Which Incredibles DVD, fullscreen or widescreen?

March 10, 2005 10:21 AM

The Incredibles comes out on DVD on Tuesday, and there's nothing that will stop me from rushing out to acquire this jam-packed roller-coaster of a movie. But which version?

I'm not much of a DVD connoiseur: Most of the DVD movies I have were gifts, and the rest were impulse buys just to have something to watch on a given night. So this will be the first time I'm making a well-considered choice of a DVD that I want to squeeze every possible amount of enjoyment out of.

My question is this: Given the content of the movie, the way visual jokes are tossed off here and there, but also the delightful overwhelming quality of bigness it had in the theater, would you recommend (and on what basis) I go for the "widescreen" or "fullscreen" format? I do understand the diff. between them; my TV screen is the standard square-ish ratio. A knee-jerk answer would be "widescreen" so I'm sure not to miss anything. But I've heard panning-&-scanning has gotten a lot more sophisticated lately and I'm wondering if, with an animated movie like this, the contingency would have been built into it, so that the nice big fullscreen image would give me the best bang for the buck. Any experts?

posted by soyjoy to media & arts (22 comments total)

According to this forum post,

"for the other pixar releases they just extend the background up and down to make it 4:3, so the fullscreen isn't cropped at all"

I have no idea if that's true, but if it is it means you're actually seeing more in the fullscreen version.
posted by null terminated at 10:24 AM on March 10, 2005

I have heard, as well, that the Pixar "pan and scans" are really just re-renders.

If it were me, though, I'd opt for the widescreen. Original artistic intent or something. What it'd really come down to is the fact that all my other movies are widescreen — it's gotten to the point where it doesn't feel like a movie if it's fullscreen.
posted by rafter at 10:37 AM on March 10, 2005

Dear heavens.
Never buy fullscreen versions, if you can avoid it. It's like going to an art museum and having a curtain obscure between a third and a half of each painting.
Plus, one of the many, many strengths of The Incredibles is its visual design, and that comes across much better in the aspect ratio in which the film was intended to be seen.
posted by Dr. Wu at 10:41 AM on March 10, 2005

I owne a couple of other Pixar DVDs and they usually include both a widescreen version and a fullscreen that has been specially rendered. I tend to stick with the widescreen though.

I too will be rushing out to buy this film. I wish they had a commentary track consisting of just Sarah Vowell. That would rock.
posted by bondcliff at 10:41 AM on March 10, 2005

null terminated, that's exactly the kind of stuff I'm talking about, which the folks on that forum don't seem to be able to answer definitively: Will the fullscreen just have extra visual padding at the top and bottom (in which case, yes, there will be more content technically, but you'll lose much of the "jam-packed" effect with so much more empty space) or do the filmmakers now plan ahead and make a version that's customized to TV-screen proportions?

Someone on there said this was done with Bug's Life. I guess I could check as it's occurred to me that I own this DVD - it came free with my iMac back in 1999.
posted by soyjoy at 10:53 AM on March 10, 2005

Pixar uses three different methods for converting their widescreen films to 4:3. Each shot gets a different technique. Sometimes they simply reveal what's above and/or below the letterbox area. This can be re-rendered from the original scene files and composited with the widescreen. Sometimes they do actual pan-and-scan, although in a far more sophisticated fashion than you might expect (the "pan" might be smaller than the film frame and move up and down or zoom in and out during the shot). And sometimes they do re-compose shots and re-render them, though this is the most expensive so they try to "cheat" using one of the other two methods when they can.

Source: One of the special features on the Finding Nemo DVD.
posted by kindall at 11:02 AM on March 10, 2005

My Nemo DVD has both versions, so are you sure you need to make a choice?
posted by o2b at 11:05 AM on March 10, 2005

Get the original aspect ratio. This is the movie and is the way the movie looks. Something other than the original aspect ratio is something other than the movie and does not look like what the movie looks like.

Pan-and-scan or open-matte are what they watch IN HELL!!1!

The only time I'd see a pan-and-scan dvd being "justified" would be if you're trying to watch a 13" tv from 20' away... in which case, hie thee to a store and get a bigger tv. 27" sets with component-in are cheapish nowadays.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:11 AM on March 10, 2005

I understand that your specific viewing environment might help make the decision, but I second/third/fourth the purchase of the widescreen version. I'm one of those that believe the directors and cinematographers of movies have specific visions that they communicate within the framing of their movie. By cropping it or by expanding it beyond what was originally storyboarded, we are distorting that original artistic intent.

There are a lot of opinions on this subject, and some are quite passionate. In the end, I suggest that you will, one day, own a widescreen television, as we all will, and perhaps that is justification enough.
posted by xorowo at 11:29 AM on March 10, 2005

Widescreen, no question.

Also, you want some delightful Pepsi Blue with your movie? Maybe some Act 2 popcorn?
posted by graventy at 11:31 AM on March 10, 2005

My Nemo DVD has both versions, so are you sure you need to make a choice?

There are in fact two separate SKUs for the widescreen and 4:3 versions, sadly.

While I prefer widescreen for normal viewing, I much prefer the 4:3 version when I rip movies for viewing on the small screen of my PDA. The picture's small enough already..
posted by kindall at 12:03 PM on March 10, 2005

Aside from the comments made already, you may want to think toward the future: there's a good chance your next TV will be widescreen. It's been growing slowly, but there's no doubt it's the future of television.
posted by robotspacer at 12:40 PM on March 10, 2005

Widescreen.

Working at a video store for so long really affected me for the worse. I just don't look at fullscreen-people the same anymore.
posted by maledictory at 12:50 PM on March 10, 2005

Only widescreen, ever. Ever.

I didn't know that Pixar did the re-rendering process to make their full-screen better. That's cool. But, still, you won't be getting anything important even if they are adding a bit of information to the frame.

And, for other reasons, you should just never buy full-screen (maybe enough people will wise up and they'll start only releasing movies in their original format).
posted by Hildago at 2:09 PM on March 10, 2005

You know what'd be really, really funny -- if the re-rendered fullscreen version had a couple of (animated) boom mics cutting in from the top of the screen....

Sorry for the OT
posted by dragstroke at 4:31 PM on March 10, 2005

If you can't deal with widescreen on your TV, you might try my old trick: adjust the horizontal of your TV so it expands the letterbox to full-screen size. My brain processes the distortions so I don't notice. Cool trick, when it works. But I stopped doing that because my partner can't achieve this trick of perception (and now we have widescreen projector anyway)
posted by Goofyy at 8:49 PM on March 10, 2005

Get whatever you like. My general rule of thumb is that movies produced after VCRs became commonplace (The Incredibles obviously qualifies) will generally be made to look just fine on fullscreen. I also, unlike many people here, do not consider large televisions "cheap" so that contributes.
posted by dagnyscott at 6:25 AM on March 11, 2005

Also, you want some delightful Pepsi Blue with your movie?

Heh. graventy, you shoulda seen the verbiage I removed from the first sentence to avoid exactly that charge. It is, after all, kind of hard to discuss the particular noteworthy features of a given artwork without making reference to those particular noteworthy features. On the other hand it is my personal, considered opinion that everyone should get this fantastic DVD!!!!111!

Anyway, thanks all for the advice and discussion. I was intrigued to learn some of the details about Pixar's practices provided by kindall and others. I can see the basic argument for "widescreen. Always widescreen" but so far that seems pushed more as an unassailable article of faith than a specific argument for this movie.

I gotta say I'm still undecided (and since this was more of an opinion-based question I hope no one will be offended if I don't pick a "best answer") but I will let you know which one I wind up getting. Come to think of it, for all my intent to make the best possible choice, I can see myself deciding one or the other - say, widescreen - and going to the store and they say "sorry, we only have fullscreen" and I say "OK fine. Whatever. Just gimme the DVD. Now."
posted by soyjoy at 8:07 AM on March 11, 2005

This site is, obviously, partisan, but I think it sums up very well the reasons why people advocate widescreen: The Letterbox and Widescreen Advocacy Page.
posted by jb at 3:30 PM on March 11, 2005

Sorry - html error. The link is here.
posted by jb at 3:31 PM on March 11, 2005

soyjoy: This article discusses how Pixar rendered A Bug's Life specifically for the full screen version. (See page two.)

It also discusses the advantages of widescreen formatting for DVDs of most modern films.
posted by ?! at 9:14 PM on March 11, 2005

So, the upshot:

(Drumroll please)



...................................................




Widescreen.

I'd decided by yesterday morning that since this issue - how this particular movie is treated in both formats, not the overall philosophical concern - was so interesting to me, I should get both versions and compare them (yes, playing right into Disney's evil hands, I know). But the store was out of regular fullscreen versions - the only way those were offered was as part of a package with a useless (PC-based) add-on disc, and I could not, on principle, go for that. So I got the widescreen, and resolved that I'll pick up the fullscreen one later.

Thanks to everyone for all the links!
posted by soyjoy at 9:15 AM on March 16, 2005