Blu-ray Review HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: Pinocchio: 70th Anniversary Platinum Edition (1 Viewer)

[Mike Frezon]

Well, I've already posted this in the Weekly RoundUp and the Consolidated HD Bargain threads...but for maximum exposure, here goes one more time:

In this Sunday's newspaper coupons...a $4 rebate for those who might buy some Sun-Maid Raisins along with their Pinocchio DVD/Blu-ray. Rebate form is downloadable at www.sunmaidoffer.com.

 

[sestamuch]

Great! Nice review by the way.

 

[Nelson Au]

I'm curious to know, I am not a Disney expert in any way! But I read a review on Amazon for this new disc and one of the reviews was from a rather big Disney fan. He was dissappointed with this BD because as part of the remaster the colors were unnecessarily "bumped" or enhanced to cater to a modern viewing audience more used to brighter color palettes. He claims to have been to many revival showings of Pinocchio with restored prints and knows the colors of the original.

Does anyone know if there's any truth to this assertion? Thanks!

And very nice review here!

 

[TravisR]

Nearly every animated release has the self-proclaimed experts saying that same thing so I don't pay attention to them.

Or to look at it another way, whose opinion would you trust more? The people who have watched the movie and think that means that they know it all or the people who have access to the Disney archives and restore movies for a living.

EDIT: I'm not saying that mistakes can't have been made on this release. I'm just saying that the animation police have cried wolf way too many times for anyone to take their claims seriously. Unfortunately that also means that if there is a real problem, no one will pay attention to them either.

 

[Nelson Au]

Thanks Travis! I am not that well educated in the animation realm. I agree with you, the folks at Disney should know what they are doing! It does seem preposterous to think that they'd arbitrarily alter a classic!

By the way, I forgot to mention, I really like that Disney is including a standard def disc with each BD set. I wonder if other studios could start to do that for all films out on BD. I like having both.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

I woul add to Travis' comments that if the captures posted on DVD Beaver are correct, the earlier release on DVD shows clear signs of boosting and the new release appears to reflect the film's original colour palette.

 

[Jeff Swindoll]

It appears that having the DVD inside the case bumped the digital copy? I didn't care since I don't use them, but I though it odd that a digital copy was missing (even with expiring activation codes). Thought the new "Platinum" line was to have Blu/DVD/digital copy?

Like I said, didn't bother me. I prefer having a DVD copy to a digital one.

Excellent disc BTW.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Amen!!!

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Actually, no. Some new releases (HSM 3, Bolt) are packaged with BD+DVD+DC, but so far, no classic titles are packaged this way. Sleeping Beauty didn't have digital copy either, and frankly, I could care less. The demographic for the classic films isn't looking for digital copy.

 

[Brian Borst]

You haven't even seen the UltimateDisney forum yet. A lot of people there think the earlier dvd looks superior. Too bad most of them only have seen screenshots. They haven't even seen the actual dvd/blu-ray yet.

 

[BrettB]

Read their "review" to get an idea what's going on at UD.

 

[Nelson Au]

Thanks, I read most of that review out of curiousity.

Wow, I didn't realize Disney or the other studios were so aggressively selling Blu ray to the public.

 

[Brian Borst]

I don't even think they're that aggressive. They just gave a copy of the Blu-Ray for reviews because it already has the film on a dvd. It's easier for Disney, but apparently it's some kind of evil marketing scheme put up.
I really think about leaving that forum. Bashing on Blu-Ray is fine, but when you do it to them it's suddenly not fair. Also every restoration is wrong in their eyes, not to mention the matting of films like Jungle Book and Robin Hood.

 

[Edwin-S]

The guy should have devoted the time he took writing that "Blu diatribe" and used it to find someone, with a Blu-ray player, who could write an actual review.

After looking at the DVDBeaver screenshots, the color palette does look a lot better on the BD than on earlier the earlier DVD release; However, in a way the image looks too new and polished. The colors are more opaque and uniform than the earlier DVD. Honest John's hat is a good example. In the earlier DVD the cel paint has a hint of translucency and you can tell that the cels were handpainted. The paint does not look completely uniform. There are hints, throughout the cels in the earlier release, where the paint seems slightly thicker than in other parts. The handpainted nature of the cels comes through clearly, even though the color values are not as accurate as on the BD.

The BD, on the other hand, has none of that handpainted quality. The colors may be more accurate, but the character of the handpainting has been totally erased. The colors are totally uniform and opaque, as only could be done with a computer. I'm not going to claim to be an expert or a know-it-all. I'm just making some observations, based on what I'm seeing in a few screenshots.

The BD, colorwise, looks beautiful, but the handpainted look of the cels is gone. The earlier DVD, colorwise, is nowhere near as nice as the BD, but the handpainted nature of the cels is preserved.

 

[Brian Borst]

Oh, it's definitely handpainted to my eyes. The subtle paint touches like the feather on Pinocchio's hat, or Geppetto's hair comes across much better. There are also several instances when you can see a slightly different hue to something, just for a frame. It really gives the film the traditional look it's supposed to have, and I'm glad it isn't fixed.

 

[Edwin-S]

Do you have the actual disc already? I'm only looking at screenshots. The BD shots do look nice. There is detail that doesn't come across in the screenshots of the earlier DVD, like the subtle pinkish hue around Jiminy Cricket's nose area on the shot where he is sticking out of the lock. That actually looks very nice and does give his face a little more dimensionality.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

The BD is hand-painted and looks like the cel-art is projected right in front of you without anything in the way. Literally. Sort of like digitally scanning the cel art rather than filming it. It's really stunning. While it's fair to say that the "film layer" has been removed from view in this restoration, it's not fair to say that the hand-drawn artwork has been removed or obscured. Quite the opposite: you're seeing detail in the hand-drawn artwork that's never before been visible. It's breathtaking on a wide-angle projection screen.

All that's been cleaned is the noise later in the chain like grain and grime. Be careful depending too much on that older DVD image as a point of reference; the color palette is very skewed from the original painted artwork and the frame-by-frame timing errors due to aging might be confused with hand-applied paint variances which they are not.

The artists were purposefully doing their best to keep the painted art consistent one frame to the next especially with color tone and intensity.

What does change frame-by-frame is the "dry brush" contouring to the cat, the surface of the whale, the sea-surf etc. Those are the places where it's paint-related and it's still there.

The blu-ray is the closest thing to the original hand-painted artwork any consumer has ever seen. Release prints which are inevitably several generations removed and include all sort of color-timing differences that may or may not be consistent with the original artwork aren't the best point of reference for hand-drawn/painted animation.

 

[Mr. Film]

I haven't seen this since I was a kid!!

 

[CraigF]

^ Me neither. It is one of the very first movies I remember seeing.

 

[Keith Paynter]

Don't gush too much just yet. Some of the pics over at DVDBeaver.com suggest some very noticeable DVNR atop Pinocchio's eyes in the Stromboli pic:



(Click that pic for full size...)

I'm inclined to think some of the cel color is just a little too smooth, especially on Dishonest John. (Not using the original DVD as a comparison)