Peter Pan: Platinum Edition DVD Press Release and Discussion

[Disney Duster]

I found this very interesting:
In-Depth Look at Peter Pan's New Look. The entire movie gets gilded like Hook's ship when Tinker Bell dusted it, and for the worse.

What's REALLY interesting is that the Indians have indeed lost their politically incorrect red color, meaning Disney probably was deliberate in changing the color! Also of note, the golden glow makes Tinker Bell even more noticable, and we all know this release wanted a lot of focus on Tinker Bell for her upcoming franchise!

There's also this,

I've been told that the people at Eon overseeing these transfers simply decided they didn't like the way the old films looked and wanted them all changed, right down to specific subjective decisions about color.

, and I have heard from more than one source that Disney told Cinderella's restorers to make the movie look new for a new generation.

I FIRMLY believe Disney's been purposely changing the colors of Disney movies, and they want them to look "new" or something for franchises (Cinderella's become blonder and her dress bluer to match merchandise). Someday I will post Cinderella examples proving colors were messed with.

[Disneykid]

I'm not sure what to think. I, personally, thought the 2002 SE's colors were awfully flat-looking and lacked any sort of depth. It seemed to be made of primary colors (i.e. Peter's hair is often as red as his feather when it should be tawney). Plus, skin tones often turned into a nasty gray color (most notable during "Your Mother and Mine.") I'm not saying the 2007 one is more accurate, but in my eyes, the film matches the look of the other 50s Disney films better than the 2002 one did. In my opinion, the only Disney restoration that's questionable is Cinderella's. Everything else looks fine to me.

[kurtadisneyite]

..Disney can do whatever they want to their films. The restored films I have seen and discussions with some of the restorers definitely indicate color changes in the restored films.

Now Disney can try to maintain "historical accuracy" in colors, meaning they need to refer to the original technicolor presentation and/or original color charts (not the cel or background paint, because those paints were formulated to work with technicolors' color space transformations),

Or Disney can do tests of restored scenes with characters, then say "We like __that__ color, go with it !", and do the entire film restoration that way. Examples: Cinderella gets a work dress with green sleeves, not the originals' gray, and a blue ball dress, not the original's off-white

Restorations are helpful in removing dirt, mistakes and other glitches that can get in the way of storytelling. But they open the door for other changes , and Disney is choosing, for whatever reasons, to alter the color values of their restored films.
The question arises: how long will they keep the "reference" material? How long will those technicolor negatives in the Kansas salt mines or wherever be preserved? Only they know for sure.

[CampbellzSoup]

I like the remastered colors way better, as long as they look good.

[Simba3]

I had been itching to watch a Disney movie for a week or so now, and I decided on Peter Pan. The first time I watched this movie, I didn't really like it all that much. Then, when I purchased the Platinum Edition in 2007 and watched it, I liked it a lot more and had a new-found respect for it. Now, after giving it another viewing today, I really think I'm going to have to add it to my Top 10 DAC list. It really is a very charming film. Lots of fun and action, and the characters are all (well, mostly all) very likable. Hook makes a great villain, just falling short of my top 5 villains list.

Anyway, just wanted to share that with UD - I know there are a lot of Pan fans here.

[yukitora]

Did the PE dvd have to be so blurry? Sharp and grainy can be fun too.

[Marky_198]

I FIRMLY believe Disney's been purposely changing the colors of Disney movies, and they want them to look "new" or something for franchises (Cinderella's become blonder and her dress bluer to match merchandise). Someday I will post Cinderella examples proving colors were messed with.

Exactly!

And for the people that seriously think the film looked this modern and bright and computer-ish back in the 50's........I'm sorry, but I can't take their opinions serious.

[Marky_198]

The question arises: how long will they keep the "reference" material? How long will those technicolor negatives in the Kansas salt mines or wherever be preserved? Only they know for sure.

I wonder that too.

Sleeping Beauty's (picture) restoration is much better done then Cinderella's.

I hope they will give Cinderella a whole new treatment from scratch, and the original negatives.

[Marky_198]

..Disney can do whatever they want to their films.

I suppose they can, but the new versions are not "my" films anymore.

I see my original Cinderella and the new transformed Cinderella as two completely different films.

[Marky_198]

But to stay on topic,

I think The 2007 PE Peter Pan looks amazing.
This colors really look like "50's" colors, and I like the fact that it isn't too sharp.

Too sharp BREAKS an animated film. (look at the 2002 version, and many other recent dvd/blu-ray releases)

[The_Iceflash]

But to stay on topic,

I think The 2007 PE Peter Pan looks amazing.
This colors really look like "50's" colors, and I like the fact that it isn't too sharp.

Too sharp BREAKS an animated film. (look at the 2002 version, and many other recent dvd/blu-ray releases)

I think so too.

About Cincerella, do any of you actually know what the color palette is really supposed to look? (Not using older home video releases as sources as they may not be the correct color palette either)

[Flanger-Hanger]

About Cincerella, do any of you actually know what the color palette is really supposed to look? (Not using older home video releases as sources as they may not be the correct color palette either)

No, nobody does. But people like to think they do because it makes them feel special.

[2099net]

Just like the Technicolor documentary on The Adventures of Robin Hood would be very interesting for a lot of "colour haters" (but I'm sure they'll make no effort to watch it - after all, why bother to do research) it looks like the documentary on South Pacific will be interesting too if any of this is on it:

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p ... count=7048

It’s interesting that what initially got Joshua Logan into thinking about innovative coloring choices for South Pacific, was the fact that he absolutely abhorred Technicolor.

This, because he felt that in Technicolor, the sky was too blue, the earth was too brown and the trees were too green.

[...]

Anyway, because of his consternation with Technicolor in the 50’s, Joshua L. consulted with one of the great still photographers of the era, namely Eliot Elisofon, who advised him that if he shot South Pacific in “picture-postcard” Technicolor, that he should be shot. So, Eliot E. recommended that Joshua do anything to avoid South Pacific looking like a picture postcard and hence maybe try camera filters.

And when exactly was Cinderella made? The 50's. It's complete nonsense to pretend that bright, vivid colours didn't exist in the 1950s.

[goofystitch]

The_Iceflash wrote:

About Cincerella, do any of you actually know what the color palette is really supposed to look? (Not using older home video releases as sources as they may not be the correct color palette either)

I don't know for sure. I have heard that Lowry Digital looked at original cels and backgrounds and tried to match them up. I believe them because I found a production cel of the stepsisters for sale from Van Eaton Gallery and the colors matched the Platinum restoration.



That cel is on a reproduction of a background, but you can see that the colors are bright, like the Platinum Edition, not muted like the VHS and Laserdisc.



This one of the king comes with no background, but you can see once again that the colors on the cell are very bright.

However, here is the problem with the restoration team going back to the cels as a reference for how the colors should look: When the cels were photographed, the colors didn't look the same. The production team knew this and they would spend a lot of time doing color tests on film to make sure they got the look they wanted. So the color of paint assigned to each character wasn't necessarily the hue they were intended to have, since they would look different on film.

That being said, though, I feel that the newer restorations are probably closer to the original intentions than what we remember from VHS tapes in the 80's and 90's simply because of the way film ages and was then transferred with little or no restoration.

[Marky_198]

And when exactly was Cinderella made? The 50's. It's complete nonsense to pretend that bright, vivid colours didn't exist in the 1950s.

It's complete nonsense to pretend that this hyper-modern 2005 computer-look existed in the 50's.

There's a difference between "bright colors" and this "look".

[The_Iceflash]

And when exactly was Cinderella made? The 50's. It's complete nonsense to pretend that bright, vivid colours didn't exist in the 1950s.

It's complete nonsense to pretend that this hyper-modern 2005 computer-look existed in the 50's.

There's a difference between "bright colors" and this "look".

The Cinderella PE doesn't have this "hyper-modern 2005 computer-look".

@goofystitch: That makes sense.

[SpringHeelJack]

About Cincerella, do any of you actually know what the color palette is really supposed to look? (Not using older home video releases as sources as they may not be the correct color palette either)

No, nobody does. But people like to think they do because it makes them feel special.

Word. That's my favorite. Even when whichever animator it was said after seeing the restored "Snow White" that the colors weren't the same that they used, you're still depending on an octogenarian who has as faulty memory as anyone potentially does. I don't think anyone can distinctly look at a restored movie, then remember way back sixty-some years ago and vividly recall "Wait! Her dress was never this shade of yellow!"

[Flanger-Hanger]

Word. That's my favorite. Even when whichever animator it was said after seeing the restored "Snow White" that the colors weren't the same that they used, you're still depending on an octogenarian who has as faulty memory as anyone potentially does. I don't think anyone can distinctly look at a restored movie, then remember way back sixty-some years ago and vividly recall "Wait! Her dress was never this shade of yellow!"

Even better when a miserly old animator says "it's as close as your gonna get" and people still bitch. Seriously if you can do it better people, by all means do.

[ajmrowland]

I do agree that the restoration has a "digital" look to it, though I don't have any dvd to show for it. Peter Pan's restoration is good. The features on both are somewhat wasted.

I'm new, BTW, so Hi everyone!

[schoollover]

Hey, i'm new here and i just wanted to say that out of peter pan,TJB, and 101 dalmatians, peter pan was the strongest because of how informative the few features were. Though, none of them are half as good as aladdin and atlantis.