Many old classic movies being re-released with new soundtracks.

I hate how they are doing this. If you buy a movie like The Terminator (1984), Police Story (1985), or The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1966), on blu ray today, the soundtracks have been changed around, mostly the sound effects themselves, like gunshosts, or glass breaking, or things like that, all re-recorded differently and put in.

I feel that I am a purist I guess, and feel I should have the movie in it's original form. Does it bother anyone else?

I wasn't aware of the extent of changes being made to films, and I imagine it's been done for quality reasons. If you're very familiar with a film or other production I'm sure it would be jarring when you're expecting a familiar sound effect.

The only comparable thing I can think of is that I recently saw Monty Python and the Holy Grail again on TV. There were many parts of that where I was sure the soundtrack/voiceover had been redone and I preferred the original, so it was a real shame. Things like Palin's narrator having his throat cut offscreen were a lot funnier in the original soundtrack.

It probably has something to do with the music rights. They need to renegotiate the rights to release again. I know this is a problem with video games. They did not negotiate the voice/music rights with a crystal ball into the future. Movies being streamed or re-released on Blu-Ray was not part of the original rights. This is a win for the artists I assume. They don't have to see their work reused for free.

Sorry I should have explained. I think it's because those old movies had mono sound mixes, and the new mixes where they change the sound effects mostly, are 5.1 surround mixes, so that is why they do it I think, cause they can't break the original mono mix apart.

The one thing I can think of that really bothered me was Akira's Hypersonic track changing the music in some scenes. The clip below provides an example.

Aside from that, though, I've found that I'm mostly unperturbed by remixes.

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Look, Dr. Lesh, we don't care about the disturbances, the pounding and the flashing, the screaming, the music. We just want you to find our little girl.

Oh okay. I was actually going to watch Akira again, having not seen it since I was a teen, is the original sound mix available in any releases?

Well, I own both Funimation's 2013 25th anniversary edition Blu-ray/DVD combo and Pioneer's 2001 2-disc special edition DVD. The 25th anniversary edition has the 1988 Streamline dub, the 2001 Pioneer dub, and the 2008 Japanese Hypersonic track, all presented in Dolby TrueHD. The 1988 Streamline dub, which is how I usually watch Akira, has the original sound mix, but of course with English dialogue. The 2001 Pioneer dub is mostly the same story as the Streamline dub, but it has a completely new cast and one or two sound effects have been changed. The 2008 Hypersonic track is the biggest change, though, with the score and sound effects heavily altered. The special edition has the Pioneer dub and the original Japanese stereo track in Dolby Digital, but the video quality is miles behind the Blu-ray. The 2009 Bandai Visual Blu-ray has the original Japanese stereo track in uncompressed PCM, but the subtitles are Pioneer "dubtitles" (meaning they simply transcribe the Pioneer dub) as opposed to proper translations, unlike Funimation's and Pioneer's, and on top of that, it's been fetching absurd prices ever since it went out of print. In the end, I guess it depends on whether you want to watch it with the Streamline dub, the Pioneer dub, or in Japanese with subtitles.

Oh okay. I'm good with watching it in English or Japanese with subtitles, but which do you think is better?