The original thread appears to be lost via the forum upgrade debacle, so I'm reposting the info here.
The original insight to the problem came via ultimatedisney.com's review of the set, which read:
"A handful of the films, however, were created in the Cinemascope widescreen format. These are the Humphrey shorts Hooked Bear and In the Bag plus Toot, Whistle, Plunk, and Boom, all from the early-to-mid '50s (when Disney began experimenting with wider framing for live action subjects and Lady and the Tramp).
Unfortunately, this trio has not been enhanced for widescreen televisions the way the few widescreen shorts on past Treasures DVDs (the three post-Walt Mickey shorts on Living Color, Volume Two are all that come to mind) have been. Accordingly, none of these three look as good as they should, since anywhere from 20 - 42% of the possible DVD resolution has gone to black bars that should have been player-generated. A close look reveals a few oddities; the Humphrey shorts actually measure between 1.95:1 and 2.05:1, while Toot, Whistle... comes in at 2.25:1. While framing seemed consistently good, what I know about Cinemascope tells me the Humphrey shorts should be quite a bit wider. The sometimes-helpful Internet Movie Database lists the aspect ratios for all three as 2.35:1. Meanwhile, incomplete headlines in Anyburg, U.S.A. suggest that this 1957 short may be cropped to some degree as well. None of this amounts to anything worth getting really riled up about, but I'd hope that efforts have been taken here to present these shorts as accurately as possible. Such has been the case in the past, but let's not hope those producing these discs have gotten sloppy in the mastering process. "
This was confirmed by other forum members in the previous thread, and someone even was kind enough to send an email off to Leonard Maltin to possibly get a statement from him on the matter.
The original insight to the problem came via ultimatedisney.com's review of the set, which read:
"A handful of the films, however, were created in the Cinemascope widescreen format. These are the Humphrey shorts Hooked Bear and In the Bag plus Toot, Whistle, Plunk, and Boom, all from the early-to-mid '50s (when Disney began experimenting with wider framing for live action subjects and Lady and the Tramp).
Unfortunately, this trio has not been enhanced for widescreen televisions the way the few widescreen shorts on past Treasures DVDs (the three post-Walt Mickey shorts on Living Color, Volume Two are all that come to mind) have been. Accordingly, none of these three look as good as they should, since anywhere from 20 - 42% of the possible DVD resolution has gone to black bars that should have been player-generated. A close look reveals a few oddities; the Humphrey shorts actually measure between 1.95:1 and 2.05:1, while Toot, Whistle... comes in at 2.25:1. While framing seemed consistently good, what I know about Cinemascope tells me the Humphrey shorts should be quite a bit wider. The sometimes-helpful Internet Movie Database lists the aspect ratios for all three as 2.35:1. Meanwhile, incomplete headlines in Anyburg, U.S.A. suggest that this 1957 short may be cropped to some degree as well. None of this amounts to anything worth getting really riled up about, but I'd hope that efforts have been taken here to present these shorts as accurately as possible. Such has been the case in the past, but let's not hope those producing these discs have gotten sloppy in the mastering process. "
This was confirmed by other forum members in the previous thread, and someone even was kind enough to send an email off to Leonard Maltin to possibly get a statement from him on the matter.
