My idea for better ratings: letterbox cartoons

[Jimmy Kustes]

I mentioned this back when the matted JL premeired. Do you think theatrical classic cartoons in letterbox format would get good ratings? They could have something that wasn't offensive so it wouldn't be editted, followed by a Cartoon Theater movie in widescreen, followed by a two-parter made into an hour-long Justice League! Saturday could look like this:

6:00 letterbox classic cartoons
7:00 Cartoon Theater letterbox
9:00 Justice League widescreen
10:00 Samurai Jack
10:30 Batman Beyond
11:00 Adult Swim Action

[Jimmy Kustes]

Now that I think about it, it will never work.

[Jon Cooke]

Well, I am sure it could work. It's just that the selection of cartoons would be rather limited. Warner Bros. never made any cartoons in widescreen, and there weren't any Popeyes in that format either. MGM produced a few cartoons in CinemaScope from 1954-1958 which could be shown letterboxed. They were mostly Tom and Jerry and Droopy cartoons, except for "Give and Tyke" and "Scat Cats" (which starred Spike and Tyke), "Cat's Meow" (a CinemaScope remake of Tex Avery's "Ventriolquist Cat"), and "Good Will To Men" (an updated CinemaScope remake of Hugh Harman's "Peace On Earth"). But in total, that was only about 35 cartoons. Not even enough to get 13 episodes. :(

Still, I'd love to see those Droopy cartoons directed by Mike Lah in letterbox format. :)


-Jon

[lislebartman]

Originally posted by Jon Cooke
Still, I'd love to see those Droopy cartoons directed by Mike Lah in letterbox format. :)


-Jon

I'm with you, Jon! The only widescreen "Droopy" short I have seen and have is "One Droopy Knight" which I taped during TCM's 31 days of Oscar. I'm sorry, but pan-and-scan is very annoying to me and I just can't watch films broadcast that way. Maybe that's why I got rid of HBO, Cinemax & Showtime!

[Jack]

I too would love to see the widescreen versions of the Cinemascope MGM cartoons, or at least the flat versions of some of them. However, Jon is right, there just weren't enough of them made, unless they matte the tops and bottoms of the late 50s/60s Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies to simulate the way they were shown in theaters (much the same way Justice League is in widescreen).



Jack :D