The Disney DVD folks have issued a new, 2-disc version of Walt's animated Peter Pan. Here's an Amazon link to purchase it and here's why you might not want to. A number of animation websites (like this one) have erupted in discussion of the transfer which some say is not what it should be. I saw a bit of it in a store the other day and it looked wrong to me, but I (at first) figured the shop's TV was misadjusted or something. I mean, if ever there's a film restoration that you'd figure the issuers would get right, it's something like this, and it gets back to our oft-discussed topic. You know the one: How studios will put out a wonderful, complete, everything-a-collector-could-ask-for DVD of some movie…and then they convene a staff meeting to discuss how they can put out another version later on that the same people will feel they must also purchase.
One way, some have learned, is a better transfer. In fact, last time we discussed this, a friend in the business wrote to me and said the following about a movie (not Peter Pan) that his company was selling on DVD…
When we put [the movie] out, there was some talk of using the old transfer for the DVD. This was a transfer done some time ago, I think for when the film first came out on Beta. No, no, the boss said. We need a new, deluxe transfer. He was right. The studio spent a lot of money and had a beautiful transfer done. They restored many faded or damaged frames and it really looked superb. But when it came time to put the DVD out, they used the old transfer even thought the new one was all done and paid for. At first, I thought it was an incredible, horrible mistake. What lunkhead had used the wrong transfer? I found out later it was intentional. At the last minute, someone decided to save the good transfer for the next release in a few years. It was your old "let's make them buy it again" theory.
In other words, the image quality is supposed to get better and better from release to release, not the other way around. It's more than the right thing to do from the standpoint of honoring the work and respecting the consumer. It's just good marketing.
I'm not casting my lot completely with those who say the new version of Peter Pan is a bad transfer. Not yet, anyway. I've only seen about two minutes of it on someone else's set…but it was enough to send up a warning flag. The maddening part of this, of course, is that I'll probably buy the thing anyway, just for the special features. If the image quality is as bad as some say, I'll probably sit there watching the film, thinking to myself that in this version, the pirates win. I may lead an expedition to track down the guy who's responsible and make him admit he's a codfish.