Widescreen Advocate > News

Muppet Movie Re-Releases Confirmed to be Widescreen!

Joshua Clinard — Fri, 26 Aug 2005 14:45:38 +0000

The Digital Bits informs us that the Muppet DVD’s coming from Disney on 11/19 will contain both fullscreen and anamorphic widescreen transfers. This is indeed great news. In case you haven’t heard, the four titlts are: The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, The Muppet Christmas Carol, and Muppet Treasure Island. The latter two have never been available in widescreen, so we can finally purchase them.

Disney May Release Muppet Films in Widescreen!

Joshua Clinard — Mon, 25 Jul 2005 16:05:51 +0000

This little bit of exciting news comes to us from Ultimate Disney.

A sneak peek on the new catalogue discs reveals some other quite exciting news. Believe it or not, Kermit the Frog is turning 50 this year; his debut television appearance was on Jim Henson’s black-and-white program “Sam and Friends” in 1955. In celebration of this golden anniversary, Disney will be rereleasing four of the Muppets’ most popular films to Special Edition DVD: The Muppet Movie (1979), The Great Muppet Caper (1981), The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) and Muppet Treasure Island. The promo provides no new release date nor information on bonus features, but ensures the films are “completely restored and remastered.” One assumes from the widescreen clips previewed that each will be presented in their original 1.85:1 theatrical aspect ratios, which was not the case when Disney first released Carol and Island to DVD in 2002. We’ll have more details for you as soon as they come in!

OAR Watchdog Enhancement!

Joshua Clinard — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 21:26:28 +0000

I have spent the last few days adding some enhancements to the OAR Watchdog. If you click on any title in the database, your will go to the IMDB listing for that title. Hopefully this will clear up some confusion as to which title is in the database, because some titles have multiple releases. If you guys find any that point to the wrong page, please let me know.

Sony Pictures Re-issueing DVDs without Widescreen Part III

Joshua Clinard — Sun, 15 May 2005 00:56:21 +0000

Sony Pictures sent the following e-mail to select DVD retailers. Of the 91 titles listed, 75 are being stripped of the Widescreen option, but only 16 are being stripped of the Full Screen option. It’s truly maddening.

April 8, 2005
Dear Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Customer:
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is currently in the process of reworking the Aspect Ratios on select DVDs. These particular DVDs, which in the past have included both Widescreen and Full screen presentations on a single disc, are now being reworked to include only one presentation, Wide OR Full screen. A number of these have been completed and repackaged to reflect this change, and are listed in the table below.

Catalog numbers and UPC Codes remain the same. Please update your systems as necessary to reflect these changes.

We will continue to update you regularly as more DVDs are converted. Please contact your Sales Representative or Client Operations Associate with any questions.

Sincerely,
Client Operations

Title - New Aspect Ratio
3 Ninjas Knuckle Up - Full Screen
About Last Night - Full Screen
Adventures of Milo and Otis, The - Full Screen
Air Force One - Full Screen
All About My Mother - Widescreen
And Justice For All - Full Screen
As Good As It Gets - Widescreen
Assignment, The - Widescreen
Bear, The - Full Screen
Beast, The - Full Screen
Big Daddy - Widescreen
Bite the Bullet - Full Screen
Black Dragon - Widescreen
Body Double - Full Screen
Body, The - Full Screen
Breed, The - Widescreen
Buddy - Full Screen
Buddy Holly Story, The - Full Screen
Chances Are - Full Screen
Cheap Detective, The - Full Screen
Cruel Intentions 2 - Full Screen
Dance With Me - Full Screen
Deep End of the Ocean - Full Screen
Desert Heat - Full Screen
Desperate Measures - Full Screen
Dick - Widescreen
Excess Baggage - Full Screen
Eye of the Beholder - Full Screen
Fan, The - Full Screen
Forsaken, The - Widescreen
Futuresport - Full Screen
Gattaca - Full Screen
Geronimo: An American Legend - Full Screen
Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner - Restored - Full Screen
Hard Times - Full Screen
Hero - Full Screen
Hideaway - Full Screen
High School High - Full Screen
Hollywood Knights - Widescreen
Homegrown - Widescreen
Hush - Full Screen
I Dreamed of Africa - Full Screen
Idle Hands - Full Screen
Iron Eagle - Full Screen
It Could Happen To You - Widescreen
Jackie Chan’s Who Am I? - Full Screen
Jawbreaker - Full Screen
Juror, The - Full Screen
Knock Off - Full Screen
Last Action Hero, The - Full Screen
Last Dragon, The - Widescreen
Lords of Flatbush -Widescreen
MacKenna’s Gold - Full Screen
Madeline - Full Screen
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein - Full Screen
Mercy - Full Screen
Mirror Has Two Faces, The - Full Screen
Mixed Nuts - Full Screen
Mortal Thoughts - Full Screen
Moscow on the Hudson - Full Screen
Mrs. Winterbourne - Full Screen
My Life - Full Screen
My Stepmother Is An Alien - Full Screen
No Mercy - Full Screen
No Way Back - Full Screen
Nowhere to Run - Full Screen
Odessa File, The - Full Screen
Order, The - Full Screen
Peggy Sue Got Married - Full Screen
Revenge - Full Screen
River Runs Through It, A - Widescreen
Roxanne - Full Screen
Rudyard Kipling’s The Second Jungle Book - Full Screen
School Daze - Full Screen
Screamers - Full Screen
Sheena - Full Screen
Silent Rage - Full Screen
Sniper - Widescreen
So I Married An Axe Murderer - Widescreen
Spice World - Full Screen
Starman - Full Screen
Stepmom - Full Screen
Suspect - Full Screen
Sweet and Lowdown - Full Screen
Thirteenth Floor, The (Special Edition) -Full Screen
Toy, The - Full Screen
Two Moon Junction - Full Screen
Universal Soldier: The Return - Full Screen
Whatever It Takes - Full Screen
Whipped - Full Screen
Wild Things (Rated) - Full Screen

Sony Pictures Re-issuing DVD’s without Widescreen Part II

Joshua Clinard — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 19:32:28 +0000

Last year, Sony’s DVD division took a huge step backwards, and began to discontinue many titles that had been previously available as wide/full flipper discs. They silently re-issued the DVDs as fullscreen only bargain basement editions. To make matters worse, the new stripped-down versions had no indication on the packaging that the product you were about to buy had been compromised. The packaging stated that both widescreen and fullscreen transfers were included. I sincerely believe that is consumer fraud. I’m just waiting for someone to sue the studio over this terrible practice.

The morons running Sony’s DVD department have apparantly made this practice a new policy. Eventually, the studio plans to release a majority of it’s catalog in stripped-down editions. I think what they are trying to do is make DVD as unattractive as VHS, so they can force people to switch to the new Hi-Def format in a few years. I really don’t think that will work out in their favor. Instead of making me want to switch to a new Hi-Def format so I can get these movies in their original aspect ratio, it just makes me want to avoid buying any Sony products, including DVDs and hardware.

There is a discussion going on at Home Theater Forum about this, that includes the following list of titles that will soon be re-released in this compromising manner.

Adventures Of Milo And Otis
Air Force One
The Best
Bite The Bullet
The Body
The Buddy Holly Story
Chances Are
The Cheap Detective
Deep End Of The Ocean
Desert Heat
Futuresport
Gattaca
Geronimo: An American Legend
Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner
Hard Times
I Dreamed Of Africa
Jackie Chan’s Who Am I?
The Juror
Knock Off
MacKenna’s Gold
Madeline
Mercy
No Way Back
Nowhere To Run
The Odessa File
The Order
Roxanne
Rudyard Kipling’s The Second Jungle Book
Screamers
Silent Rage
Starman
Stepmom
Suspect
Sweet and Lowdown
The Thirteenth Floor
Two Moon Junction

Movies Used to Demonstrate OAR vs. P&S to Guests

Joshua Clinard — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 05:43:01 +0000

Someone at the Home Theater asked an intertesting question concerning widescreen earlier today. A member named Jeff wants to know which movies to use if he wants to demonstrate the benefits of widescreen vs. fullscreen to a guest. Be sure to check it out for ideas.

Warner Often Considers Older Titles for Remastering, but Offers No Specifics

Joshua Clinard — Wed, 30 Mar 2005 19:37:06 +0000

In yesterday’s live chat with Warner Home Video, a question was asked very similar to the one that I intended to ask. I thought you all might be interested in the answer.

[georgekaplan] You’ve been doing a great job releasing catalog titles (hopefully Up in Arms and Top Hat will be coming soon), but are you going to be revisiting some older dvds, which are tragically only available in p&s, such as Grumpy Old Men? Also, any chance of Coal Black showing up on a Looney Tunes collection?

[WarnerHomeVideo] We don’t own UP IN ARMS. It’s a GOLDWYN title. We are revisiting older titles for remastering on a constant basis, but nothing happening for GRUMPY OLD MEN.

Matilda Back On Slate - Still Full Screen

Joshua Clinard — Wed, 30 Mar 2005 14:34:42 +0000

Columbia Tristar has issued a new date for the much delayed Matilda Special Edition. It is slated for release on June 7th, but it’s still being released in a modified aspect ratio, according to Sony’s web site . This is indeed a travesty, as this film makes fine use of the widescreen frame. This is a slap in the face to the films many fans, and to those who complained about this release when it was first announced in late 2003. Knowing the history of this DVD, I’ve almost given up on ever owning this title on Reigon 1 DVD. I imported the proper widescreen R2 DVD months ago, and I have enjoyed it immensely.