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You don't need to mention it.
I would have guessed that easily.
Why anyone would "like" that is beyond me, especially if you've actually seen the movie...

(Posted on Friday, October 14, 2011 at 1:52 PM)

Its funny you watching this film as i have just viewed Don Bluth's Anastasia and reviewed it for my own site, the artwork for the cover is also "light and airy" and not my preferred artwork.

Why are studio's giving us such poor artwork these days, in the laserdisc days artwork was usually fantastic, with blu ray it seems to be getting worse, you should see the cover for Raising Arizona, another poor effort.

(Posted on Friday, October 14, 2011 at 10:02 PM)

Haven't seen the film - and probably never will - but I read and loved the book when I was a little kid.

(Posted on Friday, October 14, 2011 at 10:39 PM)

Interested to know your thoughts on this and to see some screencaps. I've always wanted to check this movie out, but I was never certain if the 4:3 DVDs were open matte or P&S. Netflix had it in HD 16:9, I believe, but I never got around to checking that out before putting my membership on hold, so I didn't know if it was the theatrical aspect ratio, or what the director's preferred ratio is, etc. Open matte cartoon films are pretty cool, but if they're intended to be matted, I'd prefer to watch 'em that way.

(Posted on Friday, October 14, 2011 at 11:20 PM)

I can't remember if it was Don Bluth himself or his long-time collaborator/producer Gary Goldman who talked about it, but evidently both 4:3 and 16:9 versions are seen as "correct" by the animators themselves. They felt including both was the best solution, and that's just what they did a few years ago for the remastered DVDs a couple years back. The Blu-ray drops the 4:3 versions entirely, but rest assured that Bluth isn't losing any sleep over it. The only Bluth works clearly NOT framed for 1.85:1 (and thus 16:9 "safe") were his LD era videogames like Dragon's Lair and Space Ace, which were cropped for their HD restorations.

While I'm curious to see what Michael thinks of this one, the films look about as good as they likely ever will - not because they couldn't look better, but because the powers that be just don't care much about 30 year old cartoons. Godlman talked at length, back when the remastered DVDs came out, that they weren't given nearly the budget to restore Nimh or All Dogs Go To Heaven to their liking, saying something like they needed a week's worth of scratch-repair to finish them properly and only had the money for two days worth. (Bluth's old website appears to have been replaced with a link to his Facebook page... how curious.)

(Posted on Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 1:33 AM)

Wasn't aware there were any dual-ratio releases for some of Bluth's films; thought it was strictly 4:3. It'd be nice if the 4:3 versions were also released in HD, but not essential.

The 16:9 cropping of the Dragon's Lair games in HD is what made me avoid those releases. I picked up the Wii collection for like $15, and thankfully there's an option to play it 4:3. Not an in-game option though, you actually have to set the Wii to 4:3 and change the TV view option to not stretch the image, but I assume it's pretty close to the original 4:3 image if not the same. There's definitely a lot more picture vertically, but in the widescreen presentation there's actually a teensy bit more image horizontally. Oh well, the 4:3 presentation looks good enough to me even if information is missing (I have no earlier releases to compare).

(Posted on Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 4:43 AM)

Aha! Finally found the Gary Goldman quote from '07, and copy-pasted from MonroeWorld.com's forums:

"We made the film at full aperature 1:1.33. We did so because all of the films we made at Disney were done the same way. We had field guides to show us where we were 1:1.85 and TV-safe. We were entering the VHS era and we knew the film would most likely eventually be shown on standard TV screen and 1:1.33 would offer the most for the home viewer. The film would be projected in theaters at 1:1.85 with a manufactured gate clip that masked out a portion of the bottom and top of the frame, giving the screened image the wide-screen effect."

So, there we have it. THE SECRET OF NIMH and ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN were framed to be shown at 1.85:1, but Bluth and his pals were smart enough to know that home video was the way of the future and boarded accordingly. I could be mistaken, but I think everything Sullivan Bluth Studios worked on was made the same way, apart from the aforementioned LD games. (And yes, the Wii edition of DRAGON'S LAIR includes the "original" 4:3 framing. The Blu-ray and PS3 versions, however... *grumble*)

The "Family Fun Edition" DVDs for The Secret of Nimh and All Dogs Go To Heaven were two-disc sets containing both the open-matte 4:3 and "theatrical" 16:9 versions, plus Bluth/Goldman commentaries and interviews, and some DVD game garbage to amuse four year olds for all of five minutes. The new transfers were both overseen by Goldman, and the BDs we have now for this are based on those masters.

Semi-Relevant Trivia: Goldman also supervised the new 'Family Fun' master for THE PEBBLE AND THE PENGUIN, which evidently includes brand new animation! Bluth and company actually had their names removed from the theatrical cut, so I suppose this is them making up for the original version having been compromised by MGM/UA demanding multiple changes at the 11th hour and the whole production basically imploding from there. I doubt it'll make the film good - it's got to be the weakest Bluth film I can remember, and I *think* I've seen everything save for that Bartok DTV spinoff - but it's still kind of nice to see the artist approve some retroactive patchwork instead of just walking away from it permanently.

(Posted on Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 8:05 AM)

It seems common practice for makers of animated films in the '80s to work out the film in a dual format, once for matting, once for VHS viewing. I know one of my favorites, The Transformers: The Movie was done that way. I've got a couple open matte DVDs and a widescreen Blu-ray. At first I thought I wouldn't be too enthused by the wide ratio of the latter considering I was so used to seeing it 4:3, but it looks so good and is just as "correct" as the other, so I'm A-OK with it (plus the picture quality's great, and you don't get some of the unsightly unfinished art from time to time—stuff that I imagine would have originally been cut out by overscan).

(Posted on Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 9:36 PM)

But anyway, damn—classic Bluth films on Blu-ray in widescreen. Gotta pick 'em up as they come out. (Though I'm still bummed by there not being a 4:3 option just in case I feel like watching it that way. May have to pick up those DVDs. Maybe...)

(Posted on Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 9:38 PM)

What happened to your brother's site?

I click you on a daily basis.
Is he dead?

(Posted on Thursday, October 20, 2011 at 2:12 AM)

He isn't dead, he is a zombie and out looking for a snack.

But seriously, last i heard he was making a little short film, i'd love to know what camera he bought for that and also if the site will be returning as i did read it from time to time.

(Posted on Thursday, October 20, 2011 at 2:14 PM)

What's the word on the "Tom and Jerry" Blu-ray?

(Posted on Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 4:41 AM)