(Seen at Columbus, OH Marcus Imax [15/70], January 7, 2002, 5:00 PM)

The tears of joy and amazement started flowing with the opening frames of the Lion King trailer and lasted until the final frame of the Walt Disney logo. Yes, real tears. This is what going to the movies should be...beauty, humor, romance, spectacle...all wrapped up in one BIG, BEAUTIFUL picture.

The image quality is almost beyond description. Every line is crisp and clean...this certainly is NOT just a blow up from the original release. The colors are bright and clear. Little details pop up everywhere...the facial features of the beast hidden in the shadows, the subtle color effects on Mrs. Potts that make her look like porcelain, the glow of Belle’s dress during the famous dance number. I’ve always felt that the hallmark of IMAX is the steadiness and sharpness of the image, and this film shows that better than anything I’ve ever seen. (There is a nice little KODAK “commercial” before the picture…I thought of you during that, John P.)

Sound is clean and clear. I would have preferred a bit more dynamic range (some of the singing sounded a bit compressed), and also I think it could have been played a bit louder, but these are but minor quibbles. Most of the dialogue is center-based, but there are some excellent use of the L-R and rear channels. I really prefer the rear left-right corner placement of the Imax speakers over the side-wall placement in other cinemas. New York Times ads say the film is presented in “IMAX Digital Wraparound Sound”, which is a new term to me. It’s basic IMAX digital, as far as I can tell.

The film points out the terrible early loss of the author/lyricist Howard Ashman, who died of A.I.D.S about the time this was released. The lyrics are in the same league as Sondheim, and that is the highest compliment I can give. Just listen to the playful lyrics of GASTON and hear those marvelous rhymes.

The new song, “Human Again”, is flawlessly integrated into the film (Watch for the “American Gothic” reference!). It looks like it has been there forever, and it fits very nicely. Good to have it. This is really an animated traditional Broadway musical, and it was a good choice to use so much Broadway talent (Jerry Orbach, Paige O’Hara, Angela Lansbury)

Many traditional IMAX films emphasize the bottom 1/2 of the screen. By this I mean that the focal point of the frame is usually the lower part of the image. This puts most of the activity directly in front of most of the viewers. But this film fills the entire frame, with much of the action at the top of the screen, much like FANTASIA 2000. I would suggest that anyone seeing this sit a few rows higher than usual so the head isn’t tilted up most of the time.

This is worth a drive to see. The commercial giant-screen business has been dormant for awhile, with no decent product to show (Haunted Castle, anyone?). This is the one the industry has been waiting for. You just can’t experience this in a normal 35mm theatre.

I’m going back this week to see it again.

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Most of the dialogue is center-based

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It's interesting to note that the narrator's voice comes from the top channel. A neat effect, but people with listening devices attached to the center "dialogue" channel are screwed.

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presented in “IMAX Digital Wraparound Sound”, which is a new term to me

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This just means that the soundtrack is not available on analog full-coat, as that's just too much for a dubber. Theaters wishing to show the film have to have one of the digital systems: DDP, DDP-II, DTAC or the new DFP (made just for those formerly-analog-only theaters to play BATB).

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Watch for the “American Gothic” reference

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Speaking of homages, I was shown a baby carriage coming down the staircase a la Battleship Potemkin during the castle-under-siege scene.

Overall, though, a worthwhile film experience.

I hated how DDP had no dial-up system to re-sync it to where-ever you were in the film at the time of a problem of some sort.

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Dr. Hibbert: Homer, this is your physician, Dr. Julius Hibbert. Can you tell us what it's like in there?

Adam, thanks for the tip on the narration in the top speaker. I'll listen for that the next time.

I noticed a couple of other interesting things during the film. Watch at the end of GASTON. Gaston will walk toward a window, while the camera pulls back. You will see Gaston getting larger to a point, making it appear as though he is moving forward, then the walking action continues but there is no change in size. It's sort of hard to describe, but it is very clear when you see it. I'm sure it's one of those things that just isn't visible on a smaller screen.

This really points up the difference between hand and computer animation. In computer animation, you can create a character, give it some movement parameters, then have the computer randomly choose actions within those parameters. But with hand animation, you must draw every movement. So, in some of the distance shots, you can tell that the characters are not drawn with as much detail as in the closeups.

It would be very interesting if Disney would resurrect the WORK IN PROGRESS version for the DVD. That was available on Laserdisc, but almost all of the copies developed laser rot. I have a few pieces of it on a videotape that are very interesting for those of us who like to study animation.

What Mark mentioned about the "Gaston" number is that it makes it look like, after a certain point in the "camera" movement, he's marching in place.

Disney had to go back in and add elements to the animation for background characters that had no faces! I found this to be incredibly distracting, as the new artwork looks like it was done with a computer: thick, solid lines that look like they don't belong with the detailed pencil lines in the original art. From the opening scene when Belle leaves the house, her face distorts and changes throughout the whole movie like she's got a bad case of gas or something.

Then again, I see this movie six times a day. Mere mortals may see otherwise.

Another subtle addition comes during the narration at the beginning: The "camera" starts at the rose in the castle window and starts pulling back. This pull-back was extended by Disney by adding a flash of lightning followed by new artwork to lengthen the shot because of the greater detail in the large format frame. This change I would not have noticed if the Disney-lady hadn't told me about it.

It's doing incredibly well down in Melbourne. It's on the chart for top 20 films box office http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/news_bums_on_seats.asp and it's only on one screen!

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

Short little Kodak ad seems to show 42 Disney movies. Anonymous poster on 1570.com has listed them:

1/1/Three Caballeros/trio singing
1/2/Aristocats/cat band
1/3/Winnie the Pooh/"something sweet" song, Pooh rising by balloon
1/4/Rescuers/albatross flying with mouse hanging on
1/5/Jungle Book/"i wanna be like you" song, King Louie
1/6/Great Mouse Detective/Ratigan party
2/1/Sword and the Stone/Arthur pulling Excalibur from anvil
2/2/Lady and the Tramp/spaghetti dinner date
2/3/Little Mermaid/"part of your world" song, Ariel on rock over water
2/4/Bambi/Bambi sliding on ice
2/5/Pocahontas/"colors of the wind" song, Pokie singing on cliff
2/6/Sleeping Beauty/Beauty dancing with coat
3/1/Black Cauldron/calling evil up from cauldron
3/2/Cinderella/dress transformation
3/3/Hunchback of Notre Dame/"out there" song, Quasi sliding down roof gutter
3/4/Pinocchio/Pinocchio being changed into boy
3/5/Snow White/Snow dancing with dwarves
3/6/Alice In Wonderland/White Rabbit
4/1/Mr. Toad/Cecil pulling cart
4/2/Peter Pan/Peter flying with kids over London
4/3/Tarzan/Tarzan surfing tree limb
4/4/Lion King/"circle of life" song, Simba presentation to animals
4/5/Dumbo/Dumbo flying with crows
4/6/Mulan/Mulan hugging father
5/1/Pocahontas/Pokie singing "just around the riverbend"
5/2/101 Dalmations/Cruella driving off road
5/3/Aladdin/"whole new world" song, carpet ride
5/4/Beauty and the Beast/title song ballroom dance
5/5/Rescuers Down Under/Coty jumping off waterfall onto big eagle
5/6/Mickey and the Beanstalk/Mickey riding bottlecork
6/1/Dumbo/Dumbo getting a bath
6/2/Hercules/"zero to hero" song
6/3/Fox and the Hound/sniffing hound
6/4/Robin Hood/Friar Tuck, singing (?)
6/5/Oliver and Co./animals singing on NYC street
6/6/Casey at the Bat (Silly Symphony?)

Nice work, Mr. Anonymous

Definitely worth seeking out. I'm glad it is showing so close to me.

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my personal fav. moment:
'enough of your bore-acts, poinedexter (sp?!).. a man's life is at stake... we need action!'
'take that ya lousy dimension!'