Is the only FULL home release of Midnight Castle & Escape Catrina the 90s VHS?

[Lilja]

The cut versions of the specials are part of the MLP 'n Friends TV series package, so possibly the uncut specials would have to be licensed separately, but I doubt that option is even available now. And even if it was, most companies likely wouldn't consider it worth it for two 22 minute specials, most of which is included with the TV series package anyway. And the demand isn't that big unfortunately. It's a shame the best parts of animated G1 only get to be released in such a hacked-up form.

BTW, I just realized the episode title for Midnight Castle actually says "Midnicht Castle".
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Is every version like this? Really highlights even further how sloppily these episodes were edited. 

I wish we knew why "Hurry" was edited out, it's so weird... from what we know about it, I really can't see any reason they'd cut it... I also wish footage of that sequence would turn up! Hopefully one day.

I guess this song isn't on any VHS release, or any foreign dub either (it certainly wasn't in the Swedish dub)? It only aired on TV back in the '80s? That really is strange. You'd expect there to be cuts for TV airings, but not home video releases. If not for the fact we have a sound recording of it I would've been skeptical it even existed.

[Carrehz]

Actually, I've noticed something funny about the RaMC title cards too, there are at least two versions of them...

From what I could tell when I noticed it (a few years ago), the older DVD releases had the title cards say "Escape from Midnight Castle" for both parts. The original TV airings (?) had "Rescue" for part one and "Escape" for part two, I think? And the Shout Factory release has "Rescue" for both.. I hadn't noticed the "Midnicht" typo before though. Do you know what release that screenshot's from? I've been meaning to make a thread about this title card thing for a while, just haven't found the time..

As for "Hurry", I'm pretty sure last time it came up, people on here confirmed it isn't on any of the VHS releases. I'm not sure about the dubs though.

And yeah, that's the weirdest thing about "Hurry", that they seem to have cut it so quickly. The only other time I've seen this happen is with a scene in a Rocko's Modern Life ep ("Road Rash") which also seems to have aired once or twice before the offending sequence was permanently edited out/possibly lost... but with that one we at least know why it was censored (too suggestive). But why would they edit out "Hurry"? :s If any of the other songs had been cut out, then I'd just chalk it up to usual TV edits - certainly wouldn't be the only show to get edited for time for the reruns - and say "meh, I guess they just lost the uncut ver of that one, then"... But I've never heard of any of the other eps getting edited, just this one? It's really bizarre.

[Ponyfan]

I'm not sure what happened to the Jem masters between the time Rhino issued their set and Shout Factory issued theirs but I figure that one set of masters must have been lost or someone didn't realize that there were 2 different sets of masters at one point.  The SF Jem set episodes includes early errors that were later fixed (the first version of one of the episodes showed people standing in the rubble of a house that burned down instead of next to it)  and is missing the extended songs and scenes that were included in Rhino's version.  I know it happens on the first 5 episodes (also known as Truly Outrageous) but not sure if it also happens with the Starbright arc.     

@Itcheeee Rhino didn't release all of the Jem episodes in their releases  but the SF set has all of them.

Actually, I've noticed something funny about the RaMC title cards too, there are at least two versions of them...

From what I could tell when I noticed it (a few years ago), the older DVD releases had the title cards say "Escape from Midnight Castle" for both parts. The original TV airings (?) had "Rescue" for part one and "Escape" for part two, I think? And the Shout Factory release has "Rescue" for both.. I hadn't noticed the "Midnicht" typo before though. Do you know what release that screenshot's from? I've been meaning to make a thread about this title card thing for a while, just haven't found the time..

As for "Hurry", I'm pretty sure last time it came up, people on here confirmed it isn't on any of the VHS releases. I'm not sure about the dubs though.

And yeah, that's the weirdest thing about "Hurry", that they seem to have cut it so quickly. The only other time I've seen this happen is with a scene in a Rocko's Modern Life ep ("Road Rash") which also seems to have aired once or twice before the offending sequence was permanently edited out/possibly lost... but with that one we at least know why it was censored (too suggestive). But why would they edit out "Hurry"? :s If any of the other songs had been cut out, then I'd just chalk it up to usual TV edits - certainly wouldn't be the only show to get edited for time for the reruns - and say "meh, I guess they just lost the uncut ver of that one, then"... But I've never heard of any of the other eps getting edited, just this one? It's really bizarre.

That's really interesting about the title cards.  I wonder why there were so many different versions of them?

I remember someone saying that "Hurry" never made it on the VHS releases also.  I've heard it was cut for time when Disney Channel got the series but it seems odd to me that they would only cut one song out of the series of MLP and Friends and leave the rest. 


Ponyfan

[Lilja]

From what I could tell when I noticed it (a few years ago), the older DVD releases had the title cards say "Escape from Midnight Castle" for both parts. The original TV airings (?) had "Rescue" for part one and "Escape" for part two, I think? And the Shout Factory release has "Rescue" for both.. I hadn't noticed the "Midnicht" typo before though. Do you know what release that screenshot's from? I've been meaning to make a thread about this title card thing for a while, just haven't found the time..

It's a DVD rip I downloaded from somewhere, so I don't know exactly from which set. Was the title "Rescue AT Midnight Castle" ever used somewhere officially, or was it always "from"?

I remember someone saying that "Hurry" never made it on the VHS releases also.  I've heard it was cut for time when Disney Channel got the series but it seems odd to me that they would only cut one song out of the series of MLP and Friends and leave the rest. 

I've read that the episode was slowed down so it would run the same length even without the song. Looking at it that seems about right, everyone's voices sound slightly more lower-pitched than usual in the final part.

The song is very annoying to listen to (Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!), but not so much more than some other songs from the series I think, and it doesn't seem like a likely reason for it to get cut. I wonder if there was something in the animation. Possibly not something super obvious, but still objectionable enough for it to be removed. Maybe some sharp object was used carelessly when Megan and the ponies were making the cloak or something like that?

[sweetstuff85]

Not sure if anyone has found these or mentioned this before but they have the uncut versions of RAMC and Escape from Katrina uncut on daily motion.

I show them to my niece, find it on your phone and if you have Apple TV you can screen mirror it from your phone. You can tell someone copied them from a VHS tape at some point as the “tracking” feature fixes the blurriness at one point on the escape from Katrina episode right at the beginning. (There are two versions of EFK the one with the bad tracking at the beginning is the better version)

I don’t really care that escape from Katrina is missing that “good old days” song, but you CANT watch RATC without “Little Piece of Rainbow” that part is so cute.

All I do is search using google “daily motion rescue at midnight castle  uncut” and the episode shows up.

I think they have most of the MLP and Friends episodes and they are all uncut and some of them even have the old school cute commercial intro.

I watched The Magic Coins the other weekend with my niece. That’s a great 4 parter episode.

Happy searching