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Seeing as how it was released in 1964, my guess would be that it was shot and intended for a 1.66:1 (or thereabouts) aspect ratio, but shot open-matte (like the Back to the Future films). Because of the prevalence of 1.33:1 televisions in the past, the "open-matte" version has probably been the only one available until the new DVD restored the 1.66:1 ratio (much like the recent Stanley Kubrick DVDs, like The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut).
This would mean that the top and bottom of the screen - which was, from the time it was shot, intended to be masked off when shown in a theater - have been visible when they weren't meant to be from the time it was first released on home video until this new DVD came out. Which simply means that you got used to the old (incorrect) "unmatted" formatting, and the new (correct) formatting seems wrong to you because you see less information than you did before.
Besides, the current DVD doesn't have a 5.1 soundtrack, it only has stereo. The Blu-Ray from Canada is the only disc (to my knowledge) that has 5.1 audio.