Edward Scissorhands: 35th Anniversary - 4K UHD SteelBook

Full disclosure: I was a Tim Burton kid through and through during the 1990s. I remember renting his original short film of Frankenweenie on VHS at Blockbuster and refusing to return it as a child. The comforting, spooky story of a young boy bringing his dog back to life made an impression on me before the original Frankenstein did, which I guess explains a lot. Burton’s ability to elide the baroque and pointed with the unfailingly human cannot be understated. And his Edward Scissorhands met Burton at a unique time in his career, when any studio would allow him to abscond off with millions of dollars to deliver a full-throated vision of gothic weirdness and human empathy. 

Tim Burton had skyrocketed to the top of the list of studio filmmakers after Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice and Batman made huge money for Warner Brothers. During pre-production on Beetlejuice, Burton and frequent collaborator Caroline Thompson devised a story that took from Burton’s feelings of isolation in living in Suburban Burbank, CA. As you can expect, Edward Scissorhands feels like Burton’s most personal film, even today. The story of an inhuman creation struggling to be understood by the unforgiving, empathy-sucking world of suburbia? Yeah, sounds like Burton!

Edward Scissorhands follows the sordid tale of a young man named Edward (Johnny Depp), who has scissor blades for hands. Edward lives in a decrepit gothic mansion as an unfinished experiment. The Inventor (Vincent Price) passed years ago before giving Edward hands. And when a door-to-door Avon saleswoman by the name of Peg Boggs (Dianne Wiest) discovers Edward and brings him home for dinner, the neighborhood becomes transfixed and is thrown into disarray because of the arrival of an outsider. But that outsider is loved by some, including Peg’s young daughter, Kim (Winona Ryder).

So much has been written already about Edward Scissorhands, thus I’ll try my best to wax too poetically about a movie that means very much to me, as it does to many. That’s the power of Burton’s filmmaking in short, though. He had and still has the capability to touch a wide variety of audiences and move them with his inhumane tales that are innately human. He’s a talent that I feel is sorely missed in the studio system today.

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-rays
Time to trim the hedges in 4K Ultra HD! Edward Scissorhands comes home in 4K Ultra HD with a two-disc (4K and Blu-ray) release that comes housed in a limited-edition steelbook with new art and a full glossy surface on both sides. The 4K disc is a BD66 and the Blu-ray is a BD-50. Both discs boot up to standard menu screens with options to play the film, select scenes, or explore extras.

Alright, now it’s time for some rather disappointing news. Given that Disney only provided generic language around the master used for this 4K Blu-ray release, it’s my understanding that this is the same base transfer used on the 25th anniversary Blu-ray. That Blu-ray was sourced from a new 4K restoration from the OCN, although that was 10 years ago. And after having viewed this new 2160p presentation aided by Dolby Vision HDR, I can confidently state that Disney/Fox should have done better work on the encode to make that older transfer look as good it could.

Edward Scissorhands was shot on 35mm and using Panavision cameras and lenses by cinematographer Stefan Czapsky. Framed at 1.85:1, the film is a gorgeous, sweeping vision of bright pastels, deep inky blacks, and finely detailed production design (including many miniatures). Thanks to Burton preferring to make his practical effects look exactly that, it’s always clear when the film drops into an optical effect or isn’t some raw 35mm image capture. That’s why it’s so disappointing to report that while this 2160p presentation offers a little boost in resolution and finally allows those gorgeous colors to breathe, the shaky HEVC encode does this film dirty. In nearly every scene, I detected excess chroma noise in both foreground and background. Burton’s film is resplendent with grain, and while the encode certainly resolves it better than the previous Blu-ray, the wildly uneven bitrate tends to disrupt the presentation.

We have proof that Disney/Fox is capable of turning in good 4K BD66 discs for longer films. We saw it with Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. That’s why it pains me to watch the encode butcher the fine details of oppressive suburbia. I kept looking at the gutters on the various houses and how jagged and unrefined they look compared to the rest of the specific frames. It’s a disappointing experience for fans, and I hope Disney/Fox will improve their workflows going forward.

The new Dolby Atmos soundtrack is based upon the 4.0 surround track used on previous Blu-ray releases and offers a nice boost in environmental and spatial effects. That wild Danny Elfman score zooms between the channels and envelops you, and those jagged noises of scissors cutting gain added impact in the height channels. All in all, this is a pleasing Dolby Atmos upgrade.

As expected with the recent 4K upgrades from Disney/Fox, no new supplements have been produced for this release. You just get the same paltry supplements from the 25th anniversary edition.

Disc 1: 4K UHD Feature & Supplements

• Audio commentary with Tim Burton
• Audio commentary with Danny Elfman

Disc 2: Blu-ray Feature & Supplements

• Audio commentary with Tim Burton
• Audio commentary with Danny Elfman
• Featurette (HD 4:39)
• Trailers (HD 4:17)

It brings me great pain -- well, maybe not as painful as getting stabbed by Edward Scissorhands – to report that Disney/Fox’s new limited-edition 4K Blu-ray steelbook release of Edward Scissorhands offers a minor video upgrade and no new supplements. The film remains a wonderfully charming gothic horror/romance film with a terrifcally weird and heartfelt breakout turn for Depp and anchored by Ryder's charms. SO it's with a heavy heart that I report that this 35th Anniversary 4K release is a bit of a whiff. A notable Dolby Vision upgrade is neutered by an anemic encode; ultimately, this transfer offers very little over the previous Blu-ray. Unless you’re a huge fan of the film and absolutely need to own it in 4K, I'd call the release Worth A Look, at best. If you're happy with the old Blu-ray, there's not much reason to upgrade.