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Info: Recommended Editions of Disney Animated (and Partially Animated) Features — Page 30

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titanic said:

Screenshot comparisons of Ichabod release (Bluray Vs. DVD):

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/85922/picture:0

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/85924

 Not so bad, all things considered, mainly the cropped edges and darkened image (contrasts boost ?). At least, it doesn'y look over scrubbed for the grain, unlike some others films of the same perion (Mickey's Christmas Carol, Sword in the Stone, etc), or over cropped for a fake widescreen like too many other films these days...

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Disney wouldn't dare release a 1949 movie in widescreen

(Obs: "Mickey"'s from 1983 and "Sword" is from 1963, they aren't from the same period)

Hey, I just downloaded a 1080p low bitrate encode of Fun and Fancy Free, and unlike Mr. Toad/Ichabod it has more top and sides info, and the same at the bottom.

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Doctor M said:

titanic said:

Screenshot comparisons of Ichabod release (Bluray Vs. DVD):

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/85922/picture:0

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/85924

 Huh.  I'd swear they didn't scrub all the grain, but what is with the color changes?  I'm not sure what's right.

 well, you know Disney. Hell would be frozen when they decide to leave a film intact (grain, colors, aspect ratio etc.)

I don't know what colors are right but I love the DVD's.

The sky looks much better while in the Bluray it leans toward teal!!

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The problem is the DVD almost looks pastel, which is suggestive of the same issue that the early Dumbo release had.  The DVD could be just as wrong, just for different reasons.

Dr. M

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How do the new Blu-ray editions of Tarzan and Hercules fair against previous editions?

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Some encoding issues, but nothing too major.

Same color schemes as the earlier DVD's. Those films weren't as popular as the earlier Renaissance titles, so Disney didn't pay too much attention to them (Luckily).

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how about the widescreen vhs of the lion king?which aspect ratio is that?

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The CLV LD is 1.85, wouldn't the VHS also be 1.85?

"Right now the coffees are doing their final work." (Airi, Masked Rider Den-o episode 1)

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if i had the back cover,i would have known for sure,molly.that's the problem,i don't want to buy something that is identical to the laserdisc in aspect ratio,i hope it's 1.66:1

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I don't remember a lot of VHS tapes being anything but 1.33:1.

Dr. M

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SilverWook said:

Widescreen VHS was a thing for a while before DVD arrived. (Using the same transfers made for Laserdisc.) Stores like Suncoast had special section for them.

I'd forgotten that. I remember a moment when I walked into Suncoast to buy the widescreen VHS of the director's cut of "Blade Runner".

He told me he wouldn't even think of buying it. He had a friend with a laserdisc player, and he could get better quality by recording straight from that.

I did leave with the tape, but I was amazed at his sales pitch.

“Before the Dark Times. Before the Prequels.”

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I used to do that so my parents could enjoy my LD collection once in a while.

The tricky part was editing out the side breaks before I had a professional VCR. ;)

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

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Sorry, I'm overdue updating this guide, and I will get to it.  Largely it seems the recent slate of 'dumped on market' blu-ray films are in better condition than the top releases.

I do want to mention ahead of this that the just released 'Bedknobs and Broomsticks' BD contains the theatrical cut only.

This is good because it is the first digital release of B&B in it's original theatrical form.  Of course it is also 22 minutes shorter than any release put out in the last 20 years.

I predicted this because the restored scenes are in quite poor condition.  I figured if they had it in a quality that would hold up to HD, it would have looked better to start with.

Hang on to your DVDs if you like the extended cut, you may never see it anywhere else again.

Dr. M

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Discussion was sparse regarding the Rescuers Blu-ray back when I was working on the guide.

I thought maybe it wasn't restored because the reviews talked about it not looking great, but I recently viewed some screenshots and I'm thinking they did hit it with some unfortunate digital cleanup.

Rescuers Down Under definitely looks good on BD with the great look you'd associate from being struck from film.  I'm just not so sure about the original film.

Anyone have more info?

ALSO, I want to ask you guys what you all see, don't see, or care about in releases.

When I look at digitally scrubbed frames from Disney, I see what I call a 'licked candy stick' appearance.  I don't know if there is a real term for it.

Ink lines that should taper off or thin out like a brush stroke get eroded, smoothed and sometimes rounded.  Sketch lines are pretty much gone as well.

I can tell you it looks 'unnatural' as a frame, I'm not sure how well I could pick it out in motion.  It may simply be an effect of the grain being missing that would normally hide the line ends.

The point being, do we reject this sort of digital clean up from the guide or not?  The Rescuers has never looked great on home video.  Is the overscrubbed look an acceptable our trade off for a better transfer of the film?

Below are screenshots from Blu-ray.com comparing the Rescuers and Rescuers Down Under.  I know they came from different eras, but I still feel like the original film has been poorly treated.

(Right click and select 'View Image' for full size.)

Rescuers

Rescuers Down Under

Dr. M

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Where'd Bianca's whiskers go?!

“Before the Dark Times. Before the Prequels.”

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MattMahdi said:

Where'd Bianca's whiskers go?!

That's true throughout the film and consistent with the movie posters for Down Under.

Looks like she had some electrolysis between the films.

Dr. M

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Many thanks to all who have contributed to this thread, it is most enlightening. Based on the recommendations, I have started picking up some of the purist/recommended releases. One thing that has come to my attention is that that there are pretty good counterfeit Disney DVDs on the market, but they are often compressed down a bit to cost down (as they say in China). I currently live in Asia and am picking up the releases on Fleabay and Amazon, but I am worried that I will be getting bad goods.

I don't really mind a full counterfeit, but a lower quality bootleg defeats the purpose of buying the disc. Are there any sites that have info on the the original disc data size of the Disney retail DVDs? If not, could they possibly be added to the first posts in this thread?

Buying 15 year old DVDs marked as New or Good is a bit sketchy online. But I can get my folks to check the disc easily enough.

Every couple on months I get a box of goodies from stateside via seamail. In a recent one I got the Friendship Pooh release. It is pretty awesome, I love the pencil lines, and am looking to see more in other releases!

Cheers

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SilverWook said:

On a side note, would there be any interest in a preservation of this?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Beta-Disney-Snow-White-Live-at-Radio-City-Music-Hall-Betamax-/191311970208

This aired on HBO many times in the early 80's. The production values were pretty good for the era, and the plot of the movie was expanded a bit. AFAIK, there has never been a DVD release.

I've seen a DVD transfer of this on Cinematik.  I didn't think to get it when it was posted and it is now dead.  Probably still floating about though.

loadingloadingloadingloadingloading

Dr. M

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I have this one, so if you'd like a link, you can PM me.