Most of the Godzilla movies I’ve been watching are shot in a very wide aspect ratio referred to as TohoScope (or CinemaScope). This had a technical “aspect ratio” of 2.35:1.

Now I realize that those numbers (4:3, 16:9, etc) mean pretty much nothing to the common person. And since I’m bad at math, they didn’t mean much to me until I saw for myself what they meant.

Directly below is a screen cap from the movie Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster. In this scene, Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra team up to defeat the monster Ghidorah. Toho’s ridiculously wide aspect ratio brings all of the action to the screen.

All of us grew up being used to the aspect ratio of a TV set, also known at 4:3 (or 1.33:1). This is also called “Full Screen” in the DVD world. The original Godzilla movie (and most early movies) were filmed in this aspect ratio.

When companies take a widescreen movie and “crop” it down for the TV aspect ratio, it’s known as “Pan & Scan.” They try to capture all of the widescreen action on a little TV.

Below is a screen cap depicting what it would look like if Ghidorah were pan and scanned. The black areas are what you’d be missing.

You’re missing about half of the picture.

The most common aspect ratio is 16:9 (or 1.78:1). This is what pretty much all wide screen TVs and computers are.

Though it’s almost never done (with the exception of cutting a TohoScope picture down to 16:9 for American audiences), below is a screen cap depicting what it would look like if you’d “Pan & Scan” the movie to fit into a 16:9 TV or movie screen.

Like I said, it’s almost never done, but it does give you a good idea of how much wider TohoScope is than your typical widescreen TV.

And speaking of TVs… Unless you’re fortunate enough to see these flicks on the big screen, your only option is seeing them on your TV.

Most folks have a regular old television set. It’s 4:3 and much standard definition broadcast is done in that ratio. If you were to get the DVD of Ghidora, this is what it would look like on your standard TV.

But, if you get yourself a widescreen TV, or watch it on your computer (with a widescreen monitor), the image is allowed to fill up more of the screen space. Yes, you still see the whole picture on both a standard and widescreen TV, but with the widescreen TV, the picture appears larger because the screen is wider.

And that’s basically all you have to know about aspect ratios. These are the three main ones. There are others, some wider, some smaller, but these are the three you’ll see most often.

So if you can’t see the movies at the theater, on the big screen, get yourself a wide screen TV. And when you’re buying DVDs, make sure you get the “widescreen” version of the film. Otherwise, you could be missing quite a lot of the picture.