Studio Gibli archive is the key to its 4K restoration process

When Princess Mononoke He debuted for the first time in 1997, marked an important turning point for Studio Ghibli. The study had already entered computer generated images and digital compounds with films such as Isao Takahata's Pom Poko and Yoshifumi Kondō's Whisper of the heart. But Mononoke It was Ghibli's first instance really hugging CGI as a tool to improve one of his hand -drawn animated projects: something that the writer / director Hayao Miyazaki had In the past in the past.

The original impressions of Mononoke That projected in cinemas was already a beautiful sample of how without problems Ghibli could incorporate avant -garde technology in its traditional production workflow. But the study plans for its next Mononoke 4K restoration will be an even more visual example of how the newest innovations can revitalize classical art. When I recently sat down with the vice president of Gibli, Atsushi Okui, who previously served as director of photography of the studio for animation and worked in films such as Red Pork and Howl's Moving CastleHe told me that the restoration process Mononoke In 4K it began approximately a decade ago when the standard began to adopt more widely.

“We scan Mononoke More than 10 years ago, and I am very happy to have done it in 4K so because only now is that people are beginning to see the effectiveness of the format, “Okui said.” The new restoration really talks about the great potential that the celluloid film has because it really works for the big screen. “

Depending on how a film has been preserved, there are different ways in which production houses can restore and remastery them. In cases where the original negatives of a film have been damaged or lost excessively, studies can use exported prints to create high images to higher resolutions. With the artificial scale, the final result always implies a certain degree of a computer that makes reported conjectures about how individual frameworks should be based on limited visual information that is available. But Mononoke He was filmed in a 35 mm film, and because Gibli retained the initial negatives, he could produce 4K scans in line with the original vision of Miyazaki.

“Many of the things you've seen before were delivered in 2K DCP (digital film packages), but they were not made In 2K, “said Okui.” Because Mononoke It was filmed in a 35 mm movie originally, the scanned data were of 4K quality. What we have done this time is to incorporate that data into the final impression and deliver the full film in 4K “.

Instead of adding new details or – as was the case with The recent one Interstella 5555 Remaster – Trying awkwardly to approximate the images of the original, the new 4k Mononoke The restoration adheres to the faithful presentation of the film as its creative team intended. His clarity would not be possible if it were not for Gibli, making sure to preserve his negatives carefully. And with Mononoke Returning to cinemas on March 26, the study is already thinking about the plans for its next restored launch.

While there are no ads about which movie Ghibli wants to address next, Okui says: “That is something we plan to discuss in the future.”