Which format is better for the Muppet Movie?

[Dominicboo1]

I have a small screen TV compared to newer ones, and I don't really care about "the full picture. I just don't like those bars. I still buy DVDs though.

 

[minor muppetz]

One thing that I've noticed is that of all characters Beaker frequently seems to be a victim of full-frame cropping. Did Muppet Labs do the fullframe work?

For example, in The Great Muppet Caper, at the end of the Happiness Hotel song, he's cut from a few shots in full frame. During the "You've got every kind of critter, you've got every kind of pest..." line, Beaker starts to walk at the end of the screen, but in full frame he can't be seen. And in the big group shot at the end of the number, he's at the very left of the screen, which is cut out in full frame (interestingly, not many other characters seem to be cut in the full frame version of that shot. Rizzo is, and I think Slim Wilson from the Jugband is, but I don't think anyone else is). This is something I noticed since I was a child, noticing Bunsen was there but not Beaker.

And after the various Happiness Hotel residents find out about Kermit's date with "Lady Holiday", Beaker is shown talking to Scooter, but in full frame we only see Scooter there.

And in The Muppets Take Manhattan, when the musical starts, Bunsen and Beaker are shown in a cardoard taxi cab which enters the stage for a second before cutting to a different shot. In full frame you can't see that they are there (well after I first watched it in widescreen I watched the shot in full frame again and I think I might have saw Bunsen there in the full frame).

 

[frogboy4]

Media should be viewed how it was intended to be seen: ​

The Muppet movies = Widescreen​

Wide: The whole band with Lips! or Cropped: Where's Floyd?​

Viewing media outside the perimeters of initial intent would relate to a personal fetish rather than a legitimate attempt to honor the artwork. It's a free country so you can watch "Lawrence of Arabia" cropped on your iphone, but that obviously doesn't do the film justice.

Older televisions cut out our panoramic and peripheral vision. That's precisely why all upgrades are now widescreen and I love it. However, it should be noted that all media shot in a particular format should be viewed in that format. They better not reformat "I Love Lucy" or "Mary Tyler Moore" in widescreen.

Theatrical films are not designed for the 1.33:1 classic television box. Even though many films are shot with more content in the frame (because it's cheaper to do so) the intention is that the projectionist crop the image to a widescreen configuration when framing it on theater screens.

Here's a little article outlining the difference between the formats:
Understanding Widescreen & Pan-and-Scan Discover what may be missing from your favorite Henson Films By James V. Carroll October 14, 2002
(wow, this was published 9 years ago today!)

 

[Drtooth]

Older televisions cut out our panoramic and peripheral vision. That's precisely why all upgrades are now widescreen and I love it. However, it should be noted that all media shot in a particular format should be viewed in that format. They better not reformat "I Love Lucy" or "Mary Tyler Moore" in widescreen.

I've noticed they somehow reformatted Seinfeld re-runs to be widescreen. Other sitcoms may follow suit. But what bugs me is when it comes to new sitcoms or new episodes of shot in wideframe, they always cut it back down to full frame (or worse, fullframe widescreen which looks terrible on a full frame television). I've noticed the big hubbub of the Simpsons switch to widescreen with that new opening has been compromised by syndicated reruns, cropping it back to fullframe, ONLY to show wideframe commercials in between breaks. I don't know what they're gonna do with Family Guy to compare since they aren't adding last season's episodes into the reruns yet.