Gamera @ advfilms.com=NOT ANAMORPHIC!
 

Bought "Gamera-Guardian of the Universe" on the spur of the moment because the box said it was 16x9. Got it home, "NOT ANAMORPHIC!!!" Went here to see if there was review and sure enough there was. Savant said it wasn't 16x9, so beware...but too late for me!

Emailed 7 times to advfilms.com and all they said was that they released it as 16x9 letterbox "NON-ANAMORPHIC!" They didn't care what the industry says 16x9 means, theirs mean "NON-ANAMORPHIC."

Even telephonically talked to them and got the same response. No matter how I tried to tell them they were wrong, they refused to budge.

Not one time did they offer to refund my money, give me credit, ask me to return it for something else...I guess their policy is to not have repeat business.

So, I want all to know that this company, when they put something on their DVD's, it could mean whatever "THEY" want it to mean, not what is correct!

Buyer beware!!!

Take the DVD back to the store and tell them that the specs were not as avertised.

In addition to the fact that it's non-anamorphic, it's one of the worst transfers ever put on the DVD format.

The following two sequels are anamorphic and decent-looking, fortunately.

How do the other 2 movies advertise their aspect ratios? Do both of them say just 16x9 also? If so I'd say there's a beef to be had.

This site's review says that Gamera 2 is anamorphic but he's not sure about Gamera 3.

Tonight I'm going to see if Frys will give me back my money...yeah right! Then at that time, I'm going to see what's written on 2 and 3.

I have all three discs and can confirm that the two sequels are both anamorphic, even though the first one is not.

The kicker is that all 3 movies were remastered for their Japanese DVD releases. ADV licensed the Japanese anamorphic transfers for movies 2 and 3, but cheaped out by recycling an old VHS master they had sitting in a closet for the first film. I guess we should count ourselves lucky that ADV never released the other two movies on VHS or they would have done the same thing for them, I'm sure.

Their release of Destory All Monsters isn't exactly stellar either; a poor master and it's not OAR (but at least it's not pan-and-scan)

Isn't that the piece of crap from Alpha Video? You don't know if it's b&w; washed out color or pink tinted???

Then Josh, how is it written on the back of the packaging?

Are all 3 written the same way, i.e. letterbox 16x9"

I'll have to check when I get home.

All 3 Gamera packages list it exactly the same: letterbox 16:9, even though the first is not anamorphic. I assumed it was just a mistake---I can't believe they tried to defend it on the phone. Also, very crappy non-anamophic releases originally from ADV on the wonderful Daimajin trilogy (although I think they reissued those), and a non-anamorphic Princess Blade from them, and as a I recall, updated special editions of both Princess Blade and Destroy all Monsters that were STILL non-anamorphic (and these were within the last couple of years). What a crappy company.

They did reissue the Daimajin films. The first one was a great anamorphic transfer. The second film was an anamorphic transfer as well. Just one thing, cropped aspect ratio. And not something minor. The film went from 2:35 to 1, to 1:85 to 1. Ditto for the third film. Somebody once said, that they have the inability to not F#$K up.

No, Destroy All Monsters is from ADV Films. It's a poor print and also not in the original aspect ratio, though at least it isn't pan-and-scan.

The one you're thinking of is Godzilla vs. Megalon which has two horrid releases in the US, both pan-and-scan with dire prints; one from Alpha Video and one from Passion. Both appear to be 3 minutes shorter than the original Japanese film.

The Japanese, French and German editions are in the correct 2.35:1 format, though the French disc is not anamorphic. Sadly, none have an English soundtrack. The Japanese disc only has Japanese, the French disc has the Japanese track but with forced French subs (so you can't turn them off), while the German disc has a dubbed German track.

There is also an equally dreadful pan-and-scan job in Taiwan, with English or Mandarin track and Chinese subs.

As someone else stated, they messed up the reissues of the Daimajin trilogy. Here's my review of the second film, the only one DVDTalk received for review:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=15153

Also the reissue of Destroy All Monsters wasn't a new disc, just the same old crappy DVD with the soundtrack included on a CD. That didn't even have a menu!

And DAM doesn't even have any f'n CHAPTER BREAKS, fer Chrissakes! If, while watching, you skip to the next chapter...movie over (or re-start, depending on your player).

ADV's DVD authoring leaves much to be desired. Their fabulous releases of Gatchaman for example, come in wonderful artwork boxes and the episodes look great. But the menus are incredibly basic - just a static screen with episode numbers on them. Not even episode titles, let alone animated pics which is more common with lots of DVD's. The episodes are chaptered, but there's no access to the chapters from the menus!

Fry's gave me store credit!!! I emailed those jerks at ADVFilms and told them that they'll be getting their film back...another satisfied customer!!!

Thanks for your help guys!

Good for you! Stick it to the man!