Muppet Treasure Island DVD Reviews

[Jivepuppet]

Widescreen in still possible....

... even ifthe Mti dvd sells well. I've worked in music/video retail for years and have been able to work with reps from several companies. Many of them will release a pan scan versinon, then later add all kinds of crazy stuff after it has sold ten thousand or so copies, this way they know there is an audiance for the film, and they know many will re-buy it for the better version. Good examples are, Men In Black (3 versions have been released), Sixthence (2), and Stuart Little (3). So lets keep poking a Disney!

 

[Zoot]

MTI was hilarious. Its vibrantly colored and has some great songs/scenes. I thought Tim Curry did a great job of interacting with the muppets. There's a great conflict between Sam the Eagle's ideas of the types of punishments Capt. Smollet (Kermit) is going to administer to insubordinate crew members, and the fact that Kermit doesn't run a ship with such harsh disciplinary methods.

 

[dlphntat]

Muppet widescreen

Correct me if I am wrong ( I am at work and nowhere near my DVD's) but weren't the previous 3 muppet DVD's (TMM, MTM, and GRC) all widescreen?
Why would they suddenly change their minds?

 

[smcguire]

The previous three movies were released on DVD were released by a different company, Columbia Tristar. MTI and MCC are being released by Disney. Not that Disney hasn't released plenty of kid's movies in widescreen, too. They seem to be using MTI as an experiment to see if fullscreen goes over better.

 

[Phillip]

As you mentioned, Columbia released four Muppet films in widescreen (TMM, GMC, TMTM, and MFS), however Disney wants these releases to be more "family friendly" and decided that Treasure Island and Christmas Carol would be full-frame only.

 

[Gonzo]

I know this is blasphemous to those of us who are film fans/critics, but there ARE a lot of people out there who HATE widescreen presentation. My own family includes several members who "can't stand those black bars at the bottom and top of the screen," and who would much rather watch movies in fullscreen. I've tried to convince them several times, but they always opt for the fullscreen.

It kills me. But there are definitely people out there who want it. Ideally, Disney would have done Widescreen on one side, Fullscreen on the other (like Columbia Tristar did) but they haven't.

I'll probably be getting this for my birthday this next week (Quinnmas only comes once a year), and I'm looking forward to it.

Quinnnnnnnnnn

 

[Phillip]

*sings*

Quinnmas is coming the goose is getting fat... Congratulations!

 

[ZootandDingo]

Originally posted by Gonzo
It kills me. But there are definitely people out there who want it. Ideally, Disney would have done Widescreen on one side, Fullscreen on the other (like Columbia Tristar did) but they haven't.

That I have no problem with, because at least the studio is giving you an option to see it whichever way you want to.

When I called Disney's customer service line to voice my opinion on the Muppet DVD's, the girl asked me if I wanted it one way or the other. And I said, "Well, what's wrong with a choice of both? It's not like these discs are brimming with data. It just seems like a waste of space to not include the other version."

Until chains like Blockbuster and Wal-Mart start showing their customers the visual benefit of widescreen, there will always be a need for full-screen. But I can tolerate that only as long as the studios don't cater only to that market. After all, who else but widescreen-advocating movie fans help bring the format into the forefront and spent millions of dollars on it?

(and speaking of calling Disney, did anyone else get a really nice friendly person when they called? she was just as sweet as she could be)

 

[AruggeRadio]

This is what I don’t get about Disney’s decision to release Muppet Treasure Island only with a Pan and Scan Transfer. I happen to own the 1996 Laserdisc of MTI, It’s a beautiful disc that highlights the colors of the Muppets so beautifully and you know what else, its widescreen. Disney has a widescreen transfer (While not anamorphic) of the film that they could have included in the DVD Version of it, and simply let the consumer choose what version of the disc they want to watch similarly to what they did with Toy Story 2 and a Bugs Life.

Now I know what some of you will say Laserdisc isn’t DVD. Well in some ways your right DVD dose have more lines of resolution so the Laserdisc transfer would have had to be spruced up. But I have news for you when Disney released there classic animated films on DVD for the first time many of those transfers were the exact transfers they had made for Laserdiscs a year before.

I can understand that Disney wants to have a Pan and Scan version, but why didn’t they just include the Laserdisc Transfer in Widescreen as well, most like those who bought such films as Lady and the Tramp on DVD didn’t notice that it was the same transfer as the Laserdisc, so why couldn’t they just easily had done this for the DVD of MTI. Heck I bought Weird Al’s UHF last Tuesday (A bargain at 9.99) and it included both a Widescreen and Pan and Scan version of the film.

I just don’t get why these “Family” home video companies think it’s the be all end all to have a Pan and Scan only version for kids to watch. Heck WB Home Video sold two separate copies of Harry Potter on DVD which is silly considering the format is large enough to include both (I have discs from WB home video that include both, and don’t even get me started on these 2 disc collector sets, although I like them I find them very waistfull).

I think that Disney has in a way cheated the consumer considering if they would have taken 10 minutes to go back into there archives there is already a high resolution widescreen transfer of MTI.

 

[Phillip]

Our Muppet Treasure Island DVD reviews are on-line. Special thanks to everyone who submitted reviews: James Carroll, DW McKim, Ryan Dillon, and Annika Abel.

You'll find that the variety of reviews (ranging from 3 to 4 1/2 Kermit heads) help to paint a good perspective of how this disc is being received. For the most part, the ratings swayed depending on the reviewers' opinions of the new documentary and the widescreen issue.