The Polar Express DVD is not anamorphically enhanced ?
 

The Review on DVDTALK states that the 2.35.1 widescreen transfer is not anamorphically enhanced. If it's true then why would warners do that?

I guess Warner didn't want me to buy it. Thats the only thing I can think of if its really true. Considering Warner has been on board with anamorphic widescreen since the late 90's this has to be a screw up if true.

Reviews at dvdtown.com and dvdmg.com both say it is anamorphic.

DJ

How does the 2 disc set get 4 stars for Video & DVDTalk Collector's Series status if it is thought to be non anamorphic? That's like not buckling your seat belt when you take the driving test (an automatic failure) isn't it? It damn sure should be & I think the reviewer has gotta be wrong about its anamorphisism.

I don't believe it.

I can't imagine that this release wouldn't be anamorphic, but the reviewer does say a couple of times in her review that it isn't. The dvdmg review makes no mention as to it being non-anamorphic, and he usually provides reliable reviews. I'm definitely picking it up next Tuesday, but I would be really shocked if it wasn't anamorphic.

It actually explicitly states the opposite:

"The Polar Express appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions."

DJ

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=18702 - Review linky....

And I agree....if by some chance in hell it isn't anamorphic (which I believe it is) how can it get a Collector's Series rating? That is just silly.

Also, as it says on the back, it is 16x9 enhanced. Can't help but think Holly had a problem with her dvd settings or something.

http://images.dvdempire.com/gen/movies/693012bh.jpg

Not to dump on the reviewer, but for WB, who has been 16:9 encoding almost all of their discs since the beginning, I think would do a bit more web research on the disc before stating it's not anamorphic. If this was MGM, Columbia, or Universal, I might not be too terribly shocked. But WB, they have been at the top of the heap with transfers for their films.

Also, it is a bit distressing that a long running reviewer could have the kind of technical issues that would make a disc appear to be non-anamorphic. Of course I'm not ruling out the possibility she was sent a bad screener.

Just my 2 cents.

Not to discount the previous poster's praise of WB, but I purchased 2010 a while back, mainly because it said clearly on the back it was enhanced for widescreen TV's, but turned out it wasn't. That would make Polar Express not the first release they misrepresented, if it is in fact not anamorphic.

Wasn't 2010 just a port over from the original MGM disc?

I don't know, but I just searched for a thread I remembered in which I asked about 2010 right after I bought it, and someone pointed out that Outland is also marked anamorphic, but isn't. If Polar Express isn't as well, that would make three releases WB has botched up....that we know of.

I think Goodfellas was not anamorphic as stated on the original release. I know that Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? is not anamorphic as stated, and I am sure there are a few more. However, as others have stated, I don't think WB would screw up something new.

Yes, 2010 is a port from the old MGM DVD, when WB aquired the MGM back catalog.

I find it impossible to believe that Warner would release a non-anamorphic DVD in 2005 (especially one so high profile). Could this be a mistake in the review? A faulty review disc?

Maybe the reviewer in that link wasn't completely aware of the aspect ratio (even though they put the information in the review) and thought the movie being anamorphic should have gotten rid of the black bars.

Just a theory. :)

Another theory, maybe PE is one of those releases put out in both wide and fullscreen, and look terribly similar, and maybe the reviewer accidentally picked up the fullscreen copy.

rotfl That's what I thought, too. I won't buy a widescreen DVD unless it's anamorphically enhanced.

Yea, plus Goodfellas was a flipper disc :yack:. Had to hold off on that one until the super-duper-gotta-have-it-special-edition-to-end-all-special-editions version came out.

I think you'll find those discs have been exceptions, which is why I said "almost all".

I agree that discs like the original Goodfellas left a lot to be desired, but still WB was doing 16:9 from day one, which can't be said for all of the studios.

But yeah, they had their clunkers like the aforementioned titles, as well as discs like The American President.

Wait, what's wrong with that disc? I own it but have yet to open it.

K

It's not anamorphic, and from what I understand, pretty bad looking, but YMMV.

It's a shame too, because I would definitely own that film given a good presentation.

I find it really hard to believe that Polar Express, a movie that relies so heavily on it's visuals, would not be released in Anamorphic Widescreen.

Google "Polar Express Anamorphic Widescreen".

Thank you to everyone who brought this to my attention! The mystery is solved (details below) - short answer: Polar Express IS anamorphic. The review has been corrected accordingly.

Longer story:

I do in fact know what anamorphic transfers look like and am not clueless about them. What I watched last night did in fact look completely like a non-anamorphic transfer, which baffled me to no end, but... studios do weird stuff sometimes, and as I didn't have the DVD case, just the disc, I couldn't even check if it was listed as being anamorphic or not.

As it turns out, this is what happened: My husband just bought a DVD recorder and has been playing with it, recording some 4:3 stuff onto disc. Well, it turns out that the DVD recorder is the same brand as the player, and when he changed the settings on the recorder, it also changed the settings on the player at the same time, without anybody knowing about it. So, that evening, when I sat down to watch Polar Express, the player treated it like a 4:3 image instead of the 16:9 image that it really is.

A little detective work turned this up, the settings were changed back to normal, and voila! The Polar Express is anamorphic after all!

(And sure, I might have thought of checking that, but honestly, who would have thought of it, given that I never, ever change the settings on the player?)

So there you go. Moral of the story: technical glitches happen to everyone, even reviewers, and we reviewers are very glad when things get called to our attention so glitches can be fixed.

Good to hear!