(Ape caricature art by Richard Smith)
Welcome to Apes on Film! This column exists to scratch your retro-film-in-high-definition itch. We’ll be reviewing new releases of vintage cinema and television on discs of all genres, finding gems, and letting you know the skinny on what to avoid. Here at Apes on Film, our aim is to uncover the best in retro film. As we dig for artifacts, we’ll do our best not to bury our reputation. What will we find out here? Our destiny.
THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM – 1962
4 out of 5 Bananas
Starring: Laurence Harvey, Karlheinz Böhm, Claire Bloom, Walter Slezak, Barbara Eden
Director: Henry Levin, George Pal
Rated: G
Studio: Warner Brothers Archive Collection
Region: A
BRD Release Date: March 29, 2022
Audio Formats: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Video Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution: 1080p HD
Aspect Ratio: 2.85:1 – Original aspect ratio: 2.59:1
Run Time: 140 minutes
Special Features
• Rescuing a Fantasy Classic-Documentary (HD) New
• The Epic Art of The Brothers Grimm (HD) New
• The Wonderful Career of George Pal (HD) New
• Trailers and more
Technical Specs
• New 2022 1080p HD Masters from the 4K restoration of original Cinerama Camera Negatives
• Two Disc Deluxe Special Edition
• 2-BD50s
• Disc 1-Restored Cinerama image letterboxed
• Disc 2-Restored Cinerama image in SMILEBOX® format, to approximate the curved theater screen experience in the home
• Disc 1-Aspect Ratio 16×9 2.89 Letterbox
• Disc 2-Aspect Ratio 16×9 2.89Smilebox®
• 140 Minutes-Roadshow presentation with Overture, Intermission, Entr’acte, and Exit Music.
The Cinerama process was developed in the 1950s as a way to help draw television viewers back to the movies. Utilizing a process whereby three synchronized camera images are projected onto a large, curved screen made of individual vertical strips of standard perforated screen material, Cinerama delivered an amazing viewing experience in which the viewer could be enveloped by the motion picture. My personal experiences at the (now sadly gone) Columbia Theatre in midtown Atlanta include some of my favorite memories of being at the movies.
Producer/director George Pal, ever a showman, turned to Cinerama to make his 1962 production of The Wonderful World of The Brothers Grimm an unforgettable experience for moviegoers. Following the success of his production of H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine, Pal wanted to expand his horizons as a filmmaker and deliver the viewing experience of a lifetime. The film was one of only two shot in the original Cinerama process (the other being How The West Was Won) before it was replaced by the single strip Super Panavision 70 millimeter process.
Through very little restoration was needed to prepare How The West Was Won for high definition release, The Wonderful World Of The Brothers Grimm was a totally different story. The original negatives had deteriorated and suffered major damage from a flooding accident in storage, making an analog restoration too costly to even consider. Digital restoration technology finally rose to the level where such an undertaking was possible, and the results are spectacular indeed. The process is detailed on disc two of Warner Archive Collection’s new special edition of the film in the featurette documentary, Rescuing a Fantasy Classic. I highly recommend watching this before viewing the film. A comparison video of before and after restoration is available HERE.
Pal’s movie itself is a relic of its time; the wraparound story about the Brothers Grimm themselves is little more than a feel-good bio with little historical accuracy, made to envelop the fairy tale segments based on the duo’s books. These segments are blustery, color-saturated, over-the-top presentations of the stories The Dancing Princess, The Cobbler and the Elves, and The Singing Bone. While the story is pedestrian, the visuals and music create an unforgettable spectacle as Pal intended, and are absolutely worth the time investment for viewing. Pal even takes the directors’ reins himself for some stop-motion sequences.
Warner Archive Collection’s presentation includes two viewing options; the letterbox aspect ratio, and the Smilebox® aspect ratio, which more accurately recreates the original Cinerama viewing experience. I chose the Smilebox® option (so named because the ratio actually resembles an enormous, wide-mouthed smile) and was glad – by squeezing the mid-screen and flaring the edges outward, the film keeps a more realistic view of the action. The letterboxes flat version seems stretched and optically crazed near the edges in certain shots, at least to me.
This release will most certainly get my vote for Best Restoration of the Year, and you should definitely own it. Warner Archive has again proven that someone there at the studio does still care about classic films and restoring them, as well as releasing them on physical media. Thanks, whoever you are!
Written by Anthony Taylor in Collaboration with ATLRetro
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