Waking Sleeping Beauty

[romantico]

Posted: 2/27/10 at 7:59am

This looks amazing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyeoyRjEiUU&feature=

http://www.wakingsleepingbeautymovie.com/

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/27/10 at 10:07am

I agree it looks interesting. Not so sure about the timing.

Most of those people who created that impressive comeback are gone now (working for other companies or in Ashman's case, deceased), and Disney itself is back in a creative slump. They haven't hit rock bottom again ... but they're definitely heading down now, not up, aside from the co-ventures guided by Pixar.

Time for another wakeup call, guys. And time to find another Howard Ashman, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and John Lassiter. And some bold decision-making.

I don't know that it's time to release a warm and fuzzy documentary, patting yourselves on the back and celebrating past laurels from 20 years ago.

... unless this movie is some sort of "motivational pep talk" they made for themselves. It seems pretty narcissistic as well as oblivious. Would the Titanic stop to mention how glorious a ship it was, as the water was flooding the decks? Bad timing.

Updated On: 2/27/10 at 10:07 AM

[BroadwayBenny]

Posted: 2/27/10 at 10:45am

I can't wait. Just seeing some clips the other day of Howard Ashman directing Jodi Benson in the recording studio got me choked up.

I agree that it's interesting that the film is coming out the same year that Disney has changed the title of their next animated film from "Rapunzel" to "Tangled" in fear of general audiences thinking the film is a fairy tale. Maybe this film's timing is a plea from Don Hahn for Disney to look back at their history and wake up all over again.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 2/27/10 at 12:07pm

I was a part of that lucky generation that was just old enough when The Little Mermaid came out and grew up with the rest of the movies as annual stepping stones. It may seem like it's only highlighting how far they've fallen to you, but for me, I get to see all the people who made my childhood priceless.


Speaking of reliving my childhood, does anyone happen to know when Beauty and the Beast will be re-released on DVD? It should be the next one released from the vault.

Updated On: 2/27/10 at 12:07 PM

[romantico]

Posted: 2/27/10 at 12:22pm

I had heard they are planning on releasing Beauty and the Beast in 2011 for the 20th anniversary in 3-D. Then it will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray. Heard this about 2 months ago so things may have changed since.

[pli1018]

Posted: 2/27/10 at 1:48pm

Beauty and the Beast will follow Fantasia/Fantasia 2000's spring release and will be out on Diamond edition DVD this October.

I can't wait for Waking Sleeping Beauty, though I agree that the timing is a bit awkward. There's a member screening on March 15th at the MoMA. Apparently Don Hahn will be there for a Q&A.

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/27/10 at 8:45pm

On my Blu-ray Disc for "Snow White" there is an HD trailer for "Beauty and the Beast," and it says "Coming to Blu-ray Christmas 2010."

... although your information may be more current.

I will say this. The HD trailer for "Beauty and the Beast" looked TERRIBLE. The colors were all WAY too bright and practically neon. Crazy stuff. I saw the movie three times in the theatre (including once at the El Capitan and once at the Motion Picture Academy on Wilshire Blvd.) when the film was first released.

It did NOT look like this. Ever.

If they have doctored the colors now to be bright and HIDEOUS, they are doing the film a great disservice.

I have no intention of buying a Blu-ray version until I read reviews addressing this issue. Apparently, "Pinocchio" had the same problem.

There IS such a thing as "too much restoration." If the movie looks like the inside of a piñata, you've gone way too far, folks.

[BroadwayBenny]

Posted: 2/28/10 at 1:03am

Actually Pinocchio toned down some of the colors on the blu-ray compared with the first DVD release.

This site has some accurate screen shots of the comparison.
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews44/pinocchio_blu-ray.htm

I am pretty sure the Beauty and the Beast ad was just thrown together rather quickly from non-HD footage (why, I don't know) They did the same thing with the Dumbo preview using non restored footage to advertise a restored film.

Back to Waking Sleeping Beauty, orangeskittles, Just because some of us find the timing of the release awkward in the wake of Disney's current state of affairs (particularly with the Rapunzel/Tangled debacle and shelving Snow Queen AGAIN) doesn't mean that we are personally not looking forward to this behind the scenes walk down memory lane. Like I said, I can't wait to see it.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 2/28/10 at 1:08am

This is completely off topic but I didn't want to start another thread and the search function never works for me. BUT, I just finished watching the documentary, "Every Little Step" and I thought it was absolutely gorgeous.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 2/28/10 at 1:33am

Am I the only one perturbed by the trailer's placement of The Great Mouse Detective in the lackluster animated film category? I am biased as it is one of my favorite Disney films and yes, it was overshadowed by An American Tail that came out the same year, but it got solid reviews from the critics at the time and some of the CGI is absolutely stunning. Also the villain and story were top-notch. The biggest indictment against the film was it definitely was not for kids, in fact when I first saw it scared the crap out of me.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 2/28/10 at 1:35am

"The Great Mouse Detective" is one of my favorite Disney cartoons.

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/28/10 at 9:48am

"I am pretty sure the Beauty and the Beast ad was just thrown together rather quickly from non-HD footage."

No, Benny. There is no question this is an HD trailer. However, it sure might have been thrown together and not color timed or corrected. But they're selling Beauty and the Beast in hi-def in this trailer. That's the whole point of it. Showing the BD audiences what it will look like. They picked key scenes to entice us with the "quality."

And they FAILED as far as I'm concerned.

But this is a 1080p trailer from 1080p (or likely 2K) source materials. Trust me. I used to work on these. I know what I'm looking at as far as quality. I can even tell 720p from 1080p, and most people can't.

As for those screen shots of Pinocchio, they seemed to have brought the white levels down to a properly safe level (they appear gray to us here, which is normal and accurate). They've also fixed other chrominance and luminance issues with spiking reds. But they've really tinkered with the greens. Stromboli's shirt is a different color now. I don't like that. And while they've removed the "golden wash" look that it used to have, they seem to have replaced it with a "green wash." It's particularly apparent in the last shot of Pinocchio as a real boy where his skin tones are anything but real. They look better in the old DVD.

As I said before, sometimes they go too far.

The scene that I heard they really screwed up is when Pinocchio is trapped in the birdcage and his nose grows. They destroyed the muted colors of that scene. I say "apparently," because I haven't seen the Pinocchio BD myself. I've refused to buy it, because of everything I've read about the color issues. Also the way they've digitally doctored all the hand-inked color cells, so they don't look hand-drawn anymore. They used to have slight imperfections, due to human beings inking them in, one frame at a time. Now a computer has taken over and smoothed everything out.

I don't consider that "progress" myself.

Updated On: 2/28/10 at 09:48 AM

[BroadwayBenny]

Posted: 2/28/10 at 11:11am

not arguing that it's a crappy way to advertise. I just remember the same thing happening with the Sleeping Beauty blu-ray release. The trailer came out and it looked HORRIBLE. They even used different voice overs for some of the characters. Then the blu-ray actually came out and looked gorgeous.

So I'll take your obviously expert word on that the source material is 1080p also. I just assumed that because Sleeping Beauty's initial trailer looked nothing like the actual product that was the reason, but it appears it is just someone doing a terrible job making the trailer.

As for the restoration debacle...it's such a hit and miss for me. As much as I love things to look smooth and "new" on my blu-rays, there is frustration during certain scenes where the atmosphere has been literally cleaned out along with film grain and imperfections. This issue for me goes back to the original platinum dvd of Beauty and the Beast too. It was too clean and it flattened a lot of scenes that I used to find visually haunting like all those interior shots of the Beast's castle. Yes, the scene of Pinocchio in the bird cage is another perfect example. I wish that on these blu-rays, they would offer an original non-"restored" version of the film as well, even make it to where you could watch them side by side as well as completely on their own. How long before Disney starts going all George Lucas and actually changing plot points and things in the films as they become less and less politically correct as times goes by?

The only ones I know of off the top of my head they've already done this sort of thing to is removing all the smoking scenes from Pecos Bill and a few scenes in Fantasia.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 2/28/10 at 11:17am

^They already have. Years ago, I had to replace my Beauty and the Beast video and the second edition had that Human Again scene added. I was perturbed, to say the least.

[BroadwayBenny]

Posted: 2/28/10 at 11:41am

I guess I didn't really count that since it was done by all the same people who did the original film, but yes it FEELS added in, not seemless. The only thing I really didn't like though was how Belle looks different in that scene than the rest of the movie.

That was there big thing for a few years, adding "AN ALL NEW MUSICAL SEQUENCE" to the film for dvd release to boost sales. I know Pocahontas restored "If I Never Knew You" (It would have been better with someone other than Mel Gibson singing it with Judy) and Lion King added "The Morning Report." Were there any others?

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/28/10 at 1:27pm

Benny, you actually gave me hope. I never saw the Sleeping Beauty BD trailer (in HD) prior to its release, so I didn't realize it looked horrible, too. I'm very pleased with the actual BD of Sleeping Beauty. I think they did a beautiful job. Perhaps because the animation style was already flat (like a medieval tapestry, etc.), they didn't face as many issues restoring it. And smoothing out the color/ink actually serves the style.

I have Snow White on Blu-ray, and, for the most part, I think it looks great. It also came out AFTER the mixed reviews on Pinocchio, so I think they were careful not to go too far with certain things. Still, there are shots that (to me) look way too cleaned-up. There are also some blurry shots. Some of this is from the actual master, with the cells not lying completely flat on the backgrounds, so they were shot slightly out of focus (or so they tell me). Seeing it in HD actually brings out some of those depth/focus issues. (And I'm not talking about the multiplane camera stuff either.)

I'm also not that critical of the added scene in Beauty and the Beast. I look at it as a "director's cut," like Amadeus and several other films. At least they provided the original theatrical release on the DVD as well, which is far less restored (to the point of having some scratches, and obvious age issues, even for a movie that was only about 16 years old, when the DVD was released).

I really hope the BD of Beauty doesn't look as bad as that candy-colored trailer! Yuck!