Get this! (or better yet, don't!): New Wonka SE? Pan 'N Scan ONLY! Part II (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Swindoll]

Widescreen Wal-mart:
I dont think that Walmart has a "official" non-widescreen policy. It's just been noticed that that when seperate releases are done (one LBX the other not) that they tend to stock less of the LBX one. I recall when Jurassic Park/Lost World came out that they had equal numbers of the LBX/non Park, but only had P&S copies of Lost World.
Oddly enuf, walmart.com only has the LBX version of Silence of the Lambs up right now. Is the internet consumer more educated on aspect ratios?? Hmmmmmmm?
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Dear MGM : Quality over quantity & Consistency!
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--Bernie Faulkner

 

[MikeEckman]

Press Release (8/8/2001):
Just announced by Uni-Bros Studios, Willy Wonka 30th Anniversary Ultimate Edition. On 12/11 Uni-Bros will be releasing a 2 disc Ultimate Edition of this Family Classic in a JFK style snapper with the second disc conveniently stored in an envelope in the flap of the case. This 2 disc set will contain all the features of the single disc full frame only release, PLUS a DTS track, both anamorphic widescreen and full frame presenatations, and a magic golden ticket to go see the next blockbuster "family entertaimnent" production, Pokemon 4. Retail has been set at a Criterion worthy $49.95.

 

[Michael Shannon]

War on Joe SixPack, Jane Boxwine and Kid JuicyJuice.

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[Bill Crosthwait]

Wow over 4300 people have signed the petition. Hopefully we will be hearing some good news out of WB today.
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Bill
My DVD Collection
[email protected]

 

[William Ward]

Wow over 4300 people have signed the petition. Hopefully we will be hearing some good news out of WB today.

As much as I would love to see Warner eat it, I don't think they'll change their mind. This decision was made by execs that have no clue.
Gettting close to $100,000 in lost sales.
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William
Go Bucs!!
MyDVDs

 

[paul_v]

Wonder how long it will take Warner to make a statement about this. You KNOW they will have to buckle under the pressure. I have never seen a consumer response such as this heheh. *sniff* I'm getting so emotional thinking about how my fellow home theator junkies responded to this. Great job everyone! I bet Warner is pressing new discs with OAR as we speak =) AT least I hope they are hehe.
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[Jeff Ulmer]

I do think we as a home theatre community need to draw a line in the sand and make it clear to the entire industry that excluding the OAR will not be tolerated, and that any attempt to do so will be met by vocal and tenacious backlash. The folks who still accept pan and scan or open matte only titles need someone to look out for them, and that is us. Dual formats is fine (I thought that was the big selling point of DVD from the getgo?) and DVD-18, while not hugely favored, solves the space issue if a dual disc set is not a possibility.
This has to hurt Warner. An all out boycott doesn't seem like it will do us much good, but if I were a retailler in this situation, I'd be looking long and hard at my preorder numbers after this. I wouldn't want to be left with thousands of copies of a title no one wants.
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[Ted Todorov]

If anyone does want to get the anamorphic, widescreen Wonka without paying a fortune on e-bay, it is readily available in Region 2. See: http://www.dvdfr.com/dvd/fiche.php3?id=287
Ted

 

[Nate Anderson]

I don't really care about Wonka the movie, persay, but I am concerned about Warner's view on Widescreen with family movies...
I am personally looking forward to the releases of The NeverEnding Story I & II, even though they are featureless, because I will finally get to see them in widescreen. That is unless they decide to dump the widescreen and just go with full-screen. They were both filmed in scope 2.35:1, and the pan &scam transfers leave much to be desired.
If they go Pan & Scan only on NeverEnding Story, I will be truely pissed!
At least the Goonies is OAR. God Bless Richard Donner for putting his foot down.
I'm thinking I should pick up the current edition of The Iron Giant, just in case...
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"Staying home from school?"
"Yeah, Mom's afraid I'll get kidnapped too."

 

[paul_v]

Haha! Warner took the Willy Wonka site down:
http://www.warnerbros.com/pages/mess...ard=-536885654
the above link used to take you to the Willy Wonka messageboard...it's not there anymore.
** EDIT *** Nevermind it's back now
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[Edited last by paul_v on August 08, 2001 at 11:27 AM]

 

[todd s]

Like I asked in the previous Wonka post. Why are people using the $24.99 msrp. The actual price we should be concerned with is what Warner sells it for (10-14 dollars, I think). The extra money from the difference goes to the suppliers and retailers. Whom I am sure will be upset with all of these cancellations.

 

[Carlo_M]

Todd, absolutely right. Actually, it's the distributors (like Ingrams who seems to supply everyone from Barnes & Noble to Tower Records) who charge the retailers about $13-15 per disc. WB is probably selling them for less to the distributor, around $10 per disc, maybe less.
Still, if the retailers are getting pissed, GOOD! Then they can complain to WB. Surely their voice will be heard better than ours.
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Link Removed for their Link Removed reviews

 

[Peter Overduin]

I haven't seen this much activism since DIVX. I seem to recall...something about...yea! We won that one if memory serves me correctly. And I know it does. I am also encouraged by the memory of Disney changing its mind on the Japanese audio track for Princess Mononoke as well. I am optimistic. Keep it up folks!

 

[James David Walley]

As much as I would love to see Warner eat it, I don't think they'll change their mind. This decision was made by execs that have no clue.

I'd be very surprised if Warner was to backtrack on the current release at this time. The discs have already been pressed and are ready to ship. Even if WB decided to eat the physical costs of all those discs, there would be no way to create a new pressing and have it out by the release date. And I can't see them postponing it and mucking up their release schedule for the rest of the year.
I predict that, no matter what the outcome, the "party line" from Warner will be "this is our final decision, and we're sticking to it" at least through the Christmas season. They want as many Wonkaphiles as possible to come to the conclusion that this is the only way they're going to get the DVD from now on, and see how many hold their nose and buy it anyway. After Christmas, they'll look at the sales figures and decide if there are enough widescreen holdouts to make a profit with another release. If so (and I'd bet the answer is "yes") look for an announcement of the special widescreen version of the SE to be shipping somwhere around next May.

 

[Douglas Bailey]

...if the retailers are getting pissed, GOOD! Then they can complain to WB. Surely their voice will be heard better than ours.

This brings up a good point: if you cancel your pre-order, mail/e-mail/call WB to tell them why... but also make certain you let the retailer know why you're cancelling. Reassure them that it's not their service or prices that put you off, and ask them to pass your complaints on to WB.
Without hearing from you, your retailer won't necessarily know why you cancelled. And we want them to know so they can gripe in turn to WB.
doug
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"How can it be the same movie if they've changed my character from a
tightly-wound convenience-store clerk to a jittery Eskimo
firefighter?... uh huh... uh huh... uh huh. Well, that's actually a
pretty good explanation..."
--James Woods, on THE SIMPSONS

 

[Jerry_G]

The more I think about this, the angrier I get with Warner for two reasons. The very strange logic that this movie is for kids and kids don't like widescreen, as Warner apparently said. And even worse is the deception in not announcing it would be P&S only after initially announcing it would include a widescreen version. What did Warner expect? I assume they hoped that everyone who wanted the widescreen and found it wasn't there would be happy to keep the fullscreen vevsion without complaining or returning it. Thank goodness for review copies and those sites that let the truth be know before this nightmare of a DVD shipped.
[Edited last by Jerry_G on August 08, 2001 at 12:59 PM]

 

[Kevin Leonard]

Looks like there may be an answer...though if true it may anger people further for why the widescreen was pulled.
I saw this in today's editorial from DVD Angle, regarding Wonka:
quote: I just got off the phone with a rep for Warner. Their decision behind pulling the widescreen version of the film was based on market research. It seems they found most families prefer the full frame format. In retrospect, they discovered there is a substantial percentage that want the widescreen version. So, you can expect to see another release - a widescreen release - "very soon."[/quote]
Make of that what you will. Hopefully other sites got similar messages.
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[Edited last by Kevin Leonard on August 08, 2001 at 01:00 PM]

 

[Andy_S]

Excellent news! Once again, we did it! Unless of course the rep doesn't know what he/she is talking about.
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[Jan Strnad]

The problem with market research is that you can skew the results so easily with the wording of the question.
For instance, if WB asked "which do you prefer...full screen or widescreen?" then J6P would reply "full screen" and movie fans would answer "widescreen" and, in WB's view, J6P wins.
However, if you go on to ask, "would you ACCEPT a different format?" you'd probably get some J6P's answering "yes" and very few movie fans saying that they'd accept anything other than widescreen.
So, which format would result in the most sales, the format more people "preferred" or the format more people would "accept"?
And of course, what we say in a survey and what we do are two different matters.
Plus, who did they ask? Wal-Mart shoppers? Shoppers in a dedicated DVD store? They sure as hell didn't survey HTF members!
WB really screwed up big time and, frankly, I think that someone's head should be served on a platter, and their job should be given to someone with a clue.
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Jan Strnad
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[Kevin P]

WB really screwed up big time and, frankly, I think that someone's head should be served on a platter, and their job should be given to someone with a clue.

Unfortunately, in corporate America, this rarely happens (giving the job to someone with a clue).
I'm anticipating (hoping?) that a separate WS release will come about as a result of this uproar.
KJP
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MAR: Mutilated Aspect Ratio. Opposite of OAR. Describes the MARring of film releases by not releasing them in the original aspect ratio.