Your Thoughts: Follow that Bird Anniversary DVD

[Drtooth]

Widescreen = no orphaned Muppets cropped out of the shot (says Jamie who is home sick today).

Widescreen totally gets the seal of approval from me. 15 bucks is the standard movie price nowadays... if you want to wait a little longer, you could stand to get it cheaper... but looking at the gaping hole the 1980's animated Transformers movie 25th anniversary DVD release should have been in, I don't suggest waiting too long.

Plus, if there's one thing I hates on a DVD, it's a full frame movie with widescreen bonus features. And that Ghostbuster VHS scarred me for life.

 

[GelflingWaldo]

Widescreen makes such a difference.

I watched the film last night. I've seen it many times (I wore out 2 VHS copies and watched the old DVD so many I can pretty much quote all the lines before the characters), but haven't seen a widescreen version of the film since the film was released in theaters almost 25 years ago (when I was a much younger Muppet fan) -- well, let me say that "Follow that Bird" is absolutely amazing in widescreen!

Ken Kawpis created such a cinematic film, which (sadly) was somewhat lost in the pan & scan treatment. There are some films that don't loose much when cropped to fit a TV, but "Follow that Bird" is one that really suffered from being formatted to "fit your screen". So much of the total scope, cinematic weight, and artistry is lost in the cropped presentation. The film is so much better in widescreen and really makes the characters and story so much more dynamic and epic feeling. It was like watching the film for the first time.

This new DVD has changed my outlook on the film, and I don't think I'll ever be able to watch "Follow that Bird" in pan & scan again.

 

[minor muppetz]

I got mine at Target, they had quite a few. I got it for $14.99, not a bad price.

Yeah, that's where I saw a copy, but I had a Best Buy gift card on me and wanted to buy it there, only to not see it in stock.

 

[dwayne1115]

Is widescreen reeally that big of a deal?

 

[frogboy4]

Is widescreen reeally that big of a deal?

http://www.muppetcentral.com/articles/editorials/widescreen.shtml

 

[minor muppetz]

Well, I bought it, and the picture quality really is better than I had been used to. Interestingly, I watched a little of it in spanish, and the songs are still heard in english. I do find it odd that on the packaging, it lists Kermit the Frog as a copyright of The Jim Henson Company as opposed to The Muppets Studio.

 

[minor muppetz]

Well, I actually found some easter eggs on this release. It's been a long time since I last heard of DVDs containing easte reggs, but highlight Kermit on the features menu, and you'll find some deleted and extended scenes!

• During Kermit's report, Ernie and Bert actually have a conversation regarding the news. Ernie comments that Kermit has a great voice, while Bert dismisses it, saying that he'd like for Kermit to have some kind of bear friend with a great voice.
• Mr. Snuffleupagus decides that he should leave Big Bird's nest and allow everybody to finally see him.... But when he goes out to the street, nobody is there! He walks back in, where Bruno walks Barkley, who both just barely miss Snuffy.
• While sleeping in the cage, Big Bird has a nightmare about what the sleaze brothers might do to him next.
• An alternate version of Kermit's news report, where the report is not shown on a TV screen, and Kermti has some extra dialogue.
• Big Bird tells his friends that he is going to be leaving, with Miss Finch giving them the basics of what's happening. Finch also tells Big Bird that he can't take all of his things with him. This seen features some characters who don't appear on-screen in the movie, including Don Music and Mr. Johnson, and also has some big dialogue for Herry, Willy, and Luis.
• Big Bird's goodbye seen is longer. Ernie tells Big Bird "don't forget to take your baths", Bert says "Don't forget to speak pigeon", Herry says "don't forget to work out", and Forgetful Jones says "Don't forget to.. uh.. I forget!"

APRIL FOOLS

 

[dwayne1115]

Wow you really almost had me stop everything I was doing, and go and buy this.

 

[Andibcool]

Hey i bought the DVd and it was the 1st time i saw this movie.
I really liked it and some of the songs are so nice.
Something thats really bad on amazon.com they dont tell you the other languages. Its english, portuguiese and spanish. Box says also japanese but im not sure if there is really a japanese dub on it.
For the subtitles there are defenly all 4 languages on the dvd.

For ppl not sure to buy it i would say go buy it the picturequality is much improved with the remastering. Even if i dont have the previus DVD i can still comepare booth versions with this DVD.
Its because the sing a long feature seems to be from the old DVD and the jump to the songs feature jumps in the new remasterd move. I would say picture quality are worlds apart, the improvement is very noticeable.
Oh and by the way i found out today the DVD did came out in germany too with english, german and polish dubs. Price is around 12 Euro here witch is fair.
The movie is called here: Bibos abenteuerliche Flucht
The translation of that german title is like that: Bibo´s ( name for big bird here ) adventurelike escape.
I will get me a copy of that too ( my wife loves the movie even if she has a lot trouble with english).

By the way what other movies are from sesame street ?
I only know Elmo in Grummelland ( Elmo in grouchland ),
Elmo rettet Weihnachten ( Elmo saves christmas ) and
Weihnachten in der Sesamestrasse ( christmas on sesame street )

 

[CoOKiE]

as for FEATURE films... Elmo in Grouchland and Follow that bird are the only ones.

However, like you listed... there are made for TV/DVD movies.

Big Bird in China (i loved this as a kid n still do)
Big Bird in Japan
Cinderelmo
Abby in Wonderland (really recent... made last summer)

and theres one that i'd LOVE to come out on DVD... Don't Eat the Pictures