A Hand in Dlaždice

Rarely do I see frames from Pat & Mat episodes which I have no recollection of seeing. Yet this is exactly what happened a few days ago, when Rakso showed me this:

Yes, you're seeing it right, that's a hand occupying quite a portion of the screen in the 1992 episode Dlaždice. The screenshot comes from this master and is seen in motion on 1:06:

A few words on this master, which I have waited to see for a long time: it comes from a South Korean DVD and was graciously provided by RLin, another reader of this blog. "South Korea" and "aiF" are two syntagma which have often been put together on this blog for reasons known to most, but it may not have been discussed that South Koreans have seen much better transfers of aiF episodes than the rest of the world. I have an inkling they were made from the original negatives, which is why they look much better than the washed out junk Bonton serves us to this day. The episodes look much better, especially those from 1992 and you can see them on Rakso's channel. Seeing Vrata not look like somebody had turned down the saturation on the master and ran it about 1992 times is a revelation, while the others are also improved. There is a downside ― while the sources are great, the mastering is not that much, with interlacing due to Korea's NTSC system. However, if you do not focus on the animation that much (like I do), you won't notice it. So, give yourself a treat and watch those masters if you haven't already.

On to the other revelation, that of the hand. It is in a strange position, giving a thumbs up? Could František Váša, who solely animated the episode, actually be touching the puppet? It does not look that way really and he does not remember anything strange. In any case, whoever pressed the camera to record this frame clearly did it by mistake. It is a strange goof, so how did I not notice it before? Simply, it wasn't there. 

The version I have seen the most comes from the 1999 aiF DVD and was recycled for Bonton's releases. In that master, the hand was digitally removed, not in the best fashion (see first frame). The tampering was unnecessary in such a way as the subsequent frame could have just been copied. There is no movement between them (see second frame).

You will also notice that the Korean master shows more of the bottom of the screen, but less of the top. This is the case with other episodes as well. And just to be sure that the hand is not any by-product of the mastering, it was necessary to check even older masters and VHSs. Indeed, the hand turns up on all of them. And that's the brief but intriguing story of this intruding hand.