How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966) Recolored? (1 Viewer)

[Jack Theakston]

Haven't really thought about my avatar. I'm not doing the blog anymore (too many people plagiarizing my articles), so I'll try something new...

 

[Douglas Monce]

Originally Posted by Jack Theakston



That's the "print the myth" story, but it's not exactly true. Many network programs were done on Eastman stock because they were sending out a signal feed and only needed four prints (two 35mm for the west coast, two for the east). Making new matrices for what would essentially be one-offs would be cost prohibitive.
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I know that in the 60's, NBC used 2 35mm prints for the west coast, and 2 16mm prints for the east. This was because the 16mm prints could be produced faster and put on an airplane to be shipped. I don't know if this was the procedure for the other networks or not.



Doug

 

[JohnMor]

This looks like the Grinch I remember seeing in the early 70's. I haven't been able to watch it in decades as I thought it was too "brown." I thought it was my memory that was wrong. I didn't remember the Grich being mustard colored! And the green far more matches the cover of the soundtrack record album of the time.

If you look at the caps, it really looks like a thick layer of brown (almost sepia) has been removed from the transfer. It seesm to have been VERY common in the 80's to master many things with a brownish cast. And we're seing a lot of that removed these days. This IS cause for celebration.

 

[Marvin]

Originally Posted by JohnMor

This looks like the Grinch I remember seeing in the early 70's. I haven't been able to watch it in decades as I thought it was too "brown." I thought it was my memory that was wrong. I didn't remember the Grich being mustard colored! And the green far more matches the cover of the soundtrack record album of the time.

As I recall, the first time they released it on DVD, the Grinch was mustard colored - even though the cover, and the extras, showed him as green. Whether he should be bright green or dull green, I have no idea.

 

[BillyFeldman]

This is one of the best Blu-Rays of the year, an absolutely terrific disc in every way. The color is fantastic (finally) and not from a faded element. All one need do is look at the blue and the unbelievably great and accurate red and the other eye-popping colors - I could not be happier.

 

[Brian W.]

Got "Grinch" today, and, damn! There are only a handful Blu-Rays that have really wowed me, and this is one. Though, comparing it with the 2006 DVD, it appears to be the same restoration. DVD Beaver is comparing it primarily to the 2000 DVD, which has very different coloring. (The very first DVD edition, from 1997, was the first DVD I ever bought, so it holds a special place in my heart.)

Here's another link to a gallery that sold many original cels from "Grinch" (five pages of them), and, yes, the coloring of the Blu-Ray really does look like the original cels:

http://www.animationsensations.com/the_grinch_animation.html

Not many original backgrounds on the above site, but here is one. It's the background for the shot where the Grinch's sled goes down into the circle of Whos, and they part to let him in. The coloring is just like it is on the new Blu-Ray:

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Since it was airing on NBC tonight, I finally broke open my Blu-Ray copy.

Based on everything in this thread, the Blu-Ray is exactly how it was supposed to look. Unfortunately, it's butting up against my decades of memories of the "wrong" look.

More than the colors, what was really disconcerting was the lack of grain. On the SD version, the grain really hid how static a lot of the animation was.

Other than those mismatches between my memory and what it was supposed to be like, I thought it was a beautiful Blu-Ray. The audio was nothing to write home about, but that's nothing new. Boris Karloff doesn't need a lot of bells and whistles to work his magic.

The rapping on that special feature was just horrendous.

 

[bigshot]

I've seen cels from this and the Grinch is definitely a bright lime green.