We know. When we see the words Cinderella in a headline, we immediately assume another remake or sequel is coming. Maybe a Disney+ series about the Fairy Godmother told through the perspective of Bert, Mert, and Luke. That isn’t the case. The 4K Cinderella is a win for people who want to see a Disney masterwork in all its glory.
“Disney’s whole process of ‘restoration’ on high-profile releases is actually completely destructive of the original image, I.e., the original cel animation and background art as shot on film 80–30 years ago,” Duigan writes. “Instead of just cleaning dirt/fixing scratches/adjusting colour timing, they rotoscope every frame of character animation and isolate it from the original scene.”
“The end result is a picture free of any of the natural grain pattern, and gate weave you’d expect from something shot on film, completely disguising the film’s age and medium.”
The new restoration promises to correct these mistakes by going back to the source.
“We began the process by pulling the original nitrate negative from the Library of Congress and scanning the successive exposure color records in 4K. We then did a cleaning pass to remove dirt and as many artifacts as possible,” said Director of Restoration for Walt Disney Studios Kevin Schaeffer. “The current available restoration tools allowed us to produce a sharper and higher quality image than previous efforts. To make sure we didn’t lose any of the detail or artistic choices of the filmmakers, we turned to Disney Animation legends and authorities, including Michael Giaimo and Eric Goldberg.”
Per Verge, the restoration premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year, followed by a physical release only available to Disney Movie Club members. 4K discs will be available to all on August 1, with the film hitting Disney+ on August 25.
