Info Wanted: "The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie"... in Cinemascope?

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?

It’s similar to how a lot of these things are done, the original elements are always bound to show more information than what would be seen on a print. On the 4K release of the Charlie Brown Christmas/Halloween/Thanksgiving specials, the widescreen versions show more information on the sides than on the also provided 4x3 versions. Sure the animation in this movie was digital but once again, framing from the elements always differs from what’s seen in the final product theatrically and home video. The extra information on the sides of the trailer wasn’t meant to be seen in the final product.

SilverWook said:

Trailers for 1.85 films were sometimes formatted to match the aspect ratio of the 2.35 films they were intended to be attached to. When they weren’t, a projectionist had to manually switch lenses on the projector before the main feature or else the image would be distorted. I would often see the lens switchover if the projectionist wasn’t fast enough. Digital projection and automatically controlled adjustable height screens has done away will all of this of course.

Since Spongebob was animated digitally, it’s possible they went back to the original files to make the trailer, the same way Pixar made a 1.33 version of A Bug’s Life. Some shots may have also been redone after the trailer was made. Note the slight background differences here.

Does the Hasslehoff live action shot have more picture info?

That particular SpongeBob and Patrick scene happens to be the one that inspired this discussion! The Hasselhoff scene is cropped from what’s in the movie.

I grew up seeing “A Bug’s Life” on VHS until I got a Blu-Ray about 8 years ago. I figured that because it was standard in the late '90s/early 2000s for movies to be released on video and disc in both widescreen and full-screen presentations, Pixar intentionally made it with both ratios in mind. I also own in my film collection 35mm scope trailers for Toy Story (1995) and Cats Don’t Dance (1997). The Toy Story one is letterboxed, so it keeps the original 1.85:1 ratio, with black bars on the left and right to fit the scope screen. Cats is cropped. I kept these in mind while thinking about this post. But in the case of SpongeBob, I just didn’t find sense in them using so many Cinemascope-formatted shots in the trailer and not for the whole movie. But you and SpacemanDoug do have solid points.

I bought this same trailer years ago and never got around to scanning it. Nice to finally see.