Anne of Green Gables Four-Part Blu-ray 4K Restoration Set (Best Quality Restoration)

The process:
Producer Kevin Sullivan went back to the original film negatives, did a 4k scan, and these blu-rays are delivered in 1080p 24fps, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound by Technicolor. According to Google, the original shooting specs was done on 16mm Film on an Arriflex 16SR camera with mono audio. The original aspect ratio was 1.33:1, as opposed to this version which is blown up and cropped for 16:9.

I have worked professionally in high-end post production, and from my professional analysis of the blu-ray, I can say that for what the original shooting specs were, this is definitively the best digital imaging we're going to get if you're die-hard cinephile and Anne of Green Gables fan (which, I realize, is an extraordinarily specific niche. I might end up being one of the only people who writes a review this thorough).

I am impressed and satisfied with this edition of the collection, and I am glad I was undeterred by the price. Having said that, there are very complex shots throughout the first film that somewhere in the digital restoration process lost some detail. We got a ton of brilliance, luminance, and color back out of the image, as well as some digital color correction for certain, but with digital? There is, unfortunately, some noticeable compression artifacts on the most-busy shots in the film. For instance, the trees at the opening credits and the trees blooming in The Avenue. If you look very closely at Anne (Megan Follows) while she walks, there is some weird blurring that only can be attributed to digital post processes for occurring. There are just so many objects on screen, and so much detail, shadow, and different colors that, I argue, anything other than the original master Apple ProRes 4444 HQ (or XQ) file would be able to retain this properly. To add: this was shot on 16mm Film Stock, not 35mm film stock which was the standard for Hollywood Film Productions for almost a century. Only other place I've seen this is in the documentary film, "They Shall Not Grow Old," which digitally restored film reels of actual WWI soldiers and combat.

I do not know the technical terminology to articulate the loss of detail in the dune grass, or the smoothing on the faces of the actors in some of the close-ups. I cannot break down what I theorize it might be, I just know that to me? It doesn't look as good as it could. There are definitely shots throughout where the final color decisions look overly-saturated, and/or the blue levels are unbalanced with the red and green, giving it more of a sepia look. In comparing this with 4k clips of other films shot on 16mm (Moonrise Kingdom, First Man), I can say that there's a similar loss in sharpness observed and both of those films had much higher production budgets and deeper resources for post production. It may just be 16mm to Digital 4k looks that much worse than 35mm to Digital 4k, and I am just accustomed to the later.

Even with the original mono sound mix remastered to 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround, it sounds pretty much the same (like a movie shot in 1985). It's a dialogue and score-heavy audio mix anyways, so I was not expecting to get any deep, bass LFE pulses are anything like that.

Given the $119+ pricetag for this collection, I just wanted to be as thorough as possible. If you're a diehard Anne of Green Gables fan, this is the collection you want to get. Unless you have a 4k UHD Blu-Ray player and Sullivan pulls the switch on releasing a 4k version of this, this is the best* versions of this film series we will get.

I own a DVD set from about twenty years ago that is great quality. I bought this blueray set as a gift after two new DVD sets had horrible pixilation. This restoration is very good, but why does it have to be so expensive?

Outstanding video quality. Well worth the cost!

Excellent purchase! Recommend purchasing this selection.

I watched these movies with my mom when I was younger. Then probably multiple times alone on the old original three VHS boxset. I found them again in my teenage years, then bought it now just for myself. I love these movies, and this is the best version of exactly what I remember. I highly recommend this. You won't regret the watch. I'll never regret my rewatches in the future.