Of course I was aware that the opening and closing of NoDS on VHS is boxed - but foolishly it never occurred to me that that may have been something that MGM/UA did for the VHS and it wasn't actually that way when the film was originally released in theaters. Though it should have because obviously the film wasn't released in theaters with a 4X3 aspect ratio, so it couldn't have been boxed that way.
Check out the comparisons below between the VHS and the Blu-Ray (yes, I've figured out a way to get captures from the Blu-ray):
(I've put them in quote boxes simply to give a much better contrast against the background.)This does have me wondering, though, if the boxing might have started with TV showings prior to the release of the VHS. Unfortunately, I taped over my TV copy of NoDS after I bought the VHS, so I have no way to compare the pre-VHS TV showings. Does anyone else still have their copies, or do you remember?