How The Grinch Stole Christmas DVD Review

Bad film or not, as mentioned in the review of the film itself, the set design, costumes and special make-up effects used are simply fantastic, and this quality really shines through on DVD. Presented anamorphically at a 1.85:1 ratio, The Grinch continues to impress with a magnificently vibrant colour palette (it never bleeds regardless of how garish the colours are) and masses of fine detail. All in all, it's utterly spectacular.

Curiously enough for what would generally be considered to be a kids' film, Columbia Tristar has seen fit to issue The Grinch with both a Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 audio tracks on DVD.
Both are superior mixes with great depth and life (particularly the LFE track which gets a real workout). For our money though, the DTS mix stands out just a bit for creating a slightly more natural soundspace. Sadly neither gets rid of those 'wacky' (read: annoying) cartoon-style surround effects which Ron Howard insists on using throughout the film.

Thankfully Columbia hasn't come over all Grinch-like with the DVD, so there's a fair amount of extra material to get stuck into here. Things start off with a 7 minute promotional featurette, then there's six (fairly lengthy) deleted scenes, a Gag Reel (generally consisting of Carrey forgetting his lines or falling over) and four brief, but interesting behind-the-scenes featurettes focussing on different aspects of the production (Who School, Make-up Application and Design, Soussian Set Decoration and Visual Effects). These are followed by the trailer, some Grinch-inspired Christmas recipes, film trivia, cast and crew biogs, production notes, a trailer for The Grinch game, DVD-ROM material, and a Faith Hill music video. Also included is a special area for kids with two simple interactive games, a read along story and a couple of sing along songs from the film.A superb DVD for a Christmas flick that is packed full of message but lacking any real magic.