Disney produce wide screen comparison demo!!

Well, well...small steps in the right direction. This is encouraging.
Hopefully this will not be limited to the R2 release.

 

I was on the LD as well. Unfortunately they don't choose a lot of scenes with LOTS of stuff going on in the background

 

This is wonderful news. And Disney couldn't have chosen a better film to showcase the wonders of widescreen, IMHO.

 

I have a feeling we probably will not see it here. I hope I am wrong. I wonder what the motivation was to do it?

 

As Jeff mentioned, this comparison was on the LD box set of the same title about five years ago. The important thing is whether this is going to be made accessible to a larger audience or not...

I sincerely believe that most studios could educate consumers on this matter quite successfully if they wanted to. Since they don't, that leaves two options the way I see it:

1. They ("studios" in general) have not been thoroughly informed about the importance of this issue.

or

2. There is indeed some "hidden agenda" somewhere: They want people to buy P&S DVDs now and rebuy the titles in WS (or maybe 16:9 P&S) later. This probably belongs in another thread, though...

 

That's what I was thinking. If it was on the LD, then it was produced several years ago. Apparently, Disney has CHOSEN not to use it in any mass-market fashion. So praise may be premature.

 

Speaking of educating the public, I was in Blockbuster the other night and they had a widescreen vs. pan+scan demo playing on their Direct TV kiosk. It was only a couple of minutes long, but they showed a scene in fullscreen immediately followed by the same scene in beautiful widescreen. Then they cut back to the host who said something like "these black bars allow you to see the director's true vision!" It was great.

 

It can't be a demo just burried deep inside some hidden extras or documentary.
It needs to be a demo that happens when the disc is inserted...just like their previews that bombard you without you asking.
All in all it's still nice to hear. I do hope the American version has it too...although as others have said this isn't a sign that Disney is taking this on as a new policy or approach, it just happens to be part of the "extras" from the Sleeping Beauty laserdisc.
But we sure can Call and email Disney and let them know we think this is an example of what we're talking about
BTW, has everyone reading this thread contacted Disney and told them you want WS OAR (especially for Muppet treasure Island/Chritmas Carol) and that you think a widescreen "demo" at the beginning of their DVDs is a great way to educate the public?
-dave