A few weeks ago we posted the restored film of my grandparent’s 1972 trip to the Magic Kingdom… Three years later, when I was barely walking, they made another pilgrimage to Florida, again stopping at the Magic Kingdom for a day.
This particular piece of film had some nasty issues I had to deal with. For one, there was a massive amount of film grain; this caused compression artifacts in motion areas after the film was scanned and compressed. As a result, I’m sending the reels off to be re-scanned and this time the files sent back to me will be uncompressed, allowing for a much cleaner restoration. The film also did not hold its color as the earlier film had. I’m pretty sure my grandfather used Kodak film in ’72 and some off-brand in ’75. Now, 39 years later we can tell the difference. I had to use three different color restoration techniques to get this as accurate as I could. Even then, some scenes aren’t quite as perfect at I’d like them to be, however the film itself has blotches of yellow dis-coloration – possibly poorly manufactured or developed.
This restoration is 90% complete. I wanted to show you what I’ve done so far, but don’t take this as the final cut. Once I have the improved footage I will upload that and let everyone know. Regardless, you’ll find some amazing Tomorrowland footage in this film – including the pristine white look, waterfall towers, and a ride on the peoplemover…and some great footage of the now forgotten Swan Boats.
Enjoy!
You might not be happy with it yet, but it looks incredible! For years I’ve been fascinated by those twin water towers at the gate to Tomorrowland. So cool to finally see them in action (and I never realized that those walls also seem to be fountains of sorts!)
How different Tomorrowland looks from the 1972 footage. Just incredible work. Keep it up!
I can’t decide if I want to be the guy in orange at the beginning or the guy brandishing his chest hair in front of POTC.
Thanks for all of your restoration/preservation work.