I believe this film could highly benefit from a remaster. The animations, while very fluid, included a lot of what looked like rough-draft storyboard penciling. It's almost as if their sketches, and hatch marks were never cleaned up and such. And 1977 is not an excuse. Bambi, Snow White, Dumbo, etc had excellent looking animations, and these films were all made in the '30s and '40s. What happened with The Rescuers?
shareObviously you're new to Disney history. The age of the film was not the issue. For one thing, during the '70s, Disney was facing financial difficulties which at times affected the production of their films (notice how much recycling was apparent in Robin Hood), also, the animators working on this film, particularly Milt Khal, strongly objected to their drawings being altered by the clean-up department which is why they were mostly left as they were drawn on paper.
Bambi and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs were not animated using Xerox technology, instead, the animators drawings were copied by hand, and in doing so, these artists neglected to copy excess lines in order to achieve smooth edges.
The Rescuers can indeed benefit from a through restoration on many aspects, but tempering with the "excess" lines would be a violation against the film itself.
http://www.petitiononline.com/drescuer/petition.html Sign petition, save The Rescuers!
You're right. I don't know Disney's history, but thanks for the clarification.
shareYep, pencil line work would be rough for quite some time. It started to get 'finer' around the time of 'The Little Mermaid,' and then once the CAPS system was in place, things got really nice and clean.
Just look at the line work in 'Mermaid,' and then on 'Rescuers Down Under' which was released the next year.
"Thanks, guys." "So long, partner."
- Toy Story 3 (9/10)