Disney - phone drive is 99.9% in favor of Pan and Scan!!! (1 Viewer)

[David Lambert]

Nicholas, I wish you WOULD find the guts to call Disney and tell them that! It means a lot more to them coming from a 16-year-old than it means coming from an old fogey of 35 like me.

Please call them and voice your complaint!

 

[Ken Garrison]

Don't be afraid to call them. They're real nice. They'll type up your complaint on the computer and send it off. The more people who nag and the more they nag Disney, the better chance we get that they release all the movies they murdered in their OAR.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Seems it's still kinda hard to tally things up correctly in Florida, huh? I believe these numbers are correct about as much as I believe that big businesses don't lie to the average consumer. Oh, wait a minute.... that's kinda one in the same, isn't it? :wink:

I've e-mailed my 2 cents worth and we'll hope it gets the nickel tour through the marketing department.

My stance....No OAR, no sale.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Nicholas,
You *so* need to call them. They *need* to know that there are 16 year old DVD buyers out there who prefer widescreen.
Do you have the guts to get your driver's liscense? I can promise you that the 1-800 number for Disney is much less painful an ordeal
-dave

 

[Paul McElligott]

Here's an idea for a protest that would get Wal-Mart's attention if enough people signed on. When a major title is released in P&S, we go en masse down to the Wal-Mart and buy it. Yes, I said buy.
Then we wait a few hours or a day and return it, unopened, stating as clearly as possible that we want to exchange it for the widescreen copy. When they tell us there isn't one, we get ask for our money back.
Anyone else think this could work?

 

[Dmitry]

Anyone else think this could work?

If we can get 50,000 or more people to do it in a single day it might register. Otherwise I'm afraid it's just a hiccup for a major title.

 

[Thomas Newton]

Another thing we can try suggesting is that they run a brief 2-minute clip at the beginning of a widescreen DVD to demonstrate the advantages of widescreen and how it preserves picture information.

I watched the "Mad Max" DVD the other day. It had the Pan and Scan and Widescreen versions of the movie on the same side of the disc. When you clicked "Play Movie", the icon buttons that came up made it instantly clear how a Pan and Scan presentation would chop key parts of the picture off of the side of the screen. (The buttons showed an actual scene from the film.) No two-minute film ("delay") needed to make the point.

The DVD case insert also had a similar diagram.

 

[Brenton]

I can envision a cartoon showing Donald Duck, Goofy and Mickey Mouse watching a widescreen DVD and complaining about the "black bars". Then along comes Ludwig Von Drake to explain everything to them by using examples from actual Disney films.

This would be awesome. It reminds me of an old 1960s cartoon about the color spectrum I watched in eighth grade physics two and a half years ago. This was made back when "In Color" was an important part of the title. Professor Ludwig Von Drake was tapping on some colorful balloon things with his pointer and they would pop as he touched them, while he would sing the name of the color to the tune of "ABC". (i.e. "Red, green, blue, green, blue, red, green..." etc.) Then he said something to the effect of "And for those of you watching on a black and white set: (sings) Gray, gray, gray, gray, gray..." etc.
Here's my version of the cartoon that could be included on future Disney DVDs.
We open to find Minnie, Goofy, and Donald Duck sitting on the couch at Mickey's house (in front of the TV) waiting for him to arrive.
GOOFY: Gawrsh... where's Mickey?
MINNIE: He should get here soon, he said he had a surprise for us.
Suddenly Mickey bursts in the door with a plastic bag.
MICKEY: Hi, folks! (pulls DVD of, say Lilo and Stitch out of the bag) Tada!
ALL: A DVD!
DONALD: Oh boy!
Mickey pops the disc into the DVD player and the film begins (in widescreen).
DONALD: Wha? Widescreen? (sputters angrily)
GOOFY: Gawrsh, what are those... "black bars"?
MICKEY: Gee... I don't know!
LUDWIG VON DRAKE: (off camera) I know! It's... W I D E S C R E E N!
The word "WIDESCREEN" fills the screen, as the frame seems to "zoom out" to a letterboxed format.
Von Drake enters and the Mickey's living room fades to a stylized colorful background. He begins to demonstrate examples of Disney widescreen films in his humorous style. He shows them in pan and scan and then again in widescreen to make obvious what widescreen is.
As he speaks of, say, projecting movies in a theater, a movie projector pops into the frame. Similar items appear as he mentions them (also, a widescreen TV where he shows how the widescreen transfer really does fill the screen).
When he's done, the stylized background fades back to Mickey's living room where we find that the clutter of film projectors and widescreen TV sets and such are now piled in a big mess in Mickey's living room.
We see Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald sitting on the couch with their mouths hanging open. Mickey holds a fistful of popcorn he was about to put in his mouth when he froze with shock. A few kernels fall from his fist and land in his lap.
Cut back to Von Drake, who smiles and says "Enjoy" then plunks down on the couch to watch the movie. The lights dim and the camera zooms in on the widescreen film on Mickey's TV screen.

 

[Brenton]

Well, here it is... my email to Disney. Note that I pretended to be just a regular family guy instead of a home theater hobbyist and played dumb about some things, such as the upcoming pan-and-scan-only release of Muppet Christmas Carol. Also, I didn't once mention the Internet as a source of information, so as to not look like anything but a regular person whose family loves widescreen.

Hello,

I am a longtime Muppet fan and have been anxiously awaiting the DVD release of Muppet Treasure Island for the years since I first got into DVD. Now, the other day when I was at Best Buy I came across the film, but noticed from the back of the packaging that the film was Pan and Scan (1.33:1), not its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. I asked an employee if I was simply unable to find the widescreen version. She seemed ignorant on aspect ratios but pointed me to fellow employee. He told me that for some reason the film wouldn't be released in widescreen and that he's been deluged by disappointed people. For this reason, he had this email address handy and told me that I ought to let my feelings be known.

I am someone who recognizes the art of film. To me, every shot in the film is as a painting, painted by the director. The director meticulously makes the choices of framing and composition and camera angles for each shot. He arranges each shot in an artistic way. Now, for the studio to crop part of this artwork just so that it can fit in a television screen that is less wide than a theater screen is awful.

My family isn't some kind of group of elite snobs who must have a film a certain way, we're just regular people who can see the art in film and how this artistic composition is sacrificed in a pan-and-scan transfer.

I refuse to purchase a DVD that is not presented in its original aspect ratio, and I would love for this film to be revisited in a widescreen version. Until then, my cash is where it belongs... in my pocket.

Disappointedly,

Brenton Brookings

p.s. I've heard that Muppet Christmas Carol is coming soon to DVD as well. Will this one be in its original aspect ratio? Please say yes!