TServo2049 said:
The film was shot Academy and matted. Moonwalker was intended for theatrical release, but also for the song segments to be shown on TV as music videos. So it seems to have been shot to work in both ratios.
Usually, "open matte" home video transfers lose a tiny bit on the sides but gain more on the top and bottom. On the other hand, if the visual effects scenes are in VistaVision format, those scenes have a little bit of extra image on the top and bottom but lose a lot more on the sides. (Some examples: the Back to the Future trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and Jurassic Park.)
Dream Quest did the effects for the Smooth Criminal/Mr. Big segment, and I believe they used VistaVision. If this is the case for Moonwalker, then any time there's a scene with optical effects in that section, it will be the widescreen version that has more picture info, not the full-frame.
That said, the zoomboxed-to-hell YouTube clip of Smooth Criminal sourced from the Moonwalker remaster is absolutely not representative of the actual framing of the Blu-ray release.
This is from the Blu-ray:
This is the same shot from the YouTube clip posted by "MJacksonHD":
So don't worry TylerDurden, the actual BD is not horrifically zoomboxed.
I don't think this "MJacksonHD" channel is officially sanctioned by Sony or the Jackson estate, either; it seems to be a fan. Whoever it is, the crop job is almost certainly theirs, and not an aspect of the BD transfer itself.
As to *why* that YT clip is so severely zoomed - you got me. Maybe it's some kind of trick to fool YouTube's copyright-infringement-detection-bots? I have no idea.
Thanks for the extra info... I knew that the BRD wasn't that bad since I remembered watching it and it looked fine. I can also assure you that YouTube channel is 100% un-official and probably run by a 15 year old who knows next to nothing about video quality.
I'll tell you a little secret about Jackson fans: a lot of them are idiots when it comes to tech. They all *think* they know a lot, but most of them don't. Search for HD videos of MJ on YouTube and you'll find SLEWS of poorly up-rezed videos from DVDs riddled with the term "remastered" that have had their colour timing ruined, their blacks and whites crushed, it's just an absolute mess.
Not that the Jackson estate is much better; putting out a VHS as a DVD in celebration of Bad 25. But still, the amount of garbage put out by the fans is far more staggering.
So thanks for clearing up the info regarding the visual effects. I figured for some time it was matted theatrical but framed so it would be okay in both presentations (of course many other fans told me I was wrong).
Regardless (and sorry to derail this thread so badly): Bluray looks great, apart from a slightly cool colour shift.