The Little Mermaid 4K UHD (1989) (30th Anniversary Edition)

[Farerb]

Originally Posted by maniac89

Should BATB ever come out on 4K Blu-ray, would it be more likely to use the color scheme from the Diamond Edition or the 3D Edition?

In my opinion it depends on whether they want to put the theatrical edition only, meaning they'll probably use the 3D master, or they want to put both theatrical and special edition, using the 2D master.

[Farerb]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

4k scans of the original negatives of all the hand-drawn pre-CAPS titles, color timing and restoration finished at 2K.

Does that mean that they will have to do a new 4K master when they rerelease the films on 4K? Could it be an opportunity to finally fix Cinderella?

[starkrogersthor91]

Originally Posted by farerb

Does that mean that they will have to do a new 4K master when they rerelease the films on 4K? Could it be an opportunity to finally fix Cinderella?

Very unlikely. They’ll just use the previous masters and “upscale” them if they have to

[ToEhrIsHuman]

Originally Posted by davlee1991

Very unlikely. They’ll just use the previous masters and “upscale” them if they have to

Uh, no no no no NO!! If Di$ney thinks they can get away with that I will not repurchase a single title.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by davlee1991

Very unlikely. They’ll just use the previous masters and “upscale” them if they have to

I agree, sadly. The Mouse is one cheap mofo.

[that1guystudios]

Originally Posted by davlee1991

Very unlikely. They’ll just use the previous masters and “upscale” them if they have to

Why do you think that would be the case? It's one thing to upscale a 2K master of a DI for a modern film, but It's a whole other thing to upscale an old 2K restoration of a film. I don't think Disney would do that for its big vaulted titles.

[Matt89]

My guess is that they most likely used that raw 4K scan and then colour timed and restored it in native 4K. I seriously doubt they would take the blu-ray remaster and just upscale it. Is ANY studio doing that? I mean besides a modern 2K DI upscale, for movies shot on film, they're being released in true 4K. At least, I have yet to see one that hasn't.

~Matt

[Farerb]

Clips from one of the bonus features:

http://www.playbill.com/article/excl...-musical-magic

[MattPerdue]

Originally Posted by Matt89

My guess is that they most likely used that raw 4K scan and then colour timed and restored it in native 4K. I seriously doubt they would take the blu-ray remaster and just upscale it. Is ANY studio doing that? I mean besides a modern 2K DI upscale, for movies shot on film, they're being released in true 4K. At least, I have yet to see one that hasn't.

~Matt

Mind it really is the exception rather than the rule.

[leniphotography]

The Little Mermaid exclusive Best Buy Steelbook is not available for shipping. Is this common? I’ve ordered several Best Buy Steelbooks and I’ve never had this problem, including The Lion King 4K. The closest store to me (85 miles) doesn’t have it available for pickup. It’s only available at Best Buy’s more than 100 miles from me. What’s the deal? I guess my hope of starting my new classics collection in all Steelbook was stupid.

[starkrogersthor91]

Originally Posted by that1guystudios

Why do you think that would be the case? It's one thing to upscale a 2K master of a DI for a modern film, but It's a whole other thing to upscale an old 2K restoration of a film. I don't think Disney would do that for its big vaulted titles.

Because Disney have literally said, on the record, that the entire reason they went to the painstaking effort of rescanning / remastering their *entire catelog* in 4K 10 years ago is so that they never had to do it again.

Disney’s home media budget has drastically scaled back in the last decade, and with an already complete, and very costly recatelog of everything already, there’s no chance they’re going back to do it again.

Disney’s releases aren’t what they were 10 years ago. They’re slapdash, with very little effort put into them. This is exactly what they’ve done with the Diamond > Signature releases. All the same masters. Don’t expect any new ones.

[hariseldon]

Originally Posted by leniphotography

The Little Mermaid exclusive Best Buy Steelbook is not available for shipping. Is this common? I’ve ordered several Best Buy Steelbooks and I’ve never had this problem, including The Lion King 4K. The closest store to me (85 miles) doesn’t have it available for pickup. It’s only available at Best Buy’s more than 100 miles from me. What’s the deal? I guess my hope of starting my new classics collection in all Steelbook was stupid.

It seems to me to be pretty much expected in virtually every BBY Steelbook thread.

The initial quota is booked and at some point they'll come back into stock and you can order again. Sometimes during pre-release, almost 100% chance sometime after 1-2am on release day either for shipping and usually for in-store pickup at those stores who have already sold out of their 1st Line quota.

Tyrok or one of the employees can correct me, but most stores appears to block about 50% (maybe up to 75%) of their expected items for pre-sale and save the rest for sale after release which allows in-store traffic and a buffer in case the release day stock are shorted

I don't remember many high demand Steelbooks that don't follow this pattern -- except the bizarre case of 2001. There have been 1 or 2 other super short supply items over the last 5 years, but the overwhelming majority show back for order usually several times.

My suggestion if you absolutely don't want to miss out is to order an item for pickup at any store that has it, then wait for the item to reappear for shipping. If it does, then cancel your ISPU or just don't pick it up if it's too late to cancel. If it's really going to be that short then the gas money will pay for itself compared to Ebay prices or have a forum member pick up an extra and ship it to you.

[Matt89]

Originally Posted by MattPerdue

Mind it really is the exception rather than the rule.

Yes and Universal is pretty much in its own category entirely. They've always done stuff like that (they probably have the worst track record of any major studio when it comes to the A/V of their releases), so coming from Universal it's no shocker but most other studios pulling tricks like that would take me by surprise.

~Matt

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

I agree, sadly. The Mouse is one cheap mofo.

that comment made me laugh out loud

[Khronikos]

Best Buy release looks mediocre. Not sure about the steel. Looks a bit weird as well. The Target one might be my go to. I refuse to buy any of the new Disney cover arts unless they are amazing. I hate how lame they look with that slash on the bottom.

[Khronikos]

Originally Posted by OWENA

I'm getting the Target exclusive!

Honestly, this one looks like the best one to me. I only have the diamond edition or whatever with slip and 3D, and that cover art is awesome. Will not be beaten it looks like.

Glad Target is not doing the slash on the bottom of the Mermaid one like they did with Lion King. I also hated that storybook Lion King with the double Simba. I usually dislike all kinds of characters on one cover art just mixed together, one reason I actually liked the new Lion King Steel as it was tasteful but different. They already have the definitive steel with pride rock anyway.

But here I have to see the BB steelbook up close. It looks a bit strange to me, but we'll see. The normal cover is just like Lion King to me. IDK. I can't really get behind collecting Disney covers with that awful slash on the front. It ruins it for me.

What do you guys think of that BB steel?

[Khronikos]

Well after looking at those close ups of the steel, I actually kind of like it. Might have to pick that up with the Target version.

[that1guystudios]

Originally Posted by davlee1991

Because Disney have literally said, on the record, that the entire reason they went to the painstaking effort of rescanning / remastering their *entire catelog* in 4K 10 years ago is so that they never had to do it again.

Disney’s home media budget has drastically scaled back in the last decade, and with an already complete, and very costly recatelog of everything already, there’s no chance they’re going back to do it again.

Disney’s releases aren’t what they were 10 years ago. They’re slapdash, with very little effort put into them. This is exactly what they’ve done with the Diamond > Signature releases. All the same masters. Don’t expect any new ones.

The majority of Buena Vista's library was scanned in 4K resolution by Warner's MPI group as part of a forward-thinking preservation effort many years ago. No restoration was done to those negative scans at that time. Restoration work which was done later is done using the original scans as a starting point. Some of the 4K scans were done after the titles were already released to Blu-ray (such as Cinderella, Bambi, Peter Pan.)

It is unlikely that Disney will dump 2K upscales onto 4K discs for the entire pipeline.

It is a given that we will get Upscales for all 2K CAPS animation films (anything post-Mermaid) as it's max resolution was 2K.

However, full 4K scans and restorations have been completed for some of the Disney animated features (which used a proprietary sequential exposure camera negative process which Mermaid was the last title to use.)

These full 4K restorations have not yet been seen on home video at the full 4K resolution the restoration houses had in some cases provided. When these films/discs are released you will see the same benefit of a resolution jump and an HDR pass as other films like those released by other studios like Sony.

Mermaid is the last film-based animated feature and was scanned and restored in 4K prior to it's last release (partially to eek out as much resolution as possible for it's 3D conversion). It is a best-seller (and Ariel prominently features in Ralph 2 which releases on BD/UHD the same day) so this being a prominent 4K release is a no-brainer. I believe we will see the same 4K master as was downscaled to the last Blu-ray release of Mermaid, but this time we will see it in its full 4K resolution output, which will also feature an HDR10 pass (Dolby Vision on Vudu). The sound has also been remixed in Atmos (which I won't discuss here as that is it's own controversial subject.)

Many of the early/sub-par (DVD-facing) restoration work done by the now defunct Lowry Digital (such as Cinderella or Peter Pan) was completed at 2K or lower resolution. I believe it is possible we will see remasters of those scant few titles hit 4K in versions that look quite better in the future.

Later titles were handled by different restoration houses and utilized the 4K preservation scans as a base. These titles such as Dumbo, Ichabod and Mr Toad and Snow White still look polished, but aren't wiped of detail to the level that Cinderella and Pan are.

Other titles weren't given a high resolution restoration at all. (Sword/Stone, for example.)

Disney+ is subscription based and is targeting Netflix with this streaming platform.

If I was a betting man, I think you will see a streaming model where a 4K/HDR/Atmos option is available at a premium price just as Netflix offers.

I believe that streaming is the way that we will see the majority of future restorations/films get released. While I don't like not having the physical disc option I believe streaming is the option Disney will choose in the immediate future. Ultimately they are a business and recurring revenue subscriptions are extremely profitable.

[ben6543]

Just pre-ordered this in 4k just to have another 4k if I ever go 4k. Can't wait to watch it

[Farerb]

Third clip:
https://www.broadwayworld.com/articl...-Lane-20190130