Playing a DVD movie on a Blu-Ray Player = Weird

We watched Four Christmases on DVD played via a Blu=Ray player on an HD flatscreen TV.  The result was very strange -- it was like being there on the set as the actors were making the movie.  All cinematic distance was squashed and flattened into something too close to regular every day eye-sight for there to be any magic.  (The fact that it wasn't a particularly funny or interesting movie did not help matters)

Not entirely sure how this happened.  Had we watched the Blu-Ray version would we have seen this, or was this an artifact of the playback enhancement?