***Official "SPIRIT: STALLION OF THE CIMARRON" DVD Discussion Thread*** (1 Viewer)

[Neil Joseph]

I just picked this DVD up (never saw the movie). I immediately noticed 2 things.
1) The front cover is bilingual (at least in Canada)
2) They (Dreamworks) used the same kind of sticker that they used on Shrek.
Why do they do that?
Anyway, I am just about to watch it now so I will post my comments on the disk later.

 

[Juan C Toro]

Dreamworks not only make great animated movies, but also great DVDs.

I just got Spirit, and has an incredible transfer and audio track. But one thing that really impressed me, is the fact that they took the time and effort to create subtitles for the audio commentary, not only in English, but also in Spanish and French. Same for the small featurettes: they have subtitles in Spanish and French (no English).

JC

 

[Juan C Toro]

Neil:
If you are going to make it official, at least spell it correctly: CIMARRON!

JC
(It's not pronounced "nucular" even if W. does it!)

 

[Neil Joseph]

Dreamworks sure can make a family film for the.... family. It is totally refreshing to see these releases cater more to the grown ups than do their Disney counterparts (in general). I liked the film and the fact that the horses did not talk, they worked around it pretty well. The a/v is good as well and I absolutely loved the visuals/animation in this one.

 

[Michael Lee]

My version (not from Canada) does not have a bilingual cover. I look forward to watching this DVD later today.

 

[Brent_H]

this is a GREAT link.....look how much the P&S chopped off of this film.....what a shame....
http://www.obisreviews.com/reviews/spiritpics1.html
~brent

 

[Rich Stone]

Just picked this up for my wife at WalMart I've never seen it, however my wife said it was great so I figured it would make a great Christmas gift.

BTW, Walmart had VERY limited quantities of the widescreen version ($14.87) so get while the gettings good.

Rich

 

[Chris Purvis]

Wow! Look at those screenshots - it looks like someone purposely composited the film as badly as possible for p&s.

Every HTF member should print those pages out and keep them in their wallet so the next time you run into someone at WalMart who asks you why you should buy widescreen you can show them that.

 

[AngeloR]

Got my Widescreen copy at Target for $14.99. I originally picked up the full screen but then saw the word Widescreen on the bottom of the stack to the right!
If you get it at Target, they have an instant coupon for a FREE 6-pk of Act II Popcorn ($1.79 value). Go to the snacks/food area in Target and get the popcorn. Another thing about the popcorn is it has a certificate on the side of the box for FREE Spirit Character Static Clings with 3 UPC symbols (3-pk or larger any variety - singles excluded)! You get 1 UPC with your free 6-pk, and the 3-pk are like 99 cents!
Spirit also has a coupon inside for a free tube of M&M Mini's. Not to mention the Baskin Robbins coupon that 99% of the Instant Win Cards have on them!
Well, if all the above FREE stuff isn't enough... don't forget your FREE 20oz bottle of Coca Cola coupon! Print out the attached coupon for Target (you can use your photo editor and fit 5 coupons on one page - limit one per person per purchase).
So Spirit may be $0.12 more at Target than Wal-to-Wal Mart, but you get free popcorn and soda! Enjoy the movie!

 

[Juan C Toro]

In Canada, the movie comes with a coupon to "buy one of DreamWorks animation title in VHS or DVD, get a free one" by just paying $3.99 S&H.

JC

 

[JosephMoore]

It's too bad that the DVD didn't offer a soundtrack choice without Brian Adam's 80's cheese-whiz songs! ;-)

 

[T r o y]

I'm surprised Dreamworks didn't include a DTS track on this one :frowning:

 

[Brian Lawrence]

My local Hollywood Video which up 'till this point has carried nothing but Wide-screen versions of dvds, this time got the pan & scam
I did not find out until I got home and popped it onto my player :frowning:, What's deceptive is on the back of the box I see a wide 2:35 icon where the ratio is listed (But upon a closer look it says 1:33 even though the graph shows a 2:35 rectangle). Hopefully it was confusion with the packaging that caused them to accidentally get the pan & scam crap!
I really wish that studios that wish to please the "I want my T.V. screen filled" fascists, would use two sided dvds so that both versions could be put onto one disc without sacrificing picture quality.

 

[ThomasC]

:frowning: I was looking forward to Ron's review of the DVD, but now I see that he reviewed another movie instead. I've got a pretty good guess why...Dreamworks probably sent him the 1.33 version, like they did to Robert George at "Obi's Reviews." Can you confirm this, Ron? If so, any chance you'll pick up the widescreen version and review that?
Here's the link to Robert George's review:
http://www.obisreviews.com/reviews2....fo=UNI89946DVD

 

[Brent_H]

Chris...thats a good idea. I overhear FAR too many people b*tch about those "black bars" that I could SCREAM! I think I will print them and carry them on me...

 

[Brian Lawrence]

Ughh this is worse than pan & scan, It appears to be a fixed cropping. If you look at the pics above you will notice that every comparison shot shows the 1:33 version is always the image that's in the dead center of the wide-screen edition. So not only did Dreamworks have the gall to present a bastardized version, but on top of that they where too lazy to even pan and scan the image in any attempt to capture the most relevant part of the image.
A few months ago I put up some homemade examples of letterboxing with some photos I took. Several members griped that I was presenting an unrealistic and unfair example of Pan & Scan, Well guys put this in your pipe and smoke it
I wonder if Robert George noticed this was not even pan & scan but just simply cropped and butchered. If not I'm sure this will even further stoke the flames of his ire.

 

[Brian Lawrence]

http://www.obisreviews.com/reviews/spiritpics1.html
If you place your mouses arrow icon over the spot where the image is cut off on one of the widescreen pics and then use the down arrow on keyboard the scroll down, you will see that every image is cut cleanly of in the same exact spot of the frame

 

[ThomasC]

So not only did Dreamworks have the gall to present a bastardized version, but on top of that they where too lazy to even pan and scan the image in any attempt to capture the most relevant part of the image.

Maybe this is some part of a weird conspiracy to get people to switch...
Think about it, maybe they've started to not give a darn about the people who buy pan-and-scam, but realize that there's a market for it, so they release one of the worst efforts possible...

 

[Chad E]

In Canada, the movie comes with a coupon to "buy one of DreamWorks animation title in VHS or DVD, get a free one" by just paying $3.99 S&H.

I had heard from this forum that a deal like this was going to be included with the Spirit DVD, so I was planning to use my Spirit purchase to get a free Chicken Run DVD, which is the only Dreamworks animated title I still need. However, imagine my surprise when I open the case and find that Spirit, the movie the coupon came in, is not an eligible purchase for this offer! If you buy one of Antz, Chicken Run, Joseph: King of Dreams, The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, or Shrek, you can get another one off the same list free. So, I still can't get a free Chicken Run. :frowning:
The other concern I had with Spirit... I bought the widescreen copy (of course!), but when I opened it up, I saw the stock number on the disc (89946) did not match the one on the spine (90175). After reading about the problems with the P&S AotC DVDs being packaged in the WS cases, I was a little worried that I ended up with P&S. Fortunately, a quick spin in the player confirmed 2.35:1 widescreen! I never really paid that much attention to the stock numbers on the disc before... are they often different from what's printed on the packaging?

 

[Brent_H]

After viewing this movie, I have to say I am a little disappointed. The video looked absolutely stunning, but the storyline was just....boring. I enjoyed the last half hour or so, but it just seemed to move very slowly. Thankfully it was a short movie. Nevertheless, I will keep it in my collection for awhile....maybe it'll grow on me
~Brent