Beauty and the Beast Blu-ray

[Ben]

So good he posted it twice!

[Dacey]

I always like it when entertainment websites do this. Too often they have it archived and you have to pay to even view it.

[Daniel]

The original is coming out on 4K next year. In the meantime, if one has access to Disney+ you can technically already see it.

[Daniel]

Best Buy steelbook:



Shame the discs will cover up Belle and Beast. Aside from that, I like it. Feels elegant.

[Ben]

One thing that fails to get me excited about steelbooks is that their planning almost always fudges up the insides. Either the chosen image isn’t the best to have a "fold" in it, or it’s not framed off center or well enough (see Belle's arm getting cut off on the live-action's Inside), or they use an image that would be better flipped so they don’t get covered up by the discs. They’ve done it again here, while adding some hideous framing that sees the Beast's head being shaved off at the top. Also...is it me, or should the front and back of the outside be reversed...?

[Randall]

Agree. Poor design here.

I collect Steelboks, but am choosy about which to go for. I often preorder from Zavvi, then end up cancelling once the artwork is revealed. I ended up doing that for every Star Wars Steelbook, and a number of Marvel ones. Some of the best are actually for the DC animated movies.

[Daniel]

Don't collect steelbooks, but I do enjoy looking. Think I like the outer artwork here simply because it doesn't feature the same clip art of the characters rearranged or looking off-model. Probably would look better all colored in, though.

[Daniel]

A new attraction recently opened up at Walt Disney World's Epcot where one can watch a condensed version of the film with an added twist -- LeFou being the one who brings Belle and Beast together. The short features new narration by Angela Lansbury, new hand-drawn animation and it's directed by Don Hahn himself! You can watch the new scenes here:



So freakin' cool! What a fun idea. Totally reminiscent of Lion King 1½. All things considered, they did a brilliant job of seamlessly blending in with the original. Much like "Human Again". Seriously, I loved this. Such clever ways of inserting LeFou where he wasn't there before... or couldn't possibly be! Singing "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo"! Gold.

[Ben]

I’d heard about this! Pretty cool to be able to see the new scenes like that.

[Daniel]

Review of the 4K.

[Ben]

Put your contrast up, your brightness down and amp your color saturation...and you too can have the magical look of HDR...

[Farerb]

I wrote this on another forum, but I think it's worth repeating here:

The question is how do people expect the film to look like? Because I know there are people who expect it to look like the laserdisc or the VHS, and I can say that it doesn't look like them (nor do I think it should). It's definitely brighter then them but less bright than the Blu-ray, but I don't find it pink and I think it has a better contrast.

I know there's the work-in-progress from the Blu-ray and some screenshots from an incomplete fan restoration that look even darker than the laserdisc/VHS (to the point where you barely see some of the backgrounds), but I never expected it to look as dark as them (also 35mm will have higher contrast and gamma - the difference will be similar to all the caps films, not just Beauty and the Beast):







So no it doesn't look like the 35mm, but none of them do. I did watch the WIP with my sister the other day, and she said that the film was never this dark when she saw it in theaters back in 1992 (she was 13 at that time).

I did try to do some investigating with BTS features and the art book and this is what I found:









And I do think it is much closer to these than anything that was released prior, and it does resemble the DCP I saw in theaters two years ago.

I think I've researched this color issue since 2017, and I think in the end of day it has become very subjective, anyone has their own idea as to what Beauty and the Beast should look like. As for the HDR - I don't think that Beauty and the Beast was treated that differently than other CAPS films, I just think that the CAPS to 35mm transfer had probably more effects than other films, probably because it's the oldest film, so when I say that I think that the HDR is closer to what I think are the accurate colors, I mean what I think the colors were in CAPS, not in the 35mm (or the VHS or the laserdisc) (and it's true to other CAPS films as well).

I do think the Blu-ray and Platinum Edition don't look good, mainly because they have the brightness increased and the gamma decreased (issues that I personally don't see in the HDR), but it has been almost 20 years of people complaining about Beauty and the Beast colors and transfers that I think people probably won't except anything that doesn't resemble the VHS/laserdisc, even though I always thought that the "correct" (I don't even know if it's a word that I can use in this situation anymore) way was something in the middle, meaning that it doesn't lack any shadows (like it does in the DVD and Blu-ray), but it also doesn't have "black crush", you're able to see the backgrounds and it still looks "lively" (which I thought were issues in the VHS and the laserdisc).

So like I've said before, I think in the end it has become a matter of taste and anyone should find the version they are most content with. I'm personally happy with the HDR (it might not be 100% accurate but I think most things aren't when it comes to Disney) I do think it's better than the Blu-ray, and I've watched the laserdisc for so long and I had issues with it as well that I'm just glad I can retire it now.

Anyway, here are photos I took of my TV screen:

I have a 4K Samsung NU8000 TV and these are my settings:

HDR:
Picture Mode: Movie
Backlight: 50
Brightness: 0
Contrast: 50
Sharpness: 0
Colour: 25
Tint: 0
Digital Clean View: Off
Auto Motion Plus: Off
Local Dimming: Low
Contrast Enhancer: Off
Colour Tone: Warm 2
ST.2084: 0
RGB Only Mode: Off
Colour Space Settings: Auto

[Daniel]

Pretty fascinating. Looks like the 4K retains the reflection of Belle on the window. Always thought that was a nice touch.

[Farerb]

The master is the same as the Blu-ray's, meaning it contains the same changes and mistakes:
- The rose glowing twice at the prologue.
- Lumiere's eyebrow disappears for a second.
- Missing shadows in the lights in one shot of Be Our Guest.
- The special edition shot from the end of Something There instead of the correct shot from the theatrical.
- Belle's window reflection.

The only one that still bothers me a little is Something There.

The thing about the release though is that they gave the HDR a new color grade, which to me looks closer to how I remember them.

[Farerb]

Not sure what's going on, but this article from D23 website claims that Beauty and the Beast had 226,000 cels and even provides an image of one:


But Beauty and the Beast was made with the CAPS system, which means that they didn't need to make cells?!