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

[Brian81]

Originally Posted by maniac89

Did they move the "Walt Disney Pictures presents" text back to its original position over the hiding/revealing coral and reinstate the "In Association with Silver Screen Partners IV" text in front the jellyfish during the opening titles? Did they fix the piece of torn film seen at the upper-right corner of the frame where Ariel and Eric jump off Giant Ursula?

Did they reinstate the priest's kneecap?



Sounds like this is still a heavily modified version of the film, though a nicer presentation of Little Mermaid 2019.


Purists I guess better off with some kind of despecialized version or if they want a more faithful presentation, have to go back to VHS/LD.

[BenjaminG]

Originally Posted by TJake133

The titles seem really crisp though, wonder if they reimposed them

They did - as part of the 3D/4K remaster, so they could render different languages

[RalphoR]

Originally Posted by TJake133

I didn’t have a chance to check out the audio in detail. seems to be the same as the same as the Diamond edition but vudu also offers an atmos option.

The titles remain the same as in the Diamond edition, no Silverscreen, WDP presents is moved to the earlier shot, then gap until it lines up with the original from the title logo. The titles seem really crisp though, wonder if they reimposed them

Have to check out the torn film strip scene as well. Personally thought it was a cool detail hinting at the film-based origin of the movie.

Hope this helps, also sorry for typos, on my phone haha

Very nice job with your review

[that1guystudios]

Originally Posted by BenjaminG

They did - as part of the 3D/4K remaster, so they could render different languages

I checked it out on Vudu in Dolby Vision this morning. Looks astounding. Color is very fun without being over the top in Dolby Vision. Mermaid has often looked a little bland on home video. Not this time.

Yes the copyright date was changed at the end of the film from 2013 to 2018. Opening and closing titles have definitely been re-rendered again and appeared crisp and defined in 4K standing inches away from my display. Yes - this is in native 4K folks! I'm at work and forgot to look for the "rip" during the sea battle, which I have always believed is just the edge of the background artwork being positioned to closely to the edge at the filming stage. Will have to check and see if it was repaired when I get home from seeing Alita tonight!

I also sampled the Atmos Audio through Vudu. Seemed very similar to the previous 7.1 mix to my ears - I also wasn't hearing any issues with the dynamics - but then again I was only sampling a few moments before I had to head to work. Keep in mind though that this isn't the lossless disc mix which will likely different.

[BenjaminG]

Chris Heinonen's review is far more muted:

The image here offers both strengths and weaknesses over the included Blu-ray. The overall impression of the 4K disc is that it is much darker than the Blu-ray version. For a noticeable example, look at the scene near the end where they battle Ursula. As the boat raises up from the ocean floor, it is brown with decent detail on the Blu-ray disc but much darker, nearly black, on the 4K disc and lacking the detail there. This makes the very mild use of HDR on the 4K disc more apparent because of the darkness, but overall you’re likely to find this distracting. The 4K disc looks cleaner, and some colors are richer, but overall the darker image and sometimes missing shadow details are more bothersome to me. The animation doesn’t look much different between the two in terms of fine detail either, as there was only so much detail to begin with.

Like many recent Disney films, the bass impact here is lacking compared to other versions of the soundtrack. Watching the same scene with Ursula, when the waves crash you get more low-end rumble and impact on the Blu-ray soundtrack than you do on the 4K Atmos soundtrack when running at the same volume.

[TJake133]

Finally got a chance to check out the Dolby Vision version and compared all releases from Laserdisc onwards.

Dolby Vision makes blues seem more refined, not a huge difference but a pleasing image which reveals so many details now I’m impressed

Atmos: with my setup, it sounded really great. Also not a huge difference from the 7.1 mix but slightly more fine tuned.

I believe this is the release closest to a 35mm scan. “Heavy” modification is not really present as besides the studio logo (if considered part of the movie) and title logo (which in return however reveals more of the beautiful background paintings as it is shorter) is close to the theatrical release in color scheme and quality including grain and line art.

Modifications: they fixed the torn filmstrip in the final battle

Bonus features: the digital copies inlclude most extras and all digital providers now leave access to the Diamond edition copy as well. So you technically get two versions if you repurchase. Platinum edition picture gallery is iTunes exclusive and is in HD!
In case anyone is curious, main menu is still the moonlight silhouette animation

The digital copies of the sequels now also include digital extras, including iTunes extras.

Little match girl is missing but available as separate purchase or part of the Disney Animation short collection in HD.


Keep in mind especially HDR tech might require some fine tuning. It took me hours to tune my setup but haven’t had any issues since. ESP. Dolby Vision and atmos May appear dark and quiet in some settings, but it may be due to the setup.
I found out Vision and Atmos work best with TV-internal smoothing and processing turned off, almost require 24p native output and any auto brightness settings off.
I tested it on Sony’s A1E OLED. No issues with dark images or sound. Original film strip scans also appear rather dark but detailed compared to purely digital releases nowadays.

Hope this helps, really excited about this release, guys. Got to work with 35mm prints recently at work and I can say this is really close!

[TJake133]

Just a tiny heads up- the Blu-ray in the review is likely also based on the new print, so the dark image and loss of detail may be an issue with the same setup. I learned that HD and 4K require different setting for my setup as the lack of HDR reacts different in standard BLUs.

For my first look I compared the Diamond blu, Diamond digital copy, signature HD copy and 4K signature copy. Also cross referenced the previous releases on home media for color and framing.
Even the HD copies are very different and it is visible the Diamond was output at 1080 vs the new one which is just an HD copy of the 4K master.

Sadly, the only thing I noticed compared to other films from the era, the film does not include an original 1.85 aspect ratio version and merely a cropped 1.78 version. The loss is as minimal as it gets but nevertheless it would have been nice to have

[Matt89]

Originally Posted by BenjaminG

Chris Heinonen's review is far more muted:

Honestly it kinda sounds like he just doesn’t know what he’s talking about in the sense that some of his points contradict one another.

~Matt

[Dsneybuf]

Do the end credits still reference the 3D conversion?

[Farerb]

It seems like they made a new master out of the original scan. It makes me hopeful about future releases, especially Cinderella.

[that1guystudios]

Watched in its entirety in Dolby Vision and Atmos on Vudu. Will be interested to compare the disc once I receive it. On the audio side I felt that the Atmos mix doesn't really add much to the already excellent 7.1 mix. All the diamond edition errors appear to be corrected including the "film tear" and the "Grimsby Hand." Definitely opens and closes with the newer castle logo.

[that1guystudios]

Originally Posted by TJake133

Just a tiny heads up- the Blu-ray in the review is likely also based on the new print, so the dark image and loss of detail may be an issue with the same setup. I learned that HD and 4K require different setting for my setup as the lack of HDR reacts different in standard BLUs.

For my first look I compared the Diamond blu, Diamond digital copy, signature HD copy and 4K signature copy. Also cross referenced the previous releases on home media for color and framing.
Even the HD copies are very different and it is visible the Diamond was output at 1080 vs the new one which is just an HD copy of the 4K master.

Sadly, the only thing I noticed compared to other films from the era, the film does not include an original 1.85 aspect ratio version and merely a cropped 1.78 version. The loss is as minimal as it gets but nevertheless it would have been nice to have

On this it isn't cropped to 1.78:1. The matte is opened up/unmatted from 1.85:1 to 1.78:1.

[kyloren]

Originally Posted by that1guystudios

Watched in its entirety in Dolby Vision and Atmos on Vudu. One thing I noticed is that this restoration does the opposite of a lot of the Disney restorations. Instead of wiping the grain and detail on everything It appears they do freeze the backgrounds and do some DNR on those since they are static, but then they rotoscope the character animation and left the lien art and paint alone on the cels which means the majority of the grain seems to be left intact on the animation itself. It looks phenomenal. Will be interested to compare the disc once I receive it. On the audio side I felt that the Atmos mix doesn't really add much to the already excellent 7.1 mix. All the diamond edition errors appear to be corrected including the "film tear" and the "Grimsby Hand." Definitely opens and closes with the newer castle logo.

Nice to hear!

[Kanica88]

Now I’m 10x more excited

[smackrabbit]

Originally Posted by Matt89

Honestly it kinda sounds like he just doesn’t know what he’s talking about in the sense that some of his points contradict one another.

~Matt

The 4K version is just a touch too dark as I compared them back-and-forth (two players connected so I can switch between). It's a common complaint for people that HDR is too dark because of the absolute versus relative nature, but here I could move back and forth between scenes and the HDR version is keeping elements too dark, crushing some colors and details that are present in the Blu-ray version.

The 4K version is sharp, and a few brighter colors are a touch stronger than the Blu-ray, but the difference in detail is not that large, and you're more limited here by the original source than you are by the transfer it appears. The 4K version isn't bad, it just doesn't offer anything over the Blu-ray version really, and certain details can lose color compared to Blu-ray. It just winds up feeling like a much darker film on HDR than on SDR because of how Disney did the output levels, and there aren't big areas of HDR for wide contrast to make up for that.

I'd just personally save the $5-10 and find a Blu-ray copy myself instead of the 4K version, but I'm used to people that buy/pre-order a film disagreeing with my thoughts. Disney also sent Ralph Wrecks the Internet, so I'll see how that is today.

[Platitude]

So the Blu-ray in the set is new too?

[Majin Blu]

Originally Posted by Platitude

So the Blu-ray in the set is new too?

That's what I'd like to know. I don't have 4K capabilities yet, unfortunately.

[Dailyan]

Originally Posted by Platitude

So the Blu-ray in the set is new too?

It's most likely going to be the Diamond edition Blu in terms of PQ.

Edit: It appears that the new Blu is actually slightly different from the old according to the review.
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-L...223597/#Review

[Scottie]

SITE REVIEW

[banjo!]

So The Lion King is a 2K upscale and this a 4K remaster?