Remember, this was a cartoon geared towards children and selling product, and after the theatrical showing, it was intended to be seen on full screen TVs at 4:3. Therefore wouldn't the extra artwork that was broadcast at 4:3 be intentional?

I think so.

 

It all boils down to personal preference really, I guess. Obviously they were hoping to rake in a lot of cash on home video and rental sales as well which would be cropped into fullscreen, so they animated the film in a way that would work fine with both aspect ratios (hence the animation aspect ratio of 1.33:1 instead of the usual 1.66:1). I certainly don't think it's the bloody end of the world if it's in widescreen though and might even say it looks "better" that way.

 

Honestly? I'm not a stickler. I'm fine with DVD's... always have been. HD is very nice to have and all, but I've never felt it necessary, never even really notice much of a difference.
Unless it's like the PS3 game graphics as opposed to, say, the ps2. THAT kind of an upgrade I'm all for. 8D

 

Depending on the cartoon, I can tell right away. Ever watch any new episodes of futurama or the Simpsons? Switch between the standard def and Hi def channels and its very easy to see. Well, at least on a 50in 1080p tv. I have a plasma and I cannot watch standard fuzziness anymore.

Although, standard def can look pretty good on DVD since it can be upscaled. I have a copy of GI Joe Resolute and it looks really nice when played through my Ps3. Same for my Transformers the movie DVD.

Regarding why there are bars still in our wide screen tv's, the reason is mostly due to the different aspect ratios of film. There is no standard "widescreen" when it comes to movies. Some directors like to use a really wide format (1.85.1, 2.35.1), which will leave black bars since 16x9 tv's are not wide enough. Most HD tv broadcasts and straight to DVD\Blu-ray use 16x9.

oh but anyway, I would greatly appreciate if they release a Blu-ray copy of the movie here in the states. Toss in some extras, and I will be a happy camper.

 

Oh this, totally. Beauty and the Beast in HD is something kinda special, but Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker isn't.  

Australian copy eh? Hmm. Might try to hunt one out.

Edit
Just ordered one from fishpond.com.au. Will let you know how it is in a week or so.

 

Why don't you read TFWiki where it is stated that it was intended to watch it like this, because they had the syndication on TV in mind when making the movie.

 

Except that TFWiki doesn't say anything like that, and even if it did, it would mean less than nothing without a source.

 

But it does say that it was animated in 4:3, and matted down to fit widescreen for its theatrical release. And the High-Def Digest review also states the fact that it was animated for future fullscreen broadcasts, and matted down for its theatrical release.

"The film was produced as a theatrical feature, with the intention that the footage would be matted to a consistent 1.85:1 in theaters, but the producers wanted extra picture drawn above and below the theatrical frame to make it TV-friendly for its later life in syndication and home video. "Full Frame" 4:3 video transfers have shown nearly all of the information available in the original art, while widescreen transfers have cropped picture from the top and bottom."

Blu-ray Review: Transformers: The Movie (1986) (UK Import) | High-Def Digest

 

...so it all boils down to that the movie looks fine either way.

I've been procrastinating on getting the 20th Anniversary DVD by Sony despite I already have Metrodome's Ultimate Edition solely because the fullscreen transfer is a lot better (plus all the exclusive bonus materials).

 

I'm glad I got it when I did.  

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/transformers-movie-discussion/388352-can-you-say-inflation.html

 

My Aussie Madman Transformers Movie Blu-ray arrived this morning, and I'm blown away.

I assume the print is the same as the UK Blu-ray Metrodome release, but as I don't have a Metrodome disc to compare it to, I can't say for certain.

What I can say is the picture is FANTASTIC. It seems to be the same video as the Ultimate DVD, except its in 1080p and the colours are much better. Sound is... well I have a 5.1 decoder so it makes mo difference to me. There are 2 audio streams, 5.1 and 2.0, don't know if the 2.0 is lossless.

There seem to be more extras on the disc than on the Metrodome Ultimate DVD, it seems to have all the extras from the Ultimate DVD (except the orginal 4:3 version of the film) as well as extra 80's US and Japanese toy adverts, the 80's 'The Touch' Music video and extra bonus episodes, Japanese Scramble City and a Beast Wars episode. Some of these extra bonuses may be present on other Transformers Boxsets I own (Scramble City and some of the TV commercials perhaps) but I can't be totally sure. The Touch music video is totally new to me.

It does say on my sleeve, that this blu-ray has a remastered full screen version on the disc as well, but I couldn't find it anywhere. Turns out after a google search that this was a typo on the sleeve, only the widescreen (therefore cropped top and bottom) is actually on the disc.

Another bit of info, this disc is region free, so it will play on 'most' blu-ray players BUT! After reading on google, this disc is a PAL format disc. Now I wasn't aware of any PAL/NTSC video issues on 1080p video, but 'apparently' the intro video bits (the Madman and TV-Loonland video intros) are in standard definition, and subject to PAL formatting, so unless your player can read PAL it won't play this disc. According to Google, if you play your blu-rays through a PS3 of US origin, it WON'T play this disc because of the PAL content.

Most stand alone players will play PAL though, but check before you drop money on this. Personally, I'm totally happy. I have the Blu-ray print of the film and thats all I wanted. Everything else is a bonus.

 

That's really strange. I'm not saying it isn't true... but it doesn't make sense to me. Even if a section of the disc is standard def, it's still within a Blu ray formate....meaning no PAL signal. Also, my Sony Player doesn't play PAL, so I don't know if it's really as common as 'most stand alone players play PAL'. Up till now I never heard of any region 1 players even being PAL capable, so that's news to me.

I dream of a day of a universal formate with no region codes. But, like most of my dreams, it will never happen.

Also, about the 4:3 vs. Widescreen talk.... from what I've been able to tell most animated movies that were created in the 80's were made in 4:3 with the intention of video tape release, and cropped for theatrical release. This is why a disney film like 'The Fox and the Hound' is released as a full screen title instead of a widescreen. I'm not sure, but I think this has been the case for Disney until 'The Little Mermaid' was made -which was animated in widescreen(I think, don't hold me to it).

 

I'm just going by what I read from google. All I know for sure is the disc is Australian, it plays on my UK Blu-ray player, and lots of Americans with PS3's can't play it.

Everything else is according to Google, 'apparently' US folk with stand alone players can play it? I guess what I found means some US players are PAL enabled, so those can play this disc?

 

I was speaking with a Shout Factory rep at Botcon and I asked him about a Bluray version of the 86 movie. According to him, Paramount acquired the rights to the movie and WILL NOT release it due to potential lost sales of the current films with the old movie. Shout Factory only has the rights to the tv show, not the film.

It all boils down to Paramount not wanting sales of the 86 movie to directly compete with the new Bay movies...no release...no problem.

The Shout rep did say that once they got their hands on the rights...'we would release it in a hearbeat.'

 

This is very different from what they were saying to us before...lol. What they said publicly on TFTM was they thought there was no reason to release it because the 20th Ann. release.

I hate it when studios buy up property rights with the intent of sitting on them. It's kind of stupid really, there is no direct compition between the two types of film. Likely they'd increase their sales by releasing both live action and the 86 TFTM.... as fans buy both, cassual fans may buy both, and everyone only into the Bay films would buy the Bay films.

Paramount= Fucking Stupid

 

lol wat

So let me get this straight - they won't release the '86 movie on blu-ray because they're afraid their own product will compete with another of their own property? Just...what

That's the stupidest thing I've heard all day. And I've hard some guy rant about how rye bread is bad for your health so yes, that's pretty stupid.

 

No one ever said movie companies were particularly smart. Look at Fox...

Gone through the extras, some very nice stuff in there, some things I've only seen on youtube are on that disc.

Weirdly though, in the extras there's 'alternate scenes', 2 clips (US and international) of the opening credits, Spikes naughty word and the closing credits. Anyway, the US versions are full screen remastered, the international versions are cropped from top, bottom and sides!

 

"Blu-Ray" is just the storage disc and the player specifications, it isn't a video standard or signal format.

Its like stuff on your computer. You have files (videos) on a disk (Blu-Ray disc), which you then open with software thats on your computer (Blu-Ray player) that sends signals out of your video port (HDMI) in a lingo that your monitor understands (1080/720/PAL/NTSC) to make a picture appear.

 

What the hell kind of a HDTV can't support PAL in this day and age anyway?

 

@ Tikgnat: Can I ask where you got your Australian copy? I have the UK version and it has ZERO extras on it, but if the Aussie one has the commentaries etc then I might be tempted to pick it up.