Search - Max Fleischer's Gulliver's Travels on DVD

Butchered and Distorted... just like the Blu-Ray

Hitch & Hawks | New York, New York United States | 04/03/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"A genuine pity that this delightful animated version of Jonathan Swift's classic has been so abused in this purported "restoration." Aside from the excessive clean-up which wipes away the details along with the scratches and leaves a very flat look (albeit with bright colors), the movie has been cropped and geometrically distorted to an aspect ratio of approximately 1.66x1. Virtually all Hollywood films made prior to 1953 were shot and composed for the much more square 1.37x1 screen (just about identical to the older 4x3 TV sets). For years movie fans have badgered TV stations and video companies to letterbox post-1953 widescreen films so as to avoid cropping important information out of the image. Now that we have widescreen TVs the opposite problem exists and it's the movies made prior to 1953 that will suffer as the tops and bottoms of the image will be removed (or the image geometrically "squished"). If you care about movies please don't support this practice, and avoid this product."

Terrible

Bill Rickords | 04/08/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This is a terrible redo. They took a 4:3 frame and stretched it. Never do that. Leave it in its original format. E1 is not up to snuff to do this apparently."

You can spend less money and get an unaltered version

Steven T. Siegert | 04/19/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This is just a head's up to the people who haven't converted to Blu-Ray just yet, and were considering giving this DVD a purchase. The 5-star reviews for this product are all fake.



Koch completely butchered this classic animated feature. The most notable alteration to the film was stretching the picture from its original 1.37:1 aspect ratio into a 1.77:1 aspect ratio so it will fill up the entire screen on an HDTV. As a result, Gulliver and all the characters look fatter than they actually are. Aside from altering the picture, sound effects have been added to the soundtrack that weren't originally there. Lastly, the two Gabby cartoons in the bonus features section are not outtakes from the movie. A series of Gabby theatrical shorts were actually made to build on the success of this feature film."

Good, not great

Robert Burns | Lombard, Illinois USA | 05/29/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"At first glance this movie looks WAY better than any other public domain version released. But if you look closer, it has it's shortcomings, as have been addressed by others.



Only a very discerning eye will be able to see the "stretching" of the screen to fit the 16x9. But the cropping is noticable. Many points Gulliver's head is cut off and other details at the top are cut off. The DVD points out that you'll be able to see more on the sides than ever before. Which is true, there is slightly more you can see on the side you couldn't see on other versions, because I believe the original theater ratio is slightly longer than the 4:3 TV screen. But, the amout cut off at the top is more than is extended on the sides. So, where's the benefit? Never understood why they don't release these older movies with a very small bar on the top and bottom to keep the original ratio. Also, it seems when they cleaned up the film they took frames out or something, because it's not as smooth as the original version, which was extremely smooth animation, as most Fleicher products were. It's very noticable when the film pans, there is a definite judder that was not there in the original.



On the other hand, it's very bright, colorful, crisp and free of screen debris. It looks great for the most part. Just wish they would have gotten the screen ratio right and kept the animation smoother, even if it meant not cleaning it quite as well. I recommend it, but you have to get past the shortcomings."