MovieChat Forums > Dragonslayer (1981) Discussion > needs a re-release with small cgi fixes

needs a re-release with small cgi fixes

posted 15 years ago by gavinvandraven
12 replies | jump to latest

the special effects in this film are awesome, for their time, and for today's standards as well. however, the poor blue screen effects are distracting. i think this movie would be vastly improved by simply fixing the distinct lines around the dragon in parts, and by some simple contrasting fixes. with only slight cgi tweaks to give the dragon a feeling of "being there". i would of course want to still see the original dragon, just fix how it blends into the shots with the actors/environment. think of the rancor from ROTJ in the dvd release, compared to the VHS/theatrical versions.... no visible rotoscoping makes the creature more believable. clean up the transfer, give the film a less grainy look, then re-release it in theaters or on dvd/blue ray.

don't change the movie, just improve what is there while preserving the integrity of the original.

best dragon ever put on film!

[–] heelmaster2000 15 years ago

Re-release yes, CG not so much. Though it would make the film look nicer I am getting tired of seeing CG everywhere instead of cool looking puppets and animatronics. I can understand that it is considerable cheaper, but IMO it takes some of the fun out of watching a film.

[–] bluhorn 15 years ago

I hear what the OP was saying. keep the actual go motion puppet shots, just fix the matte problems. While they're at it, fix Ulrich's transparent head when the bluescreen process takes out his blue eyes. Like the snow speeders in Empire, the matte doesn't hold out properly and the foreground objects become semi-transparent.

[–] Humphrey_Fish 15 years ago

While they're at it, fix Ulrich's transparent head when the bluescreen process takes out his blue eyes.

Hey, I always thought that was neat, heh.

[–] filmbuff1974 15 years ago

Wow, I just finished "ranting" on another thread about this mania for remaking films and had suggested that a re-release with minor CGI effects with a better idea. I'm glad to see that there are many fans of "Dragonslayer" (and of movies in general) who are on the same page with this!

If you love and support Michael Jackson 100%, copy & paste this into your signature. We love MJ!

[–] gavinvandraven 15 years ago

this is exactly the same thing i wanted to see done with the original star wars trilogy. a cleaned up version without all the "extra" elements. just clean it up and fix the matte problems... the boxes around the tie fighters and such. any cgi shouldnt be instantly noticeable as cgi. i hope for the blu ray release lucas actually does this. and dragonslayer needs it too.

[–] filmbuff1974 15 years ago

Agreed. At this point in film technology, CGI effects are (should be!) the most that older films should be tampered with. "MIB" has not dated well at all. So CGI effects do have limits before the illusion is broken. Yeah, "Dragonslayer" should have JUST minor CGI effects work done on it.

I sincerely hope that this new "3D" trend doesn't become a Hollywood fixture and then we have to suffer having our favorite genre films "fixed up" with 3D effects!

If you love and support Michael Jackson 100%, copy & paste this into your signature. We love MJ!

[–] Humphrey_Fish 15 years ago

this is exactly the same thing i wanted to see done with the original star wars trilogy. a cleaned up version without all the "extra" elements. just clean it up and fix the matte problems...

Yeah. They handled the rancor scene FLAWLESSLY...why they couldn't just keep as restrained as that the rest of the time...who knows.

[–] englisher101 13 years ago

Perhaps to clarify the request, purely focus on post-process enhancements in areas like compositing, no inserting of new background elements or anything like that.

[–] Illinoisguy1 13 years ago

I agree with the OP.

Having watched this recently on a HDTV really shows that the effects don't hold up well because of the matte problems.

This is very evident in the cave sequence in the end where the matte lines don't meld well at all and actually sort of ruins the scene.
Another thing is that during the finale I can actually see the clouds behind the actors. It's very, very distracting.

But the problem could be is that the original film elements, especially those pertaining to the visual effects, may not exist anymore making any sort of fix problematic.

I have no idea if they can just go in there with the existing film and clean it up without actually scanning the original film elements and doing everything digitally to reduce/remove the matte line problems.

[–] logmeinyoucnt 13 years ago

Pathetic idea and you should all be Goddamn ashamed of yourselves as film fans. Leave it as the director, artists anf technicians intended! Enough of your Orwellian meddling to bring something up to the present (MEDIOCRE, SOULLESS, LIFELESS ) genre climate.

"Me annoy you long time." Yoko Ono

[–] sascha-17 12 years ago

While I detest pretty much all the changes that George Lucas applied to the Star Wars films, I don't see any harm in cleaning up certain effects in an older movie. As long as you don't change the look and feel of the flick. Lucas did this in some scenes of the SW-films (Rancor bluescreen-effects, Hoth landscape clipping through Snowspeeder cockpit-struts, etc) and those are among the few changes to SW that I actually approve of.

Dragonslayer's very noticable bluescreen "outlines" would be a perfect candidate for a workover IMO. The dragon still looks terrific today IMO, but its flying sequences could really use some cleaning up. Don't add anything new, just clean up some of the smaller stuff they couldn't clean up back in 1981.

S.

[–] kramsey20 12 years ago

Nah.

The changes should only fix the compositing issues, that's it.