Gaffer Tape said:A little bit off-topic, but what's the deal with this new Sleeping Beauty release anyway?
The release you and I purchased a few years ago was a "special edition" and was not a part of the more in-depth restoration work going on with other titles. This new Sleeping Beauty release reflects the latter, "platinum" restoration techniques:
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/robertharris/harris101308.html
The new set is basically for the Blu-ray, but it also has a DVD copy of the newer restoration. In addition to higher resolution (with the Blu-ray) we get to see more of the image from a completely restored aspect ratio. However, there are problems:
http://whiggles.landofwhimsy.com/archives/2008/10/sleeping_beauty_bluray_impress.html
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/sleeping-beauty-blu-ray-doesnt-mean-better
http://louromano.blogspot.com/2008/10/sleeping-beauty-closer-look.html
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/3445320-post23.html
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/3446879-post55.html
http://www.lyris-lite.net/2008/10/14/sleeping-beauty-on-bd-mostly-astonishing.html
I'm mostly angry about the colors, but I'm also insulted that Disney would destroy the original film by thinking it's their duty to remove the grain. Screen shots like this look horrible after the grain is tinkered with:
http://whiggles.landofwhimsy.com/hdcaptures/sb7.jpg
I guess that shot was always out of focus (and not intentionally out of focus due to layering), but my criticism from a few posts up remains the same. Out of focus areas of an image, while still being indistinct with grain, still have a fine texture to them and I like that more.
Why can't we be given the same product that Walt Disney and Animators judged worthy for us to see? Why, instead, do we now have someone deciding that film grain look like "noise" on Blu-ray (when it actually shouldn't if properly encoded)? Who then decides that brush strokes and paper textures should be removed (which probably wouldn't have been as noticeable had the left the grain intact)?
I'm going to stick with my earlier DVD until Disney can do a proper high-def transfer. We may never get it, but I don't care. It's not worth the money. The same thing goes with the recent release of Nightmare before Christmas.