The Little Mermaid: Diamond Edition - Fall 2013

[Atlantica]

Maybe it's changing over this week, but it was Planes! on the screens and window, and Rapunzel is literally everywhere. Rapunzel and the fairies from Pixie Hollow.

Going to Disneyland Paris though in two weeks, so will hopefully pick up something there!

Does anyone know the French blu release date?

[Scamander]

It will be released on September 25 in France.

[Atlantica]

Thank you ! And darn it, too late for me to pick up a French copy of it. I picked up the French version of the Platinum as well, the single disc version, which was very cute.

I saw on the Stitch kingdom blog that they have Ariel's sisters featured in the doll line. I wondered if they are trying to have another stab at the abandoned 'Ariel and her Sisters' line?

[Disney Duster]

Since we’re talking about the deal, I actually re-watched the film the other day, and I’m always struck by the face she makes when she’s talking to Ariel about what she wants in exchange, almost as if she hadn’t even thought about what she’d ask Ariel to pay her with before. She probably figured she wouldn’t charge because she really just wants the chance to tie Ariel down (and Ariel doesn’t really have anything that Ursula would want if she weren’t Triton’s daughter), but probably invented the voice bit on the spot to not seem so suspicious--which would make it much harder for her to kiss the prince. Really clever to think of that in the moment.

If you mean the face when she says "Oh!" as in "Oh! And one more thing..." then I would say that face is her honestly remembering to bring up the payment. She speaks so quickly about what she wants from Ariel I have no doubt she thought of it before hand.

[DisneyJedi]

She does comment in the Broadway version that Ariel takes her voice for granted and that a woman doesn't know how precious her voice is until she's been silenced.

[Atlantica]

She's planned the whole thing for sure! Especially when she says "Poor little Princess, it's not you I'm after, I've much bigger fish-"

Therefore to me , that says it could have been any one of Ariel's sisters who fell into her trap, she just needed someone. Though mind you, she does say when watching Ariel, "She may be the key to Tritons undoing".

[Disney's Divinity]

These shots don't capture it very well, but I'm talking about this moment:

http://i1.wp.com/screencaps.us/198/9-th ... m-5026.jpg
http://i1.wp.com/screencaps.us/198/9-th ... m-5027.jpg
http://i1.wp.com/screencaps.us/198/9-th ... m-5030.jpg

She looks off to the side where Ariel can't see with a confused look, as if she hadn't even thought about what to ask for. And then turns around as if she thought "Of course, her voice! Perfect."

[Atlantica]

Hmmm I can see what you're trying to say, but I'm still not sold. I think Ursula knew full well what she was going to do with Ariel - the faux "Oh! I hadn't thought of a fee!" I think is an act ....

[Disney's Divinity]

Hmmm I can see what you're trying to say, but I'm still not sold. I think Ursula knew full well what she was going to do with Ariel - the faux "Oh! I hadn't thought of a fee!" I think is an act ....

I don't think so. The words she's saying at the time are "You won't even miss it!" She wouldn't make a confused face away from where Ariel can look while saying that if she already knew the voice is what she'd ask for, but that's just me.

[Atlantica]

But that doesn't make any sense though - she really forgot to think of a way of Ariel to pay her for giving her legs ? Ariel would have just strolled up on land, and it would have been easy peasy for them to be together and be happy; Ariel almost broke the spell when she was mute their love was that strong!

Unless that was Ursula's plan, just to have Ariel separate from her family to punish Triton ?

[TheSequelOfDisney]

I've always just thought that Ursula was being her devious self and knew all along what she was going to do. She knows Ariel is naive and gullible, and Ariel knows that Ursula has to get something from her in order to become human (Ariel just heard Ursula sing these lines: "Yes it's happened once or twice: someone couldn't pay the price and I'm afraid I had to rake 'em across the coals"). Ariel knows she must "pay the price" and believes that she doesn't have anything to offer; and I'm sure Ursula knows Ariel has a pretty great voice because it would make sense that she's keeping tabs on what is happening at the palace (you know, with the whole concert thing and Ariel's sisters singing about how Sebastian stated Ariel's "voice is like a bell"). Ursula knows what's up and already had this whole situation worked out beforehand. Any "confused" face she's showing is definitely a mask.

[271286]

I watched the blu-ray today and as I haven't seen this movie in about 3 years it was a true delight!! This is probably my favorite Disney movie ever...

I was however a tad bit disappointed with the HD transfer though gotta say... I think it has too much grain... I mean don't get me wrong I don't want movies to be scrubbed clean like SiTS or any of the recent releases... But I don't think grain should be present in animated movies... Not on what would be the cells anyway... I prefer animated movies to have the backgrounds somewhat untouched and maybe even a tad grainy to preserve all detail - and the characters "ungrained" if you will... This is definitely the best transfer we've seen of this movie... But I can't help being a bit disappointed... On the title card being repositioned - I can totally live with that... I didn't like how it faded in though very abrupt and not smooth at all...

There are parts of the movie that I find a bit soft too, which is weird cause you'd think they scanned the print at a really high resolution to do the 3D restoration... What do you guys reckon this is, a 4K scan? Surely it doesn't look higher than that to me... Although I would have thought it would be worth it to do an 8K scan for this... Given how important this movie is in Disney history and how slightly inferior it looks to the later renaissance movies... I had hoped for a movie that looked more like the Caps movies (I know this is not though, but I still feel like it's from the same era and should have that look)... I hope to be more pleased with the 3D presentation...

[taei]

Can someone please upload the reprise scene (full one). I want to see how it looks on Blu-Ray.

[disneyftw1]

I was however a tad bit disappointed with the HD transfer though gotta say... I think it has too much grain... I mean don't get me wrong I don't want movies to be scrubbed clean like SiTS or any of the recent releases... But I don't think grain should be present in animated movies... Not on what would be the cells anyway... I prefer animated movies to have the backgrounds somewhat untouched and maybe even a tad grainy to preserve all detail - and the characters "ungrained" if you will... This is definitely the best transfer we've seen of this movie... But I can't help being a bit disappointed... On the title card being repositioned - I can totally live with that... I didn't like how it faded in though very abrupt and not smooth at all...

There are parts of the movie that I find a bit soft too, which is weird cause you'd think they scanned the print at a really high resolution to do the 3D restoration... What do you guys reckon this is, a 4K scan? Surely it doesn't look higher than that to me... Although I would have thought it would be worth it to do an 8K scan for this... Given how important this movie is in Disney history and how slightly inferior it looks to the later renaissance movies... I had hoped for a movie that looked more like the Caps movies (I know this is not though, but I still feel like it's from the same era and should have that look)... I hope to be more pleased with the 3D presentation...

1) If there's at least "too much grain", that means they made it look like a film rather than pure digital... or worse than digital. (I'm not saying that I despise the restorations of films such as Pinocchio or Fantasia... but this transfer here must be an improvement over the 2006 DVD) To me, that's a good thing. I'll take a dirty HD transfer similar to The Secret of Nimh Blu-ray than a pure DNR HD transfer.
2) Can't be 8K, cause rarely is it useful for 35mm material. (very useful for 70mm). I'd say it could have been a 4K scan (the norm of the most recent HD transfers from Disney)
3) If you have the Blu-ray accessible, does the copy you have include the error that was stated earlier (in Part of Your World) or does it have no errors?

[271286]

^ All the known errors are present on the disc yes...

Obviously it's an upgrade from the Platinum Edition... I guess Im just disappointed cause these restorations are 7 years apart each time
and I hoped for a transfer that'd blow our socks off But maybe the transfer is a bit weak because the negatives were stored wrong or maybe it's just because Disney was broke when they did the movie I don't know... Maybe it's because the underwater sequences would just look flat without the grain...

[Disney Duster]

I admit Ursula does looking like she could be wondering what she should ask there, but it is strange they would animate a half half a milisecond of it instead of making a point of showing her thinking. I think she's making that face to look like she means "it's just a trifle" like she's being serious, or like "don't worry it's just a trifle", and it's fake, just like her smiles are fake because what she's asking for is nothing to give a smile or a "don't worry" face about. She only gets truly serious when she says "your voice." It also doesn't make sense that Ursula would start saying "I'm not asking much, just a token, really..." and then have to think of what it is in mid-sentence. She had to already have it in mind before she started talking.

But I can't help being a bit disappointed... On the title card being repositioned - I can totally live with that... I didn't like how it faded in though very abrupt and not smooth at all...

What happened to the title card exactly?

[rodis]

I agree. The movie looks great, but I too was expecting more. I thought it's gonna look super sharp but it was "sharp" at best and sometimes even a tad soft.

Also, they preserved much of the original color palette so the colors don't pop as you'd expect, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Another thing, some of the shots look overly dark and others look overly bright (like the panoramic shot of Ariel laying beside Eric right after she saved him, it's like someone forgot to turn down the brightness).

[271286]

What happened to the title card exactly?

Maybe it's just something I imagine... I just thought it looked like at had a different transition than before... I'll check my dvd tomorrow...

[Atlantica]

I think it was moved to accommodate an extra title card - 'The 3D Presentation of...'

No excuse for it to be like that on the regular non 3D release though ?

[DisneyJedi]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ko6Hg_eAUIM

I have no idea how the stupid YouTube thing works. But here you go, the full version of Carly Rae Jepsen's cover of 'Prt of Your World'.

To be honest with you, I know that it can't hold a candle to the original version of the song, but at least it uses the original score for the background music instead of making it sound like a rock song, unlike Skye Sweetnam and Miley Cyrus's versions. And before you go and crucify me or drag me to the guillotine or chopping block, I will say this is a pretty good cover. However, it's probably the third best cover I've heard, behind Jessica Simpson and Traci Hine's versions.