Beastboyravenz wrote:I heard a while ago that Aladdin and the fourty thieves when released to dvd was cut off from the top and bottom. It was never meant to be widescreen but Disney cut the top and bottom to make it seem as if it were. Did they do the same thing to Robin Hood?
With
Robin Hood, as has been pointed out several times already in this thread, it was animated in the 1.33:1 aspect ratio, with the intended theatrical ratio (via matting) being 1.75:1. So all the action would be contained within the 1.75:1 frame, but still have a 1.33:1 aspect ratio for stuff like television airings and home video releases. Both ratios are "correct" for
Robin Hood, in that the intended animated ratio is 1.33:1, and the intended theatrical ratio is 1.75:1.
On Page 2, I did a composite of the Gold Collection and the Most Wanted Edition, which shows how the film was matted, as the full 1.33:1 frame is from the Gold Collection, and the large rectangle inset is the Most Wanted Edition. The smaller rectangles show the difference in color and video quality between Gold Collection and Most Wanted Edition:
Aladdin and the King of Thieves was a direct-to-video film from 1996, and Disney had not started regularly matting down direct-to-video films until 1998, with
The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (though
Pooh's Grand Adventure is matted to 1.66:1 in the R1 DVD, despite being 1.33:1 in other regions and in its initial home video release from 1997). The DVD incorrectly frames the film at a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, and to add insult to injury, the tech specs on the back of the case say that it's 1.33:1.
It's quite apparent that 1.85:1 is NOT the intended ratio when one sees this frame: (from the
review)
Escapay