Aspect Ratio Random Weirdness

Since I was talking earlier about how most movies today use the 2.35:1 'Scope aspect ratio, I wanted to bring up the one and only thing worth mentioning in connection with Pink Panther 2 (apart from the obvious, that with his disappointing 30 Rock and SNL appearances and now this, Steve Martin has gone from a performer who makes things better to one who actually makes everything worse). Both Pink Panther 2 and Martin's first Pink Panther, from a different director, are shot in the "flat" 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The movie series it's based on, of course, was all shot in 'Scope and features some of the most 'Scope-dependent comedy in movie history. (The dentist scene in Pink Panther Strikes Again, for example: the punchline, "he's pulled the wrong tooth," gets its laugh from the fact that Dreyfus is in the foreground while Clouseau is in the background on the other side of the wide frame. I can't really explain why that makes it funny, but the scene isn't funny at all when panned and scanned.) So Martin and his Pink Panther team couldn't even get the shape of the screen right.