How Cinderella's 2005 Release was Restored Very Wrongly

All topics relating to Disney-branded content.
Post Reply
User avatar
Disney Duster
Ultimate Collector's Edition
Posts: 13334
Joined: Fri Jun 17, 2005 6:02 am
Gender: Male
Location: America

How Cinderella's 2005 Release was Restored Very Wrongly

Post by Disney Duster »

Hello everyone. I have been putting this off for far too long, I can be stupid when it comes to stuff like that, I should have made this thread a long time ago so the new Cinderella Diamond Edition release could fix these problems or actually restore the entire film over again the right way, but here it is, the hard proof that for the 2005 Platinum Edition release of Cinderella they restored the film wrong, and even may have re-painted or changed things in it on purpose.

I really wish I had done this back when the naysayers said there was no proof this restoration was wrong. But here it is, the hard proof.

IN ALL OF THESE EXAMPLES, THE FIRST PICTURE IS FROM BEFORE THE 2005 RESTORATION, THE SECOND PICTURE IS FROM THE 2005 RESTORATION. LIKE BEFORE AND AFTER.

The first thing is an example of where the artists, in trying to make everything look like clean and perfect solid color, (and perhaps also to match the rest of the times that color was in the film, depending on the lighting) have accidentally colored a part wrong. It is the first proof that Disney doesn't merely/actually restore their animated films, they also paint/re-color parts of them in trying to make them look like they're perfectly, pristinely restored.

So here we have Cinderella before the 2005 restoration, and then Cinderella from the 2005 restoration. In these images, look at Cinderella's brown top and skirt:
Image
Image

Did you notice that in the 2005 restoration they accidentally made Cinderella's skirt the same color as her top? It's the first evidence they don't restore things in a way that naturally returns things back to their original form. They do other things which just try to make it look like the original, except even snazzier for a new modern generation.

The next one is of the stepmother, Lady Tremaine. In these pictures, take a look at Lady Tremaine's shawl and the light parts of her hair:

Image
Image

Notice that in the 2005 restoration the blue-purple color of her shawl runs into her hair? It looks to me like the lighter parts of the stepmother's hair were originally the same grayish silver color of her shawl, or very close to it. So it looks like evidence that they are changing the colors of the film from not what they are really supposed to be, because maybe her shawl and hair were both supposed to be the same gray color but the heads at Disney wanted them to make the shawl bluer, much like they made Cinderella's silver dress bluer, hm, right?

Speaking of, here's an example of this re-coloring that seems to prove more than ever that they paint over these films instead of just actually restore them. In the first image, before the 2005 restoration, Cinderella is in a very silver gown with a bustle (the puffy material at her hips) that is a lighter silver while her sleeves and gloves are more white. In the second image, from the 2005 restoration, not only is her dress bluer (which I've kept wondering if it's to match the Disney Princess marketed blue dress that they think looks better...), but it's quite obvious they didn't restore it properly, but rather, painted over it, because the bustle is now the same shade and color as her sleeves and gloves. In fact, when taking the image into MS Paint, for each bustle I just clicked once on an area with the paint can tool using red paint, and it filled in a big solid color space from her bustle to her gloves, even covering where the inked outline should at least be to seperate the bustle and gloves from each other! In fact you'll notice many of the outlines and details, like those on her dress, are gone, probably painted over as well. The 2005 restoration picture was taken exactly as is from Disney Screencaps, you can take the images from there and try it yourself if you want. Anyway here's the pictures:

Image
Image

And people laughed when me and Marky said Disney's restorations were more like them using MS Paint to paint over the films!

The next example is one of the Fairy Godmother's appearence, which looks like to be an example of a causality of the restoration's efforts to remove dirt and grain, which I've heard one way of doing so is cutting out the animation and "dustbusting" the frame and then putting back in the animation. I don't know what went on, maybe they didn't bother to carefully cut out all the animation, or maybe in removing grain and dirt they removed the tiniest details like the stars of Disney dust, but...

In the first picture, notice the stars of fairy dust on the Fairy Godmother's coat. In the second picture, the one from the 2005 restoration, the stars are gone. And yes, I swear these are the very same frames:

Image
Image

So Disney has removed actual animation in their restoring. It's very bad, very careless, and not okay at all.

Finally, the biggest tragedy to me, of course. The debauchery of Walt Disney's, and my own, favorite piece of Disney animation, the transformation of Cinderella's gown. In these sets of pictures, all you have to do is look closely at the Disney dust, the magic fairy dust around her, most especially looking at the dust around her arms and head:

Image

Image

So did you notice that in the second picture of each set, the ones from the 2005 restoration, that they have diminished and even possibly somewhat removed some of the magical special effects animation? It even looks like the magic dust above her arms and head has mostly dissappeared. And this was Walt Disney's favorite animation.

I also have a full HD (apparently, from Disney Screenaps again), but cropped picture of Cinderella in mid-transformation to show you all how it looks close up. On the entire thing it looks like not all the detail of the image is there, but look especially at Cinderella's hands and thumb, especially her right hand and thumb (her right, not you're right!). Doesn't it look like they cropped off some of the detail, for whatever reason, in their "restoring"?

Image

So there it is. I hope I have properly shown and explained to everyone how Disney did indeed restore Cinderella for 2005 in not just a wrong way, but a terrible, careless, disrespectful way.

I ask you to please, if you can, spread the word. Linking to this thread would be great, but you can copy my pictures and show them on other sites or forums too (I'd rather you linked to this thread with my full amount of pictures and explanations though). I'd like to show Disney, too, but I don't know how. I'd like to show Disney animator Floyd Norman, too, Cinderella's a favorite of his, but I don't have time for that with something I'm currently going through. Look him up, I bet you could find a way to contact him. Maybe also tell him how Sleeping Beauty's 2008 restorers purposely changed a scene, as he worked on that film himself. Click here for the information on that restoration done wrong too.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and for any help or comments. I may not be able to answer comments for a while though as I am going through some stuff in my life, but we'll see.
Last edited by Disney Duster on Fri Sep 07, 2012 12:38 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Image
User avatar
Atlantica
Signature Collection
Posts: 5445
Joined: Wed Oct 18, 2006 3:33 am
Location: UK

Post by Atlantica »

Wow ....... just wow.

I have always understood that Disney muddled up their restorations, and I know it always a constant debate on here, but seeing it this matter-of-factly put, it is clear that they do indeed alter as they see fit ?!

I can 100% see how they may have just painted over the top. But for what purpose ?
User avatar
Sotiris
Ultimate Collector's Edition
Posts: 19914
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2006 3:06 am
Gender: Male
Location: Fantasyland

Post by Sotiris »

Duster, I recall an old thread titled CINDERELLA DVD - digital restoration gone too far? where there are additional comparisons between the Cinderella PE and LD edition. Perhaps you (and others) might find it useful.
ImageImageImageImageImageImage
Marce82
Anniversary Edition
Posts: 1452
Joined: Sun Jul 03, 2005 1:48 pm
Location: Los Angeles

Post by Marce82 »

Yup... I agree 100%. I noticed on my first viewing of the 2005 dvd that they had messed it up. Specially a lot of the character outlines that had suddenly almost-disappeared, and some weird WEIRD colors.

Where did you get the screencaps of the pre-2005 version? Do you have the laserdisc?

I hope the new dvd/bluray uses a different restoration effort...

I have to say I consider the restoration on Cinderella to be the worst one Disney has ever done.
User avatar
universALLove
Collector's Edition
Posts: 2400
Joined: Fri Jul 08, 2005 8:21 am

Post by universALLove »

Marce82 wrote:I have to say I consider the restoration on Cinderella to be the worst one Disney has ever done.
Even worse than Beauty and the Beast? :lol:
That one always seems to cause a lot of controversy.
PatrickvD
Signature Collection
Posts: 5166
Joined: Fri Sep 19, 2003 11:34 am
Location: The Netherlands

Post by PatrickvD »

Beauty and the Beast takes the cake, but Cinderella is a close second in my book.

Absolutely butchered.
User avatar
ajmrowland
Signature Collection
Posts: 8177
Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2009 10:19 pm
Location: Appleton, WI

Post by ajmrowland »

Dtill looks good. But i cant condone it
Image
DancingCrab
Anniversary Edition
Posts: 1030
Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2010 3:20 pm

Post by DancingCrab »

It will be interesting to see if Disney does a new "restoration" for the blu-ray, and if it will be better or worse.

One thing is for certain. Disney Home Entertainment doesn't give a flip about the historical importance of these films. They have one goal and one goal only, and that's to market these films to what modern audiences are used to seeing and sell as many dvds/blu-rays as they can. As film collectors and traditionalists, we've been left in the dust, disenchanted.
Marce82
Anniversary Edition
Posts: 1452
Joined: Sun Jul 03, 2005 1:48 pm
Location: Los Angeles

Post by Marce82 »

I would consider this WAY worse than Beauty And the Beast, simply because BATB wasn't a restoration, it was just tampering. BATB is sourced from digital files, which do not deteriorate.

Whatever changes have been done to BATB were conscious ones.

Cinderella's source is film stock, which does deteriorate. Nobody is going to take every cel and background in Cinderella and re-shoot the whole film under a modern camera to have better quality.

The annoying thing is, restorations to other animated films around the time of (or even prior to) Cinderella look wonderful.

I think I have made a note of this before, but on the Sword in the Stone dvd there is an episode of the Disneyland show where they show a section of Cinderella in black and white. If you take a screen grab of that and then take one from the Cinderella dvd (and make it grayscale), the difference in tones is BAFFLING. And why are her lips always that neon orangy-pink??
User avatar
Victurtle
Special Edition
Posts: 663
Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2010 3:06 pm

Post by Victurtle »

Thankyou for the read DDuster! I still recall reading mini-versions of this years back from I started posting.

I guess in just a few months we'll see if the DE restoration provides us with a more faithful adaptation. I guess this is the most negative thing about the Disney Vault is that 1) restorations may be rushed and 2) once they're done, that's the version we're stuch with for 7 years.
Marce82
Anniversary Edition
Posts: 1452
Joined: Sun Jul 03, 2005 1:48 pm
Location: Los Angeles

Post by Marce82 »

Seriously, DisneyDuster... where did u get the screencaps with the original colors? Laserdisc?
User avatar
jpanimation
Anniversary Edition
Posts: 1841
Joined: Mon Sep 07, 2009 12:00 am

Post by jpanimation »

I never owned the Platinum release, didn't realize it was this bad :o
Image
User avatar
ajmrowland
Signature Collection
Posts: 8177
Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2009 10:19 pm
Location: Appleton, WI

Post by ajmrowland »

I own it and I still didnt realize it was this bad.
Image
User avatar
Lnds500
Anniversary Edition
Posts: 1103
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2011 10:14 am
Location: Athens, Greece

Post by Lnds500 »

I never owned this but I've seen the differences and I never liked the 2005 version. This must be the second worst restoration of a Premium title, after Peter Pan which is just terrible.
User avatar
Scamander
Special Edition
Posts: 596
Joined: Sun Mar 19, 2006 4:19 am
Location: Germany
Contact:

Post by Scamander »

Don't forget The little Mermaid :P
User avatar
Atlantica
Signature Collection
Posts: 5445
Joined: Wed Oct 18, 2006 3:33 am
Location: UK

Post by Atlantica »

Scamander wrote:Don't forget The little Mermaid :P
TLM isnt as altered as this is it ?
User avatar
Lnds500
Anniversary Edition
Posts: 1103
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2011 10:14 am
Location: Athens, Greece

Post by Lnds500 »

atlanticaunderthesea wrote:
Scamander wrote:Don't forget The little Mermaid :P
TLM isnt as altered as this is it ?
I don't think that it was that bad, but some lines are missing and who knows what else. That one is guaranteed to have a completely new restoration due to its 3D release unlike Peter Pan and Cinderella, which will probably use the old DVD master.
User avatar
Scamander
Special Edition
Posts: 596
Joined: Sun Mar 19, 2006 4:19 am
Location: Germany
Contact:

Post by Scamander »

no, it's not. But the colours itself and the flickering of them are still horrible.
User avatar
Atlantica
Signature Collection
Posts: 5445
Joined: Wed Oct 18, 2006 3:33 am
Location: UK

Post by Atlantica »

What is the best restoration that they have done then ?

I thought Cinderella's backing track was known as well for being of terrible quality....I thought that was restored well, no?
User avatar
271286
Special Edition
Posts: 666
Joined: Sat Mar 12, 2005 7:44 am
Location: Denmark

Post by 271286 »

atlanticaunderthesea wrote:What is the best restoration that they have done then ?

I thought Cinderella's backing track was known as well for being of terrible quality....I thought that was restored well, no?
I think Aladdin, Bambi and Lady and The Tramp all had good restorations...
Post Reply