Behind a single door in a building at the center of the Walt Disney Studio Lot is a vault — maintained between 37- and 40-degrees Fahrenheit at 25% humidity. That vault holds one of the great treasures of Hollywood: the Walt Disney Studios Film Archive.
Here, original celluloid negatives of classic pictures like Fantasia (1940), Cinderella (1950), and Mary Poppins (1964) are carefully held and periodically reviewed to ensure that the rich history and innovative filmmaking of the studio is preserved for generations to come.
And, thanks to the company’s 2019 acquisition of 21st Century Studios, Disney is not only responsible for its own namesake movies, but also the handling of a century of Fox films. In fact, that acquisition increased the inventory of the Film Archive by 65%.
The work of maintaining Disney’s vault of movies is split between two distinct groups — the Restoration team and the Film Archive team.
Here’s how and why they work year round to inspect and restore their vast library of films.
How Restoring a Film Works
“If not properly archived, film deteriorates over time,” Kevin Schaeffer, Director of Restoration & Library Management at the Walt Disney Studios Film Archive, explained. That’s why the vault is kept at such a precise climate. “Science has shown that archiving the film in this environment will halt the natural deterioration,” he noted.
The Film Archive group maintains and preserves the film elements, performing periodic film inspection of each original negative to ensure any decay is caught and addressed early.
At the same time, the Restoration team oversees, well, the restoration efforts for the studio. Restoring a film is a journey of anywhere from three to twelve months, depending on the age or length of each feature.
In most cases, the Film Archive will hold the original negative and original sound recordings for each film. If the Film Archive doesn’t have this or the next best version in its vault, then external archives maintained at the Library of Congress, Museum of Modern Art, or The Academy Film Archive will be consulted to access their film elements.
On top of obtaining the best restoration sources, the Restoration team also accesses the best existing original print of the feature and reviews it to ensure they are recreating the original color and composition of the original release.
For instance, “on Cinderella we borrowed an original 1950 nitrate Technicolor IB print from the Library of Congress as our guide,” Schaeffer said.
Often times, the Walt Disney Archives (a separate department that preserves historical materials about all aspects of Disney company history) will also be consulted, such as regarding the usage of correct studio logos and main titles when several vintage animated shorts were recently restored.
Once gathered, the best film sources are digitally scanned at a 4K resolution to capture all the detail of each frame. That scan becomes the source for all the Restoration team’s future work.
From there, external post production facilities will be brought in to perform the restoration work: depending on the age and state of the film, groups will clean up any dirt or anomalies on the new digital file, or address image jitter, bumps, warping, and manage the film grain.
One original negative that needed in-depth work was 20th Century Studio’s Planet of the Apes from 1968. In one scene, the film reel was badly torn and had been glued back together in a way that left orange marks across the image of star Charlton Heston’s body.
“We were able to seamlessly stitch the images back together and paint in the missing skin, sand, and sky using current visual effects technology,” Schaeffer said.
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Finding the proper color is also key to the preservation work.
“Depending on the type of film stock used in the original production, the color often fades to some degree and requires manipulation to recreate the look of the original release,” Schaeffer said. So, an expert colorist is employed to set the proper brightness and shade of every color in each shot. This work begins while the restoration queue is in progress.
Once all that work is complete, the Restoration team will review the full film and make any necessary adjustments, consult with the film’s director if feasible, and then finalize the new version.
“A Clearer Image Than Previously Possible”
The first time Schaeffer worked on a restoration of 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs — Walt Disney’s first feature-length animated film made in three-strip Technicolor — the latest technology was used to provide “a clearer image than previously possible,” he said.
And that was 2009.
However, Schaeffer noted that technology keeps improving, “making it possible to capture more detail and fix more damage or anomalies from the original negatives.”
Due to those technological advances, the Restoration team was able to revisit Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs over a decade later and provide even sharper and more detailed images with the full range of color used by the original animators.
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The Disney touch was on full display for this project, as the Restoration team was able to partner with animators from Walt Disney Animation Studios who provided not only their expertise but also reference art from the Walt Disney Animation Research Library. Together, they were able to carefully examine every color in each shot to aid in ensuring that the restoration recreated the original intended look of the film.
In November, for their efforts on the new 4K restoration of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Hollywood Professional Association awarded the Walt Disney Studios the Outstanding Achievement in Restoration award.
Preserving Hollywood’s Legacy
For Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs — or any other restored movie — after the long process, the film is returned to the Film Archive and new digital archival and servicing files are entered into inventory so that the movie’s beauty and the artistry of the Walt Disney Studios Film Archive can be shared with the world.
“New files to service any Blu-ray, digital streaming, and broadcast needs are made available in the inventory for any future use,” Schaeffer said. He added that new Digital Cinema masters are also created so “that any future screenings will also use the restored file.”
“We want to ensure the best possible experience for anyone enjoying our features anywhere, on any platform,” he said.
From Disney and 20th Century Studios to lesser-known film labels such as Selznick International and more, the process of preserving film is also about preserving the legacy of cinematic classics that have woven their way into our lives.
“More than just preserving the legacy of an individual studio, we are also protecting parts of a whole culture and history,” Schaeffer said. “We are ensuring that these works of art are available for new generations to discover and love.”