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A Japanese pressed Extended Play re-issue on the MCA DiscoVision label, this is
the second release of "Smokey and the Bandit II" on disc. The original release was also on the DiscoVision label, but was
a 2-disc/4-side CAV release from late 1980. This CLV re-issue was done about a year later in late 1981.
The mastering
for this CLV version trades the CAV's musical orange/blue spiral bumpers to mark its side openings for the MCA "numbers" bumpers.
If one listens closely, you can catch the very tail end of the music fading out from the spiral bumpers as the "numbers" bumpers
fades into the opening of side two. An apparent sign that the original CAV master was edited to create the CLV release.
The
film is a 1.85:1 format film and the original Universal globe opening is preseved in the letterbox format, while the rest
of the film is presented on the disc release in what appears to be an open-matte full-frame transfer. The disc features mono-analog
sound without CX-encoding. There are Chapter Stops placed before a handful of scene highlights across both sides of the disc.
Both the CAV and CLV versions of "Bandit II" were pressed in what appears to have been fairly large quantity. The
CLV version was often found as a heavily marked down title, selling for $5 or less by the mid-'80s. "Smokey and the Bandit
II" was never issued again on LD.
The film has seen release on DVD in recent years.
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