Disney "Digital Restorations" (1 Viewer)

[Chuck Pennington]

As stated previously in another post, I am recording the LD over to a DVD-RW on my DVD recorder using the HQ+ and LD video setting (set by Pioneer for optimum recording from a Laserdisc) for white/black levels. This isn't the way I'd master a real DVD, but for screen captures of static scenes, it's fine. Blacks are not totally black at the LD video setting, and whites aren't totally white either - not compared to the DVD's I play on the same player and have calibrated using Video Essentials - so this might mean the LD captures actually are worse than the actual Laserdiscs.

This process won't add light to a candle and shadow to a background. It won't erase or thin out lines in animation, and it won't completely change the color on an image.

 

[Kris Z.]

Regardless of whether the LD caps have absolutely correct colours or not, it's still safe to say that the ones in the Lowry restoration are messed up. Blue eyeballs and grey wedding dresses? Come on.

And like I said, something's wrong at Lowry because everything whitish turns into grey or blue, take a look at this comparison between the original Star Wars DVD and the Lowry restored version. Corridors, stormtroopers, Leia's dress, blue everywhere.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

It's a battle of the Penningtons!

 

[Ravi K]

I had no idea these were so bad. That Pinocchio candle shot is particularly disappointing. Did Disney get any of these animated films right on DVD?

 

[Chuck Pennington]

The DVD of PINOCCHIO released in the US in 1999 has the 1993 transfer on it. The 2003 Lowry version was only released internationally and is now out-of-print.

I'm glad someone else sees what I'm talking about. I do need to work more on adding pictures to the PINOCCHIO comparison because I seemed to pick scenes that are very brownish on the older releases, but there are many other scenes that look great.

 

[Kris Z.]

Of the longer feature films, not really. In my opinion the best-looking restorations were some of the colour shorts on the earlier Walt Disney Treasures, as they didn't bother "degraining" or "enhancing" any of those.

 

[Patrick McCart]

Except for the 30 seconds of censorship to the Pastoral segment and Deems Taylor being redubbed, Fantasia is probably the best in terms of this. While they did take out cel dust, it still looks like film. The original 2001 Dumbo DVD isn't messed with a whole lot (other than cel dust removal), but a lot of people complained about it having film grain. The SE for Alice in Wonderland didn't go overboard too much. The Many Adventures of Pooh also has a film look, but does have a film grain texture.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

One of the best Disney has done (and RAH agrees with me on this, as I bought it following his recommendation) is The Reluctant Dragon, as contained in the Walt Disney Treasures set Disney Behind the Scenes. It's not purely animation, but the animation contained in it looks as close to real 35mm film as DVD can get.

 

[Jay Pennington]

The only segment of Fantasia in which I noticed a lack of cel dust was Sorcerer's Apprentice. I assume this is due to a cleanup for its use in F2000. I recall seeing it the rest of the time...did you notice its absence in other segments, Patrick?

I agree it's a great-looking presentation.

 

[Patrick McCart]

It's a little visible in the Pastoral and Dances of the Hours segments, but I know Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria, Sorceror's Apprentice, Toccota and Fugue, and Nutcracker were pretty much free of it. That's at least what I recall. It's been a while since I watched the DVD.

 

[Jay Pennington]

Been a while for me, too.

 

[Chris Dugger]

The released tin set just recently from Japan... which version of PINOCCHIO does it contain?

Dugger

 

[Ravi K]

I have three of the Treasures tins sitting unwatched on my shelf. I'll have to watch them.

Snow White is the only feature disc I've seen. IIRC it looked a little too grainless for a film from the 1930s.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Snow White is indeed very grain-free, almost like they'd gone back in time with a DV camera and done a digital capture of the cels @ 24p. Almost.

 

[ScottR]

Is Snow White cropped a little too much on the bottom of the frame? I seem to recall this during the "Once Upon a Time" book titles.

 

[captainjoe]

Something is up with their colour-corrector's. I noticed this when posting those caps and when I did some of the Bond UEs.

 

[Adam_S]

I sincerely doubt there is anything wrong with Lowry's color correctors, my guess is that or your computer monitor is set to a more blue color temperature (6500k) rather than an accurate color temperature for film restoration or display, or even to the color temperature of televisions (not monitors).

 

[Jay Pennington]

Actually in the case of Star Wars, blue timing of the rebel ship scenes was a widespread complaint.

 

[captainjoe]

Yeah don't blame me. It has been posted on numerous forums and if my monitor was set wrong then the other caps would be blue too.

 

[MielR]

The 2004 Star Wars discs really have become infamous for their obvious bluish tint (and for other reasons, like the detail-squashing black level and some audio screw-ups) and some have surmised that it was done at the behest of George Lucas, to make the OT "match" the PT more (given that the PT and other current films seem to have a cooler cast to them than films made in the '70s).

However, if Lowry's Disney/Bond DVDs have a blue cast too, then I guess we can't blame Lucas (for that, anyway ).

I'm not familiar enough with the Disney/Bond films to say that the Lowry DVDs don't look right. But, with the Star Wars Trilogy, I've seen those films literally hundreds of times, so the blue tint on the '04 DVDs was instantly noticeable to me (and before I read one word about it on the internet, so it's not just captainjoe).

Based on everything I've read in this forum by the Disney and Bond experts, I don't think it would be a stretch to say there's something amiss in Lowry-Land.