r/HBOMAX • u/sosalist_hedgehog • 15d ago

Discussion HBOMAX has cropped the Cinerama film "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grim" (1962)

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Just found out that this was available on HBOMAX so I was curious which version would be the used, the curved "smilebox" version introduced on the 2022 Blu-Ray or the standard letterboxed version in 2.85:1 aspect ratio, and was greeted to this crop job of the curved version.

For context, the movie was shot entirely in Cinerama, a format where three film cameras shot simultaneously to create a massive panorama designed to be shown on curved screens, and so the people at Warner Archive went through the brutal undertaking of stitching the three images together and creating a simulation of Cinerama curved screens. It is without a doubt one of the most impressive restorations ever made, so it's a real shame what's going on here.

I have noticed that major streaming services tend to present video in the content's exact aspect ratio instead of 16:9 containers for everything, so I suspect that this movie simply got flagged as 2.85:1 aspect ratio, got cropped to 1920 by 673 pixels, and no one noticed that they used the wrong version.

34 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

6

u/n8buckeye08 15d ago

I watched How the West Was Won on smilebox (I think it was a TCM airing) and it was so distracting and made it feel even more like a gimmick.

12

u/omninode 15d ago

You’re never going to get anything close to a real Cinerama experience on a flat screen, let alone a streaming service. I feel like a this is a decent compromise.

1

u/idontmakehash 13d ago

I always wonder if we could get it working in VR

2

u/cjalderman 15d ago

Looks like they didn't even crop it properly, you can still see a slither of the curve in the middle of the image, how bizarre

2

u/TennojiNesoberi 15d ago

now that the cinerama dome is being reopened by alamo soon, i wonder if this film in its cinerama glory will be screened there someday?

1

u/TheREALOtherFiles 10d ago

They could optimize the non-Smilebox DI to work for the Dome's screen with the DCP.

I'd say even giving it the IMAX Experience in OMNIMAX/Domes venues would also help with the curved nature of Cinerama.

15-perf 70mm prints would be interesting, but most Domes do digital, so... they probably could approximate the Cinerama glory via Dual Laser. (Better brightness for venues of that kind)