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Post #1339569

Author
bslatky
Parent topic
Info Wanted: "The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie"... in Cinemascope?
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1339569/action/topic#1339569
Date created
1-May-2020, 10:46 AM

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.