Do You Prefer Pre- "Battle of Gods" Z Movies in Full Screen or Widescreen

[KPike87]

Recently I've been ripping my DVD's and Blu-Rays of the movies so I can switch between all audio options and aspect ratios on the fly. This actually got me wondering which is the preferred aspect ratio among the community: 4:3 or 1.85:1 (or 16:9, in Funi's Double Pack releases).

The first 13 Z movies were produced for both theaters and TV broadcasts, so they were drawn in such a way to be safe in both 4:3 and 1.85:1 without losing important information in either aspect ratio. The Funi singles were 4:3, while the Dragon Boxes and the new Toei remasters are presented in 1.85:1. The Funi Double Packs are in 16:9, which is not an intended aspect ratio, but it should be close enough for most people, and actual shows a bit more vertical detail than the Toei releases; I'm guessing Funi did this because they had an anti black border boner in the late 2000s.

Personally, when switching the Singles and the newer Toei remasters, I actually much prefer the more theatrical aspect ratio. Watching all 13 movies in the span of about a week, I never felt I was losing much in comparison to the widescreen versions of Z's footage (Orange Bricks, Japanese Kai DVD's, etc.), as it was intended. I actually do prefer the framing of the 16:9 releases, though that's an objectively incorrect AR for these movies; 1.85:1 is a close second for me. Just too bad the Double Packs' colors make my eyes bleed (at least they're sharp). If we had the chance for one more Dragon Box release to be localized, I so would have gone for the Movie Box.

I've rambled long enough, what are your thoughts?

[Robo4900]

Fullscreen, easily. Bigger, more open shots, more of the beautiful artwork, etc.

There are a few minor glitches in Z movie 3, one or two in the 10th anniversary movie, and a single shot in Z movie 1 is framed a little oddly, but these are so infrequent it's no contest for me.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

While watchable in both ways, i feel for the Z movies (and OG DB for that matter) they work better in the 4:3 full frame they were animated in given the process to create them was effectively the same as the show.

[KPike87]

Fullscreen, easily. Bigger, more open shots, more of the beautiful artwork, etc.

There are a few minor glitches in Z movie 3, one or two in the 10th anniversary movie, and a single shot in Z movie 1 is framed a little oddly, but these are so infrequent it's no contest for me.

And that's totally fair! For me though, while you see more of the frame, I think just the larger screen just goes further to it feeling like a proper movie. Maybe it's just a bias, but whenever we had a 'full screen' version of a movie on DVD that was originally shot intended for 1.85:1 or even wider, it just felt off.

That said, I'm honestly surprised the Dragon Boxes aren't in full screen. Widescreen TV's weren't particularly common in 2003, and would be letterboxed on TV's at the time. It would have been cool if both were included on opposite sides of the disc. It's honestly just too bad the best we have for the movies in 4:3 are the AB and Funi singles.

While watchable in both ways, i feel for the Z movies (and OG DB for that matter) they work better in the 4:3 full frame they were animated in given the process to create them was effectively the same as the show.

IIRC, I think the first three DB movies were actually made 4:3 only in mind, which makes the newer Toei remasters kind of odd. For *those* movies I prefer 4:3, but the Z movies (and the 10th Anniversary Movie), I'm widescreen all the way.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

While the movies work fine in widescreen, I think like with the series an argument could be made that being locked at 16:9 is doing a disservice to the animators because it's a part of their art that's being lost. Most TV remotes have a zoom feature that would allow you to switch from full screen to widescreen if desired, but if you were to switch a natively 16:9 image on a Blu-Ray for example you won't get any picture back even when it's put in to 4:3.

As such 4:3 is arguably the ideal choice because it maintains all of the animator's work and isn't limiting because there's nothing being lost to begin with.

[TheGreatness25]

Are the original Funi singles the only way to get the movies in full-screen?

[KPike87]

Are the original Funi singles the only way to get the movies in full-screen?

Not really, just the easiest way, especially if you want Japanese title cards and credits. The "Big Green" DVDs supposedly look pretty good, though lacking the aforementioned Japanese title cards and credits. Movie 13's DVD release in Australia, so I've read, has a much higher bit rate than the Funi single, and since it's just sped up rather than using PAL frame blending, makes it somewhat import friendly. I've also seen screenshots of movies 7-12 on the French DVD's years ago, they look really sharp and clean.

So yeah, there are better options than the Funi Singles in most cases, but almost all of them are PAL. The rest of the 4:3 releases are pretty dodgy, like the Speedy releases.

[Zillamon51]

Widescreen. They are theatrically-released movies, not episodes of the show. And widescreen TVs are the standard now. Perfect.

[Thouser]

I’ll watch both depending on how I feel that day, but I prefer the matted widescreen framing for sure.

It’s cool to see the extra artwork in the open matte versions, but it’s rare that the 4:3 version of a shot feels like it has something that makes me feel like I’m missing out by watching the matted version. Often it’s obvious that the “important stuff” is all in the center of the frame, and the extra stuff in the top and bottom is just padding.

Ideally both versions would be included in all future releases. We should have the option to watch both without having to hunt down out-of-print DVDs, but we all know how DB releases tend to go

[Shorty GZ2]

Fullscreen