DON'T ERASE GENE KELLY'S ARM OR BUGS EARS!
"If Gene Kelly's arm disappeared while he was dancing in 'Singin' in the Rain,' everybody would notice." Cartoon fan David Mackenzie quoted in the Wall Street Journal regarding glitches in digital restoration of classic cartoons. Never underestimate the power of the web. Focus in on the WALL STREET JOURNAL story link via SlashDot Marred by Digital Restoration. In the opening graph, an 18 year old film student from Glasgow, Scotland, David MacKenzie, a classic cartoon fan is featured regarding the controversy he is stirring up online with his griping about the quality of restoration of "Gorilla My Dreams" a cartoon released as part of a Warner Bros. DVD collectionClassic Cartoons MacKenzie maintains that there's something missing from the seven-minute cartoon, about a motherly primate who takes Bugs Bunny on a romp through the jungle. His advice: " Pause the DVD, and as the two get ready to swing through the air, a piece of vine seems to dissolve." No big deal? Well, MacKenzie maintains that "If Gene Kelly's arm disappeared while he was dancing in 'Singin' in the Rain,' everybody would notice." DIGITAL NOISE REDUCTION MAY NOT ALWAYS BE BEST FOR TOONS The technology at issue -- called "digital noise reduction,"(DNR) which according to the JOURNAL -- works by removing lines that appear in one frame of a film but not the next, reasoning that the line doesn't belong. In live-action films, that usually works well. And when DNR is applied, a deliberately drawn line can be mistaken for a stray and removed.DNR's negative side effects are more exception than rule. But for purists, a few seconds of messed-up animation can spoil an otherwise perfect collection. The response over at Disney is interesting:"If you just take a film and throw it through a noise-reduction system, you're never going to get the same standard of quality," says Jeff Miller, Disney's president for world-wide post-production and operations. A special promo on the Warner Bros website gives classic cartoon fans a chance to tour their animation studios. Maybe a little adult supervision could help those pesky DNR machines? (see above)
Tunier" Toons? Interested in more news about restoration of cartoons -- here's a great link from Digital Media Designer Making Old Soundtracks New Again In the Studio With Film Audio’s ...
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