UHD Review Cinderella (1950) UHD Review (1 Viewer)

[Todd Erwin]

Walt Disney’s beloved classic Cinderella makes its 4K debut with a newly restored transfer.



Cinderella (1950)



Released: 04 Mar 1950
Rated: G
Runtime: 74 min




Director: Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske
Genre: Animation, Family, Fantasy, Musical, Romance



Cast: Ilene Woods, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton, Claire Du Brey
Writer(s): Charles Perrault (from the original classic by), Bill Peet (story), Erdman Penner (story), Ted Sears (story), Winston Hibler (story), Homer Brightman (story), Harry Reeves (story), Ken Anderson (story), Joe Rinaldi (story)



Plot: When Cinderella's cruel stepmother prevents her from attending the Royal Ball, she gets some unexpected help from the lovable mice Gus and Jaq, and from her Fairy Godmother.



IMDB rating: 7.3
MetaScore: 85...

Continue reading...

 

[letthemeatcake19]

It is not normal for tones and contrast to vary wildly from release to release. There have been so many changes it's impossible at this point to know how the film is even supposed to look.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I'm admittedly not an expert on picture quality. I have a basic 40-inch or so TV and stereo sound from it. My family has not upgraded to 4K. So there are other people around the board who have more elaborate systems and more experience judging the finer details of picture quality than I do. I've also never been alive to see Cinderella in a theater. The last time Disney re-released it theatrically was 1987 and I wasn't born until the following year. So with all that being said, I would not by any means consider myself an expert on how anything is "supposed" to look.

However, I have bought a lot of different editions of this film over the years and have watched it a lot and am pretty familiar with it.

The original Black Diamond VHS probably predated me.



I started with the Masterpiece Collection VHS in 1995.



Ten years later came the Platinum Edition DVD in 2005.



And then the Diamond Edition in 2012.



There was also a single-disc DVD version released in 2012. I ended up acquiring this as a reward from Disney's rewards program. I had loaned out the DVD from the Diamond Edition combo pack to a friend and never got it back. So I redeemed the standalone DVD just to take the disc from it and replace the lost one in my Blu-ray case. I actually think the DVD artwork is better than its Blu-ray counterpart from that year though.



The only disc I skipped was the Signature Collection double dip from 2019 because it had the same transfer.



And now we have the new 4K release.



I bring these images up because I think it is interesting to see the evolution of the cover art over the years. What do you all like the best? Maybe it is because the 1995 VHS was my first copy, but I think it is clearly the best artwork here. It also gets the most major characters on the cover but still manages to look simple and attractive. It's not overly busy like the Platinum and especially the Diamond Editions. Modeling the Signature cover after a single specific scene is an interesting approach, and it is certainly better than the Diamond cover. I really hate the big heads thing that affected both the Platinum and Diamond Editions. But I don't love the Signature artwork either.

For the new edition, putting a bunch of stuff inside Cinderella's dress is a weird choice, but I still like it better than the other high definition covers. My first choice for the artwork would have been to use the 1995 VHS artwork again, but of course they were never going to do that. This is a very nice alternative. They managed to include the Disney 100 branding without having it overpower the artwork as it does on Best Buy's concurrent steelbook. Normally I'm a sucker for Disney steelbooks. But this approach doesn't really work for me. In this case I actually went with the standard keepcase release because I think its artwork is the better of the two.



I upgraded to the new 4K release even though I don't have a 4K player because I wanted the new Blu-ray transfer and I watched it tonight. I think the original Diamond Edition is still very watchable on its own. If the new transfer didn't exist, I probably would have gone on watching the Diamond version without much thought. But I do think that, even without access to a 4K player, the new restoration is noticeably different and better. The slightly darker look also feels more natural, and there seems to be more detail present in some scenes.

Of course we're talking about Disney here, so I plan to continue keeping the Platinum and Diamond Editions for their bonus features. But this will absolutely be my go-to edition of Cinderella for future viewings of the film from this point. This is my fifth edition of the movie in 28 years; even for me being a collector, that's an unusually high number. But I'm glad I bought it again. I think the new restoration is a definite improvement and can't imagine this looking any better unless my family actually makes the unlikely upgrade to 4K at some point. In that case, I've already got the disc I'll need.

I'm also looking forward to watching the In Walt's Words supplement. This isn't technically new because it originated on the Signature Collection version. But since I stuck with the Diamond Edition until now, it is new to me.

 

[richardburton84]

I'm admittedly not an expert on picture quality. I have a basic 40-inch or so TV and stereo sound from it. My family has not upgraded to 4K. So there are other people around the board who have more elaborate systems and more experience judging the finer details of picture quality than I do. I've also never been alive to see Cinderella in a theater. The last time Disney re-released it theatrically was 1987 and I wasn't born until the following year. So with all that being said, I would not by any means consider myself an expert on how anything is "supposed" to look.

However, I have bought a lot of different editions of this film over the years and have watched it a lot and am pretty familiar with it.

The original Black Diamond VHS probably predated me.

View attachment 193267

I started with the Masterpiece Collection VHS in 1995.

View attachment 193253

Ten years later came the Platinum Edition DVD in 2005.

View attachment 193256

And then the Diamond Edition in 2012.

View attachment 193271

There was also a single-disc DVD version released in 2012. I ended up acquiring this as a reward from Disney's rewards program. I had loaned out the DVD from the Diamond Edition combo pack to a friend and never got it back. So I redeemed the standalone DVD just to take the disc from it and replace the lost one in my Blu-ray case. I actually think the DVD artwork is better than its Blu-ray counterpart from that year though.

View attachment 193260

The only disc I skipped was the Signature Collection double dip from 2019 because it had the same transfer.

View attachment 193258

And now we have the new 4K release.

View attachment 193259

I bring these images up because I think it is interesting to see the evolution of the cover art over the years. What do you all like the best? Maybe it is because the 1995 VHS was my first copy, but I think it is clearly the best artwork here. It also gets the most major characters on the cover but still manages to look simple and attractive. It's not overly busy like the Platinum and especially the Diamond Editions. Modeling the Signature cover after a single specific scene is an interesting approach, and it is certainly better than the Diamond cover. I really hate the big heads thing that affected both the Platinum and Diamond Editions. But I don't love the Signature artwork either.

For the new edition, putting a bunch of stuff inside Cinderella's dress is a weird choice, but I still like it better than the other high definition covers. My first choice for the artwork would have been to use the 1995 VHS artwork again, but of course they were never going to do that. This is a very nice alternative. They managed to include the Disney 100 branding without having it overpower the artwork as it does on Best Buy's concurrent steelbook. Normally I'm a sucker for Disney steelbooks. But this approach doesn't really work for me. In this case I actually went with the standard keepcase release because I think its artwork is the better of the two.

View attachment 193268

I upgraded to the new 4K release even though I don't have a 4K player because I wanted the new Blu-ray transfer and I watched it tonight. I think the original Diamond Edition is still very watchable on its own. If the new transfer didn't exist, I probably would have gone on watching the Diamond version without much thought. But I do think that, even without access to a 4K player, the new restoration is noticeably different and better. The slightly darker look also feels more natural, and there seems to be more detail present in some scenes.

Of course we're talking about Disney here, so I plan to continue keeping the Platinum and Diamond Editions for their bonus features. But this will absolutely be my go-to edition of Cinderella for future viewings of the film from this point. This is my fifth edition of the movie in 28 years; even for me being a collector, that's an unusually high number. But I'm glad I bought it again. I think the new restoration is a definite improvement and can't imagine this looking any better unless my family actually makes the unlikely upgrade to 4K at some point. In that case, I've already got the disc I'll need.

I'm also looking forward to watching the In Walt's Words supplement. This isn't technically new because it originated on the Signature Collection version. But since I stuck with the Diamond Edition until now, it is new to me.

That Masterpiece VHS was also my first exposure to the film (though I did see the Black Diamond VHS a few times when visiting my grandparents when I was little). Looking at it now, I find it a bit baffling that that VHS had a Buena Vista logo at the start of the film when the concurrent laserdisc apparently had the original RKO logo. Any idea why it was like that?

 

[Jake Lipson]

Any idea why it was like that?

Honestly, not a clue. My uneducated guess would be that one of the theatrical re-releases through the years had the Buena Vista title card added once RKO wasn't distributing the movie anymore. But why it would be different from the VHS to the laserdisc released at the same time (which I've never owned) I couldn't begin to say. My family went from VHS to DVD and never owned a laserdisc player at all.

I also haven't actually seen the VHS in years. I don't have my VHS collection anymore. But there are YouTube videos which digitized the opening of the VHS with trailers and such, and they confirm what you're remembering. It did start with a Buena Vista logo.

 

[richardburton84]

Honestly, not a clue. My uneducated guess would be that one of the theatrical re-releases through the years had the Buena Vista title card added once RKO wasn't distributing the movie anymore. But why it would be different from the VHS to the laserdisc released at the same time (which I've never owned) I couldn't begin to say. My family went from VHS to DVD and never owned a laserdisc player at all.

I also haven't actually seen the VHS in years. I don't have my VHS collection anymore. But there are YouTube videos which digitized the opening of the VHS with trailers and such, and they confirm what you're remembering. It did start with a Buena Vista logo.

My family also went straight from VHS to DVD and never had a laserdisc player. The early Black Diamond releases were also rather peculiar with regards to opening logos (RKO and Buena Vista), often cutting the logo altogether or having the accompanying music play over a black screen. To the best of my knowledge, Sleeping Beauty was the only one of those early home video releases to actually retain its original distribution logo, for some unknown reason.

 

[Jake Lipson]

The only two Black Diamond VHS titles I had were Pinocchio and Aladdin, which were probably among the last two before they started the Masterpiece Collection branding. I remember owning the majority of those. My copy of Sleeping Beauty was the 1997 Masterpiece Collection release.

Edit: I remembered The Fox and the Hound and Mary Poppins were also Black Diamonds, so I think I had four of them total before Disney rebranded with the Masterpiece Collection series.

 

[richardburton84]

The only two Black Diamond VHS titles I had were Pinocchio and Aladdin, which were probably among the last two before they started the Masterpiece Collection branding. I remember owning the majority of those. My copy of Sleeping Beauty was the 1997 Masterpiece Collection release.

Which Pinocchio release was that? That film had two Black Diamond releases in 1985 (early pressings of which had a trailer for The Black Cauldron which contains the only known fragment of that film’s infamous deleted footage to date) with no logo if the digitized YouTube videos are anything to go by, and in 1992 following that film’s re-release with a Buena Vista logo.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Which Pinocchio release was that?

Mine would have been the 1992 release. I wasn't alive in 1985.

 

[Rob W]

That Masterpiece VHS was also my first exposure to the film (though I did see the Black Diamond VHS a few times when visiting my grandparents when I was little). Looking at it now, I find it a bit baffling that that VHS had a Buena Vista logo at the start of the film when the concurrent laserdisc apparently had the original RKO logo. Any idea why it was like that?

The VHS was aimed at the mass market while laserdiscs never really broke out much beyond the collector's market, and the special editions aimed at that market often distinguished themselves by offering little extra bonuses such as original studio logos, commentaries, and special features. Almost all of the Disney laserdiscs were also available in CAV editions (running no more than 30 min per side ) that allowed animation buffs to pause and examine every individual frame of the animation art.

To those collectors, seeing the original RKO logo at the beginning of the film was a big deal. ( I was one of them. )

 

[Jake Lipson]

To those collectors, seeing the original RKO logo at the beginning of the film was a big deal. ( I was one of them. )

Sure. But using the Buena Vista card on the concurrent VHS seems odd instead of just being consistent across both releases. I don't think the vast majority of family-oriented VHS buyers would have noticed or cared what the distribution card said. I was six or seven at the time and I certainly didn't.

 

[Rob W]

Sure. But using the Buena Vista card on the concurrent VHS seems odd instead of just being consistent across both releases. I don't think the vast majority of family-oriented VHS buyers would have noticed or cared what the distribution card said. I was six or seven at the time and I certainly didn't.

Highly likely two different teams worked on the two releases - mass market vs special edition .

 

[Jake Lipson]

Another thought going back to the cover art comparison.

This is the cover art most recent release of the soundtrack from 2015.



This obviously represents the same moment as the 2019 Signature Blu-ray cover I posted yesterday. (Here it is again for direct comparison.)



But the painting for the soundtrack looks much more beautiful and less generic. I don't really know how to describe it, but it has more personality, nuance and character and feels like it represents the film better than the Blu-ray art does. The soundtrack also seems to capture that Cinderella is in a hurry, whereas the Blu-ray looks like she's just sort of there. Disney should have just used the soundtrack for the Blu-ray too instead of commissioning a new worse version of the same concept.

There have been so many changes it's impossible at this point to know how the film is even supposed to look.

I read Disney went back to the 35mm film print that the Library of Congress had in the National Film Registry to begin this restoration. So although I'm not an expert as I stated yesterday, I assume this is how it's supposed to look.

Disney+ To Debut an All-New 4K Restoration of Walt Disney's 1950 Animated Classic "Cinderella" | Disney+

Disney+ to debut a stunning all-new 4K restoration of Walt Disney's 1950 animated classic "Cinderella" on August 25th

abc.com

 

[JoshZ]

Highly likely two different teams worked on the two releases - mass market vs special edition .

Perhaps, but it seems unlikely the studio would pay to strike two different video masters for a VHS and Laserdisc released around the same time - especially not for a movie whose OAR was already "full-screen" 4:3. It's not like this was a situation where they needed a letterboxed transfer for LD and a pan & scan one for VHS.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Perhaps, but it seems unlikely the studio would pay to strike two different video masters for a VHS and Laserdisc released around the same time

I highly doubt it was two different masters. We're talking about a single shot literally right at the beginning of the film. The distribution card on the VHS said "Buena Vista" and the distribution card on the laserdisc (apparently) said RKO. I assume the rest of it was the same.

 

[JoshZ]

I highly doubt it was two different masters. We're talking about a single shot literally right at the beginning of the film. The distribution card on the VHS said "Buena Vista" and the distribution card on the laserdisc (apparently) said RKO. I assume the rest of it was the same.

Maybe. Still unusual for a studio to put that much effort into it.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Still unusual for a studio to put that much effort into it.

Oh, I absolutely agree with that. The logical expectation would be for it to be the same across both formats released at the same time. They both had the same cover art too.

But, as a kid when I got the tape, I can tell you I never once thought about what the distribution card said. I didn't even know there was a discrepancy between the VHS and the laserdisc until we began talking about it in this thread. I was just happy to have Cinderella.

 

[richardburton84]

Another thought going back to the cover art comparison.

This is the cover art most recent release of the soundtrack from 2015.

View attachment 193425

This obviously represents the same moment as the 2019 Signature Blu-ray cover I posted yesterday. (Here it is again for direct comparison.)

View attachment 193426

But the painting for the soundtrack looks much more beautiful and less generic. I don't really know how to describe it, but it has more personality, nuance and character and feels like it represents the film better than the Blu-ray art does. The soundtrack also seems to capture that Cinderella is in a hurry, whereas the Blu-ray looks like she's just sort of there. Disney should have just used the soundtrack for the Blu-ray too instead of commissioning a new worse version of the same concept.

I think both covers were more trying to mimic the poster for the remake (which I really liked), which also depicts Cinderella’s flight. That said, I agree that the Legacy Collection cover is the better of the two (the Signature Edition looks more like she’s participating in a fashion show rather than making a mad dash to leave the ball at midnight).

 

[Mike Frezon]

Todd: Thank you so much for this review. It is heartening to hear (and see) that the new version doesn't have that "scrubbed" look to it.

 

[Jake Lipson]

For those in or around the Hollywood area, the El Capitan Theatre, which Disney owns, will be showing the new restoration of Cinderella from August 18 to 24.

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Experience new and classic Disney films and special events at the El Capitan Theatre, a beautifully restored 1920s movie palace on Hollywood Blvd.

elcapitantheatre.com