Interview Disney’s Restoration of Dumbo and Efforts to Preserve Their Film Library (1 Viewer)

[vnisanian2001]

You act like this is the worst thing ever. No, you know what the worst thing ever is: Throwing away the original dubs of these classic Disney films for no reason. For example: Imagine Snow White without the original voice tracks. That would have been even worse that the restoration visual work on the Blu-Ray.

 

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by FoxyMulder

Whats stopping them from doing what other studio's like Warner do for their classics, go back to the original negatives and make new film scans and if they are Technicolor then use Warners Ultra Resolution Process and align the three strips and then make your master, keep the film grain intact, keep all the detail intact and have a nice sharp high definition animated feature that looks like a movie. Of course they can clean the dust away, clean up any real issues and if they need to do a full restoration then do it but i really dislike this Disney approach to their classic films, they are turning them into smooth and clean looking cartoons that no longer resemble film, if i wanted cartoons i could just watch tv.

Why do experts like Mr Harris give them a pass and why does nearly every review i read give them a pass, is it because its animation and its not considered the same as a live action film, i'd be interested in knowing, the silence on this matter is not good, maybe i am wrong and misunderstand everything, maybe Disney are doing a great job, but why do i doubt it, why do i feel something is amiss in all this. I'd like someone to ask Disney a few tough questions on all this and get their response.


So what is happening here, are they repainting them and degraining the opticals or are they simply degraining full stop, is there little grain in these original negatives or is there a lot of grain, c'mon there must be more information available and a decisive answer on all this. This site has a lot of experts, i wish they would all chime in and tell us more.

I know the people involved, and I don't believe that anyone is giving them a pass. The studio makes certain decisions. These decisions are to be followed. But there is a gray area here. The Disney animated classics were not "filmed." This is animation, and apparently a decision has been made that it is not to look like film, but as close as possible to the original cells. While I don't agree with the ethic, it is what it is. They have the right to do it. And it makes the kiddies smile.


What else matters?


Move along. No history here.


RAH

 

[FoxyMulder]

Originally Posted by Robert Harris




I know the people involved, and I don't believe that anyone is giving them a pass. The studio makes certain decisions. These decisions are to be followed. But there is a gray area here. The Disney animated classics were not "filmed." This is animation, and apparently a decision has been made that it is not to look like film, but as close as possible to the original cells. While I don't agree with the ethic, it is what it is. They have the right to do it. And it makes the kiddies smile.


What else matters?


Move along. No history here.


RAH

I get you completely, wink wink, nudge nudge.

 

[Reagan]

Whats stopping them from doing what other studio's like Warner do for their classics, go back to the original negatives and make new film scans and if they are Technicolor then use Warners Ultra Resolution Process and align the three strips and then make your master.

That's what they've been doing since the 2004 restoration of Bambi. Only they use an alternate version of the the Ultra-rez process. The Disney version aligns negatives on some 80 locations in the frame. -R

 

[vnisanian2001]

I noticed in another thread Stephen Worth claimed that dialogue is being added and redubbed by modern voice actors. Would he please provide examples of that in Disney films?

 

[bigshot]

I noticed in another thread Stephen Worth claimed that dialogue is being added and redubbed by modern voice actors. Would he please provide examples of that in Disney films?

I was probably referring to Corey Burton's narration replacing Deems Taylor's voice in Fantasia. Corey is an amazingly talented voice artist. I've worked and performed alongside him in the past. But the way that Disney did the looping in Fantasia just doesn't work. Perhaps being familiar with the film and the sound of Deems Taylor's voice puts me at a disadvantage, but even if it did work, I still think it's disrespectful of a man who was instrumental in the creation of Fantasia. (As disrespectful as the mispronunciation of Stokowski's name in Fantasia 2000.)

 

[Charles Smith]

(Whoa. Who mispronounced?)

 

[bigshot]

Mickey Mouse mispronounces "Stokowski" in Fantasia 2000, which is strange because he pronounces it correctly in Fantasia.

 

[montrealfilmguy]

Then they should've gone the Bugs Bunny way and call him by his first name.

 

[vnisanian2001]

I just found out something: Wayne Allwine re-dubbed Mickey's voice not only for Fantasia 2000, but also for the 1982 re-release as of the original film as well. It was in the 1990 re-release when they brought back Mickey's original voice. Stephen, one question that has been on my mind for awhile: Do you have 16mm copies of every single Disney animated feature from when they were first released in theaters?

 

[bigshot]

Stephen, one question that has been on my mind for awhile: Do you have 16mm copies of every single Disney animated feature from when they were first released in theaters?

No, I'm afraid for better and worse, I'm all digital projection. Our own Robert Harris mentioned to me he had a nice set that he donated to te Academy Library. UCLA has a lot of great Tech prints too if you're looking to find some to view. I'm sure private collectors like Mark Kausler have material.

 

[Brian Kidd]

It was my understanding, I believe from watching the extras on one of the dearly-departed Treasures sets, that Walt actually did the voice of Mickey for the interstitials on the Mickey Mouse Club and that it was the last time he ever did the voice. The Good Morning America clip linked to in the previous post indicated that was, in fact, Jimmy MacDonald. Am I just imagining things or did GMA make an error?

 

[MatthewA]

Originally Posted by Brian Kidd

It was my understanding, I believe from watching the extras on one of the dearly-departed Treasures sets, that Walt actually did the voice of Mickey for the interstitials on the Mickey Mouse Club and that it was the last time he ever did the voice. The Good Morning America clip linked to in the previous post indicated that was, in fact, Jimmy MacDonald. Am I just imagining things or did GMA make an error?

GMA is wrong. Walt came out of retirement, so to speak, for the Mickey Mouse Club interstitials, but Jimmy MacDonald had been doing it since Fun and Fancy Free in 1947. If you've seen those segments, you can really tell how smoking had affected Walt's voice; he could no longer do a falsetto as high as he used to.


How an ABC news show, of all things, got that wrong is beyond me.


And since you mentioned the Treasures sets, will there ever be anything similar in Blu-Ray? Hopefully they will be restored and not monkeyed around with. The two Silly Symphonies on the Dumbo Blu-Ray have some registration issues that stick out like a sore thumb in HD.

 

[Patrick McCart]

Watched Dumbo tonight. I understand the controversy about the noise removal, but these newest 4K sourced "renovations" don't seem to lose the texture of optical effects and filters. I'm not seeing blurring or smearing. For reference, I'm using a calibrated 46" LCD monitor - maybe it's more obvious on larger systems or projectors. What really amazed me was the audio. I opted to watch it with the original mono track. This is one of the best monaural sound restorations I've heard. Wide range, no noise reduction artifacts from what I could hear, and ridiculously high fidelity.

 

[bigshot]

There really aren't many optical effects in Dumbo. It was the "bargain basement" film of the big five.

 

[vnisanian2001]

I never quite got why the blu-ray release of Dumbo has the original mono audio as an option, but the option of the original mono sound for Alice in Wonderland was last featured on the 2004 DVD.

 

[FoxyMulder]

Does anyone know if this is the exact same transfer as the UK release from last year, i assume it is, i also assume but may be wrong that its the same encode and everything except the original mono track. ?


I hate to assume, but it has got me wondering.

 

[Brian Kidd]

Does anyone know if this is the exact same transfer as the UK release from last year, i assume it is, i also assume but may be wrong that its the same encode and everything except the original mono track. ?

Malcolm, DVD Beaver's review seemed to indicate as much.

 

[MatthewA]

Originally Posted by Patrick McCart
What really amazed me was the audio. I opted to watch it with the original mono track. This is one of the best monaural sound restorations I've heard. Wide range, no noise reduction artifacts from what I could hear, and ridiculously high fidelity.

I did, too, and I was really impressed with the sound quality, more than just about any pre-1950s film I've ever heard.

 

[Douglas Monce]

I can see how it might be considered offensive or racist. They are caricatures. But do you think that black people will be embarrassed, in 50 years time, by gangsta rap videos and reruns of "In Living Color?" Makes ya wonder--

Most comic characters in classic films are caricatures. Willie Best's character in The Ghost Breakers (1940) was a caricature, but so is Jerry Lewis playing the same character 10 years later is Scared Stiff (1953). But because Jerry is white, its okay for him to play a bumbling goof. I've never really understood that. I fully understand that at the time bumbling goofs were probably the only representations of black people on the screen, but in this day and age I'm not sure why we can't enjoy these films at face value. Besides Willie Best was far more talented than Jerry Lewis ever was! Doug