Restoration Practices

Photo © Disney

When it comes to Disney DVD releases, everyone is a critic.  There is an entire rather informed community online that devotes itself to reviews of DVD releases, and the subset of that community with a special interest in Disney is no small fraction of the whole. 


Many of the issues outlined in the restoration entry will attest to some of the reasons for these discrepancies, but there is still much left to the imagination.  With all of these available versions, which is the most accurate record of the original textures, grain levels, color densities, and sound quality? 


The comparisons on this page were done by Chuck Pennington, who meticulously compares identical frames from multiple versions of Disney VHS, laserdisc and DVD releases to reveal discrepancies.  Chuck has graciously agreed to allow me to include these on my page. 

Thank you  Chuck!

Sleeping Beauty

Column A = 1987 Pan and Scan Laserdisc (master released on VHS in 1986)

Column B = 1997 Widescreen Laserdisc (aspect ratio: 2.26:1)

Column C = 2003 Anamorphic Widescreen DVD (aspect ratio 2.3:1)

Bambi

Column A = 1990 Laserdisc 

Column B = 1997 Laserdisc 

Column C = 2005 DVD

Pinocchio

Column A = 1987 Laserdisc [transfer used for 1985 VHS]

Column B = 1993 Laserdisc [transfer used for 1999 DVD]

Column C = 2003 UK DVD [Lowry restoration released overseas but not in the US]