The NeverEnding Story regrade

[crissrudd4554]

Granted I don't own the BD for this film but a few years ago I watched the digital version on iTunes and was just watching the movie on HBO GO today. After seeing the screengrabs on bluray.com the two examples I noted appear to match the BD print.

This film definitely could use some tweaking. The current print IMO is very dark and a lot of scenes have a bit of a yellowish tinge to it particularly the Ivory Tower scenes. Perhaps when I get a chance I'll share some grabs comparing the old DVD (which I have) to the BD. Anyways what do you guys think??

[MrBrown]

I somehow like the color grading of the Dutch BD, compared to the colder worldwide releases...

http://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?d1=3320&d2=1076&c=324

[crissrudd4554]

I'll have to agree with you.

[Chewtobacca]

Yeah, it looks better. It's funny how Dutch BDs sometimes buck trends.  I seem to remember that there was an early Dutch BD of Se7en that had the same color timing as the Alliance release but was OAR and lacked the telecine.

[MrBrown]

Too bad it is not really easy to find these releases...

[TServo2049]

I have that Dutch BD, I bought it for the Team Blu preservation project and got a second copy for myself. I am actually wondering how accurate the Dutch version is. It resembles older video transfers, but I've seen a camrip of part of the Derann Super 8 digest, and stills of a print that was on eBay, and am wondering if the U.S. BD isn't 100% wrong, despite having notable problems.

In particular, the Ivory Tower scene where Atreyu is introduced does look to have more of a gold tint than the Dutch BD, but the U.S. BD looks to seriously overdo the gold, everything is affected by a blanket tint. Many of the other creatures in the crowd have robes and jewelry of colors like blue and green that are in other places on the spectrum, a lot of that is heavily affected on the U.S. BD (i.e., something that was blue now looks almost totally brown), whereas the same colors are clearly distinguishable on the Derann clip despite there still being an overall gold look to the scene. (I downloaded this Derann excerpt off Vimeo years ago, the original upload is gone but I can put it back up somewhere for you all to see.)

The Dutch could be a straight neutral transfer of an IP meant for home video. That doesn't mean the U.S. is totally accurate, and the German remastered BD has its own problems (including severe grain reduction). The Dutch version is closest to how I remember it, but I first saw it on video years after it came out, so that doesn't mean it's theatrically accurate. (I wish a 35mm screening would happen somewhere sometime where one of us could go see it...)

[crissrudd4554]

My introduction was the 1994 US VHS. Maybe when I get a chance I'll post some grabs from that as reference. Should this develop further I would be interested in restoring the Warner Bros. logo with the 'A Warner Communications Company' byline.

[TServo2049]

This is the Derann clip I saved off Vimeo a couple years back: https://mega.nz/#!l0UjkQbS!1fvbW6DhcMyK8...n37a8zhooo

Not perfect, of course, I'm sure this isn't exactly what it looked like to be in the room watching it project, but pay close attention to the Ivory Tower stuff.