I went to buy the set but I notice the Fullscreen format once I open them. Is there a Widescreen version out there as well?

These were direct to video right? So they would be in 4X3 Full Frame.

Aladdin II (Return of Jafar) is fullscreen as it should be (direct to video release). Aladdin III (King of Thieves) however is widescreen which is wrong. It now cuts off the top and bottom and looks pretty bad. No sale.

Correct.

Can anyone else confirm? Does it really look that bad? I will probably get it anyways.

lame, I was going to pick up this set too.

I see some mention here: http://www.ultimatedisney.com/aladdinsequels.html

... but it's hardly bad enough for me not to want to own it.

I would say this is pretty bad:



And there are certainly more parts fo the movie where the framing is certainly going to be just as troublesome. I see this being no different than widescreen movies that get p&s treatment. Same problem.

But the problem is I really don't see them rereleasing this anytime soon so it looks like this is all there is.

I think Disney has dropped the ball (again)

When exactly did they ever HOLD the ball?? Pixar doesn't count.

That sucks. King of Thieves was by far the better of the two sequels, why couldn't they have screwed up Return of Jafar instead?

Oh wow. More pointless Disney bashing. Didn't see that happening...

When did they "hold the ball"? Gee I dunno... with the Fantasia Anthology? Their entire Vault Disney or Platinum lines? Tons of special editions? Walt Disney Treasures? Packed to the gills releases for the mainstream Hollywood releases? etc. etc.

Agreed. This is an odd misstep for them. Disney has treated their animated films with a lot of care.

When 'Aladdin 3' was being made, there was brief talk of it getting a theatrical release, since they had gotten Williams to come back. Is it possible that it actually *was* framed for theatrical before they opted to go DTV? Just a thought.

It's possible, but the fact remains that the animation was done in full frame and that's the only way the movie has ever been presented.

Look at the widescreen screen grab I posted. Does that look intentional?

The really puzzling thing is the DVD case says fullscreen 1.33:1 yet the movie on the disc is that badly framed 1.85:1. Nice job Disney.

It was only $20 for both films so its not the end of the world, but that is still a pretty odd mistake to make.

1 800 723 4763

call disney and tell them what you think.

Absent Minded Professor got fixed....make a noise with them....noise here doesn't help as much

Allow me a couple of OT counterpoints [and NO, reanimating the crocs in the Lion King isn't one of them].

Hold the Ball? Vault Disney double disc releases.
Drop the Ball? Discontinuing the line.

Hold the Ball? the Fantasia Anthology.
Drop the Ball? "Modifying" the Pastoral Symphony.

Drop the Ball? Releasing a COLOURIZED version of the Absent-Minded Professor.
Hold the Ball? Releasing it in its original B&W version [AND replacing my copy at no cost after calling and politely voicing my displeasure].

Hold the Ball? Creating a fantastic, mostly HAND DRAWN animated feature [Lilo & Stitch] at Florida's animation studio.
Drop the Ball? Closing the above studio and ignoring an announced 2 disc SE of said movie.

Hold the Ball? A two disc release for a movie that not too many thought would be good [and with a dts track too!]
Drop the Ball? Rerelease said movie with a third disc that has [what I think] is the most interesting [and relevant] featurette which was accessable ONLY on the computer on the previous release.

Hold the Ball? Disney Treasures.
Drop the Ball? Piss off Roy.

The R2 Japanese version states that King of Thieves is widescreen. I'll have to pop it in later tonight and check it against the screen shot above.

I thought that Disney always animated in 1.66 ratio, even their direct-to-videos, since they do release theatrically overseas where there is no direct-to-video outlet.

You can blame "Return to Jafar" for the whole crank-out crappy animated sequels to masterpieces. It was their first DtV, they spent around $1 million making the movie (vs $80-100 million for their masterpieces) using low-end television animators, and made them over $200 million dollars in profit, thus quickly made sequels to Lion King, Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Lady and the Tramp, etc, each making over $100 million dollars for Disney (Lion King 2 made over $300 million).

You can also blame it for the total lack of future masterpieces. Why make something great when ordinary will do?

These are so subpar and inaccurate to original I cant see how it matters too much.

Which movie was this?