Differences between R1 and R2 releases?

[Random EMO Fan]

Hi,
Looking on Play and Amazon, I can see the following releases:

UK only:
Very Best of Vol 1-3

US only:
6 various Best of's
John Denver - Rocky Mountain Holiday
The Great Muppet Caper
The Muppet Movie

Both:
Muppets from Space
Muppets take Manhatten
The Muppet Christmas Carol
Muppet Treasure Island
Muppet Family Christmas
It's A Very Muppet Christmas Movie

Now, I already know that the UK verion of Christmas Carol is cut, compared to the US version. Are there any other differences between the two releases? And are there any that aren't very good (I use that with some trepidation, but I haven't seen any of the US only releases, nor a couple of the UK ones, that I remember)?

Thanks!

 

[smcguire]

"Muppet Treasure Island" and "It's A Very Muppet Christmas Movie" are widescreen in the UK, but not in the US. I believe that IAVMCM has less extras than the US one, though.

--Scott M.

 

[Douglas Fir]

The only one I have both versions of (i.e. the US and UK copies) is "A Muppet Family Christmas". The US versions is severely edited whereas the UK one is the most complete home video version of the holiday special available (with only one short scene missing that has apparently never been seen since the original showing on TV). Also the US DVD's only real extra feature is a handful of bonus trailers whereas the UK version has the full "Jim Henson's The Christmas Toy" special as an extra feature! So the UK version is definately the one to go for.

Also I don't have it yet but the UK version of "It's A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie" misses out a few of the US versions extra features (notably the "Inside Pepe's Studio" featurette) but it does feature the movie in it's original widescreen ratio whereas the US DVD is the same pan & scan fullscreen version that aired on TV. So the US one is technically better as you get ALL of the extras but I plan on getting the UK one at some point in the future when it's on sale so I can have the widescreen version too.

Hope that helps a bit!

 

[Douglas Fir]

"Muppet Treasure Island" and "It's A Very Muppet Christmas Movie" are widescreen in the UK, but not in the US. I believe that IAVMCM has less extras than the US one, though.

--Scott M.

It should also be noted that the UK version of "Muppet Treasure Island" is slightly edited though. So if you want to hear the word "bloody" in the movie you have to buy the bloody US version!

 

[Random EMO Fan]

OK, thanks for the info!

To be honest, I'm not that interested in the extras at the mo - I'm more interested in having an unedited version (why do they bother editing DVDs? The specification allows you to have multiple paths through the film - so you have an option on the menu for "U", and one for "PG" [or whatever] - grr!). Also, widescreen is more important to me (I have a widescreen tv )

Looks like UK versions then - yay! (they're cheaper )