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I haven’t seen the new Peter Pan 2-Disc Platinum Edition, but according to the prolific UK animation director Oscar Grillo, the dvd is a mess. Many animation enthusiasts have complained about Disney’s film “restorations” in the past, and knowing Grillo’s keen eye, it’s easy to believe this is as bad as he says. I’d be curious to hear more comments from other Brew readers who have watched this new dvd release, particularly if you’re familiar with earlier theatrical releases and home video versions. Here are Oscar’s thoughts:

Yesterday I saw a copy of the newly released “Peter Pan Special Edition” and I ALMOST HAD A HEART ATTACK!!! Granted, Peter Pan is no Pinocchio, but I like it very much. The transfer, digital enhancing, sound and image ARE ALL HORRIBLE!! They’ve “strengthened” all the lines and darkened the backgrounds and altered the colours to a degree that now Peter Pan looks like one of those classic “Porky Pigs” rotoscoped in Korea in the Seventies using Rapidographs. I must have seen Peter Pan more than three hundred times and most of them in the cinema. I know the film very well. This version truly shocked me. I won’t talk much, I suggest people compare this version with any of the previously released video or DVD editions and you’ll see for yourself what I mean and complain to those responsible. When a madman damages the “Night Watch” by Rembrandt (it actually happened), he ends up in a psychiatric hospital; when a corporation ruins an animation classic, they sell it as a “special edition.”

UPDATE: Here’s a gallery of still comparisons from various home video release of Peter Pan. (Thanks, Steve)

Amid Amidi

Amid Amidi is Cartoon Brew's Publisher and Editor-at-large.

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