HTF REVIEW: "The Country Bears" (with screenshots) (2 Viewers)

[Gavin K]

Disney has lost money from me as well. I would have purchased Snow Dogs, Ernest Goes to Jail and Country Bears if they had been presented OAR. What are they thinking? They will probably cite high sales of the MAR version of the Princess Diaries in their favor. I had to order this online because I could not find an OAR version locally, in Dallas TX, not exactly a small town.

Oh, and I also haven't purchased Lilo & Stitch because I have been spoiled by Disney's previous excelent SE's of recent animated titles. If the rumors are true, then that is another sale they have lost. And if folks like me are such an inconsequential number, then why did they, (as well as other studios) support LD's all of that time?

 

[Ron-P]

I was going to pick this up for my daughter, but no widescreen, no sale. Thanks for the review Ron.
Peace Out~

 

[DaViD Boulet]

I just took my coworker shopping for a new TV yesterday. She has four children. She bought a 4x3 TV with a "16x9 compression mode" so she could watch 16x9 WS DVDs and get better clarity. When we started our shopping trip, she didn't know a widescreen TV from a 4x3, or why some movies had black bars. After just a simple explanation she quickly said "I don't mind the black bars...I'd rather see the whole movie". She had also just watched a 2.35:1 movie on her 19" TV the night before our shopping trip and she mentioned that both she and her husband had no problem with the widescreen picture!

Their kids? Their kids are all "up to speed" on the widescreen thing and are enjoying all the DVD movies I've loaned them to celebrate their new $27 inch TV (with 16x9 compression mode) we just delivered to their home yesterday evening.

I've already warned them to avoid "full frame" transfers of films that were released wide in the theater as stores often only stock the full-screen DVD versions.

 

[Randy Korstick]

I was considering this one and would definately picked up alot of the catalog live action films they are releasing in January but they saved me some money. I will not buy any of them since they are in Pan and Scan. With all these Pan and Scan releases and their horribly direspectful treatment of Asian and other foreign films it really makes me wonder how so many here could have voted them as Studio of the year. Their releases have really been about 50/50.

 

[Chris_Morris]

This is truly a shame, but it will save me some money. Glad I haven't casted my vote for studio of the year yet.


Chris

 

[Tom Boucher]

Ron,

your reivew is a perfect example of a movie I would not have purchased until I read your review. I thought this movie looked entirely stupid and kid-oriented for marketing only. I was intrigued and interested up until I hit the full frame only non anamorphic mention.

It's unfortunate, one sale down.

 

[Edwin-S]

I have to admit, when I saw the trailer for this movie I thought the movie looked completely lame. Even in the trailer some of the acting looked bad. After reading your review I might have, at least, rented the movie. Thanks to MOUSECORP's poor decision to release this film in a non-OAR format only, I will not even rent the thing. I purchased a widescreen set for two purposes only; to watch movies in their proper theatrical aspect ratio (No matter what that ratio is) and, when available, to enjoy the advantages of an "anamorphic" transfer.

Get with the program MOUSECORP. It is not only kids who watch some of these films. There are a lot of ADULT MOVIE FANS who like to watch (and collect) them as well.

 

[David Stone]

Get with the program MOUSECORP. It is not only kids who watch some of these films. There are a lot of ADULT MOVIE FANS who like to watch (and collect) them as well.

Also, don't forget it's the ADULTS who make the MONEY to BUY the movies. My wife and I love the art of animation and collected every Disney laserdisc we could find before we ever considered having kids (and always paid through the nose for the CAV Widescreen when offered). Now that we've upgraded to DVD, we're still buying the enjoyable family titles, but only when available in OAR. I do not throw my money away buying cropped movies. My parents, relatives and friends are also educated of the evils of nonOAR and avoid purchasing nonOAR titles as well. The bottom-line is that I already have a bookcase full of DVD's, so not owning a nonOAR title isn't going to kill me.
Disney, are you listening? I applaud your decision to release 'Beauty and the Beast' in OAR only, with instructions to use the features of the DVD player to remove the black bars if the viewer didn't want them. OAR only releases (and OAR/nonOAR dual packaging) mean that everybody wins because the viewer has the choice of which version to watch.
However, I absolutely condemn your recent pan & scan only releases. What were you thinking? I'm not going to buy a nonOAR this year just so I can purchase the same title again later when increased widescreen TV sales mandate what we've been telling you all along. "No OAR = No Sale!"
Now, get OAR versions on the market of all your recent nonOAR releases so I can start giving you money again. (Please.)

 

[AnthonyMP]

This would be the first positive review I have heard of this movie. The full frame decision doesn't surprise me at all coming from Disney. Being someone that grew up on them, had a yearly family trip every year of my life to WDW until I was 15, they have sacrificed a lot of integrity the last several years trying to squeeze as much as possible in profits at the expense of most everything else. Sadly whatever Walt's original vision and spirit was is slowly fading away to become soley about the bottom line. Why educate when you can cater?

This from the studio that has blacklisted Sarah Polley for 11 years and counting for refusing to remove a peace symbol pin upon request by Disney reps that she was wearing at a childrens award show when she was seated at a Disney table.

They still have yet to realize that Never Cry Wolf is one of their classics and a great achievement worthy of praise and not dis-ownership.

 

[Mark Hanson]

I liked the idea one reader had of that was 13 no sales for disney for him this year. It is at least 8 for me reading my old emails to Disney saying no. So in this group how many thousand yes thousand no sales has Disney had. That may speak.

To Ron Thanks, I was looking to buy this one, but add up another no sale now. This way Disney who hopefully is reading this knows it it not the picture, the sound, packaging, or extra's that made this choice. But one that could have easily been fixed with a dual format disk.

 

[Kyle McKnight]

Ron, your review really makes me want to see this. I didn't catch it at the theaters for lack of time, and unfortunately I wont be catching it now. Again, no OAR = no sale.

 

[David Susilo]

I would like to thank all the studios, especially Disney, for saving me a whole lot of money by releasing butchered version of their movies.

I've bought around 60 kids titles for my daughter and about 500 titles myself. Not a single one is "the butchered version". I refuse to watch anything that's been butchered and so does my daughter. She, too, thinks that the picture is broken if it is not widescreen (she is too young to know what OAR is).

Please don't use the excuse "widescreen on a small screen is too small". We have a couple of 20" TVs, one 13" TV, and one 42" HDTV. NOT ONCE we watched, even something that's 2.35:1 ratio in Pan & Scan since at least 10 years ago.

Again, thank you very much Disney for saving my money.

 

[Andrew s wells]

Yet another NO sale for this movie. I will spread the word to my friends (who i have converted to widescreen) to not get this one either.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

I just saw this in the store and it says it's THX Certified! Further proof that THX means nothing!

 

[David Susilo]

THX Certification does NOT include OAR (or lack of) presentation

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Nor does it seem to include anything else that it should.

 

[David Glenn]

My wife already picked this up for my daughter. Needless to say, this will be the only return before Christmas.
It really bothers me to deprive my daughter of seeing this film since we didn't get to see it during its theatrical release. Perhaps I'll just TIVO it if it ever makes it to cable. Thanks Disney.
NO OAR = NO SALE!!!

 

[Todd Schnell]

Damn I didn't realize Disney was only to release a "pan & scam" version of this movie.
I intended to pick this one up for my 5 year old, but now I will not.
Even though I purchased more Disney DVDs than any other studio this year, this kind of thing is the reason I just could not give Disney my studio of the year vote.
Disappointing indeed.
Wake up Disney!
Todd

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Good to hear they'll at least get one copy returned over this- show them it works both ways!

 

[Dan Hitchman]

NO SALE DISNEY!!!

This was a cute, charming little film in the tradition of The Blues Brothers (but without all the swearing) and directed by one of the guys responsible for WB's witty Animaniacs. This should tell you right there that the movie would work for adults and kids! It's like Brad Bird (of The Simpsons fame) working with PIXAR and WB (The Iron Giant).

Besides a proper OAR transfer, the music screamed for DTS as well.

What the f--k are you thinking Disney???

Dan