DVD Talk Forum - Son of Flubber

Quote:

Originally posted by Duality
This film has been released in B&W, but it's Fullscreen. Since it was filmed in 1963 shouldn't it be a Widescreen movie?

I'm sure others have more information, but there seems to be a lot of confusion about the correct aspect ratio for Disney live action movies from this era. Supposedly they were being filmed to be shown in theaters and soon after on TV, so the idea was to film them with enough "head room" to be matted in theaters to 1.85 or so and be shown open matte on TV soon after.

The Darby O'Gill and the Little People DVD is released open matte, I believe there is even something on the DVD cover mentioning that the 1.37:1 aspect ratio is correct (some are skeptical of this from what I have read).

Most non-scope movies from this era from the U.S. would have been matted in theaters, including this one most likely, but the "correct" aspect ratio may be hard to determine because of the intent to show this on TV. I believe the recent Three Lives of Thomasina DVD (released in 1964) is presented at 1.78:1 or 1.85:1 so there isn't any consistency apparently at Disney about this.

Others may have more definitive information.