question about Mulan's DVDs

[tu]

Hi i have a question,
that is i checked the reviews here
and found something i am not so sure
are the aspect ratio in the gold collection and the SE of Mulan different??



because i don't know much about the "pan and scan" terms
but they seems different ??
so does that mean the special edtion's version is not the original one?
also how do you think of the picture qulity,is the new version better than the old one,or in fact they are the same ? ( since Mulan is kind of a new film )

thanks for the answer!
i found it's really cool that R1 has a chinese track!!
the R3 version has the Coco Lee video !


tu

[Luke]

Yes, the aspect ratios are minorly different. I remember comparing a couple of scenes together and while one was ~1.66:1 and the other ~1.85:1, the differences in framing were very tough to spot. The Special Edition's picture is anamorphic, so you're immediately dealing with a much higher resolution than the original non-anamorphic release. While the SE's transfer left some to be desired, it still would be preferable to the original release.

[Wonderlicious]

Mulan was filmed in like in an aspect ratio of 1:66:1, just how it is on the Special Edition DVD.

As many cinemas can't show 1:66:1 films, some cinema prints have the tops and bottoms of the frames slightly cut off to make them be able to be seen in a 1:85:1 format. The old DVD was shown in a 1:85:1 presentation like in cinemas meaning that frames probably would look a little bit more cramped like in this comparison (made from SE screencaps, by the way).



I've never seen the original DVD's transfer, but I suspect it's better as I read the past one was not a direct digital transfer like the SE's meaning there would have been some light grain and print defects.

EDIT: I should learn to type faster. Darn you, Luke!

[tu]

thanks so muchfor the reply,i think i understand the qulity part,but does that mean,the Gold Collection ( 1.85:1 ) has a wider screen than the new SE ( 1:66.1 ),which means,disney modified the film to become "family friendly" ? ( thought SE has a better qulity )

this is the part that i don't understand from the great DVD guide!

Mulan is presented in 1.66:1 anamorphic widescreen (the aspect ratio of this and other animated films created with Disney's CAPS system), a step up over its 1.85:1 non-anamorphic widescreen treatment as a Limited Issue/Gold Collection DVD. While video quality is not perfect, it is for the most part, pretty good

because i want to know which one is the original version of Mulan,i want to collect the most original aspect ratio,not the modified one,since Mulan is a very important movie to me.
thanks!!

edited :
OH thank you guys!! now i totally understand now!!
thanks a lot for the pictures!!!
so the old one is kind of a "fake widescreen" ?
i was so worried the SE Mulan has been cut !



tu

[Disney Lover]

From what I understand the SE version is the original aspect ratio that the movie was made in. But then I don't understand much of teh aspect ratio part of dvd transfers.


Tabbi <3

[Wonderlicious]

so the old one is kind of a "fake widescreen" ?
i was so worried the SE Mulan has been cut !

The old DVD isn't a fake widescreen. The directors knew it would get cropped slightly, so they made sure it would look good in 1:85:1. Anyway, you're not exactly losing much with the picture. 1:66:1 and 1:85:1 are almost the same.

Fake widescreen would be like taking a film filmed in the shape of a TV (1:33:1) and snipping bits off to make it look like a widescreen film. Here's an example I made with Alice in Wonderland (which was filmed in a 1:33:1 ratio) and what it would look like with fake widescreen:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v337/ ... VD_012.jpg

As you can see, the bird-cage bird stretches out across the frame, and if bits of the frame were cut off at the top and bottom, then the bird would lose a bit of his hair and foot. Bye Bye Birdy!

[tu]

so the old one is kind of a "fake widescreen" ?
i was so worried the SE Mulan has been cut !

The old DVD isn't a fake widescreen. The directors knew it would get cropped slightly, so they made sure it would look good in 1:85:1. Anyway, you're not exactly losing much with the picture. 1:66:1 and 1:85:1 are almost the same.

thanks a lot!
i am glad that SE has the best edition of Mulan
i just love how disney treat their great work on DVD,
and thanks for the Alice pic,that's really interesting!
i see a lot of music video in taiwan in "fake widescreen"
just to make it more" movie like" lol

and by the way,
i LOVE AMELIE too ^^!

[mvealf]

While you can see more picture information on all 4 sides of the new anamorphic DVD, you can still see more on the top and bottom of the full frame version. So all of the widescreen versions are cropped. Gold widescreen version on top, anamorphic widescreen in the middle, full frame on the bottom. Click on the photos for larger images.
[images deleted]

[Poppins#1]

While most of the animated Disney films from the The Rescuers on we drawn and filmed in 1.66:1, it was with the intention that they would be theatrically matted down to 1.85:1. So that leaves the folks at Disney with a decision to make when releasing their films on DVD. Whether to go with the full animation frame (1.66:1) or the theatrical presentation ratio (1.85:1). I think maybe the film-makers themselve have a voice in this as it was decided to release "Beauty and the Beast" Platinum edtion in its theatrical ratio (1.85:1) even though it had been released on Laserdisc in it original animation ratio of 1.66:1.

Evidently they made the opposite decision for Mulan's 2nd release. Like BATB, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" was released on DVD in its theatrical ratio (1.85:1) rather that its original (1.66:1).

And "The Lion King" was released on laserdisc in the theatrical 1.85:1 and like Mulan, was released in its original animation ratio of 1.66:1 for the platinum DVD.

What's my opinion in all this? While both ratios are technically correct, I would prefer the version that doesn't crop any of the animation frame, So I prefer the 1.66:1 versions. And yes I would even prefer the open matte 1.33:1 versions of the animated Disney films from the 60s and 70s.

[Disney Guru]

Yeah but it was a lot better restoration job on the SE dvd release, than the Limited Issue or Gold Collection dvd release of it.

[magicalwands]

true, the restoration was better on the SE DVD

[mvealf]

What's my opinion in all this? While both ratios are technically correct, I would prefer the version that doesn't crop any of the animation frame, So I prefer the 1.66:1 versions. And yes I would even prefer the open matte 1.33:1 versions of the animated Disney films from the 60s and 70s.

This has always been my opinion of animated films as well, since open matte doesn't have the risk of showing unwanted material as with live action movies. I want to see the correct composition of the artist's drawings. That's what makes Mulan frustrating, the full frame version shows more information on the top and bottom, while the letterboxed versions show more on the sides. There is no version that shows the entire image.