Originally Posted By mawnck >>I'm talking bootleg quality where the picture pixelated.<< If you've been buying Disney DVDs from ebay, there's a very good chance they're not just bootleg "quality*.
Originally Posted By Bellella Actually, I bought them from Amazon.com. I've bought most of my collection from them and lucked out on many DVDs of superior quality. But the problem four- "Snow White", "Sleeping Beauty", "Beauty and the Beast", and "Lion King"- made me feel cheated and annoyed every time I watched them. I was and am very aware that they're bootlegs. I just bought a legit copy of "Sleeping Beauty" at a used DVD store that was practically brand new, but I haven't been able to find the other three. I'm afraid of re-ordering them from Amazon again and being cheated again. The only bootleg I have that I felt justified in buying was "Song of the South", since that's the best quality I'm ever going to get with that one.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 If you got a bootleg from Amazon, it wasn't from Amazon per se, but from one of their re-sellers. When you order it will say which it is.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>But the problem four- "Snow White", "Sleeping Beauty", "Beauty and the Beast", and "Lion King"- made me feel cheated and annoyed every time I watched them. I was and am very aware that they're bootlegs.<< Dare I mention Blu Ray? Naaaaaah.
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance What about the Peter Pan bluray? I want to buy that because I don't own any other Peter Pan copies, is it okay?
Originally Posted By ecdc Peter Pan looked great to me. People who seem to really care about this stuff also agreed it was excellent. Here's an in-depth transcript that covers what Disney does with a restoration. mawnck's more familiar with this stuff than I am, but I can't help but wonder if there's been a massive shakeup lately, or if there's certain films that get special treatment vs. others. Seriously, you just cannot fathom how bad Mickey's Christmas Carol is.
Originally Posted By ecdc <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.hometheaterforum.com/topic/321109-prepping-peter-pan-for-blu-ray/">http://www.hometheaterforum.co...blu-ray/</a> Hey, how about a link?
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance Luckily, I have an old copy of Mickey's CC, as it's always been one of my favorites. Glad to hear Peter Pan is good, I'll be buying that soon before it goes away again. And speaking of going away, that whole "released from the vault" thing has always seemed so cheap and tacky to me.
Originally Posted By ecdc >>Luckily, I have an old copy of Mickey's CC, as it's always been one of my favorites.<< Me too. I still have it in my trusty Walt Disney Treasures collection. I didn't know they'd released it elsewhere.
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance Did they just re-release Mickey's CC? I bought the DVD probably about 5 years ago.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>Did they just re-release Mickey's CC?<< See post 1. They released it on Blu Ray. But first they gave it a good digital scraping so that all the details are gone. >>Peter Pan looked great to me. People who seem to really care about this stuff also agreed it was excellent.<< Well, actually … >>Peter Pan has been a subject of controversy for years now with regards to its home video DVD presentation. I hoped that some of the issues that caused the problems with the Special Edition DVD edition would be rectified for this High Definition Blu-ray release. Unfortunately, that's not the case. The color-timing and actual colors have been altered somewhat from the original form. Some elements are intact while other moments demonstrate Disney altering animation a number of hard-working animators worked to create when the film was originally made. This was likely done to try and modernize the art style, but it essentially robs the film some of its original artistry and it's disappointing and disrespectful to those involved in animating it. It definitely doesn't make this an entirely authentic presentation.<< <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/58729/peter-pan-diamond-edition/">http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews...edition/</a> Screen grabs of the two DVD transfers can be found here, showing a STUNNING difference of opinion: <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s2242pan.html">http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsava...pan.html</a> Apparently the Blu Ray sticks with the more recent colors. My opinion? Both DVDs were so lousy that the Blu Ray is a huge improvement regardless. The problem with Disney is we can't trust 'em. All the puff piece interviews in the world don't change the glaring shot-to-shot color timing errors in the "Once Upon a Dream" sequence of Sleeping Beauty, or the accidentally erased sparkle effects in "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo". I trust my own eyes more than I trust Sara Duran. (Sorry, Sara.) They might be able to convince me that the laserdisc of Peter Pan had wrong colors and that everything really is supposed to be yellow, but you will NEVER convince me that the laserdisc of Cinderella had too many magic sparkles. So if they say the latest colors in Peter Pan are the correct ones, honest, we even compared them to original prints, yada yada yada, I just don't have much reason to believe that they aren't blowing smoke up my caboose.
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance Well, I need to own Peter pan or I will get kicked out of the Disney club, so I will have to deal with the changes..
Originally Posted By ecdc >>showing a STUNNING difference<< Uh.... Wow. I didn't know about that. I think even people who saw the Mickey's Christmas Carol screenshots and said, "Hey, what am I looking for here?" could agree that those are some pretty drastic differences in Peter Pan. I could understand if we were looking at, say, a 1982 Betamax release vs. a 2007 DVD release. But what on earth happened in five years that Disney completely changed the color timing? Like mawnck said, maybe it really was "Oops, we got it wrong and now we're fixing it." But they haven't exactly engendered a whole lotta trust. I mean, even if that was the case, their 2002 special edition ain't so special if it can't even manage to replicate colors properly.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Wow, thos images are pretty bad. In addition to being colored very strangely, the details also appear to be much less sharp than the 2002 version >>And speaking of going away, that whole "released from the vault" thing has always seemed so cheap and tacky to me.<< According to Disney lore, the vault was one of Eisner's first ideas with the company. He paralleled it to the days when a film would get rereleased in theaters every few years, and it was sort of an event. Plus, it makes it easier for them to keep releasing new versions that people want to buy again, or discontinuing the 'classics' and convincing people who were on the fence to buy them. Yah, it's a little contrived, but it was a pretty clever idea in its day
Originally Posted By mawnck >>the details also appear to be much less sharp than the 2002 version<< IIRC one of the editions, I think it was the 2002, suffered (greatly!) from too much edge enhancement. I think if those frames were full-sized, you'd find the 2007 version looked better in that regard. The danger is always in assuming that the older version is the correct one. In this particular case, I just don't know. Even comparing with the original cels doesn't really tell you because (1) paint dyes change color over time, and (2) they chose their colors based on how they'd look on developed film stock of the day, not on how they looked on the cel. That's why I try not to get TOO hung up over color choices unless there are either glaring inconsistencies (like in "Once Upon a Dream") or blatant alterations (like the HD "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" TV special with the glowing chartreuse grinch).
Originally Posted By leemac Oh guru of all things animated: Do the blu ray packs include a "new" transfer on DVD? What I mean is does the DVD inside the blu ray packs mirror the previous DVD releases or is it some sort of new DVD based on the blu?
Originally Posted By mawnck >>Oh guru of all things animated<< What? Where? >>What I mean is does the DVD inside the blu ray packs mirror the previous DVD releases or is it some sort of new DVD based on the blu?<< I've seen it go both ways.
Originally Posted By gurgitoy2 Thanks for pointing all of these restorations out, it saves me wasting money and being frustrated with a lousy print that was supposed to be "better". Now I'll stick to the well received restorations. I notice the difference and it upsets me that they can't be bothered with creating an accurate representation of the film as presented on original release in theaters. Mickey's Christmas Carol is one of my favorite versions of the Dickens story, so I really would like a nice HD version. Looks like I'll stick to the Treasures copy I have for now. Oh, and I'm surprised nobody mentioned Scrooge's hand in the list of differences between the two shots. In the new one, the lines on his fingers are not solid, they disappear, but the "old" one they are solid lines...and thinner at that. The same with the the stacks of coins, the lines are not solid in the new frame, but they are in the old. So, thanks again for pointing these things out. It helps to have people who are picky about their blu-ray releases.
Originally Posted By mawnck Watched the Blu Ray of My Neighbor Totoro last night. Looks fantastic. Maybe they should have Studio Ghibli do future restorations?
Originally Posted By leemac ^^ I've yet to come across a poor Ghibli blu - the Hong Kong and Japanese issues have been transferred to the format immaculately.
