A few words about…™ National Lampoon’s Animal House — in 4k

(Ask For Babs)

Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son.

Robert Harris said:

I occasionally confuse Animal House with American Graffiti, and think of it as being shot in Techniscope.

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I went to a double feature a few years ago of both movies.

Scott Merryfield said:

Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son.

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One of my favorite lines in any film, along with “Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!”

Jeffrey D said:

...along with “Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!”

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My old man still periodically breaks out that quote. And I still love it.

What I remember most about "Animal House" has nothing to do with the movie, nor my fondly remembered college years, but arm rests. When "Animal House" opened at the Sutton, I was working around the corner as an relief manager at the Trans-Lux East. The porter, Nat Becton, occasionally moonlighted at the Sutton, and he told me that during the first two weeks of the run, they had to replace 25 arm rests a week. As far as I know, that was the arm rest record for the movie theaters around Bloomingdale's. The first week of "Up in Smoke" at the Coronet, I think they had to replace 20, but "Animal House" beat them hands down. Maybe in order to truly re-create the theatrical experience of seeing "Animal House" for the first time, in addition to 4K, you need to imagine people ripping out arms rests in the row in front of you.

Has the blu-ray included in the 4K package been upgraded or is it the old blu-ray from 2011?

It's nice to think that this movie was partially inspired by Ivan Reitman's experiences at my hometown McMaster University in Hamilton, the University of which I am a Phi Delta Theta alumnus Fun times even to this day with the current Chapter.

Blu-ray.com states that the blu-ray included is the old 2011 version.

Edotl said:

Blu-ray.com states that the blu-ray included is the old 2011 version.

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I seem to remember at the time that John Landis was quoted as feeling the blu-ray looked too pristine for a counterculture movie like Animal House....

TravisR said:

(Ask For Babs)

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!

I was fully vaccinated as of yesterday so today I went to Target for the first time in over a year. To celebrate this occasion, I bought the 4K disc of Speed and the steelbook of Animal House.

Robert Harris said:

We finally have home theater perfection via Universal's new 4k UHD Blu-ray.

I occasionally confuse Animal House with American Graffiti, and think of it as being shot in Techniscope.

It wasn't. It's spherical Panavision.

I don't want to overuse the word "perfect," but Animal House is.

Perfect.

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Sadly, I can't agree this is "home theater perfection." The picture is indeed terrific and I'm happy it looks so good. My issue is with the sound. Universal hasn't offered the original mono and this new re-mix is problematic at times.

Bluto's burp when he says, "Why not?" is missing. The line "...now drop and give me twenty" is partially clipped off (sounds like "ow drop"). There's a shot of the "Eat Me" float driving down a street to the parade and you can hear the marching band trapped in the alley playing, which I don't remember from the original mix and doesn't fit with what's on-screen.

I don't know if Universal is up for another exchange like they did with Psycho to fix these issues. I wish the original mono had been included. It could have avoided all of these issues.

Neil S. Bulk said:

Sadly, I can't agree this is "home theater perfection." The picture is indeed terrific and I'm happy it looks so good. My issue is with the sound. Universal hasn't offered the original mono and this new re-mix is problematic at times.

Bluto's burp when he says, "Why not?" is missing. The line "...now drop and give me twenty" is partially clipped off (sounds like "ow drop"). There's a shot of the "Eat Me" float driving down a street to the parade and you can hear the marching band trapped in the alley playing, which I don't remember from the original mix and doesn't fit with what's on-screen.

I don't know if Universal is up for another exchange like they did with Psycho to fix these issues. I wish the original mono had been included. It could have avoided all of these issues.

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I was waiting to see who might bring this up first. A legit point.

Neil S. Bulk said:

Sadly, I can't agree this is "home theater perfection." The picture is indeed terrific and I'm happy it looks so good. My issue is with the sound. Universal hasn't offered the original mono and this new re-mix is problematic at times.

Bluto's burp when he says, "Why not?" is missing. The line "...now drop and give me twenty" is partially clipped off (sounds like "ow drop"). There's a shot of the "Eat Me" float driving down a street to the parade and you can hear the marching band trapped in the alley playing, which I don't remember from the original mix and doesn't fit with what's on-screen.

I don't know if Universal is up for another exchange like they did with Psycho to fix these issues. I wish the original mono had been included. It could have avoided all of these issues.

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Legitimate complaints, but I don't see why Universal would offer another exchange because the original mono was never offered like it was with Psycho.

I received my copy of this yesterday and am heading downstairs right now to watch it. With the fine catalogue work that Universal is doing these days I was hardly worried, but nice to have confirmation that I am in for a treat.

Robert Crawford said:

Legitimate complaints, but I don't see why Universal would offer another exchange because the original mono was never offered like it was with Psycho.

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I'm not suggesting they do an exchange to include the original mono since it was never promised. I wouldn't object to an exchange if they fixed the issues noted above in the new multi-channel mix.

I'm hoping that future releases have original mixes as well as new multi-channel mixes, if they think those are important. Please give me the option to choose to watch with the original mix as was eventually done with Psycho.

This new one has too many changes beyond the bits noted previously. The music was never meant to be stereo, and at times there's a ton of reverb on it to spread it out. I noticed at times some new sound effects as well.

And the thing is, Animal House is funny in mono or stereo and with the removal of the burp, the new mix is less funny than the original. Who wants a less funny Animal House?

Neil S. Bulk said:

And the thing is, Animal House is funny in mono or stereo and with the removal of the burp, the new mix is less funny than the original. Who wants a less funny Animal House?

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I can think of at least two ...

and

Robert Harris said:

I occasionally confuse Animal House with American Graffiti,

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Huh?