Cannonball Run I & II

[NeonBible]

Do any Blu Ray releases contain the original mono tracks?

I see a few have 2.0 stereo but I’m not sure if they are dual mono or just downmixes.

[IcePrick]

I could be mistaken, but I think one of the Japanese Blu-ray releases of the first movie includes a scan of a Japanese theatrical print. I don't know if it's a different cut, but it should have a mono mix at least.

[captainsolo]

I think the UK might have mono on the BD for the first film but it's not a very good transfer according to some. I finally watched it not too long ago on the standard US DVD and it's not bad listening to the surround 2.0 mix. It doesn't sound all that bad for a mono upmix and plays healthily so you can imagine it as an early Dolby Stereo mix.

[SpaceBlackKnight]

As CB I was a Golden Harvest production, Fortune Star owns almost all distribution rights worldwide except for the US, where Fox handled US theatrical while HBO (later merged into Warner) handled video distribution. The European and Asian DVD releases use Golden Harvest's international print, and while most feature the English mono in addition to foreign language dubs, most of them ether have a vintage Golden Harvest logo or a Media Asia (who owned the GH catalog prior to Fortune Star) indent in leu of the 20th Century Fox logo variant that has the driving mayhem around the tower and Burt's laugh. Keep in mind that I've also heard some of the European DVDs have redone localized credits of the video generated kind, while one of the early non-anamorphic Megastar DVDs (reportedly being a PAL-NTSC standards conversion of a VCD master and only containing badly upmixed Cantonese and Mandarian 5.1 audio tracks) use a Golden Harvest Hong Kong release print with theatrical printed English+Cantonese subs.

The HBO VHS releases and their 2001 DVD are of the US version opening with the Fox logo variant. Their older video releases (including the HBO laserdiscs) should sport the original mono while starting with the DVD release (sporting a anamorphic widescreen transfer in 1.85), the mono got dropped for the 5.1 remix in addition to a 2.0 fold-down of the latter. The 2011 US BD (also from HBO/WHV) sports a 2k HD scan of an US IP in 1.78:1 and opening with the Fox vairant, but again only offers the 5.1 remix in lieu of the original mono. The UK Medium-Rare DVD & BD was released in 2013 under licence from Fortune Star, followed by BD releases from Tobis in Germany and Umbrella in Australia. These releases all use the same 1.78 master as the US BD and offer the English track in 5.1 in addition to foreign dubs (medium Rare also features a Eng PCM 2.0 downmix of the 5.1), but all trim off the Fox logo variant in lieu of a Fortune Star + vintage Golden Harvest combo (which in all, still manages to brings up the feature R/T another 20 secs or so).

The sequel was put out theatrically by Warner in the US, while GH through local distributors overseas. It seems all VHS and DVD releases worldwide sport the same transfer (opening logos aside) and feature the original English mono to a degree. The BD releases by Medium Rare and Umbrella in the UK and Australia respectively are licensed from Fortune Star, and in an odd twist from Fortune Star's usual upscaled specials, CB II uses a proper HD transfer of and IP and sports the original English mono. Only issues are it's mono track suffers "The Creepshow Effect" and the original Warner logos are missing.

[SpaceBlackKnight]

I could be mistaken, but I think one of the Japanese Blu-ray releases of the first movie includes a scan of a Japanese theatrical print. I don't know if it's a different cut, but it should have a mono mix at least.

I think the Japanese theatrical print on the JP Paramount BD is in English with burnt-in Jap subs.

[NeonBible]

Thanks for the info SpaceBlackKnight!what is the creepshow effect

[SpaceBlackKnight]

The Creepshow Effect is where an audio track on a 24fps/NTSC master is higher pitched than it normally is. This is likely due to the audio or transfer being sourced from a 25fps/PAL master and converted back to 24, but sometimes depending on whoever is mastering or what software settings were used it can leave the higher 25fps pitch intact and introduce artifacts. This is noticeable on the 5.1 tracks on the Scream Factory and Second Sight BDs of Creepshow, as well as several MGM/Fpx releases such as the 5.1 track on their 2011 BDs of A Fish Called Wanda and Black Stallion.

[Chewtobacca]

I think the Japanese theatrical print on the JP Paramount BD is in English with burnt-in Jap subs.

Good! We need to keep spoRv busy.

[spoRv]

I think the Japanese theatrical print on the JP Paramount BD is in English with burnt-in Jap subs.

Good! We need to keep spoRv busy.

[SilverWook]

Both films were released on Laserdisc in mono. They can be found for around 20 bucks each on Ebay.