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

[starkrogersthor91]

Originally Posted by Hardback247

Does that mean we won't get a new restoration for Cinderella?

I’ve been saying all along that it’s incredibly unlikely. The entire point of Disney remastering the Diamond releases in 4K was for future-proofing, so they’d never have to do it again. I can’t see Disney splashing out on a new restoration for Cinderella, especially given their lack of interest in physical media and reportedly much lower budget for it these days.

Of course, some Signature’s have had changes made since the Diamonds. But they’ve all been minor fixes like fixing audio glitches, reinstating titles and adding clouds back into shots. Much different to a completely new restoration.

But hey, I’ve been wrong before, I just don’t see it happening.

[Farerb]

Some people suggested that the reason why Cinderella hasn't come out as a Signature title yet (as opposed to the Platinum and Diamond where the film was released after Bambi/Lady and the Tramp) was because Disney is familiar with the problems of the master and they are creating a new one. That or they want to release it in 2020 for an anniversary edition.

[ZHobbs]

HD Movie Source is listing a date of 02/26/19

[Torgon]

Originally Posted by ZHobbs

HD Movie Source is listing a date of 02/26/19

[that1guystudios]

Originally Posted by davlee1991

I’ve been saying all along that it’s incredibly unlikely. The entire point of Disney remastering the Diamond releases in 4K was for future-proofing, so they’d never have to do it again. I can’t see Disney splashing out on a new restoration for Cinderella, especially given their lack of interest in physical media and reportedly much lower budget for it these days.

Of course, some Signature’s have had changes made since the Diamonds. But they’ve all been minor fixes like fixing audio glitches, reinstating titles and adding clouds back into shots. Much different to a completely new restoration.

But hey, I’ve been wrong before, I just don’t see it happening.

I'd love it if someone knows the exact answer to this.

As far as I know the Archival scans of the negatives (in some cases sequential exposure negatives) were done in 4K or higher for nearly all of Disney's live action and animated film library.

Here are some links - http://whysoblu.com/a-talk-with-disn...tion-of-dumbo/
https://www.hometheaterforum.com/com...ibrary.308674/

However, it is my understanding that the 4K negative scans were downscaled to 2K resolution during the earlier digital restoration efforts completed by Lowry Digital. (For example - Cinderella, Peter Pan, Jungle Book and Bambi.)

I also believe that a few select titles - most of which were done much later than the initial batch of Platinum Edition Lowry restorations - had Full 4K resolution restorations (meaning the clean-up/restoration work was completed at full 4K resolution.)

If I recall, Mary Poppins, Little Mermaid (in preparation for the 3D re-release) and Snow White had the full restoration work completed in 4K. (Possibly Dumbo as well?)

As for the CAPS films (Rescuers Down Under and later) I expect any future releases to be similar to the result for The Lion King. (Refined color reproduction, and refined line art/detail, with better compression and studio quality upscaling that takes full advantage of the maximum 2K CAPS resolution.)

[Hardback247]

Originally Posted by that1guystudios

However, it is my understanding that the 4K negative scans were downscaled to 2K resolution during the earlier digital restoration efforts completed by Lowry Digital. (For example - Cinderella, Peter Pan, Jungle Book and Bambi.)

I also believe that a few select titles - most of which were done much later than the initial batch of Platinum Edition Lowry restorations - had Full 4K resolution restorations (meaning the clean-up/restoration work was completed at full 4K resolution.)

If I recall, Mary Poppins, Little Mermaid (in preparation for the 3D re-release) and Snow White had the full restoration work completed in 4K. (Possibly Dumbo as well?)

Has Lowry ever explained how they screwed up the Cinderella restoration so badly?

[that1guystudios]

Originally Posted by Hardback247

Has Lowry ever explained how they screwed up the Cinderella restoration so badly?

I know that one of the people involved with the restoration of Mary Poppins was a frequent poster on the forums and they took their work very seriously. On the other hand Lowry tended to farm out restoration work to folks in several foreign countries paying very low wages for dust and spec removal and paint work - often temp or short contract. Some people did better work than others, so it's not surprising that when you have a patchwork approach some shots will look superb and other shots get their details wiped.

[Hardback247]

Originally Posted by that1guystudios

I know that one of the people involved with the restoration of Mary Poppins was a frequent poster on the forums and they took their work very seriously. On the other hand Lowry tended to farm out restoration work to folks in several foreign countries paying very low wages for dust and spec removal and paint work - often temp or short contract. Some people did better work than others, so it's not surprising that when you have a patchwork approach some shots will look superb and other shots get their details wiped.

You'd think they would have noticed the shoddy work on the DVD transfer, and fixed it for Blu-Ray, but they didn't.

[that1guystudios]

Originally Posted by Hardback247

You'd think they would have noticed the shoddy work on the DVD transfer, and fixed it for Blu-Ray, but they didn't.

If I had to guess, Disney had already garnered positive reviews online for the Platinum Edition DVD's and the errors weren't brought up as a big enough issue prior to the Diamond Edition Blu-ray upgrades. The films can always be revisited with a better transfer in the future, and high quality backups were made both on film and digital using a 4K scan of the original negatives. (It appears they took the archiving very seriously.) It also is good to note that Warner's MPI did the scans of the material, and that Disney Home Entertainment is who ultimately releases the discs (and not the people who did the archival/restoration work.) Two separate divisions. There are soooo many titles that were archived (Song of the South) and restored (20,000 Leages) that haven't been released on disc yet in 1080p much less 4K.

I'll be interested to see if Disney+ will Support 4K with HDR/Dolby Vision and Atmos content like Netflix does. If they are going to be a true competitor to Netflix they are going to need to bring out fantastic quality video and audio transfers to keep subscribers for the long term as 4K sets quickly become the rule not the exception. Higher resolutions mean higher monthly recurring revenue for Netflix, It would make good business sense for Disney to sell it the same way.

My hope for Mermaid is that the 4K presentation of The Little Mermaid is a refined version of the previous version released to Blu-ray without the editing errors during Part of Your World and Scuttle's introduction. (Which were fixed on subsequent pressings of the 2D disc and streaming versions of the film.)
that replicates the original theatrical release of the film.

[Brian81]

I hope Mermaid is taken before any kind of downconversion sub-4K. I don't want an upconvert. But I will still buy it anyways, because my BD is the uncorrected one.

[guachi]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

case in point ^

Going through my list of movies that were released in 2018 we have:

Two Action movie Best Picture winners (or action/drama) in Gladiator and Braveheart.

Another Action movie that arguably should have won - Saving Private Ryan.

Two of the greatest pure action movies of all time - Die Hard and Predator.

And that's just action movies!

One of the most highly regarded animated movies - The Incredibles.

A Best Picture winner drama (not in my list until today) - Schindler's List.

A 2017 drama Best Picture nominee - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri.

2018 was weak for fantasy compared to 2017 but it did include the release of the 2017 Best Picture winner - The Shape of Water. At least, I consider it a fantasy movie. YMMV.

2018 was a GREAT year for horror movies.

The fantastic A Quiet Place.

One of the greatest horror movies of all time - Halloween.

Two of the greatest cult horror movies of all time - Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2.

2017 was a banner year for sci-fi but 2018 still had (probably) the best sci-fi of the '90s - The Matrix.

Also we had released today a seminal sci-fi movie and an all-around seminal movie, period - 2001: A Space Odyssey (not in my movies yet as it wasn't in stock today at BB).

2018 was superhero back catalogue year!

From Disney - The Avengers is not only a great movie its 4k presentation is outstanding. (We also got the lesser The Incredible Hulk and Age of Ultron.)

From Fox - The first three X-Men movies. The first ushered in the modern superhero movie and X2: X-Men United is a great, fun movie. The third is, well, not great but the entire trilogy was at least really cheap!

From Warner - The ur-superhero movie in Superman: The Movie.

It's really crazy just how many great catalog titles we got in 2018. And that's just among movies I actually bought.

Oh, and because this is a thread on a Disney animated movie we got The Lion King in 4k and that was a hopeful (and, seemingly, correct) sign we'd be getting more older Disney titles in 4k. I'd own it but I had purchased the blu-ray of The Lion King only a week before its 4k announcement. So no buy for me.

[Viking61]

US cover.

TheLittleMermaid-tn.jpg

[Donl1282]

I wonder if the blu-ray disc included with this release is the corrected one.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by guachi

Going through my list of movies that were released in 2018 we have:

Snip

I also think 2018 was a stunning year for UHD. But everyone's tastes are different, and even though some folks are clearly on a trolling mission - such is their desire to repeatedly inform us that we're all suckers - there are some who are genuinely nonplussed at what UHD has offered up thus far and I can't blame them. If you're a fan of world cinema and/or arthouse and/or you hate modern cinema in general then you're not going to find much to cheer in terms of 4K content. Such folks are almost genetically predisposed to dislike HDR as well.

[r.valle]

Looks like Disney Movie Club has started taking pre-orders, according to their FB post. Along with Little Mermaid 2 and the prequel on Blu-ray, those two are DMC exclusives... Anyone with membership care to screenshot what comes up on the website?

[Donl1282]

Originally Posted by r.valle

Looks like Disney Movie Club has started taking pre-orders, according to their FB post. Along with Little Mermaid 2 and the prequel, those two are DMC exclusives... Anyone with membership care to screenshot what comes up on the website?

Do the DMC exclusives always become widely available eventually?

[InuYashaCrusade]

Originally Posted by Donl1282

Do the DMC exclusives always become widely available eventually?

I don't think that have ever become widely available. I know for sure that Aladdin's sequels did not, at least not within the United States anyway.

[r.valle]

Originally Posted by Donl1282

Do the DMC exclusives always become widely available eventually?

On Ebay, third party sellers on Amazon, sure. From Disney itself, probably not. Also, the exclusives are probably just Blu-rays. They've never done 4K exclusives, as of yet.

[hariseldon]

Originally Posted by r.valle

Looks like Disney Movie Club has started taking pre-orders, according to their FB post. Along with Little Mermaid 2 and the prequel on Blu-ray, those two are DMC exclusives... Anyone with membership care to screenshot what comes up on the website?

Originally Posted by Donl1282

Do the DMC exclusives always become widely available eventually?

I only see the BD up for preorder which it has been for awhile. Is there a post on FB that specifically mentions the 4K?
No 4K on the site yet

If they follow normal patterns the 4K preorder may show up next week when the FT cycle resets or even end of January at the next cycle if the late Feb release date is true (which makes perfect sense).

DMC BD exclusives virtually never become widely available at normal retail sites. The last one I can remember was 101 Dalmatians II 4 years ago and even it was announced as a timed exclusive early.

[L and T Baloo]

Originally Posted by philochs

Well, that's big news. UHD is really taking off. I still remember going to see this when it came out. I didn't expect to like it, cause it seemed like it was kind of a girl's movie, but boy when "Under the Sea" came on I was dancing in the aisle. That song is kind of infectious. I was just 6, but it seems like not so long ago. Damn, I'm old now. It happens fast.

What are you talking about. I was serving in the military at the time this came out. Hope that makes you feel a little bit younger. Merry Christmas.