How Cinderella's 2005 Release was Restored Very Wrongly

[Disney Duster]

Just bumping this to show more directly what happened to the animation in the transformation scene, how most of what is above Cinderella's torso is hardly there.

[ajmrowland]

I remember it being worse than that

[filmmusic]

I got a laserdisc rip, which claims to be BEFORE the 2005 restoration, though in many shots the lines are not there like the DVD, but this is due to excessive brightness of the source and the rip.
Let me know which screenshots you'd like me to post, to compare..

[Disney Duster]

Thank you for offering your help filmmusic, but I already got the screenshots comparisons I wanted. Except maybe the shot where the Fairy Godmother says "Now don't try to thank me". Her top, under her cloak, is supposed to be a lighter shade of blue/purple, which it is in the original version before 2005, while the 2005 restoration made it the same color as her cloak and skirt. So that would be nice to get. I'm sorry your pre-2005 rip is too bright to see some lines though. I have a pre-2005 rip myself and I don't remember any missing lines. So actually maybe I should do it myself. But thanks for offering your help.

EDIT: OK, here it is, I added pictures showing that in some scenes, the Fairy Godmother's lighter blue top (top picture) was accidentally changed to the same blue as the rest of her dress (bottom picture):

[Disney Duster]

Bumping this again to show what I think was the worse restored frame of the transformation. The top picture is before the restoration, the bottom picture is after. It's like none of the magic dust is in the after picture!

[271286]

^As if we could forget


However, I still think it's worth remembering all the things that looks great in this restoration. The colors are lush and beautiful... Look at that transformation screenshot - the background looks amazing compared to that old washed out Laserdisc transfer.

I'm pretty sure this restoration was done in just 2K... If they did a new scan in 4K or 8K and applied the same restoration technique it would look much better I'm sure. Let's hope this restoration was done in 2K because that would mean Disney would need to do a new restoration soon.

[Marce82]

God.... I cringe when I look at the restoration.

I actually have a theory about it (not about the colors... that's still a mystery).

If one looks at the restoration feature in the Sleeping Beauty 2003 edition, it says they had to rotoscope out all the characters to "dustbust" the backgrounds. I suspect they found a way to make this process automated for Cinderella;and when something is automated, it never works as well as when a person is doing it (at least when it comes to art).

This may have led to shots like the transformation, where the outlines of the characters have been cropped off. This would also explain the weird, pointy look of her fingers, and I am pretty sure her face has been cropped off at the edges (I am an artist myself, plus one can tell by looking at the original drawing this cel is based on). This would also explain the pixie dust being so less prevalent...

[Disney's Divinity]

I still think it's rather horrible this happened to one of Disney's most beloved and heavy-promoted films. I sympathize with you, Disney Duster, since this is your favorite film (and one of my favorites). I know how I would feel if this had happened to The Little Mermaid. I mean, sure the TLM Platinum had its drawbacks, but at least it didn't make you want to cry over what had been done like with Cinderella. And it was amazingly restored for Diamond, too! I was really hoping the same would happen for Cinderella.

I still have hope it'll eventually get a restoration correcting what's been done (if that's possible?).

[universALLove]

I still have hope it'll eventually get a restoration correcting what's been done (if that's possible?).

That and The Sword in the Stone. Although Cinderella has more chance of being fixed.

[Disney Duster]

What happened to The Sword in the Stone?

Elladorine said she talked to Don Hahn about Cinderella restoration and she thinks we can expect a better one on the next release. But I don't know how sure of that we can be.

Yes, 271286, the restoration did look beautiful, but I feel the mistakes and deleting of parts of animation is way more significant. I'd rather the film have just looked like the laserdisc than have the ruined animation! I hope you are right that they will scan it to a higher resolution and the restoration will be better this time.

Thanks Marce82, and I, too, thought maybe the the dustbusting go rid of some of the magic dust. Or it could be DNR. And thanks for pointing out how things like her hands look partly cropped off. A restoration is meant to just restore the picture not deplete parts of the animation!

Thanks, Divinity, for your support and sympathy. I am so sad the next generation will have grown up on the crappy, less beautifully amazing Cinderella. I am also sad the next generation will grow up on The Little Mermaid with the messed up "Part of That World" scene! Disney f-s up our movies and then act like they don't care. I mean they offered disc replacements but they should replace all of the ones available to buy, or better yet not let such mistakes get through in the first place! I got my disc replacement, thankfully, (The Little Mermaid is my second or third favorite, ever battling with Sleeping Beauty, I just beat on Mermaid for a while because it was more popular than Cinderella)and you got the disc replacement too, right? I actually thought the restoration could have been even better, but at least the animation isn't ruined like Cinderella's.

[Disney's Divinity]

I didn't buy TSitS's newest release because I'd already read on here about it, but it's a blurry, smudged mess from what most people have said. It's unfortunate because the film's not important to Disney so it may not be corrected? I have no idea. Thankfully TLM is popular; I probably couldn't take it if it was ignored as much as TSitS and Hercules.

Oh, and you're right about the messup with "PoTW" in TLM; I totally forgot that since I have the replacements! I'm surprised Disney is so cavalier with how they treat their films in re-releases. I've noticed it airs on TV a lot lately. I need to pay attention to see if they use the fixed version when it airs or not. If it's any consolation, I try not to buy any of the re-releases with horrible restorations, which is better than nothing, I guess? The only one I've bought is B&tB, just because the colors were changed by the creators on purpose (even if I still don't like the changes...). Well, I haven't bought many new re-releases by Disney anyway, what with the poor effort lately--even for the "Diamond" films. The only one I regret not buying was Sleeping Beauty on Blu-ray a while back--with that gorgeous steelbook.

EDIT: Be careful going to that link I posted to the TSitS 50th thread--page 2 for some reason caused an attack on my computer that was blocked (I don't know why). Just to warn people.

[Disney Duster]

Thanks Divinity! I guess not buying the badly-done releases is a good thing but I still buy them because there are good points to them, too.

Wow, I actually think The Sword in the Stone and Cinderella have about the same horribleness in restoration, except Cinderella has the added bit of color changing.

[MeerkatKombat]

I desperately want Disney to put this right. Maybe next release if we are lucky.
Although it doesn't look bad in motion, I know details are missing and that bugs me. The scene when Cinderella and the Prince are sitting outside in front of the clock talking and she has to leave - her dress is bright turquoise blue which really bothers me. I could be wrong but it looks much bluer than I think it should be.
I also want Beauty and the Beast colours restored but at least I can kinda fix it by playing around with contrast/brightness and colour on my TV.

It's sad that Digital video picture stabilizers are not common in the UK or I'd rip the VHS to DVD.

I was talking to someone a while back who has a friend who works on Disney restorations and apparently Disney knows they did a poor job on this and want to do another restoration but don't quote me on it.

[Disney Duster]

Thanks MeerkatKombat for the possible inside scoop that this may be getting restored correctly for the next release! That's my next biggest dream come true (after Disney's live-action Into the Woods and Cinderella films come out!).

Her dress bothers me slightly when she first starts running from the prince, but that might be the true color. The ones that bother me most are when her dress was silver originally and in the restoration it's blue! Like her entering the ball and then when she loses her slipper.

[The_Iceflash]

I also want Beauty and the Beast colours restored but at least I can kinda fix it by playing around with contrast/brightness and colour on my TV.

Stop. The VHS/Laserdisc colors were NOT what they were supposed to look like. No colors need to be restored. The problem is you are used to those incorrect colors rather than the colors intended.

http://www.awn.com/animationworld/don-h ... -going-blu

Thanks MeerkatKombat for the possible inside scoop that this may be getting restored correctly for the next release! That's my next biggest dream come true (after Disney's live-action Into the Woods and Cinderella films come out!).

Her dress bothers me slightly when she first starts running from the prince, but that might be the true color. The ones that bother me most are when her dress was silver originally and in the restoration it's blue! Like her entering the ball and then when she loses her slipper.

With the new Cinderella film coming out they can tie it in like the new Sleeping Beauty Blu-ray for Maleficent. In fact, we can pretty much guarantee we'll see a re-release at the very least. If what MeerkatKombat says is true about Disney wanting to fix it, that will give them the perfect opportunity.

[Disney's Divinity]

B&tB's restoration was done according to what the creators wanted. Too bad the film had been around with different colors for over a decade. I'll be honest, I prefer the VHS colors. "What was supposed to be" is way too yellow for me.

[MeerkatKombat]

I also want Beauty and the Beast colours restored but at least I can kinda fix it by playing around with contrast/brightness and colour on my TV.

Stop. The VHS/Laserdisc colors were NOT what they were supposed to look like. No colors need to be restored. The problem is you are used to those incorrect colors rather than the colors intended.

I still love those VHS colours, correct or not. The bluray is too bright for me.

With the new Cinderella film coming out they can tie it in like the new Sleeping Beauty Blu-ray for Maleficent. In fact, we can pretty much guarantee we'll see a re-release at the very least. If what MeerkatKombat says is true about Disney wanting to fix it, that will give them the perfect opportunity.

Cinderella hasn't been put back in the vault yet because of the new live action film. If we were going to give us a new transfer and new release wouldn't they have vaulted the Diamond release by now? I guess a new restoration will be more like in five years time and next physical format (if any).

I really don't want to raise anyone's hopes - I just mentioned that I was a Disney DVD collector in passing and somehow conversation turned to restorations and Cinderella being a disappointment. He then mentioned his friend who apparently works at Disney and is involved in some aspect of restorations. I do not know if he was being truthful as I do not know him well at all. I've only met him twice through some charity work.

[Disney Duster]

Yes, the filmmakers of Beauty and the Beast didn't know the colors from what they saw in CAPS on the computers would look so dark on film, so they changed them for the DVD and Blu-ray to make them what they truly wanted them to look like.

I still thank you MeerkatKombat for the possible hope we have.

[Marce82]

Hey everyone,

I know this thread has been dormant for a while, but I came across something worth mentioning.
Someone has gained access to a 35mm print of Cinderella, and is in the process of scanning it and color correcting it... they have posted some samples, and it REALLY shows how messed up the restoration on the official dvd and blu rays are.
In the fairy's first scene.... sheesh, her chin disappears for a while in the official release! THis is messed up.

Here is a link:

http://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Cinder ... n/id/55720

https://valeyard.net/2017/07/scanning-cinderella.php

[JeanGreyForever]

Thanks for posting. I saw the first two comparison videos before (the opening scene and the transformation scene), but I haven't been following this project since then. I hope it gets released eventually since often due to expenses, they end up in limbo.