singerguy04 wrote:
correct me if i'm wrong, but apparently widescreen wasn't this films original format, or something. And i think that for the audio and video upgrade, i would definately upgrade. then again i have a grudge against the Gold Collection as a whole. I hate all the Gold Collections!!! Evil or Very Mad
You are right and wrong at the same time.

How many times does that happen? lol. Disney consistently claims that the film was filmed in fullscreen, and judging by the way it is framed, I would say that is more than likely correct. There is controversy, however, because on it's initial Gold Collection release, the box claimed that it had been modified to fit you TV screen, which inplies that it was pan & scaned from widescreen into fullscreen. They re-released it and then claimed that fullscreen was it's original theatrical aspect ratio. However, in 1981, widescreen was the standard and if Fox and the Hound was theatrically exhibited in fullscreen, it would have been the first time a Disney animated film was fullscreen since 1955! After Sleeping Beauty, Disney filmed their animated classics in fullscreen because it was cheaper to use fullscreen film and more economical for later television airings. However, they placed the bulk of the action in the ceneter and intended to matt it into widescreen. So it is more than likely that the Fox and the Hound was theatrically exhibited in widescreen, matted from the fullscreen version.
By the way, I really liked the Gold Collection line. Without it, I don't think we would have all of the package features or The Black Cauldron on DVD. Plus several GC editions had a decent release, such as The Sword in the Stone. Some DVDs released outside of it, such as The Rescuers, were given a pretty poor DVD treatment. I also liked the fact that the spine of the DVDs attempted to continue the boarder similar to the Masterpiece Editon VHSs. However, I'm completely in favor of Disney releasing better versions, because there were some very poorly GC DVDs. Also, I was upset that it was the "Gold Classic Collection" and had classic written on it, yet they added films like Pocahontas 2 and A Bug's Life, which is a Pixar film.