Is Disney ruining its cartoon classics?
Disney has a long-standing practice of rereleasing its most beloved animated titles in spiffed-up new packages, all of which purportedly feature the most cutting-edge transfers that technology can produce. Yet as one Twitter user illustrated Monday night, the studio’s restoration process may do far more harm than good — and fans, predictably, weren’t happy to learn this ugly truth.
Dublin-based artist Stephen Duignan took to Twitter to point out the many ways in which Disney has transformed — for the worse — movies like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, all in an effort to “enhance” them for the high-def era.
The Blu-ray of CINDERELLA (right) has been so scrubbed of grain that they've actually destroyed the linework in some scenes pic.twitter.com/TlqiVk5eY6
— Stephen Duignan (@stephen_duignan) April 23, 2018
Disney's whole process of "restoration" on high-profile releases is actually completely destructive of the original image, i.e. the original cel animation and background art as shot on film 80-30 years ago
— Stephen Duignan (@stephen_duignan) April 23, 2018
Instead of just cleaning dirt/fixing scratches/adjusting colour timing, they rotoscope every frame of character animation and isolate it from the original scene pic.twitter.com/Kzqj820XdZ
— Stephen Duignan (@stephen_duignan) April 23, 2018
They then recomposite the isolated animation over a new background, cleaned up and stitched together from the original scene pic.twitter.com/rNrIXKuaSx
— Stephen Duignan (@stephen_duignan) April 23, 2018
The end result is a picture free of any of the natural grain pattern and gate weave you'd expect from something shot on film, completely disguising the film's age and medium
— Stephen Duignan (@stephen_duignan) April 23, 2018
The problem is that the Blu-ray of SLEEPING BEAUTY, for example, isn't a presentation of the film from 1959 – it's a new, digital creation assembled in 2003, divorced from the cultural context of the original film https://t.co/nVowW4PRI3
— Stephen Duignan (@stephen_duignan) April 23, 2018
Unsurprisingly, Duignan’s thread inspired some unhappy comments from both cinephiles and Disney enthusiasts, who viewed such alterations (which many claim can be found in numerous Disney releases) as a form of bastardization — and a sign that the studio isn’t truly committed to maintaining the original versions of its classics.
This is an example of what I’ve talked about on here in the past: the aesthetic tyranny of consumer technology, which insists that older art be forced to look “new“ even if means erasing its original character. https://t.co/iMlYEDiIvx
— MZS (@mattzollerseitz) April 23, 2018
It's a disgusting practice. Altering the works and colours that the creators worked so hard on.
Would really prefer just straight film transfers like the Ghibli films.
— Nicholas Bray (@NicholasNWR) April 24, 2018
This is terrible. These gems should be left alone, full stop.
— bonnevivante (@bonnevivante) April 24, 2018
This is atrocious ! good work Stephen
— Thomas Stier (@thomas_stier) April 24, 2018
I barely understand why they do this but I'm not comfortable with it
— Neil Degauss Tyson (@DetroitQSpider) April 24, 2018
IIRC, I think the reason why the Cinderella & Sleeping Beauty remasters look so terrible is because they wanted the character’s dresses to match the merchandise. It’s a stupid idea and the reason why I avoid buying em.
I heard the Beauty & the Beast remasters are just as bad.
— Pat Caldora (@PCaldora) April 23, 2018
I never buy DIsney blu-rays for this reason.
— Zach Bellissimo (@CountZachulaaa) April 23, 2018
In an era marked by constant director’s cuts and special editions (we’re looking at you, Star Wars — which is also owned by Disney!), it is probably to be expected that such problems would naturally arise. Still, what say you, fellow readers? Is Disney improving its movies by tinkering this way, or is the studio ruining the very things it is trying to save?
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