According to the Internet, Joss Whedon can do no wrong. Create imaginative and exciting television shows built on magnificent, one-of-a-kind worlds? Check. Write and direct one of the best superhero movies ever made? Duh. Deliver the goods with an even better, geekier sequel? You betchya.
All detractors must deal with the wrath of Whedon’s enormous fanbase, but hell hath no fury like Whedon himself. Since August, Pivot, the self-proclaimed television channel for millennials, has been airing remastered episodes of Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Basically, the original was shot in 4:3 and the widescreen crops shots and can distort scenes.
A recent round of complaints brought the remastered episodes to Whedon’s attention. In response, the filmmaker took to Twitter:
https://twitter.com/josswhedon/status/543650973495726080
This isn’t the first time Whedon has voiced his take on remastering Buffy. When the show’s fourth season was released by FOX for the first time, it came in the original 4:3 format. Everything else at the time was getting the widescreen treatment. To explain himself, the geek God included a personal message with the release:
“Adding space to the sides simply for the sake of trying to look more cinematic would betray the very exact mise-en-scene I was trying to create. I am a purist, and this is the purest way to watch Buffy. I have resisted the effort to letterbox Buffy from the start and always will, because that is not the show we shot.”
I totally see his point. Even so, I can’t help but imagine Whedon saying this while wearing a French beret, smoking a long cigarette, wearing a monocle, and speaking with as much pomposity as humanly possible – all while I’m squinting my eyes at him to recreate the 16:9 ratio for myself.
