Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST - Amazing in HD

[Ernest Rister]

/nm

[BPHusker]

Wow, I just saw a clip of that and Aladdin... Damn those look good in Hi-Def.

[eli1277]

Can I see a pic of what you are talking about? Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney animated film.

[Mermen79]

Yeah, how about some high quality screen shots of the classic Disney films? That would be wonderful!

[BPHusker]

The Little Mermaid looks nowhere near as good as Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. I wonder if that will get a remaster soon.

[Mermen79]

^ Let's hope so. The platinum release wasn't up to par with the other P releases.

[BPHusker]

I tried to use my digital camera to take a picture of Beauty and the Beast, but it turned out all blurry. Hopefully someone else who knows what they're doing can get a screen capture to show others how good it looks. Anyone have a BD Drive in their computer?

[Blu-News]

It looks great, but have you seen the DVD upconverted on the Playstation 3? OMG, it's pretty close and it looks amazing.

[BPHusker]

Originally Posted by Blu-News

It looks great, but have you seen the DVD upconverted on the Playstation 3? OMG, it's pretty close and it looks amazing.

I've wanted to get Beauty and the Beast but it seems to go for $40+ on Ebay.

[BPHusker]

Isn't Beauty and the Beast rumored to be the Fall 2009 re-released Platinum Collection film?

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

Pinocchio will street in the spring, and Beauty and the Beast will be a major Blu-Ray event in the Fall. Snow White will most likely be a 2010 release.

Most likely, again, due to Disney not wanting to release TWO ancient 30's/40's pre-war titles in the same year, and spoil their audience diversity...
They'll let Snow take a breather for the more mastering-ready B&B.

(And I still claim that all the "cool" D-Files raves suspiciously seem to center on B&B, Aladdin and Lion King--the three IMAX-vets that upconverted the crispest on SD--but I'll save my judgment until I watch "Enchanted" next week.)

[HDJK]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

...
The shots of Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast were just stunning...

You're killing me.... it's hard enough waiting for those releases already, but teasing us like this is just mean

I was going to wait for a release of Enchanted over here so I can rent it first (no more blind buys for me, even if it's Disney). But now you have me reconsider. Thanks for the heads-up.

[Mermen79]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

Beast and Aladdin have digital negatives. They weren't shot on film - each frame was scanned and then digitally captured, composited and colored. From this, a digital virtual negative was created. This digital "virtual negative" was then written to film using three argon gas lasers. All Disney animated features since The Rescuers Down Under have been "shot" in this process. There is no film anymore where Disney animation is concerned. It's all digital capture, and this is why every Disney animated film since 1990 is going to be stunning on Blu-Ray -- we're going to get straight-digital ports (at least, I hope so -- Rescuers Down Under, Hercules, and Hunchback deserve to be seen in all their clarity)

The Little Mermaid was the last Disney animated feature to be shot using hand-painted cels and photographed with actual film stock. That - coupled with a low budget due to the caution of the studio - combined to give Mermaid a lackluster appearance with many cut-corners (ever notice how the one-eyed sailor talking to Prince Eric at the beginning of the film keeps talking long after his vocal track becomes inaudible? His lines were cut but the animation for the full shot remained, so you get an animated character with his mouth moving, but no dialog on the soundtrack. To this day, I can't understand the full sentence this character is allegedly stating...) Anyway, this is how the movie starts, and the remainder of the film is chok-a-blok with similar rushed goofs and sloppy (even pedestrian) animation. The saving grace for Mermaid is the second and third acts, which are so assured and sincere in their storytelling, they wash away the clumsy writing of the first.

Mermaid is going to need a frame-by-frame digital capture and overhaul in order to appear on Blu-Ray with the same clarity of Beast, Rescuers Down Under, Aladdin and the rest. Disney's not bringing the title to Blu-Ray anytime soon, so the last DVD is likely the best we're going to get until the next decade.

Wait, I'm confused. Didn't Rescuers Down Under come out before TLM? So how could every film after that be on digital negatives when TLM wasn't?

TLM is one of my favourite films and now that you point out some more of the sloppy animations, it makes me double think about the film as a whole (in the animation department). Most of it is great in but as you remember in one of my other threads, I pointed out all the very obvious off-model Ariels.

By the way, do you remember the scene where Ariel and Eric are on top of Ursula's crown? Ariel says, "You have to get away from here" and Eric says, "No, I won't leave you!" Well, their lips aren't animated AT ALL. That's bothered me and now I have to pay attention to that sailor.

[Whytewash]

word up on the lion king and aladdin. they both look rad!

i also second whoever mentioned rescures down under!

that movie is awesome!

[Joe Cain]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

UltimateDisney.com (which seems to have a bone up its rear about Blu-Ray for some reason...)

Even before the format war began to impact the forum, I felt UD was losing relevance for me when they choose to broaden their coverage to include non-Disney releases (Laverne & Shirley on DVD, anyone?) rather than embracing Disney's new direction in home media.

For that reason I haven't been able to stand UD for months. There are some knowledgeable and interesting folks on the forum, but there are a lot more children---not that there's anything wrong with that, but I have no deep personal need to discuss slipcovers and the Jonas Brothers. And then there's the anti-BD contingent (including many posters who behave like children), largely fueled by the school of thought that feels Disney is oh noez! abandoning! the DVD format because there's no Mighty Ducks boxset or 2-disc George of the Jungle Special Edition---never mind that the DVD market is contracting or that the vast majority of the desirable Disney catalog (and that of most major studios) has been made available on DVD over the past decade. I don't have the patience to argue anymore, and I've pretty much lost interest as well. Whatever. Either you're on the bus, or you're off the bus. UD has lost my Amazon click-through revenue to this site.

As for the thread topic: I haven't made it through the D-Files yet because I've been too busy re-watching No Country For Old Men.

Originally Posted by djepic112

Didn't Rescuers Down Under come out before TLM?

No. Mermaid premiered November of '89, the Rescuers sequel came out the following fall (see list of Disney theatrical animated features.)

[becomingwater]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

Beast and Aladdin have digital negatives. They weren't shot on film - each frame was scanned and then digitally captured, composited and colored. From this, a digital virtual negative was created. This digital "virtual negative" was then written to film using three argon gas lasers. All Disney animated features since The Rescuers Down Under have been "shot" in this process. There is no film anymore where Disney animation is concerned. It's all digital capture, and this is why every Disney animated film since 1990 is going to be stunning on Blu-Ray -- we're going to get straight-digital ports (at least, I hope so -- Rescuers Down Under, Hercules, and Hunchback deserve to be seen in all their clarity)

The Little Mermaid was the last Disney animated feature to be shot using hand-painted cels and photographed with actual film stock. That - coupled with a low budget due to the caution of the studio - combined to give Mermaid a lackluster appearance with many cut-corners (ever notice how the one-eyed sailor talking to Prince Eric at the beginning of the film keeps talking long after his vocal track becomes inaudible? His lines were cut but the animation for the full shot remained, so you get an animated character with his mouth moving, but no dialog on the soundtrack. To this day, I can't understand the full sentence this character is allegedly stating...) Anyway, this is how the movie starts, and the remainder of the film is chok-a-blok with similar rushed goofs and sloppy (even pedestrian) animation. The saving grace for Mermaid is the second and third acts, which are so assured and sincere in their storytelling, they wash away the clumsy writing of the first.

Mermaid is going to need a frame-by-frame digital capture and overhaul in order to appear on Blu-Ray with the same clarity of Beast, Rescuers Down Under, Aladdin and the rest. Disney's not bringing the title to Blu-Ray anytime soon, so the last DVD is likely the best we're going to get until the next decade.

With Sleeping Beauty being released in the near future, I wonder how long it will take to have all the classics on Blu. I am also looking forward to Finding Nemo and Toy Story on Blu-ray.

[The Big Blue]

Enchanted arrived in my mailbox yesterday from Blockbuster Online and I'm now more fired up for the D-files than I am to watch Enchanted.

Really curious though what you think of Enchanted Ernest. It's been really surprising to me how well they must have executed the concept judging by critical and fan reaction.

[Deciazulado]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

The last DVD release suffers from serious compression artifacts -- (Disney squeezed three versions of the movie on one disc, plus bonus feautres). The shots on the D-Files are on a completely different level of presentation. The film has never looked the way it does on the Blu-Ray of Enchanted. It literally takes your breath away if you're familiar with the previous video versions.

Btw, the PAL DVD looks much better than the NTSC DVD

[darkpoet25]

I never even thought of watching Enchanted, but after reading this thread I may have too now. *takes a deep breath*, Hello my name is Cliff I'm 33 and I love watching Disney movies. There, I said it and I didn't die.

[Joe Cain]

Originally Posted by darkpoet25

I never even thought of watching Enchanted, but after reading this thread I may have too now. *takes a deep breath*, Hello my name is Cliff I'm 33 and I love watching Disney movies. There, I said it and I didn't die.

The first step is admitting you have a problem---the same one I've had for more than 30 years. If you love watching Disney movies, Enchanted is probably a must-see (though I won't presume to decided matters of ownership for anyone else). I was quite skeptical, thinking it would be more of a Dreamworks Animation-styled in-joke-a-thon, but the film quite exceeded my expectations.