A quick report on the opening night of this year's technical symposium The Reel Thing here in Hollywood, mounted by the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA):

The first night's opening screening, provided by Disney, was the 'world premiere' of a 4k digital restoration of their CinemaScope blockbuster 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Disney executives gave a brief explanation of what was done to maximize the film's colors; they also said that no "grain management" or "sharpness enhancement" was applied to the picture. They even presented the film exactly as it had been premiered for Christmas of 1854, with a Donald Duck cartoon.

The execs explained very clearly the improvements made to the picture. 20,000 has numerous shots plagued by the "CinemaScope Mumps" -- any actor in a close-up (or a tight two-shot) looks horizontally squashed, and always has. It was an early flaw of the anamorphic process. By scanning the original negatives, Disney reclaimed more "real estate" on the horizontal axis. Bits of image area to the extreme left and right had always been unused because it was covered by magnetic soundtracks. For the shots with "Mumps", the extra width allowed the digital compositors to squeeze the image slightly -- without blowing it up -- putting Captain Nemo's face back into proper proportions. It really helps.

I'm not sure, but I think that something similar was done to Warners remasterings of A Star Is Born and Love Me Or Leave Me, both of which no longer seem to have squashed-head close-ups in new DVD and Blu-ray versions.

Two other notes. We were told that the density (and slight softness) of original Technicolor prints effectively hid the many wires used to manipulate the giant squid's arms in the stormy battle scene. When scanned at 4k, the sharpness and less-dark blacks revealed more wires. So Disney painted them out, as they weren't originally visible. I also heard noted editor & film expert Rick Mitchell say something after the show that immediately got my attention. When the bomb goes off, one view of the exploding island with the sub in the foreground was filmed flat, and allowed to stretch out horizontally. That's apparently been fixed as well. I was looking for it and thought I missed it; Mitchell pointed it out.

I'm off to the first full day of presentations and screenings and will report in the evening .... Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson