Pleasantville

Cast View all

	William H. Macy	George
	Joan Allen	Betty
	Natalie Ramsey	Mary Sue
	Kevin Connors	Bud
	Jeff Daniels	Mr. Johnson
	Tobey Maguire	David
	Heather McGill	Girl in School Yard
	Paul Morgan Stetler	College Counselor
	Denise Dowse	Health Teacher
	McNally Sagal	Science Teacher
	Jane Kaczmarek	David's Mom
	Giuseppe Andrews	Howard
	Reese Witherspoon	Jennifer
	Marissa Ribisi	Kimmy
	Jenny Lewis	Christin
	Justin Nimmo	Mark
	Kai Lennox	Mark's Lackey #1
	Jason Behr	Mark's Lackey #2
	Don Knotts	TV Repairman
	Robin Bissell	Commercial Announcer
	Harry Singleton	Mr. Simpson
	John Ganun	Fireman #1
	Paul Walker	Skip
	Dawn Cody	Betty Jean
	Maggie Lawson	Lisa Anne

Crew View all

Director	Gary Ross
Writer	Gary Ross
Producer	Allen Alsobrook, Robin Bissell, Andy Borowitz, Susan Borowitz, Michael De Luca, Bob Degus, Jon Kilik, Edward Lynn, Mary Parent, Gary Ross, Steven Soderbergh, Allison Thomas
Musician	Randy Newman
Photography	John Lindley

Personal

Notes

Story Synopsis:
Just before the annual Pleasantville marathon on TV, ‘90s teens David (Tobey Maguire) and Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon) argue over control of the remote and are magically sucked into the black-and-white ‘50s sitcom where innocence is worn like a badge of honor-that is, until a little color begins to seep into their lives.


DVD Picture:
The anamorphically enhanced DVD, viewed in component video, is superb in its color rendering with refined, natural looking fleshtones, superb clarity and detail. Images are extremely sharp and detailed, no doubt due to increased vertical and horizontal resolution. When the film proceeds to the black-and-white scenes of Pleasantville, luminance is excellent with superb contrast and shadow delineation. The anamorphic and letterbox DVD ratio is framed at 1.85:1.

Soundtrack:
The Dolby® Digital discrete 5.1 soundtrack effectively presents surround envelopment. Aggressive surround presence is quite dimensional, and is nicely delineated with split surrounds and deep bass due to .1 LFE enhancement. The music score is lovely and dialogue sounds generally natural, though limited spatially.

DVD/LD Comparative Review:

Both the LaserDisc and DVD have an introduction that invites the viewer to adjust the color levels on their TVs to create natural looking fleshtones. However, the LaserDisc’s fleshtones do NOT match the fleshtone examples used in the introduction and, suspiciously, are ugly, and muddy-orange. The anamorphically enhanced DVD, viewed in component video, is superb in its color rendering with refined, natural looking fleshtones, superb clarity and detail, while the LaserDisc lacks natural definition. Images are extremely sharp and detailed on the DVD, no doubt due to increased vertical and horizontal resolution. When the film proceeds to the black-and-white scenes of Pleasantville, luminance is excellent with superb contrast and shadow delineation. The LaserDisc, anamorphic and letterbox DVD ratios are framed at 1.85:1.

The Dolby® Digital discrete 5.1 DVD and LaserDisc soundtrack, and the matrix PCM LaserDisc soundtrack are different in character. Essentially, the matrix version resolves more low level ambient sound, and surround envelopment is more effectively presented. Aggressive surround presence is quite dimensional on both versions, but better delineated with split surrounds and deeper bass due to the discrete’s .1 LFE enhancement. The music score is lovely; and dialogue sounds generally natural, though limited spatially.

This Disc Contains The Following WSR-Rated Superb Qualities:
Superb Sound Effects Recording Quality
Superb Music Score Recording Quality
Reference Quality
Collector Edition

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