I think the consensus is that ALL versions should have been offered......at least on the Blu Ray. Lord knows there's enough room on that thing. I mean, isn't that part of the whole selling point for Blu Ray?
And now you understand why I'm not so eager to start buying Blu-Ray. It's hardly better than the DVD releases now, it just has a larger resolution. (and who knows, maybe in a few years they will have films in higher than 1080, and even THAT resolution will be obsolete!)
If you can't wrap your head around that concept, think about Lady and the Tramp and Sleeping Beauty. One was framed for Cinemascope and the other for Technorama70. Both films were simultaneously made in 1.33:1 for small theaters that couldn't display the wide format and for television (and home entertainment) use later.
Wait, what? As far as I know there was no legit fullscreen version of Sleeping Beauty... only for the VHS, and they just pan-and-scanned it. (and ew, they vertically stretched the opening credits... do you have any idea how horrible that looks?!)
And Lady and the Tramp has *two* OARs... anyone saying 4:3 is not a correct OAR of LatT is neglecting the fact that they MADE a version in that ratio.
So if 1.75:1 is the modern television ratio, why not release everything in its original intended aspect ratio? Do we really need two versions of every film that was matted?
Just for the reference, the modern TV ratio is 1.78:1, also known as 16:9 </nitpicking>
It would be nice to give consumers a choice. Personally, I'd choose open-matte whenever available, especially with animation, even if and when all my tvs break and I eventually may have to get around to getting a wide tv!
Same here... though isn't 2.55:1 for Sleeping Beauty technically open matte?
And you know what I can't stand, is the fact that the factory default of most HDTVs is to STRETCH out 4:3 ratio stuff to fill the screen. As it's been stated here numerous times, the aspect ratio is part of the artwork of the film... Why would you stretch it out? I know people don't like pillarboxes for the same reason they don't like letterboxes, but I honestly can't stand that. If anything, have it zoom in on 4:3 stuff, it's less noticeable than stretching! (Though when we get a 16:9 TV, of course I'm gonna set it up to pillarbox 4:3 stuff)
Um, how about it costs more and takes more time, material and effort to draw and paint a picture of a larger size. Any artist could tell you that.
This is another thing I have yet to understand. Why people assume widescreen has "more" picture than fullscreen. Ultimately, 1:1 (a square) is the MOST picture possible... so 4:3 would be closer, yes, but not necessarily more picture than 16:9.
Look at this example (I tried to do it in text... hopefully it will look right on the forum)
A B C
D E F
G H I
Now, say your fullscreen aspect ratio is just the letter E. Then you add the letters D and F for a super-wide 2.35:1 ratio and say you have "more picture". Now add ABC, and GHI, to make it 4:3 again. All the sudden you now have EVEN MORE picture. It just keeps going and going and the consensus would be that a square has the most picture possible. (So the closer to a square you are, the more space you have to fill)
Correct me if I'm wrong... I just don't get why people think widescreen = more when it clearly isn't if you just add the top and bottom where the letterboxes would be.
And as I've said before you'd have to have a camera capable of photographing more than a 4x3 shape, and cameras that do such are more expensive.
Couldn't they just stick cardboard in the lens? Like they nowadays? That's what I was saying... they actually took the time and effort to DRAW the entire frame, not just stop where the 1.78:1 or whatever frame would end...
So they can please the group of people who want a "fullscreen" copy of a film. Two separate releases of the same film are also expensive but they got made to please two crowds, it's all about marketing and pleasing people who can't be bothered to watch a film in it's intended shape.
Well, not every movie has a fullscreen version... look at Transformers, Iron Man, etc... they're only available in widescreen. And yet, plenty of people bought them.