8mm Forum: little mermaid-3x600ft super8/stereo sund. 79mins.

This is topic little mermaid-3x600ft super8/stereo sund. 79mins. in forum 8mm Print Reviews at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Andrew Wilson (Member # 538) on March 10, 2006, 10:49 AM:

how about this classic disney dating back to 1989.it was availble thru derann;i got mine 2nd hand.after a few years in the wilderness disney got back on track with this cracker of a movie.it tell the story of ariel the headstrong young mermaid;who longs to be human.to make matters more worse,she falls in love with a prince;well with the help of her freinds shy lovable flounder and sebastian a regge singing crab ariel ventuers forth from her underwater home to try to win her prince love in a thrilling race against time.this is without question one of disney best movies of the present age. right up their with the classics in my view.the songs are great.but what about the print and sound of this release.the sound is outstanding,filled with bass house shaking effects.the print on my copy is good;not up there with lion king,beauty and the beast;but its still good.if you can find a copy of this then you must add it to your collection.very highly recomended.

Posted by Kevin Faulkner (Member # 6) on March 10, 2006, 11:49 AM:

But the quality on this first Derann, Disney release was very variable. Sharpness is poor in places and there are colour variations between reels. Derann had a lot of problems with the negs for this release to the point where I dont think they released too many copies. In the end they gave it up as a bad job so it's not that easy to get your hands on a copy now.
Disney releases after this have been excellent.
I have a copy where this is all very noticeable. My reel 3 is quite warm comparred to the others.

Kev.

From that point of view whats yours like Andy?

Kev.

Posted by Andrew Wilson (Member # 538) on March 10, 2006, 12:41 PM:

hello there,i have just ran the whole of the little mermaid and once again kevin your right.the print does vary from reel to reel and the defintion could have been a lot sharper.the only other disney feature i have is aladdin.if you compare the two,aladdin wins by light year.but little mermaid is still a must because i love it.i think it put disney back on form after a few years in the wilderness.andy.p.s derann and disney are now releasing outstanding prints.see my view.

Posted by Alan Rik (Member # 73) on March 10, 2006, 01:22 PM:

I use to own this print and it was just too soft for my tastes. I ended up selling it because I got tired of riding the focus. Soft focus prints seem to be my breaking point. Same situation with "The Fog". My copy anyways!

Posted by Andrew Wilson (Member # 538) on March 10, 2006, 01:43 PM:

hi alan,you seem to be very unlucky with derann prints(early ones);i just wonder what are the later prints like.andy.

Posted by Kevin Faulkner (Member # 6) on March 10, 2006, 05:28 PM:

Andy, I have 19 of the Derann Disney features and they are all superb except Mermaid. I did hear that after Mermaid Disney supplied much better masters for the labs to work with.
I think one of the most stunning of all these is Beauty and the Beast. It is pin sharp and the colours just leap of the screen. The sound is (wait for it) a bit overmodulated and tends to give a bit of distorion from time to time but the stereo seperation is great.

Kev.

Posted by Andrew Wilson (Member # 538) on March 10, 2006, 10:44 PM:

have you tired to re record the soundtrack from the dvd to super8,or did you not bother buying the dvd of beauty and the beast when it was first issued.however i did have a problem with my dvd of it at the time.andy.

Posted by Kevin Faulkner (Member # 6) on March 11, 2006, 05:08 AM:

No. I left it as its only noticeable on highly modulated parts of the soundtrack. Most of the time it's ok and tolerable.

Kev.

Posted by Alan Rik (Member # 73) on March 11, 2006, 09:33 AM:

I re-recorded Beauty and the Beast and the original sound is good but re-recorded it sounds incredible. In regards to the picture Kev is spot on. The picture is one of the best I have seen. Most Disney is!. Pinnochio is great-simply beautiful. Snow White is very good, Dumbo-the same. Animated films when done right always look better on film than on DVD. For now at least!

Posted by Andrew Wilson (Member # 538) on March 11, 2006, 10:58 AM:

i have to argee with kevin and alan.aladdin is out of the top drawer as for print quailty on super8.andy.

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on March 14, 2006, 09:45 AM:

I have to agree with Alan's comments about animated movies looking so much better on film than on DVD. The Disney super 8's have a warmth and beauty of there own, which is just not there on DVD. The Disney super 8 images look like beautiful paintings, where as the DVD, while very sharp, appears somehow cold in comparison.

Posted by Alan Rik (Member # 73) on March 14, 2006, 02:21 PM:

When I re-recorded the audio to "Toy Story" I saw both mediums side by side. The Super 8 vs. DVD and the Super 8 won hands down. The colors seem to pop out at you and were very contrasty in comparison.
It was incredible stuff!

Posted by Andrew Wilson (Member # 538) on March 14, 2006, 03:41 PM:

not bad for old tech stuff is it?.andy

Posted by John Clancy (Member # 49) on March 15, 2006, 06:03 AM:

My print of Little Mermaid is crap too. My original print was swapped by Derann but the second one was no better so I just put up with it.

Sound is pretty good though.

Good film from Disney and the songs (which usually annoy me to the point of walking out) on this release are surprisingly good and fit in with the story. But the Super 8 print cannot be recommended so steer clear of it unless it's a bargain price - like free!

Posted by Adrian Winchester (Member # 248) on March 17, 2006, 03:19 PM:

Seems like I was quite lucky with my Little Mermaid print, although I needed to get the sound re-recorded. The definition is fairly good albeit below average for modern Disney releases, and the colour is excellent throughout. My reel 3 has a lot of small printed-on 'specks' (not negative dust) of some sort, but these are not too distracting so I didn't risk changing the reel for one that didn't match the rest.

Posted by Andrew Wilson (Member # 538) on March 18, 2006, 02:19 PM:

i just wonder if mermaid had been released in scope would it have been better,quality wise.if however the master aint up to standed then the film will be poor.andy

Posted by James N. Savage 3 (Member # 83) on March 18, 2006, 03:53 PM:

Has anyone on the forum seen Derann's Little Mermaid extract reel? I think its a selection of songs from the movie. Is the quality on this reel the same? How about a review [Big Grin]

.

Nick.

Posted by Andrew Wilson (Member # 538) on November 15, 2006, 12:21 PM:

One last thing about this film..Is it on thin poly stock.Over to you Kevin.Andy.

Posted by Kevin Faulkner (Member # 6) on November 16, 2006, 05:47 AM:

Think mine is on Agfa Poly. I will double check and get back to you.

Kev.

Posted by Adrian Winchester (Member # 248) on November 16, 2006, 07:47 AM:

I had to get the sound on my 'Mermaid' re-recorded but the print is not bad. The reels all match fine, although the 3rd suffers from lots of tiny little 'specks', but they are not too conspicuous so I felt it might be more trouble than it's worth to change it. The colour is great and although it's not as sharp as other Disney features, it's still sharper than some of the 200' Disney releases I have.

I recall hearing that Derek later had access to a better negative but didn't dare use it, as many people would have then wanted to return their prints!

Posted by Andrew Wilson (Member # 538) on November 16, 2006, 10:50 AM:

My print of the LITTLE MERMAID does go onto a supaspool 1600ft one.Andy.
P.S I take it that those spools have been made for the 1200 series.

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