“Can’t they just leave well enough alone?”
When – “yeah, for auld lang syne and all that,” I decided to YouTube-revisit Big Buck Bunny, I found that it had been re-rendered. Which, very unfortunately, completely ruined it for me.
Without a link to the video you don’t give us much to reply to…
Here it is :
Original Render
New Render
Seriously ? ^^
Original :
New :
“Completly Ruined” ? ^^
Quality is just a bit better, the general aspect is not so much changed I think…
Only “big” change might be the seed for grass particles, it looks different, indeed.
See you 
++
Tricotou
I remember this video. This is the first project I saw that was done in Blender back in the day, even though I had no idea what a Blender was at the time. ^-^
The only major differences between the two renders are that the new one is sharper looking (naturally, since it was rendered in 4k), has some darker values than the original, and the new one is running on 60 fps rather than 24 like the original. Other than that, the images look practically identical. I don’t really see any extra seeding on the grass particles that make them look more plentiful. They just look sharper because of the resolution.
Another point to consider is that it is likely that the project was rendered on a more modern version of Blender at the time, so any bug fixes or changes that affected the visuals of the original would have altered the original slightly. I don’t really see a problem with this since the new one looks a lot better to me on my screen. I could do without the 60 fps however. 
Looks to like a very good addition to this project ! Glad to revisit Big Bunny again and thanks to the people of this project.
To me, it’s like the original Star Wars movie – which I remember, but can no longer watch.
(The crawl originally said: “STAR WARS.” There was no “episode.”)
@sundialsvc4 Your brain probably responds to the higher 60fps frame rate, and perhaps the higher resolution as well: with a higher resolution and frame rate the somewhat “dreamy” look of the original is lost here and there, and most people’s brains are completely ingrained with movies running at 24fps.
Your response might be similar to many viewers reacting negatively to the Hobbit’s 48fps: to many it looked ‘ugly’, too theatrical, or just 'off". Similar audience responses occurred with the introduction of sound and colour.)
And don’t forget the impact of motion blur: another effect due to the imperfect 24fps is often (partially) lost at a higher fps. In particular view pans may lag and shudder at 24fps, but that is no longer the case at 60fps.
And with animation done with 24fps in mind, at 60fps it will be easier to spot clunky moves, which does indeed occur here as well. A sharper resolution underscores imperfections in the original.
Personally, I absolutely love the higher frame rate and resolution, with the drawback that certain elements look a bit drab (imperfections which don’t matter at lower resolutions and fps do at a higher fps and resolution). The bird’s textures at the beginning is a good example: it looks almost diseased 
When I first went to see the Hobbit at 48fps, it was a revelation to me: no more shudders, no more panning with hiccups, no more ugly looking motion blurs, and a visual clarity like nothing before in films I had watched. So much easier to watch - that is, I thought everyone would prefer this. But the audiences’ reaction was quite polarized. Many a brain is too used to that broken imperfect “cinematic” look.
Anyway, I do agree the new version looks a bit too contrast-rich compared to the original, and part of the characters’ animations aren’t fine-tuned enough to survive the higher frame rate.
Is a bit of an odd case here, because in a way is like saying “it can be done” both in terms of technology and also in terms of “open pipeline” (blender.cloud) that is easy to revisit older projects and remaster them.
But it all boils down if there is a real reason to do so, like what just happened with the star wars remasterings, which did not provided any extra value other than annoy fans.
Also if it really is the most optimal way to do things at this point in time with the current state of technology, blender internal is 10+ years old and peaked in maturity and stability in doing things in only one exact and specific way, but now you can get far more superior results with EEVEE, that would be a true remaster for me.
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If you desire the original, then I don’t think the BF is like those Hollywood studios which revise parts of a movie and then make the original version impossible to buy (ie. Star Wars Episodes 4-6).
If anything, I think the remake could be just a tad brighter in the tonemapping, but that’s it.
I don’t see a lot of difference, personally.