Alice In Wonderland Restoration

[Jordan]

Hey guys.

Yesterday evenning I was watching the film on my Masterpiece Edition of Alice In Wonderland and I really thought the image and sound restoration was amazing ! It is just as great as Snow White and Sleeping Beauty.

To compare, I looked at my Gold Collection version of the film after watching the movie. And gosh, the image quality is not the same at all, there was too lightness. However, when I again compared to the sing-along image quality, I saw that it was even "worst".
So my question was : did the movie was restored to be put on the Gold Collection DVD ? Of course not the same restoration that underwent the movie to be put on the Masterpiece Edition but still, I thought there was some change...

What do you think ?

[Jack]

I'm sure the Gold Collection print was restored somewhat, since it is a rather clean & sharp transfer for a 1950s film. But it was too dark, and because of this, not all of the artwork was visible (you can see a comparison between the 2 transfers in this excellent review).

The ME transfer resprestents what the film should look like at its peak. I agree that its on par with Sleeping Beauty.

[Disneykid]

Yes, the image shown on the ME DVD is what the film would look like if you were looking at the actual cels and backgrounds without any film in the way. I don't know if this restoration was done by Lowry Digital (the people responsible for Snow White and Sleeping Beauty), but if not, it definitely looks like a job by them. As for the Gold Classic DVD, based on what I've read, it's basically the laserdisc restoration ported over to DVD. The Sing-Alongs are actually from that same restoration; they just look worse because they've been taken from VHS sing-along tapes, hence the fuzziness and bleeding colors. Alice has always looked (basically) good and has never went through a period of being in horrible condition ala Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, so I think restoring Alice was probably an easier task than for the first two.

Ok, that post ended up being a lot longer than I intended...

[MickeyMousePal]

It's great how they restored Alice in Wonderland ME.
It looks a lot better then the Gold Collection.
I realy think that Pocahontas needs to be restored the Collection Edition was horrible.
IMO all Disney Animated films should be restored. LOL.

[chrisrose]

The Masterpiece Edition of Alice looks...weird to me. I'm not used to seeing the movie so bright, with such vivid colours. Some say the pre-restoration version looks "too dark", but that's the version I grew up with and so I think I prefer it.

I don't regret buying the Masterpiece Edition, but I'm glad I kept my Gold Collection DVD of Alice as well.

[Joshua Clinard]

I prefer to see all of the movie.

[The Lizard King]

I prefer to see all of the movie.

...and your point is? Are you saying that the ME Alice is edited?

TLK

[Disneykid]

I think he means he prefers to have the entire picture visible as opposed to having the backgrounds nearly blackened out like in the old transfer.

[Atomobile]

I think the new edition is far superior to the old one. You might be used to the old video or TV version, but if you went to the Theater back in the 50's, it wasn't as dark as the old edition was. What they mean by "I rather watch the whole picture" is that all the older releases of the film, be it video, laserdisc, and the first DVD edition were cropped. The bottom of the screen was completly cut off and so was the right side. If you look at the old DVD you will notice how the credits at the beginning of the movie are cut off at the bottom. This was a bad transfer. If you compare the new DVD with the old, you will see that the new DVD has more picture at the bottom and the right side of the screen! If you have never seen the theatrical version, then you have never seen the entire picture!
Luckily, the new DVD fixed that problem and now you can see more of the picture than ever before. I don't know why you would want to see a chopped version of the film when we have the new beautiful and COMPLETE DVD.
Your friend,
Louis

[chrisrose]

I didn't say I'd rather have a "chopped" version of the film. I just said that I'm used to Alice looking darker. The vivid and solid colours on the Masterpiece Edition, may look *good*, but it still looks strange to me and will take some getting used to because I grew up with a darker looking version. That's all I'm saying.

[Disney Guru]

I bought it the day it came out and I watched it with the family. I was amazed at how well they restored it. It looked like it would have been the day it origionally came out ot theatres.