What have they done to Darby O Gill and the Little People? (1 Viewer)

[roxy1927]

I've only bought one title in this series, In Search Of The Castaways (1962), it cost a bit of money on eBay, but it is a childhood favourite. Anyway, it arrived, & I thought it looked awful, as contrasty as hell, it looked like they'd just done a quick transfer of a projection print they had laying around, so never again. It's not some deluxe release of a famous catalogue title, it's just a cash grab (the very oppersite of the Warner Archive). Disney will just have to manage their mega debt without my money.

This makes me unhappy to read as I bought this but haven't watched it yet.
In the 80s MOMA had a Peter Ellenshaw exhibit displaying his matte paintings from various films. Where are they now?
They showed Castaways which I had never seen. It was a gorgeous print and that Disney Technicolor was beautiful.

 

[darkrock17]

This makes me unhappy to read as I bought this but haven't watched it yet.
In the 80s MOMA had a Peter Ellenshaw exhibit displaying his matte paintings from various films. Where are they now?
They showed Castaways which I had never seen. It was a gorgeous print and that Disney Technicolor was beautiful.

The ones he did for Earthquake were talked about on the Shout Factory edition.

 

[B-ROLL]

it was fine.

The Blu-ray is fine but some us expect a little better than fine for a technicolor film. I would recommend the blu-ray with the caveat that it's not a Warner Archives quality release.

 

[B-ROLL]

The ones he did for Earthquake were talked about on the Shout Factory edition.

The video about Ellenshaw's Matte/Glass paintings for Disney is ported over from the DOG DVD on the blu-ray.

 

[Mark-P]

The Blu-ray is fine but some us expect a little better than fine for a technicolor film. I would recommend the blu-ray with the caveat that it's not a Warner Archives quality release.

Oh I disagree. While I don’t have the Blu-ray, I’ve seen the transfer on Movies Anywhere platform, and in my opinion it certainly measures up to WAC standards. And while the process may be Technicolor, the negative was Eastman.

 

[Randy Korstick]

Oh I disagree. While I don’t have the Blu-ray, I’ve seen the transfer on Movies Anywhere platform, and in my opinion it certainly measures up to WAC standards. And while the process may be Technicolor, the negative was Eastman.

Yep and as we know Eastman generally looks a bit faded and does not look as good as technicolor.

 

[roxy1927]

It was filmed in Eastman? But the Prints were Technicolor? Did Disney do it because it was cheaper? Did he do that with films like Pollyanna and Mary Poppins?

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

It was filmed in Eastman? But the Prints were Technicolor? Did Disney do it because it was cheaper? Did he do that with films like Pollyanna and Mary Poppins?

I think the last film shot in 3-strip Technicolor was Foxfire in 1955.

 

[Paul Penna]

I think the last film shot in 3-strip Technicolor was Foxfire in 1955.

The last US film, but I think Robert Harris has said that The Ladykillers, also 1955, was the very last. At any rate, after that “Technicolor” in a film's credits means only the projection prints. And except for a very few cases, that means that in terms of video versions, Technicolor film elements don't enter into them at all.

 

[darkrock17]

I think the last film shot in 3-strip Technicolor was Foxfire in 1955.

Wikipedia says the last film was Jet Pilot with John Wayne and Janet Leigh.

I had thought along with many others that the last filmed in that process was 1977's Suspiria.

 

[Paul Penna]

Wikipedia says the last film was Jet Pilot with John Wayne and Janet Leigh.

I had thought along with many others that the last filmed in that process was 1977's Suspiria.

The Wikipedia article on Jet Pilot will tell you that the last filming was done in 1953. The 1955 date for the final year that three-strip Technicolor filming took place is exhaustively documented.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

Wikipedia says the last film was Jet Pilot with John Wayne and Janet Leigh.

I had thought along with many others that the last filmed in that process was 1977's Suspiria.

Suspiria had some dye transfer Technicolor prints made, but was not filmed in three strip Technicolor.

 

[RobertMG]

It was filmed in Eastman? But the Prints were Technicolor? Did Disney do it because it was cheaper? Did he do that with films like Pollyanna and Mary Poppins?

Thought Disney had restored their library when Scott MacQueen was there

 

[darkrock17]

Thought Disney had restored their library when Scott MacQueen was there

He did Bedknobs and Broomsticks for the films 25th Anniversary in 1996, which Disney then butchered all of his work for the 2013 Blu release.

 

[roxy1927]

Wikipedia says the last film was Jet Pilot with John Wayne and Janet Leigh.

I had thought along with many others that the last filmed in that process was 1977's Suspiria.

I'm gobsmacked.

 

[Indy Guy]

Just because Darby was not shot in 3 strip Technicolor, doesn't mean that Darby or any films created after 1955 are automatically plagued with black crush and excess grain. I know a key effects genius at ILM who held Darby O'Gill in highest esteem for its extensive use of in-camera effects. The whole point of shooting Darby this way was to eliminate the noise and detail reduction inherent in traditional processed effects.
In this Blu ray transfer some effects sequences now look run of the mill rather than astonishing as they were originally seen.
.

 

[jim_falconer]

The Wikipedia article on Jet Pilot will tell you that the last filming was done in 1953. The 1955 date for the final year that three-strip Technicolor filming took place is exhaustively documented.

Principal photography was completed in 49. Hughes tinkered with the jets flying thru clouds for a number of years afterwards.
Just want to send out another ‘thanks’ to Kino for releasing it in hi-def, and finally in its correct aspect ratio

 

[Chuck Pennington]

The 2004 HD master in this comparison was used for the DVD release and various streaming releases (iTunes, Amazon, etc.). It was replaced by the master released on Blu-ray in 2022. The film was shot to be matted, and I have reduced the 2022 source to show how the film was cropped (apparently correctly) and lined it up with the 2004 release's framing. The audio is from the 2022 Blu-ray and is the original theatrical audio (not the dubbed version that appeared on Disney+ with this new video master in 2020).

The 2004 master looks like the 1993 LaserDisc though with a gigantic increase in resolution. Perhaps it was created from a recombine of the YCM separations whereas the original faded negative was used for the 2022 Blu-ray? The 2022 release is certainly sharper but at the cost of the color.

I tried to upload this to YouTube, but it kept being flagged for copyright. Hopefully this Dropbox link to download or stream the video is helpful to you all.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3vnh3mb8sej3f6h/DARBY HD comparison.mp4?dl=0

 

[Chuck Pennington]

 

[Chuck Pennington]

Here is a comparison of the original and dubbed soundtracks. The dubbed version was often shown on The Disney Channel in the 1980s, and it resurfaced on Disney+ in 2020.

Perhaps because these clips are so short this video wasn’t blocked on YouTube.

Darby O’Gill Dub comparison video