The Nightmare Before Dirt and Scratch Removal Artefacts

I just got The Nightmare Before Christmas on Blu-ray this morning. On the whole, it looks good. It's been extensively processed so is unnervingly grainless, but this doesn't hurt detail (or perceived detail) too much (I'd rather they'd just left it alone, though, it's a film, not a video production). There are some areas which look a little "waxy", but it's difficult to tell when this is due to having no film grain present, or when we're actually seeing the texture of the puppets/animatronics. So yes, good on the whole, but unfortunately, there are some DVNR artefacts present which aren't on the DVD release I have (the Scandinavian PAL version, which up until now was the best copy of the film available). Yes, the BD release of Nightmare features dirt and scratch removal artefacts. If you don't know what these are, it's when an expensive video processor at the studio is used to automatically detect black and white scratches and specks on the film, and remove them by filling them in with information from surrounding areas. The only problem is, it tends to get mixed up (hey, it's a computer), and worse still, the studios often do not notice the processor getting mixed up and allow the artefacts to appear in the final product.

Blu-ray:

Scandinavian PAL DVD:

The BD release of this film is still the best one around, and these mistakes only crop up once or twice. But, they are there, studios do need to be more careful, and on the whole, we need to be more objective. It's one thing to say "Well it's only on a few scenes so it doesn't matter" or "STFU it looks great!!1", and another to appraise a disc for what it is and isn't. That's the thing with film: each and every frame matters, so we have to flag these problems up when we see them so the studios can improve. (On the plus side... look how much better the detail is on the BD version!) For what it's worth, I spotted each of these problems on the first viewing (but then again, I'm hoping to do this sort of thing for a living). It's a good effort on the whole from Disney, but one with flaws which shouldn't have slipped through. Disney: please, please, please don't let this appear on your Platinum Blu titles. I wish I'd seen this before flying out to IFA because I'd have asked Disney's representative about it there.