DVDizzy Forum

Is it true ??
Well if its true one of my all time favorites, that Ive waited sooooo long to be re-released will only be released.... pan and scan.. I truly want to recommend this film.. You know I cant figure disney out, if they want to release under5 kiddie material- pan and scan Roly poly ollie (or aquired video movies) and cable channel kindertoons I can understand it. But Night Crossing is an intelligent and serious drama, by no means a film for the under fives. I cannot imagine that director Delbert Mann would want those magnificent balloon shots to be cropped..
Still I suppose thats what happens when a major distribution company employs decision makers on the basis of their glowing marketing skills and how many demographic charts they can print out in a given day. God forbid they would actually sit down and watch what their releasing.. (Im sorry my inner bitch didnt take it sitting down)
On the one hand Im glad its up for re-release on the other hand I honestly expected this film would be released widescreen.. Unbelievable.
Still Good news though Return to OZ and Those Calloways widescreen so Its a sign anyway that at least in some instances they consider it

Of course I stand corrected and really hope Im wrong...

i completely and one hundred percent agree with you. unfortunately, Buena vista has announced that this title WILL be fullscreen which makes me also think that there will be no bonus features (like journey of natty gann). who knows though, maybe they'll add a few things like the follow me boys disc.

Night Crossing

I agree with you completely also. It is a rotten shame that it is not going to be in Widescreen. I will get it anyways when it comes out but I still wish that they would put it in widescreen.

Yeah I will get it as well. I have an old ex rental vhs copy. Which is another reason Im so ticked off. It may be another 20 years before this film along with journey of N.Gann, Gnome Mobile etc, etc ever see the light of day again (IF AT ALL). At this point in time there simply is no higher quality than dvd. So if they really appreciated their films, and considering they may never be up for grabs again- Its either get it right NOW or it just wont happen.......OK I stand corrected ( we won with absent minded professor).......Its seems like such a small gripe, but you know what I work in the industry and I know the value of seeing something as it was meant to be seen. There's also the factor that some of the older live action films really are gonna be scooped up more by collectors, film buffs, disneyana fans and so forth. I have nothing against the 'soccer mom' demographic (in fact Im related to some) but if B.V. is going to insist on using that term.....here lies the rub. Night Crossing I think is a really great movie, but you know what noone saw it when it came out... so are the soccer mums going to be cueing up for this one now??? Of course not... but people who actually are aware of it and appreciate it will....... Oh well sorry guys if Im ranting .....but with some of these films there is no waiting around for them to get it right.

I've never seen it, but I always buy these kinds of DVD's because it's the only way for me to see these films. Maybe if enough people call or write to Disney about it, they will re-release it in widescreen. It worked for "The Absent Minded Professor."

Well, if you buy these pan & scan DVDs, Disney is getting your money either way then. Anti-widescreen folks may very well have the resolve to just pass on them altogether. So, Disney could very well look at it as a waste of money to make a new widescreen print if the same people will buy it either way.

Naturally, though I understand the compulsion to buy films you really like on DVD even if they're presented poorly. I have a few fullscreen DVDs I've paid for, but I've also held out on a number of my favorite movies because the studio (usually Disney) screwed it up and released them only in Pan & Scan, and I don't want to reward them for that.

I definitely don't want to reward any studio for releasing a movie in Pan and Scan instead of Widescreen.

But sometimes I have to buy the DVD anyway, if I really love the movie, and it's obscure, and it seems unlikely they'll release it again in a Special Edition and do it *right*.

And the sad truth is, there's very little chance of a movie being re-released in it's proper widescreen format, if people don't buy the P&S version first.

I've read several interviews/chat transcripts with people in charge of DVD releases at various studios and I keep reading the same thing... "well our first release (in pan-and-scan) didn't sell as well as we hoped, so obviously there's no real demand for the movie and it's not worth it for us to release it again (in widescreen)."

It's very frustrating. I wish I could *shake* these idiots in charge and point out to them that perhaps the reason it doesn't sell is because people prefer widescreen and are waiting for that. Just 'cause the pan-and-scan release didn't sell doesn't mean people aren't interested in the MOVIE! Geez. Most of us can't afford to buy the same movie over and over...as much as the studios obviously want us to.

So, boycotting all crappy cropped DVDs doesn't seem to have the desired effect. By not buying it we're trying to send the message "We want the best, most complete version of this movie!", but all they hear is "We don't want this movie, you were wise to put so little effort into the DVD. Don't bother re-releasing it".



By the way...sad isn't it, that a dvd almost *has* to be a Special Edition these days in order for the film to be presented in it's original aspect ratio?! And even *that's* not a guarantee anymore - witness the recent so-called "Special Edition" dvd of Annie (non-Disney version) in pan-and-scan. Arrgh.

Oh, uh, by the way, I've never seen Night Crossing. And I'm not likely to take a chance on it now that I know it's been cropped. It's simply not worth it to me, to pay $20+ for a non OAR release of a movie I've never seen. I mean, I'm not getting the whole movie! If it were $10... but it won't be. Oh I could go on a whole other rant about how much Disney charges for their inferior pan-and-scan dvds but I'll stop now.

By the way...sad isn't it, that a dvd almost *has* to be a Special Edition these days in order for the film to be presented in it's original aspect ratio?! And even *that's* not a guarantee anymore - witness the recent so-called "Special Edition" dvd of Annie (non-Disney version) in pan-and-scan. Arrgh.

Not in Europe baby! I suggest everyone here who complains about P&S releases buys themselves a region free player, and one that does PAL >> NTSC conversions too. Here's a good site to begin looking http://www.hkflix.com/hardware/

I'll accept the PAL speedup may annoy some people, but there's plenty of Japanese R2 and Korean R3 titles that are in NTSC and widescreen.

If the studio system isn't working for you, then bypass it. There's no reason anybody should be tied to region-coding. It's not illegal to import DVDs. Anybody who lives outside the US seems to have the best of both worlds - their own local copies to pick and choose from supported by the early availability and selection of American titles.

Well if I could afford a region-free player (not to mention the insane cost of importing who-knows-how-many DVDs from other countries) - then I wouldn't be complaining (as I did above) about paying $20 for a DVD instead of $10.

For those who can afford it, and those who live in Europe...that's the solution alright. Yup. And I envy you all. Although I'm happy living where I am, apart from the widescreen/pan-and-scan issue.

There's a player here for $129. There's a cheaper one, but it corrupts the image on anamorphic PAL discs. Not living in America I wouldn't know, but I guess it's probably double the price of a mid-range player towards the cheaper end of the scale. (I understand you can get more than reasonable players for around $60). So the difference seems to be $60, or just three DVDs at the full retail price. And I've not really done much research, I just clicked on a banner advert on DVDTalk - shop around and you'll probably some cheaper players.

Considering such a purchase will literally open up the whole world of DVD's it doesn't seem that high a price to me for the overall benefits. I'd hate to be tied to any single region - even R1. And you can still get some reasonably cheap imported discs too. UK discs are quite cheap in import if you find a supplier that doesn't charge VAT on overseas sales (our sales tax is 17.5%) and some legitimate R3 discs are also cheap to import.