toddly6666

I'm trying to find the best DVD version of the African animated movie, Kirikou and the Sorceress. Does anyone recommend the best English audio/subtitled version? Is the Canadian or UK version better than the USA version? I think that all the DVD version with English audio/subtitles aren't anamorphic, but are non-anamorphic widescreen. Does anyone have this DVD and can say that the video stretched out to fill an HDTV still looks good?

Dazza

I've just had a look at my version (UK R2, BFI) on a 28" W/S TV and it looks pretty good. As you may well know, this contains both the original French version and the English dub, and has optional English subs. Certainly, I've no complaints about the PQ on this edition.

Dazza.

toddly6666

thanks, I just purchased the Region 1 DVD yesterday, and I think it may be similar to the UK DVD. It's non-anamorphic widescreen and looks pretty good. It does look interlaced when zoomed in though, but the audio is really good. The English sounds like it is mixed DD 5.1 while the French sounds just like stereo. Have you noticed this on yours? The english track is definitely louder and activates my subwoofer more than the French audio...

Dazza

When I was testing it I was paying more attention to the PQ, but I did flick between the French and English tracks but TBH they sounded pretty much the same to me in terms of mix.
Glad you're happy with the purchase of the R1. Enjoy...

Dazza.

toddly6666

I just got a French DVD version of KIRIKOU AND THE SORCERESS. Here are the specs:
PAL REGION 2, DVD 5
ANAMORPHIC 1.66 VIDEO
ENGLISH STEREO DUB
FRENCH DOLBY DIGITAL 5.1
FRENCH STEREO
NO ENGLISH SUBTITLES
FRENCH SUBTITLES
NO EXTRAS

The wierd thing is that I can't find this DVD anywhere online. I live in Switzerland now and I bought the DVD in a regular DVD store. This DVD is certainly not the one advertised at Amazon France and it's certainly not the one in French DVD reviews.

This DVD edition is called 2003 EDITION VIDEO FRANCE TELEVISIONS DISTRIBUTION and is distributed by Warner Home Video France (Warner Brothers logo is all over this DVD).

So it seems like a French DVD, but this edition has different specs than any of the French DVD editions advertised online.

So far, it's the only version that is ANAMORPHIC with ENGLISH AUDIO.



I read a lot of the DVD reviews of the English-less French PAL DVDs of this movie and they give the anamorphic video and audio pretty flawless reviews. Eventhough this DVD is anamorphic, it's not as good looking as the supposed older PAL versions. It's also a DVD 5, not a DVD 9. I don't understand why a newer version would look dramatically worse. It's not that bad looking, but nowhere near a flawless video quality comments reviewed from the other French versions. It's a tough call between this version and the NTSC REGION 1 version. The colors are more dynamic and stand out on the NTSC version, while with this PAL version, the colors seem washed out. There are also some scratches that pop up on this PAL version that I don't remember on the NTSC version.

With this PAL anamorphic version, I don't have to zoom in, and I don't see as many lines as the NTSC non-anamorphic version.
With the NTSC non-anamorphic version, when I zoom in, one can see lines and has that interlaced look, but the colors are still better.

I'm still going to keep my NTSC version, but this hard-to-find PAL DVD has a slightly better English stereo and a rocking DD 5.1 French (but no English subtitles).

PAL DVD 5 VERSION
DVD VIDEO: 7
DVD AUDIO: 8

NTSC VERSION
DVD VIDEO: 6.5
DVD AUDIO: 7