Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! 25th Anniversary - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

By now, we all know the classic story, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Ron Howard’s live-action film adaptation, from the year 2000, follows all those same, familiar beats, but it’s fleshed out in the way all feature-length adaptations based on 26-minute cartoons (and 64-page books) are.  We get to know more about the titular Grinch himself (played by Jim Carrey, under pounds of costuming and make-up effects), for better and for worse, painting him in a more sympathetic light. He’s not just a crotchety old grump, you see, he’s a victim of a cruel few Whos from Whoville, who humiliated him when he was just a child. Since then, he’s lived alone, angry and vengeful, hateful of their Christmas celebrations.

Little Cindy Lou Who (Taylor Momsen) feels bad for the mean old Grinch and suggests nominating him as Whoville’s Holiday Cheermeister for the Christmas celebration. The Whos are decent folk, so they agree, despite the objections of their mayor, who was responsible for turning the Grinch into a hate-filled monster in the first place. The mayor again humiliates the Grinch, in front of everyone, but this time… this time, the Grinch, back at his lair, decides to steal their precious Christmas.

From there, everything plays out pretty much as you’d expect, albeit with a big Hollywood budget behind it. There’s some shenanigans. Some holiday-related thievery. Some change of heart, which grows three times its normal size. And everything works out for the best, happily ever after, with the Whos and the Grinch having patched up old wrongs, making them right. The townfolk and the green beast all learn a lesson. The Grinch learns not to be such a misanthropic grouch, and the Whos learn that Christmas shouldn’t be such a shrine to consumerism.

While How the Grinch Stole Christmas isn’t necessarily a bad movie (it’s totally fine), it’s something of a missed opportunity. The casting of Jim Carrey is pitch-perfect, and the star is in his element. Even with such heavy prosthetics added (courtesy of special effects wiz Rick Baker), his face is just as articulate and rubbery as if he were without them. The cast gives it their all, and the production itself is lavish and appropriately over-the-top. As much as I admire Ron Howard as a technical craftsman on such films as Backdraft and Apollo 13, I don’t think he’s the best fit for this kind of movie. Howard is clearly having a blast, and I can’t fault the guy, but something so bizarrely realized, an aesthetic of a cartoon come to life, I think sometimes story and spectacle lose sight of each other, when they should be joined at the hip. A production like this would have been better suited for someone like Tim Burton.

As far as Christmas and holiday movies go, you could do a lot worse than How the Grinch Stole Christmas. While I feel that it falls just short, and that some of its fart-related slapstick humor don’t really fit, it has plenty of moments that do work, anchored by Jim Carrey being allowed to ham it up and chew every inch of scenery in his path. Movies made in this era are in a sweet spot of filmmaking history, where practical effects are utilized to wonderful effect, and digital effects are used to fill in the gaps for what cannot be achieved physically.

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
How the Grinch Stole Christmas arrives under the Christmas tree in a two-disc release, housed in a standard case with a removable slipcover, both featuring the same new cover artwork specific to its 25^th anniversary release. Inside the case, the feature is available on both a 4K UHD Blu-ray disc and a regular Blu-ray disc, plus a code for digital redemption.

The 25^th anniversary release of How the Grinch Stole Christmas on 4K UHD Blu-ray is said to be “newly remastered,” but the details of its new remaster are kept pretty vague. It’s unclear whether the film was newly scanned or whether this remaster is specific to its new Dolby Vision/Dolby Atmos implementation. Universal has been revisiting many of its earlier releases and reissuing them with Dolby Vision HDR grading. Some releases, like Shaun of the Dead, represent a ground-up rescan, where the original release was sourced from an interpositive; this new release will be sourced from its original camera negative. Other releases, like Jurassic Park, appear to pretty much be the same transfer only now in Dolby Vision.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas appears to be in the latter camp. There’s not a tremendous amount of difference between the two, except certain shots may have slightly richer, more fully-realized colors. Some of the brights are brighter. But, basically, it looks to be about the same. And, like its previous release, it’s a fine visual presentation that, unfortunately, doesn’t take full advantage of the 4K/HDR format because of a rather muted color palette. A film like this, a cartoon come to life, should look larger than life and pop off the screen, but it just doesn’t do that - no fault of the disc or the transfer - but because of artistic choices made by the filmmakers. The overall result is antithetical to what they should have strived for.

While the previous 4K release of How the Grinch Stole Christmas had a DTS: X sound mix, this year’s re-release is equipped with a new Dolby Atmos mix that sees some slight tweaks to the overall soundscape. It’s more or less the same, but ever-so-slightly different, much like its Dolby Vision video presentation counterpart. In this case, while it’s only slightly different, that’s okay. Its previous sound mix was terrific, and this one is, too, with frequent satellite activity and smart usage of the height channels. Chasing an echo around the Grinch’s layer remains a terrific use of object-based sound engineering. The improvement here isn’t enough to justify a purchase for anyone who already owns the disc, but for new buyers, you’re in for a treat.

Like Universal’s re-release of Jaws, the sole new feature to be found is a retrospective on the film’s legacy, with interviews with the cast/crew, including Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Rick Baker and Taylor Momsen. It’s a robust documentary with a lot of on-set footage and new interviews. Legacy features have also been carried over, providing an in-depth look at the film’s production history.

4K Disc

• Audio Commentary – Director Ron Howard
• 25 Years Later: The Gift of The Grinch (HD 34:36)
• Spotlight on Location (SD 7:16)
• Deleted Scenes (SD 9:26)
• Outtakes (SD 3:16)
• Who School (SD 5:43)
• Makeup Application and Design (SD 6:57)
• Seussian Set Decoration (SD 5:15)
• Visual Effects (SD 10:50)
• Music Video: Faith Hill’s “Where Are You Christmas?” (SD 4:13)
• Theatrical Trailer

Blu-ray Disc

• Audio Commentary – Director Ron Howard
• Spotlight on Location (SD 7:16)
• Deleted Scenes (SD 9:26)
• Outtakes (SD 3:16)
• Who School (SD 5:43)
• Makeup Application and Design (SD 6:57)
• Seussian Set Decoration (SD 5:15)
• Visual Effects (SD 10:50)
• Music Video: Faith Hill’s “Where Are You Christmas?” (SD 4:13)
• Theatrical Trailer

There’s a lot going for Ron Howard’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas. When it was made, Hollywood productions had not yet totally abandoned traditional filmmaking techniques, so wonderful, elaborate sets adorned the scenery, along with intricate costumes and terrific makeup effects. While the film’s production values are breathtaking, the story itself is on autopilot, despite Jim Carrey being, well, Jim Carrey. This release sees some minor upgrades from its previous release on 4K UHD, but if you already own it, I wouldn’t recommend buying it again. For new buyers, however, this is going to be Recommended.