He does make a point about the preserving of the Proper Color in Cartoons.
And he's right about how a lot of companies often don't give a crap about preserving the original colors for the cartoons in favor of formulaic restoration or going crazy with that nasty DVNR tool.
And he's also picky about proper perseverance of the original colors at least to his eyes.
It's illustrated beautifully in this 2007 JOHN K. STUFF post about a DONALD DUCK Cartoon called DONALD'S DIARY:
He also mentioned in 2006 his immense dissatisfaction with a DVD Restoration of the classic CINEMASCOPE Disney Cartoon TOOT, WHISTLE, PLUNK, AND BOOM from 1953:
& then his joke post mocking restoration artists with his own take:
But things have changed since 2007 what with today's use of 4K TVs and Computer Monitors with HDR support.
And to my Intense Chagrin: A.I Upscalers, especially that TOPAZ A.I CRAP... YEESH!
Why am I making this post?
Because these JOHN K. STUFF posts on Proper Color Theory have inspired me,
Plus, I noticed on December 2025 some color saturation discrepancies when I made my Annual Penultimate LOONEY TUNES post about the 1955 cartoon ONE FROGGY EVENING where some of the colors, especially on the BGs looked a little too bright even for my HIGH CONTRAST PALETTE tastes.
I thought this was an issue with the fact that I'm using my HDR supported HISENSE 4K Tv or even my HDR Supported ASUS Ultrawide Monitor.....
But even when I'm forced to go back to SDR with my Dell Ryzen Laptop's LED Panel which can't even do HDR........
So I did some thorough investigation for myself
Because I am using prints that were distributed by ARCHIVE.ORG user SR. BULLET BILL but then I read on the description on his prints and I discovered that his prints are actually the restored versions that are available on Streaming.
Well..... for the Looney Tunes ones, they used to be on HBO MAX but that ASSHOLE ZASLAV forced their removal and sold them to both METV & TUBI.
But anyway, I want to do my own take on JOHN's Color Theory posts now that over 20 years have passed since his original posts not because of further dissatisfactions with newer restorations but also because I need to update his original knowledge with things that conform to today's use of Modern HDR and even OLED panels due to the evolution of LCD Monitor Tech.
For starters, lets take for example ONE FROGGY EVENING
Notice how heavily saturated Michigan J. Frog is when compared to the BG and the man behind him?
Normally I'm a stickler for preferring High Contrasting Colors over Pastels since it helps the audience focus on the Character but I feel the HBO MAX restoration isn't really true to what the Photographer's at CHUCK JONES' unit really wanted.
Especially when I compare the man behind MICHIGAN FROG in the above image vs him in these various other screenshots:
Just compare his skintone's cel paints against this LUMMOX named NASTY CANASTA from 1956's BARBARY COAST BUNNY below
It's clear to me that what is going on is that the issue may have to do with the tech them people used for these types of restorations.
Just compare his skintone's cel paints against this LUMMOX named NASTY CANASTA from 1956's BARBARY COAST BUNNY below
NASTY CANASTA, aka The Rich Lummox, has a more natural skin tone coloring than the HBO MAX restoration of ONE FROGGY EVENING did.....
Though the screenshot from BARBARY COAST was taken from JOHN K.'s blog.
I wished I had an HBO MAX screenshot of BARBARY COAST BUNNY but for some reason, SR BULLET BILL didn't archive the cartoon on his account.
So instead, I'm gonna have to use this screenshot below
This is what I imagined that the HBO MAX print of
BARBARY COAST BUNNY looked like before ZASLAV forced it's removal.
Also, doesn't CANASTA's evil grin look like he's in cahoots with the MAN?
and more....
BUG's face says it all.
NASTY CANASTA's cel paints now look nasty underneath that
DIGITAL HBO MAX layer of Vaseline far removed from the 35MM Print.
In John K.'s original posts, his rants against the digital restorations were during an era of when DVD was still KING and although by 2006 and 2007 Blu-Ray had been introduced, people were still wary about the new tech and the fact that HDTVs and LCD Monitors were still using LED tech for the panels(Plasma was used for some TVs.)
But this is 2026, we have now all upgraded to 4K Panels with OLEDs, IPS, VA panels amongst the likes so that COLOR THEORY RESEARCH FROM THE MID 2000S needs some updating.
But like I said, notice the difference in the skin tone on the Frog's Owner vs Canasta's?
And I also noticed how on the theater hallway the Frog's Owner is in that some of the colors are also pumped up too.
It's more noticeable if you turn on HDR on your display.
As well as some BG establishing shots such as the entrance to the theater
and the man's apartment
It's a little hard to see but I think the colors are pumped to a point you can see the brush strokes on some of the BGs.
The Brick wall on the left next to the theater is easier to notice.
Sure, I can just use MICROSOFT's Photo Viewer's Edit Tools or Photoshop to bring the colors closer to what the original photographer's were looking for but at the same time,
Rants about the wrong colors being used are just moot to begin with.
Because JOHN K.'s rants about Color Theory are outdated....
More like he didn't get into the Meat and Grits that his obsession with the original colors are based on how he originally saw the colors when watching TV in the 60s and watching them same Cartoons on his spare time when studying animation in Sheridan.
The difference between the colors are actually dependent on how you're watching them to begin with as well as the quality of the source material.
For starters, You know how obsessed with 35mm or even 70mm some people are when it comes to the colors used.
As seen in many a 35MM Trailer restoration as seen in YouTube accounts like FT DEPOT, the colors are often always going to lean more towards the most brightest and when these film reels are fed through the projector, that Xenon Bulb will shoot these brighter colors higher than they were intended to be.
Just compare the 35mm Restoration of the Aladdin movie vs your Blu-Ray, Ultra-HD Blu-Ray, or even Avermedia/El-Gato Capture of the Disney+ print and you can see the difference in the colors.
But my Aladdin comment is also moot since DISNEY prefers to source their 1989-2004 Movies from the CAPS original Digital Master instead of actual filmstock.
Also, I feel there's a significant difference from watching 35MM & 70MM film that's been restored for internet use vs. watching said prints on an actual theater.
One of the very last 70MM Prints I watched in recent years was DUNKIRK in 2017 and later the 50th Anniversary Screening of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.
This obsession with CORRECT COLOR RESTORATION also pertains to the kind of prints used for each Cartoon when the need arises for Streaming.
Take Disney's DOUG for example.
Why use DISNEY'S DOUG when I should be using the NICKELODEON version instead just to satisfy those Elitists out there?
Because the only NICK screenshots I have are from my AMAZON DVD which I ripped the contents into my HDD but the problem with those prints are that they were sourced from an INTERLACED VHS Master tape instead of a 16MM or 35MM Master, and they're of DVD Quality.
Plus, I signed up for PARAMOUNT+ too late due to PARAMOUNT removing NICKELODEON's DOUG off the streaming service and I don't feel like buying the complete series digitally on Apple TV or AMAZON PRIME.
And I refuse to use screenshots with an obvious Network Bug on the corner regardless of networks.
So I'm gonna wait and see what SKYDANCE has in store if they'll reinstate the episodes or lease the streaming rights to Disney.(I check periodically every once in a while.)
Plus, My Disney Series Screenshots are PROGRESSIVE SCAN AVERMEDIA Captures from DISNEY+ using my Laptop just so I can bypass that stupid HDCP detection if I ever use my PS5.
And I read that the episodes had to reference International Masters in order to get the series restored to a full Proper Progressive Scan 1440x1080p Restoration when Disney+ was just about to hit the corner on November 12 2019.
but unlike some other cartoons like Pepper-Ann or PB&J Otter to which their prints often had no choice but to use PAL Audio for the original English Tracks,
but unlike some other cartoons like Pepper-Ann or PB&J Otter to which their prints often had no choice but to use PAL Audio for the original English Tracks,
(Pepper-Ann after the 2nd Season is all NTSC due to being digital masters.)
Disney wisely used the original NTSC Audio for the sound in all 65 episodes.
(The same goes for Recess which also used NTSC Audio Masters.)
That's quite an amazing feet for a version of the show that fans have either mixed feelings or vitriol against (even Disney lost faith in DOUG once PHINEAS & FERB came around)
But I also noticed during parts of the 1996-1997 season that some of the colors a little off for a proper NON-INTERLACED restoration.
For example,
Some scenes had tints to them that look like something out of a faded 16MM inner master.
EVANGELION Episode 16, eat your heart out.
Some had scenes where the color contrast is a little too.... light on the lighter colors and the darker colors are more.... dark.
And for some hilarious reason,
DOUG has a ® Symbol hovering over his head in this scene.
This is what happens when JIM JINKINS refuses to accept DISNEY's
own UNIX COMPUTERS for ink and paint.
Some scenes have some minor chromatic aberration on the edges of the outlines
and some look so clear that you can even see the Acrylic paint escaping the outlines
It could be because of age or because of issues with PLUS ONE's Camera equipment back in 1996, I don't know.
The point is,
Proper Color Restoration on Cel Animation is dependent on how good of an original print the source material is as well as how the colors are presented if in the event the Cartoon has to be reshot again if the old print is not up to standards.
I've often read arguments on what is the true color palette for Cartoons before everything switched to digital ink and paint.
But to my own surprise and some lingering memories that have resurfaced, it all depends whether you go for restorations that are from a professional lab restoration vs an amateur restoration who has access to a USB Film Scanner and procrastinates whether to correct the colors or not.
And as for Cartoons, right now, I'm in a mixed area due to what are the true colors.
For example, ANDREAS DEJA made a post on ROBIN HOOD(1973) where to his surprise when talking about animation cels, he revealed that the colors on the cels when you actually look at them in person are actually more of a duller color and the only reason why the cel paints are really colorful on screen is due to the overhead lights used during photography as well as the underlighting used to illuminate the bottom of the art as to avoid any glare from the overheads due to the glass being used to flatten the image during each exposure.
I made a comparison on my XEROGRAPHY post back in 2025 where I compared a Publicity shot of ROBIN about to relax on a tree trunk and I used a screenshot from my 2013 Blu-Ray to compare.
But something didn't add up when it came to comparing the colors or the thickness of the Xeroxed line.
So to redeem myself from that blunder of mine, here's what I'm gonna do.
To give you an idea what I mean, here's a comparison of each cel by themselves vs. the actual scenes in the movie.
First will be the cel,
then a snapshot from a rip of my 2013 Blu-Ray,
and a snapshot from an .MKV file of an Open-Matte 35MM print I found on archive.org.
First is, "THEY ARE GETTING BETTER AT CHASING US LITTLE JOHN."
Open-Matte 35MM .mkv Print from archive.org
Original Production Animation Cel
2013 Blu-Ray
Ok. Now I see where this is heading.
The Blu-Ray has more muted but also a higher contrast of colors where in that scene, ROBIN is slightly underexposed when compared to the sky which is more brightly lit.
Probably because of the darker shade of orange for ROBIN's fur.
While the ARCHIVE.ORG print has a more pastel look to ROBIN here but it's presentation looks more accurate to ANDREAS DEJA's description of them overhead lights brightening up the colors which in my mind is more or less dependent on that XENON BULB used in many a movie projector.
Also, ROBIN is not underexposed as much in the Blu-Ray.
Speaking about Movie Projectors and Xenon Bulbs, I can't say the same thing about today's projectors that use LASERs due to those projectors being all digital unless one were to run the ARCHIVE.ORG print on a DIGITAL PROJECTOR.
Lets do the comparison once again.
This time with: LITTLE JOHN GRABS THE SHERIFF
Original Production Animation Cel
2013 Blu-Ray
Open-Matte 35MM .mkv Print from archive.org
I don't know if that's a result of age of the film print or if that was intentional because the Blu-Ray doesn't have that tint.
Either way, I'm more mixed because while one will defend the archive.org print for that blue tint in that scene for providing a proper nighttime lighting, to me it's a result of the age of the print.
Who knows.
Here's another one: "FORTUNE TELLERS? HOW DROLL."
This is where I'm mixed as neither the Blu-ray nor the Archive.org print match the original color of the production cel..... but it all depends how you look at it.
Original Production Animation Cel
2013 Blu-Ray
Open-Matte 35MM .mkv Print from archive.org
On the cel, PRINCE JOHN's Regal Robes are pure red.
The Blu-Ray darkens the red on PRINCE JOHN's robe but his fur and crown at least are bright enough to at least be the center of attention.
The Open Matte Print on the other hand has all the colors brightened up so it looks more like it used a pastel palette which the animation cel does not.
But even then, it's too pastel of a scan, even for 35mm which if you've seen FT DEPOT's film restoration of logos and trailers, they handle the color restoration better and still give off a higher contrast to the color palette if at some times make the blues a little too teal on the spectrum.
Next is: "GET OUT OF MY CHURCH!!! OUT!!! OUT!!!"
Compared to the original cel, I don't know.
Original Production Animation Cel
2013 Blu-Ray
Open-Matte 35MM .mkv Print from archive.org
For some reason, both the Blu-Ray and the Archive.org print have filters due to the rainy season but if it were up to me, I'd go for the Blu-Ray due to the mood of this scene where it's a pretty tense situation for FRIAR TUCK.
Next is: "IT'S NOTHING BUT A PEANUT OPERATION"
This is one of the rare cases that because of the added Background, I like the ORIGINAL PRODUCTION CEL layers better in the color depth department better than the Blu-ray or the Archive.org print.
Original Production Animation Cel+Additional Assets
2013 Blu-Ray
Open-Matte 35MM .mkv Print from archive.org
Mostly because the Blu-Ray darkened the tree's colors so the characters can read better even though LITTLE JOHN ended up reading better than ROBIN HOOD is doing.
The Archive.org Print however looks a little too blue on the tree for my liking.
But interestingly, the tree's trunk colors are accurate on both the Cel and the Blu-ray.
Next is: "THAT'S A NAUGHTY WORD. WE NEVER ROB."
If it weren't for the sky, I'd go for the Blu-Ray in a heartbeat due to the more Neutral tones used for ROBIN before he leans on the tree.
Original Production Animation Cel
2013 Blu-Ray
Open-Matte 35MM .mkv Print from archive.org
Next is: "MAID MARION WILL BE AT THE TOURNAMENT."
Original Production Animation Cel+ Additional Assets
2013 Blu-Ray
Open-Matte 35MM .mkv Print from archive.org
As the scene from the CELS is a recreation using tools or whatever the balls is going on, I'm a bit more mixed on this...
But the colors looked more natural compared to both the Blu-Ray or the archive.org print.
And what's with the slight yellow tint on the ARCHIVE.ORG print? Was there a transfer problem?
Another one: "LET ME TELL YOU HOW IT REALLY HAPPENED."
Original Production Animation Cel
2013 Blu-Ray
Open-Matte 35MM .mkv Print from archive.org
For sure, I like the Cel colors a little better but that's because ALAN A DALE is not sitting on the letter 'O' compared to all the other scenes.
Blu-Ray has a slight tint to the violet
while archive.org print looks a slight bit bloomy for my taste.
Also, the cel lacks the broken Lute String which all filmed version have.
Original Production Animation Cel
2013 Blu-Ray
Open-Matte 35MM .mkv Print from archive.org
I'll let you be the judge of the Colors on this one.
But thing is for certain, I read on Andrea's DEJA VIEW blog that RICHARD's clothes at one point were gonna use a different set of cel paints but changed during production.
If you don't believe me, here's photographic proof:
Guess this color for the regal robes wasn't a good fit.
It must have been expensive for Disney to reprint that Xeroxed cel
when doing color corrections for KING RICHARD.
I've noticed how different my 2013 Blu-Ray looks to my eyes now compared to all the cels or 35mm Archive.org prints I'm seeing.
Maybe it's because I'm seeing it through my HDR compatible Displays through my Blu-Ray Rip instead of my PS5 which disables HDR whenever I play a DVD or Blu-Ray.
(I don't know what the film looks like on DISNEY+ but would I want to see it through there?)
Well my TV is a HISENSE A68N 4K TV when compared to my old TOSHIBA TV I had back in 2013 when I bought the Blu-Ray disc at my local LONDON DRUGS.
My old TOSHIBA was just a 32" Full HD deal back in the early 2010s.
And I didn't buy this TV back in the day.
It was actually a Birthday gift for me back in 2010.
Anyway,
I'll let you be the judge on what is the true colors and how you interpret all of ANDREAS DEJA's knowledge of Cel Paints, Camera Exposures, Overheads, etc.
My point being is that the way I see it, The true colors for cartoons is dependent on how well the restoration of each cartoon is after being sourced from the lab.
It's been a while since I last saw a film on ACTUAL filmstock in theaters that wasn't a classic screening or a Christopher Nolan film.......(again, DUNKIRK was my most recent 70mm Film.)
But if memory serves me right, the colors were probably more closer to even a digital screening, just with Scratches dancing around the corner of the projection screen because MULTIPLEX theaters often don't care about removing the dirt and scratches when cleaning the filmstock.
Rather than force people to understand proper color theory through your own logic, give people a chance to see what colors suit them best.
I'll follow this up with a part 02 in the near future when possible.