Which studio has butchered the most of your favorite films? (1 Viewer)

[Seth_S]

Fox

Their early DVDs were horrendous, often recycling dated LD transfers.

 

[Brian Ruth]

I've been pretty much unscathed by studios, since I've done my homework on most releases and kept myself from getting double dipped for the most part.

With that in mind:

Disney for their non-anamorphic widescreen transfer on A Bug's Life 'Gold Edition.' Don't get me STARTED about that one.

Criterion for not releasing some early titles in 16x9 (Brazil especially). I have the feeling that they will soon correct this, though, and I won't have ANYTHING to complain about, except:
Criterion's transfer of The Rock. I thought the transfer didn't clean up the source print NEARLY enough for such a recent movie. I hope they end up remastering this one, hopefully with a cleaner film print.

Columbia's 'SuperBit' transfer of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I expect PRISTINE audio and video with a SuperBit title. I got a pristine video presentation OF THE CRAPPY PRINT!!! Whoever supervised that transfer deserves to be fired.

Buena Vista for High Fidelity -- sparse extra features, high price (until recently), and a GLARING CIGARETTE BURN in the middle of the film. WHO EMPLOYS THESE MORONIC TRANSFER SUPERVISORS?!?!

I'm a bit of a self-proclaimed video nitpicker, though, so take that for what it's worth.

 

[Andrew Chong]

Another vote for Disney subsidiary Dimension (re: Dimension's Jet Li Collection). Among other things, not a single original language track in the bunch. Shameful.

 

[Greg_M]

Regardless of what studio butched what film, each of the studios has also cleaned up and released immaculate transfers of some of their films.

So this is really unfair Studio bashing. Even though MGM, Disney & Universal have commited pan and scan crimes, they have also released some of the best looking widescreen DVD on the market. Not every title can receive an extensive restoration, and some times the studios don't have the proper elements, or the marketing vision decides to reach a diffrent consumer group.

As far as I'm concerned titles such as
Moonstruck
Arthur
Private Benjaman
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
have yet to be released on DVD, as the studio's have only marketed these titles to a select consumer group and not the DVD market as a whole.

 

[Chauncey_G]

I'm still hacked at Columbia for their mistreatment of A Midnight Clear.

 

[TheLongshot]

To beat a dead horse in the ground, Miramax for slicing and dicing HK films to death. They ruin an entire genre of films.

Jason

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Jason, to be fair let's remember that HK films are not the only country slice n diced by Harvey Scissorhands

 

[Travis_W]

Ah, I guess I overexaggerated about Accidental Spy's hack job here. I agree that this is kind of unfair studio bashing as we do get some pretty good DVDs most of the time and the fact that we're even getting widescreen at all, I don't know I kind of feel ungrateful towards some studios by doing this. So yeah there are a lot of DVDs screwed up by some of the studios but we shouldn't let it overshadow the fact that this is the best home video has looked in years outside high definition.

 

[StevenW]

Warner Bros. easily. They have tons of movies I would buy if they werent pan&scan/fullscreen. National Lampoons Vacation movies (excluding European) come to mind.

 

[LukeB]

Warner and Disney are the primary offenders:
WB:
-the three good Vacation movies
-My Blue Heaven
-Funny Farm
-The Great Santini

Disney:
-non-anamorphic Angels in the Outfield
-non-anamorphic and non-5.1 Jungle 2 Jungle
and MAR releases of:
-Cheetah
-Man of the House
-Muppet Christmas Carol
-Muppet Treasure Island
-Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
-First Kid
-Heavyweights
-The Journey of Natty Gann
-Air Bud
-Max Keeble's Big Move

The list could go on and on, but essentially a good number of their P&S DVDs (the complete list of which is on my website) are movies I liked and would have liked to buy

 

[Patrick McCart]

Criterion for not releasing some early titles in 16x9 (Brazil especially). I have the feeling that they will soon correct this, though, and I won't have ANYTHING to complain about, except:
Criterion's transfer of The Rock. I thought the transfer didn't clean up the source print NEARLY enough for such a recent movie. I hope they end up remastering this one, hopefully with a cleaner film print.

Don't hold your breath. Since it's 16x9, already is a 2-disc edition, and was approved by Michael Bay, you'll see Criterion do another edition when HD-DVD comes out.



Also, keep in mind that any of the Warner DVDs with the "Warner Bros. Family Entertainment" banner were done by the family DVD department. It has been confirmed by WHV themselves that that part of the company does their own thing. That being said, they need to get with it.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

They did a 16x9 reissue.

I believe that's why he's cheesed. The original April 1999 release was non-anamorphic, but the November 1999 CE offered the 16X9 transfer. HOWEVER, when Disney put out the single-disc "Gold Collection" version after that, they used the same old NON-anamorphic transfer. Why not replace the single-disc non-anamorphic picture with the superior one? IIRC, they even stated that the "Gold" disc would be 16X9, but it wasn't. That's the source of the animosity on that subject...

 

[Tom Vet]

Timerider and Jade both at the end

 

[Andy Olivera]

Disney, without question. Between Miramax recutting all their foreign films and Dimension refusing to release unrated films they're at the bottom of the DVD barrel. Excellent transfers and killer special editions don't mean jack if the film is cut...

 

[Brian Ruth]

Quoth the Patrick:


I'm aware of that. I own it after all. I'm just angry I had to be double dipped for it in the first place. Why WOULDN'T you want to give a movie like A Bug's Life a 16x9 transfer? I heard Steve Jobs had to pitch a fit for Disney to even do the Collector's Edition.

 

[Patrick McCart]

I'm aware of that. I own it after all. I'm just angry I had to be double dipped for it in the first place. Why WOULDN'T you want to give a movie like A Bug's Life a 16x9 transfer? I heard Steve Jobs had to pitch a fit for Disney to even do the Collector's Edition.

It's not a question of why they wouldn't. The first edition was made when Disney wasn't doing anamorphic (if at all, I think). A word which I will not utter here was occupying all their time, then. (D*VX)

 

[Paul J Anderson]

i know they are pretty small time, but Pacific Family Entertainment really screwed the pooch on their release of The Final Countdown. it even garnered a Bitsy!