Disney's Beauty And The Beast..IMAX Presentation (1 Viewer)

[Tino]

I have just returned from seeing Disney's Beauty And The Beast in the large screen IMAX format, and let me tell you what an awesome experience it was.
I was concerned that it would simply be a blown up print, but as the announcement before the presentation states, the original animators went back and digitally restored every frame to take advantage of the IMAX format, and damn, does it show.
I felt as though I was in the film. The resolution was crystal clear on this giant screen. Colors were as vibrant as
they were ten years ago, Actually I would say they were even better. It was so clear and detailed, that you could actually see the "draw lines" around the characters faces, if you know what I mean. Stunning.
The sound was equally amazing. It eminated from everywhere and completely surrounded you. All six channels were extremely active with plenty of bass, especially whenever the Beast spoke or growled. Wow.
This new version of Beauty And The Beast contains a new six minute version of a sequence featuring the song "Human Again" by Ashman/Menken. It was originally storyboarded when the film was being produced but dropped due to either money or time constaints. The original cast and animators reunited to complete this segment. It is perfectly pleasant and fits in seamlessly with the rest of this wonderful film.
If you have never seen Beauty And The Beast, the only animated film nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, on the BIG() screen, and even if you have, this presentation was flawless and seeing it on a giant IMAX screen transports you into the film like no other I have seen.
Highly recommended
BTW, the famous Lion King trailer was shown before the film advertising that it too is coming to an IMAX theater
this year. Can't wait.

 

[george kaplan]

I haven't seen this but was reading an article about it. It'll be interesting to see if there's any Greedo-style controversy about it. According to the article the new footage showed the castle being cleaned up, so later parts had to be cleaned up, since in the original they were still dirty.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Tino,
I have been eagerly awaiting this one. I can't wait to see it, and I also am very excited about the Platinum DVD we'll be seeing this fall
Take care,
Chuck

 

[Derek Miner]

BTW, the famous Lion King trailer was shown before the film advertising that it too is coming to an IMAX theater this year.

Sorry, you gotta wait one whole year for that! Coming to IMAX on January 1, 2003!

I enjoyed seeing Beauty and the Beast in IMAX as well. The sound was darn good and lotsa bass, like Tino said. Sometimes it felt like air was blowing at me!

The whole thing looked pretty darn good, considering they probably never intended to have the film shown at this high level of detail. Sometimes, I thought the sharp animation against a soft background looked funny, but that was very rare.

A guy talked to the audience before the screening here, too, and he mentioned changing the later sequences to show a cleaned up castle. I'll have to go back and look at the original on VHS (or my laser rotting Work in Progress laserdisc) and see how different it is. It didn't seem that many changes would be needed, mostly in the scenes where the mob enters the castle, I suppose.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

BTW, the famous Lion King trailer was shown before the film advertising that it too is coming to an IMAX theater

this year. Can't wait.

I hope this time they pay their royalties to Osamu Tezuka and place his name in the credits where it belongs. First "original" feature my ass

 

[Jason Seaver]

The whole thing looked pretty darn good, considering they probably never intended to have the film shown at this high level of detail.

I wouldn't be totally surprised if Disney dug the movie's original CAPS files out of some forgotten hard drive and re-rendered every frame. Just about every Disney animated film since The Rescuers Down Under has been "painted" digitally, as opposed to by hand, so the technical challenges for creating a large-format version shouldn't be nearly as daunting for the newer ones as they were for the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" segment of Fantasia.
Myself, I'm just glad this is showing in Providence - I didn't get to see Fantasia 2000 on the giant screen because the nearest screens were in New York and Nova Scotia. It's kind of obnoxious that there are now two Imax screens here in the Hub Of The Universe, but neither the Museum Of Science or the Aquarium is likely to show these sort of movies (but, hey, there's another opening at a furniture store out in the suburbs this year!) - though for Fantasia 2000, it was because Disney wanted 100% of the ticket sales and wouldn't allow anything else to run on the screen.

 

[Terrell]

You know, I've never been to an IMAX film. I've always wanted to, but never had the time, or just didn't think about it.

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

I was going to see this today but decided to wait until this weekend. I believe the official title of this release is Beauty and the Beast: Special Edition.
If The Lion King was shown as coming to IMAX, yes it won't be until 1/1/03, which Disney already said they are going to do for their platinum titles. This would also mean that the DVD will be coming later that year, which is good news.
~Edwin

 

[Andrew 'Ange Hamm' Hamm]

[wet blanket]
Beauty and the Beast is, in my humble opinion, a disaster on the IMAX screen.
Cleanup, shmeanup; the movie was not composited for IMAX and it shows in every frame. My attention was constantly fixed on small details that were not the intended focus of the shot just because they were on the screen where Belle's face had been the moment before and to re-focus my attention meant moving my entire head. The animation looked bland and washed-out in such a huge expansion; tiny details of the mattes were much more interesting to my eye than the acre-and-a-half expanse of monotonous flesh tone that was every principal character's face. And the last shot was a total nightmare; Belle and the Prince dancing together in front of a background featuring other principal characters--all of whom were completely motionless.
ALL of these details are unseen when the film is viewed the way it was composited, on a cinematic movie screen. This is no better than changing the aspect ratio. Four thumbs downs for this crass bastardization of a classic film. This is the most unapologetically commercial movie release since the Star Wars $pecial Editions.
[/wet blanket]

 

[Jeffrey Forner]

I went to a screening at the Imation IMAX Theater here in the Twin Cities, and I have to say that the experience was nothing short of incredible. The sound, the color, the detail of the animation... all of it came together for movie-going experience that has not been equaled by any other in my short time on this earth.

I did have some concern before the screening started that the film would look bland and grainy, but those fears vanished as soon as the first frame faded in. The clarity of the picture was amazing and gave me a greater appreciation for the level of detail that goes into creating an animated film of this level. I loved watching those little details blown up to huge proportions, so that I could see how the character outlines changed and intersected with one another and the colors within them. I loved seeing those little imperfections that get lost on a small home theater screen. It's like studying the tiniest features a loved ones face up close until you take in every detail. I've always loved animation, and I love how good animation can look on a screen this big.

As for the "Human Again" sequence, I was surprised at how well it fit in with the rest of the movie. I had expected that it would feel like an out-of-place music number that had been unceremoniously dumped into the middle of the film, but it most certainly did not feel that way. It also looked at home visually with the rest of the film. I had feared that this sequence would look stunningly better than the original footage, since it had been prepped with IMAX in mind from the start. I did not find that to be the case.

If you like Beauty and the Beast in the least bit, you owe it to yourself to see it on an IMAX screen.

Oh, and I didn't see that The Lion King trailer. That really pisses me off. Oh well, I suppose I can wait another long year for that. What an experience that will be!

 

[Derek Miner]

the movie was not composited for IMAX and it shows in every frame. My attention was constantly fixed on small details that were not the intended focus of the shot just because they were on the screen where Belle's face had been the moment before and to re-focus my attention meant moving my entire head.

I sorta agree with Andrew on this. It was difficult to re-focus my attention constantly. I would have been much happier sitting in the back row. Plus, I am now wondering how they re-composed this. Aren't these features designed and filmed in 1.66? I thought the original plans for this IMAX presentation called for some of the 1.33 frame to go unused?

 

[Tino]

Sorry for The Lion King mixup. I meant next year.
I can also sorta understand Andrews complaints, however they didn't bother me as much. I found it all fascinating. I do suggest you sit as far back in the theater as possible, the back few rows let's say, since that is the best viewing angle for an IMAX film.
In regard to the aspect ratio, I paid particular attention to this and it seemed as though it was shown in its original 1.66 composition, since there were slight black bars at the top and bottom of the frame.
I plan on seeing this again. I personally would like to see more classic Disney films like this. It really was wonderful.

 

[Mark Pfeiffer]

As everyone has stated, the clarity of this is incredible.
I sat in the back row--sitting too close at IMAX films tends to make me nauseous--and didn't get distracted by still background characters, although I can see how they might have been distracting.
A word to the wise--get your ticket ahead of time and get there early. I bought my ticket the day before, having learned my lesson from Fantasia 2000, and showed up ten minutes before it was supposed to start. (The theater had it scheduled to play every two hours, which was quite ambitious. Actually, it started about twenty minutes late.) The only reason I got a good seat is because there was a single empty seat at the very top where they have room for patrons in wheelchairs and the people with them. Since all of these people had already been seated, I was thrilled to snag that top spot (and not take it from someone who needed it ) rather than sit in the front row. I think the theater sold out all of the first day screenings.

 

[Dan Brecher]

Hoping to catch this at the weekend! I can't wait!

Dan (UK)

 

[Tino]

In regard to this films DVD release, has it been confirmed as a Platinum release for this year? Any specs given?
Can't believe I missed that announcement.
Thanks

 

[Luis Esp]

I would like to know if Disney will include both versions of the movie on the dvd. To those who have seen the Imax version, has Belle's song "Home" included in the new version? I think this is one of the stronger songs from the Broadway show.

I've watch Beauty and The Beast many times over the last 10 years on both video and laserdisc, so a Platinum dvd would be amazing.

I think one the things that bothered me about the laserdisc that it was not encoded in DD. Hopefully the dvd will include DTS.

 

[Brian W.]

Yes, Dan. It actually says on the back of the booklet for Snow White that Beauty will be released in October of 2002 on DVD.

Question: Does anybody know what the projection aspect ratio is for IMAX? I work at Disney, and I ran across some paperwork for the IMAX Beauty, some technical specs:

Soundtrack re-recording format: Six-track stereo

Soundtrack large formats (multiple delivery formats): Sonics System. DVD, DA88, DTS, MAG

Format of Orig. 65mm Neg 15/8 perf. release on 70mm: 1.33:1 Academy aspect

ASPECT RATIO FOR PROJECTION: 1.33:1 all perf formats (emphasis mine)

I am totally ignorant about IMAX, but what does this mean? How can something be on a 70mm print and be 1.33:1? Someone with more knowledge than me want to fill me in on that?

My concern is that, since the film WAS reformatted for IMAX, that this will be used as an excuse to release it full frame. From the Disney Newsreel (company newsletter):

"Thanks to being produced digitally (B&B was just the second Disney animated film to be thus produced), all of the film's original artwork and production elements were stored digitally on 8mm magnetic tape and subsequently transferrred and archived on 9,000 CD-ROMs. The latter became the source for creating three different large-format versions of the film that could play in IMAX and other giant screen theaters. Special camera heads and film printers worked around the clock to reformat the original film and to create new prints that would provide unprecedented clairty, dimension, and sound quality."

In the same article, Dick Cook, chairman of WD Motion Pictures Group, says, "Instead of just taking a 35mm version and blowing it up for the giant screen, our team went back to the original digital source material and spent more than a year REFORMATTING EACH FRAME, ADDING DETAIL AND SPECIAL EFFECTS, AND FIXING MISTAKES THAT WERE NEVER BEFORE NOTICEABLE." (Emphasis mine.)

All well and good...but it ain't the original theatrical version by a long shot.

 

[Sean Laughter]

I work at an IMAX and so will have the "opportunity" to see Beauty & the Beast more than 100 times over the next few months more than likely (thank god this is my favorite Disney film!!)
The film is absolutely beautiful IMO, and since the theater console is in the rear of the theater and smack dab in the center I have the "prime seat" at every showing
I also have to agree, the bass in this thing is mad! Particularly when the mob raids the castle, the shots of the characters holding back the door as the battering ram hits it shake the entire theater, I was waiting to hear something fall of a shelf behind the dome!!
I can't say I'm too fond of the new song though, and I'm praying we're able to use branching to see the film cut in the original way on the DVD. Also the look of Mrs. Pots in that sequence seems a big "off" to me, at least in the speaking parts just before the song.
In any case, I really like it except for some minor squibbles (there is also some dirt on background paintings that you think would have been removed) and I just hope my forced multiple viewings dont't make me entirely sick of it by the end of May.

am totally ignorant about IMAX, but what does this mean? How can something be on a 70mm print and be 1.33:1?

Just because I work at an IMAX theater doesn't mean I know all about it so if this is wrong someone correct me (I'm not a projectionist at the theater so that's my excuse ).
You can have 70mm film but different perforations. IMAX is 70mm with 15 perforations per frame, giving a more square image (don't know the exact ratio number). Other formats are like 70mm and maybe 8 perforations giving a more "widescreen" frame. In the case of the IMAX dome the print of Beauty and the Beast is heavily matted to give the proper ratio for the film. The movie doesn't use probably 25% (if not more) of our usual dome area that is covered by a normal IMAX film. So it is hard matted on the print into the proper aspect ratio. I haven't seen it on a flat-screen IMAX (there are different prints for each) so I don't know if it is hard-matted with "black bars" for the flat-screen or not.

 

[Jason Seaver]

IMAX film runs through the projector horizontally, using the equivelent of three or four 2.20:1 70mm frames for one 1.33:1 IMAX frame. That's how it can get such fine detail.

 

[Brian Kidd]

Sean,

I believe you work in an "Omnimax" theater and not in a traditional IMAX one. Omnimax is the "domed" format and IMAX is pretty well flat. The AR for IMAX films is close to 1.33:1. Since B&B was shot in 1.66:1, this is fairly close. If they did have to knock off any of the sides of the frame, you can rest assured that it was a very small amount of information that was lost in the process.