DVDizzy Forum

I love creeper, such a kick ass character. the part where he tries to strangle himself is too much

Joe Carioca wrote:I don't know how reliable this review is, since it states that the American DVD is Pan&Scan when it is actually letterbox widescreen.

Perhaps by 1st release he meant the video tape.

How readily available is the French DVD? I'm off to the land of wine and cheese this Summer and may want to pick up the anamorphic release in a shop. Is The Black Cauldron available in vast or small numbers?

Wonderlicious wrote:How readily available is the French DVD? I'm off to the land of wine and cheese this Summer and may want to pick up the anamorphic release in a shop. Is The Black Cauldron available in vast or small numbers?

I think I've seen it in several stores when I was there last summer. It's not a special edition so it's not limited or going into the vault anytime soon. It should be available.

Since no one answered, I have to ask it again:
Is this new french version possibly the restored or as dirty as R1-version?
Please answer!

PatrickvD wrote:

Wonderlicious wrote:How readily available is the French DVD? I'm off to the land of wine and cheese this Summer and may want to pick up the anamorphic release in a shop. Is The Black Cauldron available in vast or small numbers?

I think I've seen it in several stores when I was there last summer. It's not a special edition so it's not limited or going into the vault anytime soon. It should be available.

Oh good. I was worried that it would be available as something like Saludos Amigos or an obscure live-action title in which it would be pretty hard to find despite being in print.

mvealf wrote: It looks like the anamorphic print is losing a tiny bit off the top and bottom, but otherwise a much better master.

Perhaps it is matted too heavily. The Blach Cauldron was shot on Super Technirama 70, like Sleeping Beauty, so the correct aspect ratio is 2.20 : 1. Perhaps Disney has used 2.35 : 1 aspect ratio here.

I guess such a blunder might explain why a tiny bit is missing in the anamorphic DVD release of Sleeping Beauty as well. This screenshot comes from the German R2 version — note the MPAA approval sign at the bottom of the frame, which isn't shown in toto:

The Cauldron pics in the UDreview (not from the DVD) i think are 2.20 or 2.25 (no i'm not gonna measure them now )
*lies belly up drinking a Corona in the beach





The ones mvealf posted from the R1 are 2.36, from the 16:9 enhanced R3 are 2.40. The ones FrankV posted from the R2 16:9 are 2.40 too.

(FrankV, hint: next time resize your PAL piccies to 288 x 512 (O.5x) instead of 281 x 500 (0.48784722x ) They will look better ) (there's actually a couple of other alternate better resizes in that range that i'd use but that one is the quickest/fairly good and you don't wanna hear obscure deathie laws of TV broadcast standards and pixel perfect conversion factors today )

The Technirama's negative OAR is 2.25
70mm prints from it are 2.20
35mm Cinemascope/Panavision prints made from it in the 80's were 2.40,
on the 60's 2.35

Sleeping Beauty R1 DVD is 2.37 and possibly overscanning/cropping up to 12% on each direction of the Technirama negative


image comparison derived from original captures by cousin MickeyMouseboy

END OF LINE Zark

I created a small screenshot comparison between the Scandinavian (Finnish-Swedish) and the new anamorphic French release of The Black Cauldron. I own the French one, and borrowed the Scandinavian one from a very jealous friend. The French release also has a DTS audio track but only in French — zut alors! Both releases have a Dolby Digital 5.1 track in English. (I haven't compared the audio tracks in any detail, but the new release might sound better.)

The video of the French release has obviously been restored: the colours look better, the framing is slightly wider, and a great amount of film debris has been removed. The anamorphic transfer has a greater resolution which improves the image quality quite a lot. Probably Disney also restored the audio as well.

The Scandinavian letterbox screenshots are the raw data directly from the DVD. I didn't remove the black bars and didn't resize the image. It is the PAL image (720 × 576 pixels). The French screenshots were anamorphic and I widened them so that the aspect ratio is 16 : 9. The black bars were left untouched.

As for image 4, I zoomed in the Scandinavian screenshot as one usually does when viewing letterbox movies on a widescreen TV set. This one really shows the difference between the transfers!

The French release is entitled Taram et le Chaudron Magique and the Finnish cover calls the movie Hiidenpata, both Region 2.

First a comparison of the bit transfer rate:

Scandinavian has a lower rate


The French is higher


Now the screenshots.

1.

Finnish (raw):



French (widened):




2.

Finnish (raw):



French (widened):




3.

Finnish (raw):



French (widened):




4.

Finnish (zoomed in as on a widescreen TV):



French (widened):




5.

Finnish (raw):



French (widened):

Oh! The screenshots of the French version are gorgeous! I wish it were released that way in other places. It baffles me why the French get the best DVD releases, and others get crap ones.

Anyways, if I ever have to get Black Cauldron again (I own the GC), I'll get the French Version. I just hope it doesn't go out of print soon or anything...

Julian Carter wrote:It baffles me why the French get the best DVD releases, and others get crap ones.

I think in this case it's just timing, The US release was in 2000 and the UK in 2002 and the newer remastered print probably hadn't been done by this point. The newer print was probably done somewhere between 2002-2004 when the French DVD was released.

Julian Carter wrote:Anyways, if I ever have to get Black Cauldron again (I own the GC), I'll get the French Version. I just hope it doesn't go out of print soon or anything...

When The Black Cauldron is reissued on DVD (which it will be) It'll almost certainly have the new print anyway, if not an even newer one!

hi guys, good mr. triwit have just sent me the r3 dvd. thanks very much triwit!! its great to see the movie looking bright in its original brilliance and widescreen too. now i can say for sure it is the same version as the french one.

thanks again triwit!

thank you

In the whole big region 3, we have only one ' The Black Cauldron' from Korea.