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Support 'Justice League Widescreen' By Jim Harvey 11-18-2001 The Sunday night airings of Justice League will be something Cartoon Network has never attempted before: showing a regular series in widescreen. While originally thought that Justice League was animated widescreen and altered into full frame, it is the opposite. The widescreen showing will be "matted", meaning black bars placed over the tops and bottom of the full frame screen to give the widescreen feel. But according to Bruce Timm, that is how it is supposed to be, and it was an uphill battle to make it that way. Bruce Timm informed TZN about this matter, and why fans should watch and support the widescreen version of Justice League. "...[It] was a major battle to get Cartoon Network to agree to a regularly scheduled widescreen airing....we prepared the show with the widescreen ratio in mind..., and we feel the show just plain LOOKS better that way, the compositions are tighter, more focused, etc....it also helps give the show that "epic movie" look we were trying to achieve....certainly the full-frame version works well, too, we just prefer the widescreen version...if the ratings just plummet for the widescreen airings, I guess Cartoon Network will just stop airing 'em that way....the best of all possible worlds would be for folks to watch the show BOTH ways, but i realize that's a lot to ask...!" The show was done in a widescreen format also in anticipation of the upcoming next generation of television sets, which will be widescreen HDTV. Full frame shows will translate poorly into widescreen TVs, which was another reason for the widescreen format on Justice League. Below are comparisons of the widescreen and full frame versions. Bruce Timm also commented on the heavy fan reaction at the Justice League Forum. "I'm glad most folks enjoyed the show...for those people who DIDN'T, I hope they'll stick with it for awhile at least...I personally think the Green Lantern and Aquaman eps are both actually better than Secret Origins, in many ways...the score for "The Enemy Below" Part II ALONE is worth the price of admission..." Originally posted on Toon Zone News. [ Back to Backstage ] |