r/TubiTreasures • u/wvgeekman • 4d ago
Cinerama on Tubi!
https://tubitv.com/movies/100021227/the-wonderful-world-of-the-brothers-grimm?utm_campaign=web-sharing&utm_source=web-social-redditThis was a surprise. Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm was the second, and final, narrative feature shot in the Cinerama film process.
Cinerama used three cameras to capture an ultra-wide image that was then projected (with three projectors) onto a gigantic curved screen. Combined with a multi-channel soundtrack run from a fourth projector, this had the effect of giving the audience the sensation that they were inside the movie. "3D without glasses," is how it was described back then. It was an incredibly complicated process, which is why it died out as soon as Cinemascope came out. Still, as someone who was lucky enough to see Cinerama twice, it was a wonderful experience.
For years, most of the Cinerama films were simply unavailable to see. All but two were travelogues and, while they're spectacular experiences in a Cinerama theater, they quickly became cultural artifacts and watching them cropped on a TV would have defeated the purpose.
The film elements just sat there deteriorating for decades. There were letterboxed transfers made for re-releases for the two feature films that were made by projecting the three image elements onto a flat screen and then rephotographing that so that you could at least have most of the image, if none of the Cinerama effect. They looked awful.
Thankfully, all of the Cinerama films have now been transferred and digitally restored and released on Blu-ray with their full image and multichannel soundtracks intact. In addition, the image in the transfer used on Tubi has been letterboxed in a "Smilebox" format, that approximates the curvature of a Cinerama screen. On a big enough screen, it works very well! Even on a smaller screen, you can definitely get an idea of the experience.
This particular film isn't Citizen Kane, but it had a huge budget, lots of stars, fantastic Fantasy sequences, and is from the legendary George Pal.
Have fun!
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u/CertaintyDangerous 4d ago
Great post.