So I was scrolling through Google the other day and I came across this:
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Balto-Blu-ray/62689/Interesting despite no release date BUT HANG ON before everyone says "oh no not another Balto on Blu Ray thread" and of course the "Universal doesn't care about Balto any more" I have something to tell you. I just watched Balto in HD... yes High Definition baby!
Firstly I must apologise that I don't know if this available to our friends outside of the UK... but having seen the previously mentioned bit of Blu Ray hope I thought that Balto hasn't been seen on British television for quite a few years, not since Christmas 2008 at least. So I did a search and there it was, the full movie to download for a bargain price of £2... but in a choice of 2 channels: normal and in HD. For the sake of £2 I thought it was worth a shot and well... yes it was!
At first I didn't think much had changed and my immediate reaction was it hadn't but as the camera zoomed in on Grandma Rosie ever fake winkle on her face was clear and her terrible wig was even more terrible than I previously remembered! Heading into the animation I noticed a difference too....
Since we upgraded our television I had not been able to bring myself to watch Balto again on it simply because the larger screen showed up every speckle, every piece of snow (and not the animated kind) that appeared on the DVD. Instead I had watched it on the smaller tv upstairs because it was so much less visible and still made the picture look sharp. However with this "new" version it was clean, crisp the colours were so much more vibrant! I paused the movie, loaded the DVD into the PlayStation to make sure that I wasn't using hopeful imagination... I wasn't. Comparing scenes the difference was night and day especially with detailed backgrounds making the film carry much more depth with colours that really "pop". I really wish that I could prove this to you 100% but I have no way of taking screen shots direct from the TV. The best I can offer you is a photo taken on my SLR camera (on a tripod with both shots taken on the same TV). As you probably know taking a photo of the TV is less than ideal and you get the distortion and lines running across but if you can look through that, you will hopefully see what I mean....
DVD
HD
Sorry it isn't exactly the same frame but look at the colour of Jenna's fur as an example - see how vibrant the red is.
Up close... and again please excuse the lines, that is the camera and not the film...
DVD
HD
So what does this mean to you? Firstly, if you live in the UK and have a Sky HD box I suggest that you search Balto and watch it for yourself! You have until March 2014 after which it will be removed from the Sky Store!! For everyone else, it would appear that the movie has had a face lift. It certainly has made it look fresh, vibrant and certainly not nearly 20 years old! Fingers crossed that soon, maybe, just maybe we will get a version which we can own
I'll try and post some more comparisons when I get more time...
