Sony, which has dumbed-down dozens of its DVD releases by reissuing them with only the pan & scan versions, when previously they had both, has also dumbed-down William Castle's "13 Ghosts". The original disc had the original "Illusion-O" version, which let you look through an included colored filter and either see or hide the ghosts in the movie. (Most of the movie is in black-and-white, but when the ghosts appear the picture is tinted and the ghosts are blue- the red filter makes them stand out, and the blue one makes them invisible.) It also included a version of the movie in straight black-and-white, and this is all there is on the new disc.
I saw several copies at Fry's today without the Illusion-O version, they had 2 left of the older discs so I decided to buy one. I'd heard that the "ghost viewers" weren't included in the later shipments so I opened them up in the store to see if they were included- they weren't, and one of the store goons caught me and scolded me. Of course when I explained what I was checking them for, he didn't understand what I was talking about. I bought it anyways since at least it included the correct disc, and checking Amazon reviews it seems they stopped including the viewers a couple years ago. I have several pairs of red/blue 3-D glasses that do the trick anyways, though they're a little awkward.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again- Sony was one of the best DVD studios when the format started, but it's easily one of the worst now.
I saw several copies at Fry's today without the Illusion-O version, they had 2 left of the older discs so I decided to buy one. I'd heard that the "ghost viewers" weren't included in the later shipments so I opened them up in the store to see if they were included- they weren't, and one of the store goons caught me and scolded me. Of course when I explained what I was checking them for, he didn't understand what I was talking about. I bought it anyways since at least it included the correct disc, and checking Amazon reviews it seems they stopped including the viewers a couple years ago. I have several pairs of red/blue 3-D glasses that do the trick anyways, though they're a little awkward.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again- Sony was one of the best DVD studios when the format started, but it's easily one of the worst now.
