Hello, people of Original Trilogy! Long time forum viewer, first-time discussion starter.

This past week, I added something really amazing to my collection- a 35mm scope trailer for “The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie” (2004). After going over it, checking out the gorgeous colors, and looking for any possible splices (there’s one in the green MPAA screen and one at the very end), I took a few pictures of it to see the proper scope presentation. And as I was stretching the film in Photoshop, I made an interesting discovery- some shots in the trailer have extra picture that is not seen in the final film.

Was “The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie” possibly prepared for a Cinemascope release?

The film was released in a traditional 1.85:1 aspect ratio for theatrical presentation, then in 1.78:1 for the DVD and Blu-Ray releases. But I’m puzzled about the studios’ decision based on some of the scenes in this trailer. A lot of scenes are cropped from the way we see it them the movie, yet some indeed show extra picture information on the left and right sides of the screen. The screen size has to be chosen in pre-production so the storyboard artists, animators, and background artists know how to properly stage their work. Why would Paramount and Nickelodeon spend the extra time, money, and labor into making all of that extra background art just to not be used in the final product? Animation is extremely expensive and time-consuming, so I don’t think they would’ve made a poor decision like that. I’m wondering if there is a Cinemascope version that was made but never released. I’ve attached 12 frames from my trailer shot under my Canon Rebel T5 DSLR with a macro lens, and 4 frames from my Blu-Ray.

35mm Trailer Frames:

Blu-Ray Frames:

What do you folks think about this?