DVDizzy Forum

As you all must know, the video transfer of the "Oliver & Company" DVD is very poor, pretty grainy and with washed out colors. Well, did you people pay attention to the picture quality of the film in the extras? I'm talking about the featurettes from the time of the 1996 rerelease ("Disney Animals" and "Return of a Classic"). In these featurettes, it seems they used a restored print of the film, because the colors are very vivid, the print is almost spotless and the picture is very sharp and well-defined.

My question is: why didn't Disney bother to use the restored print of the movie for the DVD? Instead, they used a print which is in poor condition. And the press-release stated that the movie was digitally restored... Restored my foot!

Hmm, I didn't think the "Oliver & Company" transfer was very poor at all. It didn't leap off the screen, but I really didn't find the faults you're talking about present in the actual transfer and not in the bonus features.

I doubt Disney would NOT use the best materials they had for the actual transfer, but for the bonus features, too. That just seems odd, even for Disney.

Yeah, I know it sounds odd, but it is true. The picture quality in the bonus is much more detailed and colorful than in the actual film.
I wish I had a DVD-ROM to post a few screencaps comparing the tranfers.

Is it possible that Brazil has a different transfer than the U.S.? Because, I'm with Luke - I didn't notice anything overly grainly about it. The colors seemed spot-on to me.

Jack wrote:Is it possible that Brazil has a different transfer than the U.S.? Because, I'm with Luke - I didn't notice anything overly grainly about it. The colors seemed spot-on to me.

I have the region 1 release.

The grain is not the biggest issue of the transfer - though it is there. For me, the problems is that the transfer isn't as sharp as it should be and even very dark at times (the details are very poor). Also, the colors aren't very good (as I said, the colors in the featurettes are much richer).

I'll have to pay attention to that next time I watch it, and compare the extras w/ the transfer. I certainly didn't notice anything initially though.

i didn't notice a bad transfer either. i did notice a bad transfer on little mermaid though so i do have an eye for that sort of thing but i will try to go through my disc and take screen caps from the bonus feature and then find the same scene from the film.

Actually now that I think about it, the picture quality in Oliver and Company was pretty bad, I just watched that film and the backrounds, some llooked a bit blurry, not too sharp...

agreed on the no so great transfer. i noticed pixelation in the backgrounds while on my pc which would be even more noticeable on my projector. not too bad but could use a do over maybe. as far as the film footage being better in the clips that they show in the making of clip, i don't really think so. here are some screenshots.

Hey, wizzer, thanks for the screen caps, but I beleive you took that shot from the making of featurette, right? Well, I was talking about the rerelease featurettes ("The History of Animals" and "The Return of a classic"). A good example of what I'm talking about (the color issue) is the scene where Tito is in Jenny's house and is up on a cushion with a cigarrete in his hands saying "If this is torture, chain me to the wall".

oops. well sorry. my 'version' only has the movie, the making of featurette, and the micky short and the pluto one.

wizzer wrote:oops. well sorry. my 'version' only has the movie, the making of featurette, and the micky short and the pluto one.

Don't worry, it was worth the inttention.

Joe, I agree with you here. I don't think Oliver's transfer was very good at all, and I think it's the worst looking film quality in my modest collection of Disney DVDs. I'll have to go back and take a closer look, though, and at those featurettes, too.

-Aaron

Oliver and Company got a very poor Video to DVD transfer.
The DVD had very poor extra and the movie wasn't all that good.
But what can you do huh?
Wait for a better one to come out.

I watched it a couple of weeks ago with my daughter(shes one and loves doggies). I didnt notice it being particularly bad - certainly not nearly as bad as Pocohontas.

Jack wrote:Is it possible that Brazil has a different transfer than the U.S.? Because, I'm with Luke - I didn't notice anything overly grainly about it. The colors seemed spot-on to me.

The "masters" of the brazilian/latin american dvd and us dvds are the same, is because that the frist releases of disney in us was coded in both region 1 and 4 (now it doesn´t exists anymore) but the latin american releases still are released in both 1 and 4 encoding, so the quality of the picture is the same...

Other things like menus and subtitling that is diferents an where resids the 99,99% of the problems in brazilian dvds.

Thiago

"Oliver & Company" is my favorite Disney animated film. But, the quality of the "digitally remastered" DVD made my cry. They should re-release the DVD with a TRUE digitally remastered print!

Welcome, Sentai. It's gotta suck to have that bad of a presentation for a film if it's your favorite. Here's to hoping you get a better one someday.

-Aaron

So what do all of you recommened is this a DVD worth buying or should I hold out and wait for a better realse or is this wishful thinking?

That's a tough question. If you really like it, or if you want it for purposes of completion of your collection, then get it. If you could take it or leave it, though, then I say leave it.

Let me rephrase that:

It's a step up from the VHS, but by no means a must-have. I own it.

-Aaron