A Few Words About A few words about...™ Mary Poppins -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[bigshot]

Well, I'd like to clear it up for the 90% of other people who can't see the difference then. Here is a Jungle Book cel I found on the internet. This is a Frank Thomas scene, so it would compare to the scenes of squirrels, penguins and the fox in Mary Poppins, which were also animated by Frank Thomas...

In case the forum reduces it in size, here is the full size image from the web... http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_sXScaxnxuQI/TG7Qt4uv2kI/AAAAAAAABvc/VQFdLFs3Bu4/s1600/Baloo+the+Bear.jpg

Take a look at Mowgli. See the very thin construction line going down the middle of his back? Notice how lines defining big forms are thick, and ones defining details, like toes are thin? Look at the feathers in Baloo's fur... see how the feathers are all clean and light?

Go still frame through the blu-ray and see if you can find a single frame that looks even similar to this kind of line. Still frame in the scene where the lambs leap in front of Dick Van Dyke and check out how the lines totally disappear.

What they did is very clear. They went through and ERASED the underdrawing and then did a photoshop style selection on the lines and thickened and darkened them up so they looked like it was all one even line thickness. No more pencil look.

 

[bigshot]

other than having known Don and Fred (Toby) Bluth for close to fifty years now.

I don't know if you heard, but Toby passed away a couple of weeks ago from a stroke.

 

[haineshisway]

I don't know if you heard, but Toby passed away a couple of weeks ago from a stroke.

Oh, no. I hadn't heard at all. Awful - I've known him since I was fifteen.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I watched my Blu-ray of Mary Poppins tonight.

The star of the show for me was the 7.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack. Positively sparkling. For a 1964 film, it gave me the impression that THIS is what uncompressed audio is supposed to be all about. Clearest fidelity as can be imagined for such a source. I cannot believe how incredibly great it sounded. Irwin Kostal never sounded so good!

As for the picture, I thought it was beautiful. I am no animation expert. Nor am I an expert on film technology. I just know that I was mesmerized by this film from start to finish tonight.

Every line, every song, every glance between Bert and Mary...stunning. Julie Andrews was put on this earth to play Mary Poppins.

Yes, I noticed some white halos around the actors in front of some of the effects shots, I noticed how Mary's gloves changed colors whilst she was holding the children's advertisement for a nanny (something I had never noticed before). Sure, those are still audio-animatronic birds outside the nursery window. And matte paintings used throughout. But...

This is a masterpiece. God bless the Sherman Brothers (my heroes) and everyone else who contributed to this film and this Blu-ray release.

Practically perfect in every way, indeed.

 

[moviebuff75]

I have a feeling that I am going to be very pleased come Christmas morning!

 

[rsmithjr]

...

The star of the show for me was the 7.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack. Positively sparkling. For a 1964 film, it gave me the impression that THIS is what uncompressed audio is supposed to be all about. Clearest fidelity as can be imagined for such a source. I cannot believe how incredibly great it sounded. Irwin Kostal never sounded so good!
...

Thanks for your positive comments about the film and especially the soundtrack.

One comment: I hear many comments about "old" soundtracks that I have some disagreement with.

Those of us who have heard magnetic stereo soundtracks from the 50's or 60's (4 track 35mm, 6 track 70mm, and 7 track Cinerama--the best!) exhibited under optimal conditions can attest that these films had beautiful sound. Not necessary loud or filled with explosive bass, but musically memorable and beautiful.

Mary Poppins was nominated for the Academy Award for sound in 1964 but lost to My Fair Lady, which was 70mm 6 track. These were truly beautiful sound tracks, as were many others of the era.

Somewhere in the rush to optical "Dolby Surround" and then the various digital formats, the quality of analog magnetic has been forgotten.

Again, thanks for helping us remember, but there are many other find soundtracks from that era as well.

 

[Charles Smith]

Those of us who have heard magnetic stereo soundtracks from the 50's or 60's (4 track 35mm, 6 track 70mm, and 7 track Cinerama--the best!) exhibited under optimal conditions can attest that these films had beautiful sound. Not necessary loud or filled with explosive bass, but musically memorable and beautiful.

A thousand times yes.

 

[davidmatychuk]

Thanks for your positive comments about the film and especially the soundtrack.

One comment: I hear many comments about "old" soundtracks that I have some disagreement with.

Those of us who have heard magnetic stereo soundtracks from the 50's or 60's (4 track 35mm, 6 track 70mm, and 7 track Cinerama--the best!) exhibited under optimal conditions can attest that these films had beautiful sound. Not necessary loud or filled with explosive bass, but musically memorable and beautiful.

Mary Poppins was nominated for the Academy Award for sound in 1964 but lost to My Fair Lady, which was 70mm 6 track. These were truly beautiful sound tracks, as were many others of the era.

Somewhere in the rush to optical "Dolby Surround" and then the various digital formats, the quality of analog magnetic has been forgotten.

Again, thanks for helping us remember, but there are many other find soundtracks from that era as well.

As a boy in 1964, I saw both "Mary Poppins" and "My Fair Lady" in two of Vancouver's real movie palaces, the Strand and the Stanley. I was fascinated by music from my earliest memories (I still am, as a musician and listener) and I had just never heard anything in my life like the quality of musical sound I heard in those two great musicals.To me, the music was as overwhelming as the big, beautiful images, and hearing the fantastic music on the Blu-Ray of "Mary Poppins" I'm as knocked out by it as I was sitting in those long-gone theatres. A Blu-Ray of "My Fair Lady" that was up to this standard would be wonderful.

 

[Brian Sharp]

Yes, wouldn't it be loverly to have a decent Blu-Ray of My Fair Lady.

 

[ThadK]

It'd be interesting to know what exactly Disney is doing.

I watched the Silly Symphonies in HD that are on Netflix, and they looked horrible! Very muted, puke colors that are decidedly not the 1930s Technicolor as seen on the SD Disney Treasures DVDs. I also thought they were using DNR, but they most definitely are not. A comparison between the two shows that what I thought was DNR in the new HD copy is still very much there in the SD copy (which doesn't have DNR). Now that the new HD copy has been pumped though Disney's clorox filter to remove any trace of film grain, natural blemishes are more noticeable than ever before.

One thing is for certain: in the future, I will not be buying any Disney releases.

 

[Steen DK]

Here is a scan of a 1964 dye transfer 35mm print as adjusted for Carbon Arc appearance by none other than Robert Harris.

maryarcadjustment.jpg

The original film scan before the adjustments.

mpcompare1.jpg

Another member's scan from the new Blu-ray, which has been criticised by others as not being accurate.
Maybe somebody can supply a new scan of this scene.

mpcompare2.jpg

The top scan adjusted by Robert Harris is how I remember it looked the many times that I have projected it via Carbon Arc.
The prints that I projected were all of British origin and they tended to favour the yellow, so maybe folks in the USA saw things differently.

Doug.

Thanks. The blu-ray looks exactly like the one on the bottom. I wish it looked like the top one.

Still, like bogshot says: It can be fixed without too much trouble.

 

[Reed Grele]

As a boy in 1964, I saw both "Mary Poppins" and "My Fair Lady" in two of Vancouver's real movie palaces, the Strand and the Stanley. I was fascinated by music from my earliest memories (I still am, as a musician and listener) and I had just never heard anything in my life like the quality of musical sound I heard in those two great musicals.To me, the music was as overwhelming as the big, beautiful images, and hearing the fantastic music on the Blu-Ray of "Mary Poppins" I'm as knocked out by it as I was sitting in those long-gone theatres. A Blu-Ray of "My Fair Lady" that was up to this standard would be wonderful.

While I didn't see MP or MFL at my local theater (btw, also named "The Strand") when I was young (I'm also a '55er), I was lucky enough to have seen so many of the (now classics) of that era.

I think that when we're young, all of our senses are so acute that when we leave the real world, and enter the world of make believe for a few hours, it's just an overwhelming experience. I mean, the largest TV set we ever had when I was a kid was a b&w 19". For what it was, it was great. But when I'd go to the movies.... That was extra special!

 

[JohnMor]

Thanks for your positive comments about the film and especially the soundtrack.

One comment: I hear many comments about "old" soundtracks that I have some disagreement with.

Those of us who have heard magnetic stereo soundtracks from the 50's or 60's (4 track 35mm, 6 track 70mm, and 7 track Cinerama--the best!) exhibited under optimal conditions can attest that these films had beautiful sound. Not necessary loud or filled with explosive bass, but musically memorable and beautiful.

Mary Poppins was nominated for the Academy Award for sound in 1964 but lost to My Fair Lady, which was 70mm 6 track. These were truly beautiful sound tracks, as were many others of the era.

Somewhere in the rush to optical "Dolby Surround" and then the various digital formats, the quality of analog magnetic has been forgotten.

Again, thanks for helping us remember, but there are many other find soundtracks from that era as well.

There is nothing like hearing these glorious soundtracks in a cavernous theater. Some my most vivid memories of seeing these classic films was the sound.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Thanks for your positive comments about the film and especially the soundtrack.

One comment: I hear many comments about "old" soundtracks that I have some disagreement with.

Those of us who have heard magnetic stereo soundtracks from the 50's or 60's (4 track 35mm, 6 track 70mm, and 7 track Cinerama--the best!) exhibited under optimal conditions can attest that these films had beautiful sound. Not necessary loud or filled with explosive bass, but musically memorable and beautiful.

Mary Poppins was nominated for the Academy Award for sound in 1964 but lost to My Fair Lady, which was 70mm 6 track. These were truly beautiful sound tracks, as were many others of the era.

Somewhere in the rush to optical "Dolby Surround" and then the various digital formats, the quality of analog magnetic has been forgotten.

Again, thanks for helping us remember, but there are many other find soundtracks from that era as well.

Here's an interesting thought I had after reading your response.

I played this movie LOUD. Like, Die Hard loud. Or, Olympus Has Fallen loud. My wife (who is constantly asking me to "turn things down") never said a word. I kept waiting for her to. But it never came. And we were both laughing and enjoying the film from stem to stern. [Check out the way Matthew Garber is attacking that candy apple during the Jolly Holiday sequence! And he's got a 2nd apple in his other hand!]

The music filled the room...beautifully & gloriously.

The non-musical scenes were based in the center channel. But the musical portions filled the room--clearly and wonderfully. This is a musical in which I know every orchestral note, every word to every song, most every line of dialogue.

Honestly this easily is the best sounding movie of this vintage in my collection. I often pull the musical of Chicago off the shelf when I want to play some sharp-sounding movie music "just for the sake of it." Mary Poppins may supplant Chicago as my "go to" movie for just that purpose.

 

[Doug Bull]

I must agree that they certainly did wonders with the sound.

I used a pair of top of the range Sennheiser phones to further check-out the quality of the sound and the results were amazing.
Certainly one of Disney's better efforts.


Doug.

 

[rsmithjr]

Thanks. The blu-ray looks exactly like the one on the bottom. I wish it looked like the top one. Still, like bogshot says: It can be fixed without too much trouble.

It wasn't very long into the Blu-ray before I increased the yellow level on my projector.

A large number of classic films seem to go too much toward blue: Ben-hur, The Ten Commandments, Cleopatra. So I am fairly used to making adjustments.

I don't subscribe to the idea that there is one correct balance and am always willing to make adjustments to get it to look like what I remember. I also realize that my memory may be wrong. But at the end of the day, I am watching it.

 

[FoxyMulder]

I must agree that they certainly did wonders with the sound.

I used a pair of top of the range Sennheiser phones to further check-out the quality of the sound and the results were amazing.
Certainly one of Disney's better efforts.


Doug.

So i guess the soundtrack has the high frequencies intact, my gripe with The Sound Of Music was the loss of the high frequencies.

 

[Jeffrey Nelson]

What they did is very clear. They went through and ERASED the underdrawing and then did a photoshop style selection on the lines and thickened and darkened them up so they looked like it was all one even line thickness. No more pencil look.

I can't believe Blu-ray critics and ESPECIALLY film restorationists are giving Disney a pass on this kind of bullshit, even after having it explained and shown to them with crystal clarity by someone who clearly knows his onions.

 

[Robert Harris]

I can't believe Blu-ray critics and ESPECIALLY film restorationists are giving Disney a pass on this kind of bullshit, even after having it explained and shown to them with crystal clarity by someone who clearly knows his onions.

There seem to be a myriad of rumors going 'round regarding how Ms Poppins was handled, some quite unappealing.

As far as I understand it, the most egregious of rumors are untrue. While Disney will most likely keep silent on the situation, I did put out feelers to a few people at post facilities, and it has been acknowledged that not only has there been no rotoscoping of animated data from backgrounds, but the entire project was sourced from the original negative.

As one of the aforementioned "restorationists" giving a pass, I did note a few shots that might have been handled differently, and which appear to have been harvested from faded dupes -- as cut into the original. I found it unnecessary to mention, as I doubt that anyone viewing the film will see anything wrong. The fact that this particular "restorationist" saw it is based upon the unfortunate fact that he cannot not see it.

I'm loving this blu-ray.

RAH

 

[bigshot]

Did you ask them how they handled the lines? If so, tell us what they told you. I would be very interested in hearing that.