Hello all,

I've got a question about the National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation BD, which I just received as a Xmas present, and figured this was the best forum to ask. I previously owned the non-Special Edition Full Screen cardboard case SD DVD, and noticed when watching the film on BD on Christmas Eve, which has been a beloved family tradition for 18 years running that portions were vertically cropped. I first noticed it specifically when Clark and Eddie are dragging the sofa/chair to the curb; you cannot see the sewer emanating the green gas when Clark asks about a smell coming from there. It essentially ruins the scene.

I popped in my old SD DVD to see if I remembered incorrectly that the swer was indeed visible in that scene, and lo and behold you can indeed see about 10% added to the bottom. This prompted me to check other scenes, and it appears that on the BD they are all cropped top and bottom. Anyone else notice this? As I've not come across any other mention of this on any forum, i'll ask:

Is the BD misframed? Or is it matted (instead of being letterboxed/anamorphic)? I'm not really a technically-inclined person when it comes to discussing aspect ratio so forgive the possible use of any incorrect terminology, but it boggles me that the BD has portions missing vertically when clearly it was the filmmaker's intent to have that visual information presented to the auidence. Any insight is appreciated.

You said your DVD was full screen? Imdb says:
Aspect ratio
1.37 : 1 (negative ratio)
1.85 : 1 (intended ratio)

So they filmed it in 4:3 basically, but it was intended to be seen in 1.85.

Hmm...I'm going to give this a stab. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

From some quick research into this I find some ratio info at IMDB about the movie:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097958/technical

1.37:1 Negative Ratio
1.85:1 Intended Ratio

Then from what I understand in some quick googling is that the movie was 'masked' for theatrical release and then 'unmasked' for Home Movie release back in the day of VHS. This 'unmasked' version carried over into DVD. Now these days widescreen is the standard, so now we are getting the 'masked' version...in which case you lose some information.

So I guess in your SD version you wouldn't call it Pan and Scan since it is the original film negative ratio. The 'Widescreen' version would be considered the Pan and Scan right?

James Cameron films are like this as well? I remember some complaints about T2 widescreen where image is lost.

I find this happens fairly frequently, especially with comedies that are filmed "soft matte", as the practice of shooting at 133 intended for 166-185.

A Christmas Story, for example, appears to have more information on the top/bottom at 178 than at 133.

I remember many VHS tapes would say "formatted to fit your TV screen" or something on the cover. Must of been something similar to this.

The 'Widescreen' version would be considered the Pan and Scan right? No, pan and scan is when they move a 4:3 frame left or right in a 1:85 or or 2.35:1 image to show something important in the frame, when there was no camera movement in the original shot. The widecreen version would be considered the theatrical framing, or cropped.

I remember many VHS tapes would say "formatted to fit your TV screen" or something on the cover. Must of been something similar to this.

That reminds me of how some BDs have 4:3 (actual OAR) cropped to 16:9, such as Dragon's Lair, Roy Orbison: Black and White Night, and possibly the upcoming Gulliver's Travels. They should have that kind of warning on them.

I used to put the IMAX films in that category, but I'll accept the idea about how they don't really have an aspect ratio.

No, pan and scan is when they move a 4:3 frame left or right in a 1:85 or or 2.35:1 image to show something important in the frame, when there was no camera movement in the original shot. The widecreen version would be considered the theatrical framing, or cropped.

Haha...I really meant to say 'Sort of like a Pan and Scan' version...being ironic that the 'Widescreen' version is the cropped version.

Thats kinda funny that IMDB states the ratio as 1.85:1 because they showed this movie on television over here during Xmas and the aspect ratio of the titles was 2.35:1 and they switched to 1.78:1 for the movie after the titles had finished.

This movie was not filmed in scope though so you lose no information but you may gain unwanted information in the shape of microphone booms if opened up to "fullscreen"