Saturday, November 7, 2009

A Rare Case: The Phantom of the Opera (1989)

This is one I've been holding under my hat for a while now, but feel like I should use it. It's a Rare Case that is relative to the formats we live with now (DVD and Blu-Ray).

How often do you see this on a DVD?

That's right- this movie kept its 'formatted to fit your screen' message from VHS. There's no need for it with DVD, since it's digital! If it was not clear that this was VHS transfer before, it is now.

Next up, the crappy DVD menus I promised you. Stay tuned...

4 comments:

  1. Maybe I'm wrong, but I was always under the impression that the "formatted to fit your screen" message meant that it was a full-screen presentation of a wide-screen feature...that they pulled the old "pan-and-scan".

    --J/Metro

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  2. You may be right on that one. I don't recall the exact reason for that message.

    My point was more that these messages are not ever on DVDs, let alone Blu-Ray. They were a staple of VHS releases though.

    Fun fact: I found a DVD of 'Tommy Boy' at Target that was Widescreen. They put a message on the box explaining that 'the black bars on your screen are normal.' Thank God! I thought it was Satan taking over my movie again!

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  3. Hey homeslice, got a request, I am getting the chance to interview Toni Taylor, who wrote, produced, and was the basis for PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, and I wanted to give you guys the chance to submit any questions you may have to share in the experience! If youre interested, shoot me an email to carlmanes@yahoo.com! Will get back to posting shortly muwahaha..

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  4. K Back in action, Im fairly certain that is a Fullscreen disclaimer as well, but still, that message before a film means you were raped of at least 30% awesomeness

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