Disney Films Screaming for a Remastered Picture/Sound

[purin]

Actually, I liked that The Little Mermaid still had a little grain. Grain is a part of film, and The Little Mermaid was the last film to use cels. I wanted it to keep that cel animated film "look" and I was glad that it still looked like it was animated with hand painted cels and film cameras. After that, the films were made with computers and so there are digital files of these films, I assume, somewhere. It's a different story with them.

However, when it comes to film, I expect the DVD to use the best and cleanest possible existing print along with a prudent clean up. Let's not make the films what they're not.

[SwordInTheStone777]

Most things are funnier when your drunk or with people who are drunk.

[kurtadisneyite]

Often the restorers are told what they can and cannot do. Sometimes the restorer "guiders" (not the restorers themselves) give bad advice.

[Spottedfeather]

I agree with Rocketeer and Black Cauldron needing new transfers. Anamorphic would go a long way to helping the pictures of both films. Particularly Cauldron. That movie's quality was, while not the worst I've seen, not the best. And both films would benefit greatly from commentaries. I'd love to hear what Dave Stevens (creator of Rocketeer) has to say about the movie. But I think that Cauldron would benefit, as well. Though, Disney films of a certain age have really boring commentaries. Snow White and Sleeping Beauty come to mind. These are two of my favourite movies of all time, but their commentaries border on mind numbing. I think is due to being patched together from previous interviews. This is one main reason that I don't watch the Terminator 2 commentary. I enjoy the people involved but there's no interaction between anybody, which makes a lot of commentaries enjoyable. My favourite commentaries are A Knight's Tale, Genesis Of The Daleks, Rememberance Of The Daleks, Ghost Light, and Black Books.

[jeremy88]

Was The Little Mermaid's transfer really that bad??

I thought it looked nice and smooth. Maybe I need my eyes checked lol. It did look much better then the Limited Issue though.

[Escapay]

Though, Disney films of a certain age have really boring commentaries. Snow White and Sleeping Beauty come to mind. These are two of my favourite movies of all time, but their commentaries border on mind numbing. I think is due to being patched together from previous interviews.

While I partially agree with Snow White (something about Canemaker's "go to sleep" voice makes me not enjoy listening to it), I'd have to disagree on Sleeping Beauty, it's one of my favorite commentaries to listen to. Also, some films actually benefit from "moderated" commentaries, where a host would introduce pre-recorded comments by other people. Peter Pan is structured just like Sleeping Beauty's commentary and flows well between commentators (though I was a bit confused when Jeff Kurtti suddenly took over as moderator from Roy Disney).

I'm all for the live commentaries as well, with people sitting together and talking about the film as they watch it, but sometimes they'll end up getting far too chatty and all "OMG, remember such-and-such?". Bringing some more Doctor Who to this thread, the commentary for "Earthshock" started off strong, but by the third episode, they had gone into a more relaxed conversational tone.

If there's one type of commentary that's definitely hit-and-miss, it's a solo commentary. The best solo commentary I've heard (and I often listen to it more times that the actual movie) is Katherine Orrison for The Ten Commandments. The worst, by far, has to be Pat Boone for the 1962 version of State Fair. There's actually a disclaimer before the commentary that says there will be LONG STRETCHES of silence, as Mr. Boone apparently didn't have much to say about the film. They could have easily recorded someone else making a commentary, and spliced it into his silence, but instead, they offer that sufferable commentary.

And I just took this entire post off-topic from what films need restoring....

Anyway, jeremy88, I agree, there's really nothing *wrong* with the transfer for The Little Mermaid. It could have been a bit smoother and maybe a little brighter, but I never really had that many complaints (then again, I've only seen it twice since I got the DVD).

Scaps

[SwordInTheStone777]

I see nothing wrong with The Little Mermaid. The PE looks awhole lot better from the Limited Edition DVD from the 90's.

[Jules]

Hmm... various DVDs have been bashed so far. Like Escapay, I too find nothing in the least offensive in The Little Mermaid's DVD. It could have been a bit crisper, yes, but on the whole, I think the job Technicolor did is still commendable.

Most of the package films need updating though, Saludos Amigos looks fine (except for the live-action footage, which I'm told was captured with inferior equipment). The Three Caballeros is lively and colourful in instances, and muddy and dirty in others. Needs a restoration.

Make Mine Music is in dire need of a restoration. Some segments looks pretty good, but others, like "Without You", "Two Silhouettes" and "After You've Gone" exhibit and incredibly murky, muddy, dirty and generally displeasing picture.

Fun and Fancy Free, on the other hand, looks pretty darned good! Colours are bright, the image is sharp and clean, and the mono soundtrack (disguised as 5.1) is serviceable. Melody Time too is impressive, boasting video quality on par with the Treasures. Unfortunately it mucks up a bit during its last two segments.

Ichabod fares somewhere in the middle. Video is spotty ... very spotty, with plenty of coloured flecks making their way between the animation and the viewer. Unimpressive.

Moving on.

The Rescuers looks quite bad too. Sharpness is spot on, but like Ichabod, the transfer is plagued by many unsightly coloured flecks which are large enough to distract.

Finally, one of the worst looking Disney animated films on DVD is The Fox and the Hound. Assuming it's cropped, video is murky and dirty, and very fuzzy. Worst of all, one feels lwatching Fox is watching video tape, not film. Disgusting, Yuk.

Now those are bad transfers, not Mermaid and Sword in the Stone.[/b]

[Jules]

Hmm... various DVDs have been bashed so far. Like Escapay, I too find nothing in the least offensive in The Little Mermaid's DVD. It could have been a bit crisper, yes, but on the whole, I think the job Technicolor did is still commendable.

Most of the package films need updating though, Saludos Amigos looks fine (except for the live-action footage, which I'm told was captured with inferior equipment). The Three Caballeros is lively and colourful in instances, and muddy and dirty in others. Needs a restoration.

Make Mine Music is in dire need of a restoration. Some segments looks pretty good, but others, like "Without You", "Two Silhouettes" and "After You've Gone" exhibit and incredibly murky, muddy, dirty and generally displeasing picture.

Fun and Fancy Free, on the other hand, looks pretty darned good! Colours are bright, the image is sharp and clean, and the mono soundtrack (disguised as 5.1) is serviceable. Melody Time too is impressive, boasting video quality on par with the Treasures. Unfortunately it mucks up a bit during its last two segments.

Ichabod fares somewhere in the middle. Video is spotty ... very spotty, with plenty of coloured flecks making their way between the animation and the viewer. Unimpressive.

Moving on.

The Rescuers looks quite bad too. Sharpness is spot on, but like Ichabod, the transfer is plagued by many unsightly coloured flecks which are large enough to distract.

Finally, one of the worst looking Disney animated films on DVD is The Fox and the Hound. Assuming it's cropped, video is murky and dirty, and very fuzzy. Worst of all, one feels lwatching Fox is watching video tape, not film. Disgusting, Yuk.

Now those are bad transfers, not Mermaid and Sword in the Stone.[/b]

[SwordInTheStone777]

The Rescuers looks fine, I don't know what you're talking about?

[SpringHeelJack]

The Rescuers looks fine, I don't know what you're talking about?

Have you ever watched it on DVD? "The Rescuers" has a lousy transfer. There are specks and bits of dust all over that film. Compare it to "The Sword in the Stone", which got a really solid transfer. "The Rescuers" looks terrible in comparison.

[SwordInTheStone777]

I own The Rescuers, and it looks fine, The Sword In The Stone, which I also own needs to be remastered, the characters are way too fuzzy and thier outlines move about as well.

[SwordInTheStone777]

SpringHeelJack

Have you ever watched it on DVD? "The Rescuers" has a lousy transfer. There are specks and bits of dust all over that film. Compare it to "The Sword in the Stone", which got a really solid transfer. "The Rescuers" looks terrible in comparison.

I own The Rescuers, and it looks fine, The Sword In The Stone, which I also own needs to be remastered, the characters are way too fuzzy and thier outlines move about as well.

[purin]

The Three Caballeros is lively and colourful in instances, and muddy and dirty in others. Needs a restoration.

Would the "muddy and dirty" parts happen to be the parts involving humans and animated backgrounds?

I was thinking about those scenes while watching the DVD. Before blue screen technology, the way you'd stick a human in an animated setting was to project the animation onto a background and have the human acting on front of it. The difference between these scenes and the ones involving just animated characters or one or two characters put into a real life setting is like night and day.

So, part of me is half worried that restoring this film would involve, instead of cleaning up the print in general, making that footage look like normal animated footage. Yeah, it doesn't look as good, but I don't agree with correcting old special effects.

[SwordInTheStone777]

All 40's Disney features need to be restored.

[Jules]

Would the "muddy and dirty" parts happen to be the parts involving humans and animated backgrounds?

Actually. I don't think those parts looked too bad. I'm aware that to achieve the illusion of the animated characters behind the live-action actors the former had to be projected on walls, but I actually think that such scenes still don't look really ugly (though the difference is certainly noticeable). I do, however, seem to remember a part of the film (forgot where) which was solely animated, and the picture was extremely dirty, with white specks and scratches and the like.

PS: I want to apologise for the typos and grammatical errors (and lack of stylistic beauty) in my writing lately, but when I type fast, my sentences never seem structured too well (and sometimes you just don't have time to waste). I'd definitely not write in this style for my A Level English exam coming up this May.

[akhenaten]

i was watching fox and the hound on disney channel yesterday and i thought...poor kids..they will never know how beautiful this film is with all the grains and worn out film look.and the dvd is no different either..so i did a little 'lowryfication' of my own and this is the best restoration i can come up with for fox and the hound while still maintaining the original colors and avoiding the bluish white as evident on cinderella. and i also did a little disney habit of brightening up dark areas...to show every detail as opposed to having dark n shadow setting the mood..remember, all details must be seen by the animation fans

[jeremy88]

Make Mine Music is in dire need of a restoration. Some segments looks pretty good, but others, like "Without You", "Two Silhouettes" and "After You've Gone" exhibit and incredibly murky, muddy, dirty and generally displeasing picture.

Oh wow, I agree to the 2nd power! I just watched it recently and while I loved it, it needs to be restored...its in dire need!!! I'm guessing the others from the 40s are in need of a better transfer aswell.