Gus (1976) Don Knotts and Tim Conway

[jaws3dfan]

Gus is a 1976 American sports comedy film released by Walt Disney Productions, distributed by Buena Vista Distribution, directed by Vincent McEveety and starring Ed Asner, Don Knotts, Tim Conway and Gary Grimes. Its center character is Gus, a football-playing mule.

[jaws3dfan]

Most of the movie uses stock footage of large crowds watching football and the actors play their roles standing in front of a large screen displaying the crowds. The overall effect is not great!

I wonder if IA could be used to make this look more seamless and less "cheap"?

[CMG]

This is where watching GUS on the early 1980s Disney VHS release comes in handy.

If something would be done by The Mouse to 'update' the SFX for a Blu-ray release that would be quite all right.

→ The un-special "special effects" and 'crowd scenes' aren't so noticeable in Standard Definition. That's why I would not upgrade the lines of resolution for "Gus" unless Disney does some 'tweaking'. I'll stick by watching my aging tape until it dies off. I really do not enjoy being able to suss out the low- or no-budget SFX of movies (and the occasional television show like "Kolchak"); I'm very analytical that way. I know some folks ~do~ enjoy picking out the flaws in the effects and are still able to enjoy the movie or program just as much, but I'm not like that.

Some movies just don't benefit from being seen in a high-definition. The make-up becomes too noticeable, the SFX -- while passable in SD -- are laughable in HD. Like watching the 1974-75 television show KOLCHAK in HD . . . the no-budget SFX are passable in 'lo-fi'. In Hi•Def it takes all the suspense away because the "effects" are bargain-level '70s television stuff.

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The same thing can be said for the below-par 1975 Disney movie THE APPLE DUMPLING GANG. There's a couple of scenes where the lead characters are riding on a stagecoach and it's really obvious this 'stagecoach' is a studio prop with a 'Old West' scene behind them. That's bargain-basement stuff you'd expect from a "Z"-movie studio. But '70s-era Disney must've been more budget-conscious than in previous decades.