The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Cut Mark 4

[Garrett Gilchrist]

I have no idea.

Gavin / DooDeet, you're way off the mark and please stop posting conspiracy theories here. I won't be approving them.

I am not going to answer your questions, which are overly confrontational and seem based on the idea that "Disney" is a single human being, and an evil one at that.

As you said yourself, you're obsessed, and I don't think you're thinking clearly or rationally about these things. I'm sorry that this project has radicalized you but please try to chill out about it.

[DaveHolmes]

Found this very informative interview with Richard Williams from the March 6, 1989 edition of the Jordan Times

[yairisan]

Whoah, this forum (or at least this thread) is old! I'm new here (perhaps way too late for this to even matter), but I am currently working on a 4K restoration of A Christmas Carol (1971) - using AI video and audio editing tools and a ton of computing power at my disposal - initial testing and restoration work has yielded some pretty stunning results. However, I really need to do some scouting around for the best available source materials. Thisis a labor of love for me. Willing to put in the time and sweat to finally get ACC out in a pristine restored format worthy of a bluray quality release (or even UHD).

I (Robin Watson) can be reached at: yairisan@gmail.com

Thanks

[Garrett Gilchrist]

DaveHolmes, thanks for the article.

Robin, I don't think a 4K upscale is necessary. The HD versions are fine and I'm not impressed by current upscale technology.

Peter C did a 16mm transfer for us in HD a few years ago, paying for it himself, which is on Youtube. There were, if I recall, some complaints about the sound compared to the VHS, but it's basically fine. I think I uploaded the correct source file to Archive along with everything else.
https://archive.org/details/@ocpmovie

The Academy in Hollywood also did a scan from 35mm, I think, which is not publicly available but which I've seen. They did that along with most of Dick's other work for the A Moment In Time Thief and the Cobbler screening.

[DaveHolmes]

AI video/photo restoration is fine if you go into it with the assumption that

-It will look more attractive to a new audience

-It won't be 100% faithful to the source material

This is probably the best video I've seen on the subject:
https://youtu.be/3YqoSoPGqkY

[Garrett Gilchrist]

I just spotted someone's upscale of Arabian Knight which wipes out a lot of the line detail. I don't think the tech is there yet, at least for home use. The video upscalers I've tried to use didn't do the trick, although I do a lot of stills upscaling.

[ThiefFan]

https://comics.ha.com/itm/animation-art ... ion-071515

[Garrett Gilchrist]

How have newer tools like Topaz AI Video Enhance changed the way that you approach restoration projects? What difference do you think a product like that would have made if you had access to it when working on The Recobbled Cut?

It wouldn't have affected The Recobbled Cut, at least in the state the technology currently exists in. I am not impressed by current versions of Topaz AI Video Enhance, or other animation-based upscalers I've seen. The tech will probably get better before too long.

There is an AI upscale of Arabian Knight floating around that someone did which does not meet my standards.

I do use upscaling a lot for still photographs, and I was the first to use EBSynth for colorization and source-matching, along with DeOldify and DeepRemaster.

Recently I experimented with a lot of new tech, on various projects, with varying results.

DAIN retiming does not yet work well enough for animation.

What would have made a huge difference is the Phoenix dirt removal processes. I don't personally have access to this tech, but several people who I was working with on the Raggedy Ann & Andy UHD restoration did (Helge B, FemboyFilms). They were able to remove dirt from different versions of reel one without causing much damage to the actual animation.

They only worked on reel one, so the rest of the film was restored by hand (along with the more troublesome aspects of reel one).

Someone had helped me get hold of PFClean (also an expensive professional software) ten years ago for the Recobbled Cut. I have used this again for the Raggedy Ann project, for automatic dirt removal. Unfortunately it's more old-fashioned software and not as "smart" as the Phoenix. It simply can't handle animation on "ones" and so most of the restoration had to be done by hand.

That's frustrating when I know better processes exist.

[Garrett Gilchrist]

I guess I can announce this.

I think I'm calling it the Recobbled Cut Mark 4-2.

This is not a Recobbled Cut Mk5.

I am revising the cut very slightly to incorporate one or two new animated shots by Dennis Van Hout.

I've decided to do some additional restoration on the second half of the film for this version.

[Max Scully]

I guess I can announce this.

I think I'm calling it the Recobbled Cut Mark 4-2.

This is not a Recobbled Cut Mk5.

I am revising the cut very slightly to incorporate one or two new animated shots by Dennis Van Hout.

I've decided to do some additional restoration on the second half of the film for this version.

Oh, that is so fucking cool!