Moonwalker (1988 Michael Jackson movie), Film Whisperer HD restoration (2023 update)

[The Film Whisperer]

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Hello folks! Film Whisperer here again.

Anyways, I have restored Michael Jackson's Moonwalker in very high quality!

Some of you might be aware that the HD blu-ray release of this movie is slightly censored near the end. Thanks to the R2 DVD from the UK, I was able to restore it. You can read about what was censored here from Movie-Censorship.

I made two versions

If you're savvy enough with a program like MKVToolNix, you could actually mux the two MKVs together, and have a dual video MKV.

Version #1, 16x9 HD version

• Uses the blu-ray the whole time, except for that censored part, which uses the R2 DVD to fill that part in.
  
• File format: MKV: 17.22 GB
  
• 24 frames per second, and yes, that's genuine 24fps, NOT the typical HD frame rate of 23.976 fps. And don't worry, I remembered to adjust it properly for speed (I know what I'm doing  )
  
• Audio format: 5.1-channel Dolby True HD
  

The benefits of this version is that you're getting a genuine HD remastered picture. Colors are fantastic! However, it is cropped to 1.78:1 from its original 4:3. So there is a little bit of image-loss, except maybe for the "Leave me Alone" music video.

Version #2, 4:3 PAL version

• This is the R2 PAL DVD from the UK. I left it in the original PAL resolution
  
• File Format: MKV: 5GB
  
• 24 Frames per second (true film frame rate and speed)
  
• Audio format: 5.1-channel Dolby True HD (exact same audio as my HD version)
  

The benefits of this version is that you're getting an un-cropped image! However, it's not quite as good as the blu-ray. And this image is a slight purple-ish tint, which I felt too lazy to correct.

Anyways, that's about all there is to say! PM me if you're interested!

Update #1
Thanks to user innuendo141, I was informed that the blu-ray's audio had a glitch which occurs during the "Smooth Criminal" sequence, at around the second time Michael Jackson sings "You've been hit by...you've been hit by" (right after he shoots the guy that's about to stab him). It appears that the audio skips a whole two frames! So I fixed it.

Update #2 (October 30th, 2023)
It would appear that I've been doing things wrong, and the frame rate was NOT 24fps! So I have completely redone BOTH the HD version and the open-matte version.

I used the R2 DVD audio to fix that audio glitch. However, synchronization was off, forcing me add two extra frames during the "Smooth Criminal" sequence.

I also made subtitles. But it's just a simple SRT, and the subtitles are SDH style, English only. I included them separately, because I'd like to "open source" this thing. If anyone wants to translate them, I'd welcome it!

[PDB]

Thanks for posting a new project Film Whisperer

[The Film Whisperer]

Thanks for posting a new project Film Whisperer

You're welcome!

I know it's been awhile!

[eldiablosuizo]

Wow. I absolutely love the dedication here, Film Whisperer. Very cool.

[nat]

link received Film Whisperer, grateful thanks ?

[titanic]

Thank you for this project.
However, are we sure that the original was 4:3?
According to imdb the aspect ratio of it is 1.85:1.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095655/tec...tt_spec_sm
So, the 1.78:1 is what is closer to the original intended ratio.

[The Film Whisperer]

Thank you for this project.
However, are we sure that the original was 4:3?
According to imdb the aspect ratio of it is 1.85:1.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095655/tec...tt_spec_sm
So, the 1.78:1 is what is closer to the original intended ratio.

Maybe you're right. According to Wikipedia, it did get a theatrical release in Europe and South America. So maybe it did have a "theatrical" ratio originally.

If there ever was a home video release in the "theatrical ratio", I'm unaware of it.

However, from what I could see when I was doing the project, the blu-ray version is cropped from the 4:3 version. The 4:3 version always had more image in the frame.

[dwalkerdon]

Thank you for the Links!!!

[Vloddyr]

One of the best films, an excellent gem of a project.

[Warm Gun]

I am getting no sound on my Denon. All my other TrueHD movies are fine. Tried it on both my PC and my Zidoo.