS and decided to do a composite edit, adding the missing material to the better-quality Orion footage. Lo and behold, one song became two, then three, then five, and nearly every scene was longer in one way or another. It was a lot of work for some painfully silly TV movie, but it was fascinating to discover the 80-plus cuts that were made to create the official, shorter version. As I finished the composite, a fellow editor sent me their wifeâs tape of the original broadcast, which is far superior to mine. I decided to make an entirely new edit using the newly received tape as the main source.
Technical info:
Video and audio were captured straight from three different VHS tapes. The sunday256 tape is the main source, with my own tape of the broadcast used to replace a damaged part of the other cassette. The official OOP Orion VHS was used for the end credits segment. Video was left as-is, but audio was boosted, with 50 percent hiss removal. All commercials were edited out, but all the unique bumpers (plus trailers and alternate end credit audio) appear as bonus clips. Due to my limitations of my software (Ulead), this is a 2-DVD set, at 72 minutes per disc (Luckily, a TV movie allows itself to be split up like that). Menus are simple but decent.
Notes on the main source:
The picture has some minor ghosting, making it slightly less sharp than the official version. In darker shots, you will see a transparent black rectangle. There will also be some rare and tiny, singular jitters here and there in the picture. These are all minor issues since this tape is still the best source for the full broadcast in brightness, color, audio, tape speed (LP vs my EP/SLP), etc.