R2:Transformers The Movie.. widescreen vs fullscreen pics. (1 Viewer)

[Ken Bentley]

first off thanks to Matthew for hosting the pics for me...







here are pics from The Region 2 Transformers Movie SE .
they have they widescreen version. from the pics i dont see much of a diff from widescreen to fullscreen in the pics. so when they release the 2 disc se for us in region 1 will it be that big of a diff to go out an buy it??

and thanks again Matthew for hosting the pics..

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

Is there a site with more info on this R2 SE? I looked on amazon.co.uk and there is hardly any info at all, not even a picture of the cover.

 

[Joe6pack99]

from those pics it looks like the full screen actually has more picture information hmmm

 

[Andy Kim]

Yeah, it looks like that James Cameron matte technique or whatever you call it.
Fullscreen gets more top and bottom while widescreen gets more side to side.

 

[Damin J Toell]

Yeah, it looks like that James Cameron matte technique or whatever you call it.
Fullscreen gets more top and bottom while widescreen gets more side to side.

That's not some kind of special technique that James Cameron devised. It's how just about every 1.85:1 film is done: the widescreen version is created by matting off the top and the bottom of the frame. For "full screen" transfers, the image is usually unmatted and zoomed in, resulting in a loss of some picture information on the sides and a gain of picture on the top and bottom.

DJ

 

[John_Berger]

To be quite honest, I'm not even seeing more side-to-side in the widescreen version. It looks very clear to me that the widescreen version is nothing more than a matte of the fullscreen version.

That's a rip off AFAIC unless that matted AR is what was originally intended.

 

[Adam Tyner]

That's a rip off AFAIC unless that matted AR is what was originally intended.

I can't imagine that the matted AR isn't -- I mean, it was a theatrical release, after all, and was always intended to be a theatrical release, to the best of my knowledge.

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

It was definitely supposed to be widescreen. I remember that the ads for the movie on TV said something about "widescreen animation".

I think that this was an open-matte movie, where the top and bottom part of the image was intended to be matted.

If you look at one of the fullscreen DVDs there are a few places where the cells are not completely painted at the bottom of the screen, where the animators probably knew it would be matted.

One of these is underwater, when Kup is injured and Hot Rod turns him over. Part of Kup is not drawn and colored completely.

Another time when this happens is when the Quintesson ship lands on the Planet of Junk. There are a few frames where the bottom of the ship is not colored completely.




I'm still looking for more info for this release, but I can't find anything. (E.g., is it an anamorphic transfer?)

 

[Greg_S_H]

If it's released in anamorphic widescreen and you have a 16x9 set, you're most definitely going to want the new version.

 

[DannyS]

a special edition? wha? first I have heard about it! I own the current disc and it's brilliant! since when is there going to be a new version? WHo reported this? TELL ME NOWWWWWWWWWWWWW

 

[Ken Bentley]

http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=82420

more info here bout the two disc set..

also e-mail here if ya wanna post yoru thoughts of what extras should eb on the two disc set.

Rhino @ [email protected]

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=82420

more info here bout the two disc set..

also e-mail here if ya wanna post yoru thoughts of what extras should eb on the two disc set.

Rhino @ [email protected]

The toonzone article doesn't say who what company is releasing this or what region it is from. The screenshots are reportedly from an R2 version, so these two SEs might not be related.

 

[Ken Bentley]

more info on the widescreen stuff
http://www.geocities.com/zobovor/tftm_comparison.html



well i cant rem were i was reading up on it. but the new se wont be out till late 2004, but the r2 is all i now not sure were from but the r2 has always had the two disc set..

it is going to be widescreen. It was recovered from a rare, previously lost print. Rhino is/has remastered and of course added the 5.1 sound, gives you the option of original dolby surround. Extras that we know of at this point will include two trailers and interviews with some original writers and voice actors of who's identities have not yet been revealed. Now I've heard of the possibilities of the toy commercials being included too, now maybe this is where this "rumored" second disc is coming from?
Hope this whets people's appetites for the time being and if anybody has any additional info that I left out please fill us in!

 

[Patrick McCart]

A lot of the time, the matted widescreen version of a flat film has the same horizontal information.

For example, MPI's and Miramax's A Hard Day's Night. I found that both have nearly the exact horizontal information. It's just a matter of matting.

 

[Bill Burns]

I've read in a few places that Rhino claimed their first DVD was full screen due to poor source elements. I can't, for the life of me, figure why a source element, however poor, could not be matted (if it was a P&S tape source, then no, it couldn't, but their first disc clearly wasn't P&S from the screenshots). Now there's mention of a new print element -- prints would be issued to theatres at full Academy ratio, would they not, and soft matted in projection? I know some films with FX work will hard matte scenes to avoid extra expense in processing the areas of shots viewers are never meant to see, but ... something doesn't add up here.

If the original film elements were soft matted (the screen shots seem to say they were), Rhino could have applied their own soft mattes to those elements. Bingo: OAR. I think what they really mean (Rhinospeak) is that their original video master was an old analogue master that couldn't be anamorphically encoded, and rather than issue it non-anamorphic widescreen, they chose to go with a full screen edition (perhaps wisely). If any original film element (including any used for that video master) existed and was available, surely a new component video master could be created and anamorphically encoded for DVD? The decision not to do so could be financial, or could reflect access only to the existing video master ... or both.

But if Rhino is trying to say that they couldn't matte their first release, I'm thinking that claim isn't on the up and up. Nevertheless, I'm glad they've either found the material, the money, or both give us first a better film to tape master, and then a widescreen (anamorphic, I trust) DVD edition. It's a great, unique film that deserves a SE (Orson Welles eating planets! Someone had a cruel sense of humor, but God bless Orson for playing along). I'll certainly upgrade for anamorphic and, I hope, some sort of production documentary and/or surviving cast/filmmaker interviews. The existing Region 1 DVD has an interview with the composer which would be a welcome inclusion as well.

 

[Prentice Cotham]

Orson Welles eating planets!

Orson will eat no planet before its time.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

I find this highly unlikely-- animated films (and visual efx) are almost universally created in the intended aspect as it is a waste of money to animate or render things that will not be seen.

I think when the DVD was first announced, the discussion surrounding Transformers seemed to indicate it was a true widescreen animation piece. I'd bet a dollar this is just the same existing elements matted-- when it should be widescreen.

There is a widescreen laserdisc (Japanese maybe?)-- can someone compare?

-Vince

 

[Geoff_D]

Neither dvd of TF:The Movie is in widescreen in the UK. The 'new' dvd on Amazon is the same as the previous one, only a hell of a lot cheaper and with different packaging. The disc has a 16:9 trailer (which is where I assume the above screen grabs came from if they're from the UK disc), but the main feature is definitely in 4:3 - and they didn't even use the remastered version that Rhino had so the R2 version looks like crap. Maverick searched high and low for a widescreen version, only to have been told that one company may have destroyed their print and another said they had "lost" their print. I'm hopeful that Rhino has had potentially more success in locating a widescreen element.

 

[Richard Michael Clark]

posted by Jeff Jacobson
If you search the DVDs at amazon.co.uk for "transformers", two movie DVDs will come up.

One is the old UK version (by Maverick), released September 23, 2001. The price is £14.39.

The second one is listed as "Transformers - Movie", released June 9, 2003 and selling for £5.50. There is no other info provided. It seems strange that the new version would be cheaper than the old.

It is the same version re-issued at a low price.
Maverick lost the UK rights to Metrodome who have sub-licensed the movie to Prism for release as a budget title.
Details of all DVD releases so far
here

d'oh! Geoff_D got there before me!

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

There is a widescreen laserdisc (Japanese maybe?)-- can someone compare?

Here's the info about the Transformers: The Movie Japanese DVD. I read somewhere that the Japanese DVD uses the same transfer as the LD.