Phantom Of The Megaplex

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VIDEO

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I assumed the movie was shot on tape, but I was decently impressed with the seemingly filmic look it had. It has a decent grain structure & compression, but that's about where the positives stop. This seems to be using a standard definition master, despite being filmed. This is quite bizarre seeing as how the movies' framing has been opened up to full widescreen from the original full-screen presentation. So it seems maybe they had a widescreen master available, but didn't fully remaster the film? I'm not quite sure what's up with the transfer here. It's definitely not a reverse pan-and-scan, since the framing is natively wider. Maybe they used a standard definition digital intermediate, and no longer have the actual film?

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Colors and contrast are rather rough, with a very soft image. Reds seems to have the most pop, but most other colors are rather dull. The version that's available on iTunes looks mostly the same, a bit worse with colors & compression, but is also in full-screen rather than the full widescreen on Disney Plus.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

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I remember seeing this back in the day on Disney Channel, but it never received a DVD or VHS release. I hadn't seen it probably since the early 2000s and it was a neat trip down nostalgia lane, even if the plot is rather weak. It was only made available on iTunes in 2015, and later on Disney Plus. To date (4/15/22) this film has never seen a physical release, making it strictly available digitally. I never really understood why Disney was so selective about which specific Disney channel movies got VHS/DVD releases and which didn't.

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TECH. SPECS.
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                                                                ASPECT RATIO: 1.78:1 (Open Matte Widescreen)