Incredibles DVD - Opinions?

[reveal]

It is called widescreen. When you see a full screen movie, remember than upto half of the picture is missing because of how they have to edit it to fit in your TV.

If you have Atlantis, which has both versions, watch some of each and see what I am talking about.

I know. Stargate SG-1 is widescreen as well. But when I watch the season DVDs on my TV, I see no black bars. That's because the DVD has been enhanced for 16:9 televisions. Farscape is the same way. I'm ticked because Finding Nemo was enhanced and it was also a Pixar movie.

I never buy Full Screen movies because they cut stuff off. Heck, before I saw Star Wars on the big screen during it's re-release a few years ago, I had no idea that the scene with Chewbacca playing chess while Luke trained with his lightsaber was filmed as one big scene on the screen.

 

[DMH]

I meant Disney's Atlantis. Sorry about that.

 

[Ranger REG]

That's all i've seen so far. Anyone have thoughts/additional material to review?

Laughed at the sock puppet version of The Incredibles.

Loved the montage of explosions and doors, accompanied by a classical score.

Confused and/or perplexed at the lives of two animators: one who took acting (eating a cake) literally and one who is too overenthusiastic for my blood.

 

[EricNoah]

Saw this for the first time last night -- good stuff! Not as good as Toy Story, better than Finding Nemo, about as good as A Bug's Life (in my opinion, of course).

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Sat down and watched the movie with the commentary last night. Good stuff. I kind of wished that they had done the version of Boundin' they mentioned, where Agent Rick Dickers was the narrator, singing with the banjo in his office.

The "old 1970s TV" version of the Mr. Incredible and Frozone on the other hand was a waste of electrons - every bit as bad as Clutch Cargo (If you don't remember Clutch Cargo then I envy you...) The other bad thing was the way The Incredibles made me wish that I hadn't wasted my time seeing Robots. The Incredibles is such a better movie.

Jack Jack Attack was a lot of fun, and follows the telephone calls very closely. I felt for Kari at the end, poor girl was just not cut out for babysitting supers... hmmm there's an idea for a M&M game, a super hero babysitting agency for 'talented' kids...

Gods I hope that there is a second Incredibles movie!

The Auld Grump, sometimes you're up, and sometimes you're down. When you find that you're down, then just look around...

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

The "old 1970s TV" version of the Mr. Incredible and Frozone on the other hand was a waste of electrons - every bit as bad as Clutch Cargo (If you don't remember Clutch Cargo then I envy you...)

But the commentary with it was really great. If only for hearing Sam Jackson complaining about being made white.

 

[Chorn]

I know. Stargate SG-1 is widescreen as well. But when I watch the season DVDs on my TV, I see no black bars. That's because the DVD has been enhanced for 16:9 televisions. Farscape is the same way. I'm ticked because Finding Nemo was enhanced and it was also a Pixar movie.

Educate yourself on the different aspect ratios.

http://www.widescreen.org/aspect_ratios.shtml

According to the Internet Movie Database, FINDING NEMO was shot in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio which very closely matches the 16:9/1.78:1 aspect ratio of a widescreen TV. THE INCREDIBLES was shot with a wider 2.35:1 aspect ratio instead of the more common 1.85:1 that's used for most animated movies. It was probably done to give it more of an epic feel.

A 16:9 enhanced DVD does NOT mean it is formatted to fill your widescreen TV. Again, Widescreen.org provides a nice article on anamorphic enhancement.

http://www.widescreen.org/dvd_anamorphic.shtml

Something related that's of interest is that while SPIDER-MAN was done in a 1.85:1 format, Sam Raimi chose to go with the wider 2.35:1 for the sequel since it would better frame action sequences involving Doc Ock's tentacles.

 

[reveal]

According to the Internet Movie Database, FINDING NEMO was shot in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio which very closely matches the 16:9/1.78:1 aspect ratio of a widescreen TV. THE INCREDIBLES was shot with a wider 2.35:1 aspect ratio instead of the more common 1.85:1 that's used for most animated movies. It was probably done to give it more of an epic feel.

Thanks for the info.

Considering the Full Screen release of The Incredibles DVD was reframed to include all the action within the frame, why didn't they do something similar with the Widescreen version to fit the 1.85:1 ratio?

 

[Chorn]

Considering the Full Screen release of The Incredibles DVD was reframed to include all the action within the frame, why didn't they do something similar with the Widescreen version to fit the 1.85:1 ratio?

Why? Seriously, why do it? It's already bad enough that there are recomposed versions just so Joe Sixpack can have the movie "fill mu teevee screen" and alter the original framing of a scene. Why introduce yet another "version" of the movie which would needlessly cost more money and time for such little return? If you're suggesting that the widescreen home release should have been one recomposed to fill a 16:9 screen then that's a boneheaded move since you would lose the option of seeing it as it was screened in the movie theatres.

Messing with the frame can change the way a scene plays out or is percieved. Here's a quickie ASCII drawing.

 _____________________        _________
|                    *|      |        *|
|                     |      |         |
|          @          |      |    @    |
|X____________________|      |X________|
          (A)                    (B)

Sample A shows a wide view of the three elements. There's a lot of empty space throughout the frame seperating each element which can convey a sense of isolation. Sample B has the elements recomposed to fit the smaller frame. Now everything is much more cramped and crowded. The * and X are much more closer to each other and there isn't as great a sense of isolation as in the wider sample. Now translate this to something like a movie and you can see how an artist's intent can be ruined by having to recompose a scene to fit the smaller frame.

 

[reveal]

Why? Seriously, why do it?

Ok, I really don't care and let's stop the threadjacking.