Do you like the Walt Disney movie DUMBO?

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Steve Hoffman, May 10, 2012.

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  1. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    I've loved Dumbo ever since I saw it at the Everett Theatre as part of a summer kids show when I was a tyke. Geez, I used to love those Saturdays with the whole theatre packed with kids. Good times!
     
  2. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    Maybe it made us stronger. Or weaker, dunno.
     
  3. detroit muscle

    detroit muscle MIA

    Location:
    UK
    Funnily enough my Blu-ray copy of Dumbo arrived today - free from Disney Rewards!! :thumbsup:
     
  4. Sneaky Pete

    Sneaky Pete Flat the 5 and That’s No Jive

    Location:
    NYC USA
    I think it taught us about empathy and understanding. Children's books and films with no conflict or emotional trauma are rather flat, and dull even to kids.

    I love Dumbo, and Bambi but they still get me choked up.
     
  5. Same here.
     
  6. SBurke

    SBurke Nostalgia Junkie

    Location:
    Philadelphia, PA
    I love "Dumbo." One of my three favorite Disney films (the others being "Cinderella" and "Beauty and the Beast," though I haven't seen "Bambi" in a long time so I'm not sure where I'd place it).

    I love the concept of the magic feather. I will sometimes refer to something as a "magic feather," meaning something that you might think is having a positive effect on the outcome when it is not. It's funny when folks don't get the reference.
     
  7. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    No modern digital 2-D animation could ever compete with the beauty of the animation found in Dumbo and Bambi.
     
  8. pcfchung

    pcfchung Active Member

    Location:
    London, England
    I love "Dumbo" and "Pinocchio"- The two Disney films that still have the roundness, less graphic drawing and animation style ( not a straight line in sight!) which would disappear when " Bambi" came out. They also both have that heart warming, old fashion story that any child or parent can relate to. Technically, they are not as good as "Jungle Book" or " Bambi" but who cares. " Dumbo" is one of the best Disney animated features for me and has always been underrated.
     
  9. apileocole

    apileocole Lush Life Gort

    Oh yes Steve. It's a great film, the good and the bad. I even like its brevity; it comes, does the show and quickly leaves, just like a traveling circus.

    There are some tough things to take in some of Walt's films. "Sneaky Pete" has a good point about being good for empathy and understanding. And from Snow White to Darby O'Gill, Walt didn't always spare the scares either.

    Would've loved to see that print.

    Generally, the animated films from Walt's era that, while they are given new editions, are not included in the "back in the vault" business, happen to be the ones Walt chose to show on his TV series. Dumbo, the anthology films incl. Three Caballeros, Alice, Sword in the Stone.
     
  10. power popper

    power popper Forum Resident

    I'm curious -- any idea under what conditions this nitrate print has been kept? I assume your collector friend knows exactly what he/she is doing in preserving this print.
     
  11. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    What conditions? Lots of air, no metal cans, plastic hubs, exercised on editor regularly.

    Thing will last forever.

    Nitrate isn't scary. Storing it incorrectly is.
     
  12. power popper

    power popper Forum Resident

    Noted. Thanks, Steve.
     
  13. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    I wish Disney would theatrically re-release their classics more often.
     
  14. Dubmart

    Dubmart Senior Member

    Location:
    Bristol, England
    One of my earliest memories and probably my first memory of going to the cinema was going to see Dumbo with my grandmother, not sure how old I was, maybe four or five, I've always had a soft spot for it.
     
  15. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    I was in London with my girlfriend Clair Marlo in 1983. We were walking down Oxford St. around noon and saw LADY & THE TRAMP playing at a cinema. We walked in and really enjoyed it. Beautiful print, a bit of home for us..

    When we walked out of the movie it was with a shock to find ourselves amongst double decker busses and other strictly London stuff. We actually sort of forget where we were for a moment. A nice experience. Weird to have a bar inside the theater. Very weird..
     
  16. Dan C

    Dan C Forum Fotographer

    Location:
    The West
    What's weird is that it's weird to Americans because it shouldn't be. Did that make sense? :shh:

    dan c
     
  17. forthlin

    forthlin Member Chris & Vickie Cyber Support Team

    Dumbo is one of the stand-out Disney films of all time(and that's saying a lot). Great artwork, story, music, and as the other have said the blu-ray is superb. :)
     
  18. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Oh, I dunno about that. Technicolor has a $20 million building on Sunset Blvd. (next to United-Western), and I believe their insurance coverage will only allow 2 reels of nitrate in the building at any one time. Tell your friend to check his policy.

    I don't think any film can last forever. Videotape and audio tape can be worse. I truly believe digital files will last damn near forever, but only if there's a regular system to back it up to new drives every X number of years. (We'll know for sure in the year 2525.)

    Hey, even mountains fall and oceans eventually dry up.
     
  19. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    It's amazing to me how many "film vaults" have no idea how to store the stuff. Leave it OUT of the metal cans, give it air, cool, etc.

    The great nitrate that I worked on over at WB only survived for one reason. It was in cardboard, on cores and kept in a good room (off the lot).

    The nitrate optical music session scores I worked on there also were quite stable, especially the Korngold. It was saved because of this WB Silver Anniversary Box Set of LPs that came out around 1973 or so. Whatever was pulled for that was just filed back among the safety film music storage vault (OOPS!) but again, in cardboard, open, no metal reels, just air. Still there, still stable.

    Nothing lasts forever but there is no sense in dumping it ahead of time because of idiot storage..
     
  20. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    loved it years ago...
     
  21. Muzyck

    Muzyck Pardon my scruffy hospitality

    Location:
    Long Island
    I had never seen this film before. I just watched a copy of a Laser Disc I purchased years ago along with a bunch of other Disney discs when everyone was upgrading to DVD. Ironic that I should see this for the first time on Mother's Day.
     
  22. captainsolo

    captainsolo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Murfreesboro, TN
    I haven't seen it in years, like most of the other Disney classics. After finding the Fantasia LD and being pretty stunned I've been trying to get other Disney LDs here and there. Although Disney puts much time and effort into their new Blu-ray restorations, I've never really been happy with the results. Especially Pinocchio. That's one I'd give anything to see in an IB print such as Steve described.
     
  23. driverdrummer

    driverdrummer Forum Resident

    Location:
    Irmo, SC
    Does the Dumbo look like an IB/dye transfer film print? Really want to buy the blu but 30 bucks is steep..
     
  24. kevinsinnott

    kevinsinnott Forum Coffeeologist

    Location:
    Chicago, IL USA
    I can't enjoy Bambi, but I can enjoy Dumbo. It certainly shows a genius Walt Disney had for pathos. I could swear I used to own a Viewmaster set, but have lost track of it. If I recall correctly it was stunning.
     
  25. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Like all the Disney animated classics prior to about 1953 or 1955, the digital restorations used YCM B&W separation safety copies struck from the original nitrate Technicolor elements, which were disintegrating. Each film layer was scanned on a pin-registered scanner. Digital techniques were used to align all the layers and sharpen them while reducing grain and noise.

    Video can never quite look like a Tech IB print (not even 4K), but it can look very good. They did use the studio archival prints for reference to set the look for all characters, backgrounds, and scenes.

    As one example: I have been told by one insider that Bambi was "almost a different shade of brown" in every scene of the film, and they went out of their way to make the character consistent, at least with the lighting and mood of the shot. Trust me, the paints and animation work done for the original movies were all over the place in terms of color. I haven't worked on any Disney features, but I have worked on about 25 or 30 of the shorts, and some of those are jaw-droppingly weird in terms of color changes. It took a lot of work to keep the colors and contrast consistent.

    A lot of times, this kind of inconsistency happens because somebody would order a retake months after the original scene was done, and the paints were that much different at that time. Sometimes, different artists and crewmembers were used at different times. Most audiences would not notice this if it wasn't pointed out to them, but when you can stop the print and jog back and forth, you'll see it. And the studio execs are very much on top of making their pictures look as good as they possibly can.

    I have seen pretty much all the classic Disney animated films projected in theaters on film in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, and I don't think they ever looked better than the restored digital versions done in the last 10 years. In particular, Dumbo and Fantasia are pretty stunning, given how beat-up a lot of those elements were.
     
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