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How the Grinch Stole Christmas (HD DVD)
Universal // PG // November 21, 2006 // Region 0
List Price: $34.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
If you were hoping for 
a write-up of the classic animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas, you'll need to click just once more.
Actually, even if you were intentionally seeking out a review of this HD DVD release of the live action adaptation of The Grinch, click on Randy Miller's write-up of the animated version anyway. I promise that you don't want to read this review any more than I wanted to write it. Sure, the movie may have raked in hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office, but Dr. Seuss' short, charming, witty, timeless story has been butchered into this bloated, repulsive, grating, overproduced abomination. I could keep the parade of bitter, frustrated adjectives going for another paragraph or two, but you get the general idea.
I've been writing reviews for closing in on seven years now, and I think I can honestly say that I've never had a harder time making it through a movie than with Ron Howard's adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. This is the type of flick that Moms and Dads pop in the DVD player for the tykes before darting out of the room as quickly as possible. No matter which shelf it might be plopped on at Blockbuster, this isn't a family film; it's a vapid, empty kids' movie.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas takes nothing but
liberties with Seuss' story, stomping on the spirit of the original whenever it can. "The Grinch hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season! / Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason." 'Cept to pad out the movie to feature length, we do find out why the Grinch is such an embittered loner. As a furry green ankle-biter, the Grinch was mocked and mistreated by a couple of Who-villians, so he became an outcast, loathing Christmas and the shallow, materialistic Whos from high atop his mountain lair. Nope, the Grinch really isn't even the badnik of the piece; I guess if he's not kind of marketably sweet as well as marketably mischievous, kids wouldn't pester their parents for Grinch action figures, Grinch plush dolls, the Grinch video game, and...why not? Grinch postage stamps. Kinda ironic, considering the anvilicious anti-materialism message that's awkwardly shoehorned into the movie. The Whos are so greedy and distracted by shiny objects that when the Grinch steals Christmas, this time he does get to hear them cry boo-hoo. Aside from the adorable (awwww!) Cindy Lou, whose role is beefed up considerably in the feature film version, the Whos' personalities are nearly as grotesque as their borderline-disturbing make-up.
I really am trying to think of something nice to say. Well, Christine Baranski has nice legs, and young Cindy Lou is cute when she's not singing. Other than that...? Drawing a blank. As the Grinch, Jim Carrey hams it up even more than usual to compensate for the fourteen pounds of latex smothered across his mug. The movie stretches out a 26 minute animated short to a bloated 104 minutes -- exactly four times the length of the original adaptation -- and the ineptly paced result is tedious and intolerably dull. It's not that trademarked 'net-based reviewer
hyperbole when I say that this is one of the most painful experiences I've ever had watching a movie. I had to turn it off one night and watch the rest the next day because I couldn't suffer through all of it at once, and its sense of humor is cruder and more sigh-heavingly juvenile than anything I could ever fathom Ted Geisel giving his stamp of approval. Dr. Seuss was intensely protective of his creations and throughout his life continually turned away crass attempts to adapt them to film. This unwatchable adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas is everything Seuss feared and then some.
Video: How the Grinch Stole Christmas is one of Universal's weakest showings so far on HD DVD. For a movie with such garish set design, it's surprising how muted the color palette is. Black levels are weak and noisy, contrast is anemic, and the entire movie is awash in a soft haze. I'm sure some of that was an attempt to give the movie more of an...I-don't-know-what quality, but it's far from the high-definition eye candy I went in expecting. This is certainly a step up from the DVD side of this single-layered combo disc, but The Grinch is one of the least impressive HD DVDs that Universal has churned out so far.
Audio: The Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 audio is awfully underwhelming too. It does an alright job scattering sounds across the rear channels, and there's a passable amount of bass, but quite a bit of the dialogue sounds kind of clipped and edgy. The track also lacks the clarity or that booming, expansive range I'm used to hearing on HD DVD. It's listenable, sure, but the audio is still kinda lackluster compared to pretty much everything else out there.
There are also Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 tracks in French and Spanish along with the usual smattering of subtitles.
Supplements:
Universal has usually been pretty good about carrying over all of the extras from previous releases onto HD DVD, but they skimped out on How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I can't really complain, tho'; just means that much less time I have to suffer through it.
The only extra on the HD DVD side of this combo disc is an audio commentary with Ron Howard, presented on the DVD side as an "enhanced feature commentary". Nope, no U Control for the HD DVD this time around. The "enhanced" bit is kind of clunky: a giant icon in the shape of a present pops up on-screen periodically, and clicking on that jarringly shifts to a letterboxed, non-anamorphic version of the movie with behind-the-scenes video overlays. There's no way to access this footage without going through the commentary, but it really doesn't amount to much anyway. The DVD side of the combo disc also includes three interactive games, a bunch of recipes, and a PSA courtesy of our pals at Wendy's.
Conclusion: Unless your kids are home theater nuts, they probably won't care if you shell out thirty bucks for this HD DVD combo disc or if you fish one of the older, cheaper DVD releases out of the bargain bin. Better yet, consider getting them a movie that's actually good instead. Skip It.
a write-up of the classic animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas, you'll need to click just once more. Actually, even if you were intentionally seeking out a review of this HD DVD release of the live action adaptation of The Grinch, click on Randy Miller's write-up of the animated version anyway. I promise that you don't want to read this review any more than I wanted to write it. Sure, the movie may have raked in hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office, but Dr. Seuss' short, charming, witty, timeless story has been butchered into this bloated, repulsive, grating, overproduced abomination. I could keep the parade of bitter, frustrated adjectives going for another paragraph or two, but you get the general idea.
I've been writing reviews for closing in on seven years now, and I think I can honestly say that I've never had a harder time making it through a movie than with Ron Howard's adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. This is the type of flick that Moms and Dads pop in the DVD player for the tykes before darting out of the room as quickly as possible. No matter which shelf it might be plopped on at Blockbuster, this isn't a family film; it's a vapid, empty kids' movie.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas takes nothing but
liberties with Seuss' story, stomping on the spirit of the original whenever it can. "The Grinch hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season! / Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason." 'Cept to pad out the movie to feature length, we do find out why the Grinch is such an embittered loner. As a furry green ankle-biter, the Grinch was mocked and mistreated by a couple of Who-villians, so he became an outcast, loathing Christmas and the shallow, materialistic Whos from high atop his mountain lair. Nope, the Grinch really isn't even the badnik of the piece; I guess if he's not kind of marketably sweet as well as marketably mischievous, kids wouldn't pester their parents for Grinch action figures, Grinch plush dolls, the Grinch video game, and...why not? Grinch postage stamps. Kinda ironic, considering the anvilicious anti-materialism message that's awkwardly shoehorned into the movie. The Whos are so greedy and distracted by shiny objects that when the Grinch steals Christmas, this time he does get to hear them cry boo-hoo. Aside from the adorable (awwww!) Cindy Lou, whose role is beefed up considerably in the feature film version, the Whos' personalities are nearly as grotesque as their borderline-disturbing make-up. I really am trying to think of something nice to say. Well, Christine Baranski has nice legs, and young Cindy Lou is cute when she's not singing. Other than that...? Drawing a blank. As the Grinch, Jim Carrey hams it up even more than usual to compensate for the fourteen pounds of latex smothered across his mug. The movie stretches out a 26 minute animated short to a bloated 104 minutes -- exactly four times the length of the original adaptation -- and the ineptly paced result is tedious and intolerably dull. It's not that trademarked 'net-based reviewer
 |
| Ron Howard did include my favorite part of the Dr. Seuss book -- y'know, when the Grinch tricks the Mayor into kissing his dog's butthole, then Max's eyes pop out of his head before he scooches his bottom across the carpet. |
Video: How the Grinch Stole Christmas is one of Universal's weakest showings so far on HD DVD. For a movie with such garish set design, it's surprising how muted the color palette is. Black levels are weak and noisy, contrast is anemic, and the entire movie is awash in a soft haze. I'm sure some of that was an attempt to give the movie more of an...I-don't-know-what quality, but it's far from the high-definition eye candy I went in expecting. This is certainly a step up from the DVD side of this single-layered combo disc, but The Grinch is one of the least impressive HD DVDs that Universal has churned out so far.
Audio: The Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 audio is awfully underwhelming too. It does an alright job scattering sounds across the rear channels, and there's a passable amount of bass, but quite a bit of the dialogue sounds kind of clipped and edgy. The track also lacks the clarity or that booming, expansive range I'm used to hearing on HD DVD. It's listenable, sure, but the audio is still kinda lackluster compared to pretty much everything else out there.
There are also Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 tracks in French and Spanish along with the usual smattering of subtitles.
Supplements:
Universal has usually been pretty good about carrying over all of the extras from previous releases onto HD DVD, but they skimped out on How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I can't really complain, tho'; just means that much less time I have to suffer through it. The only extra on the HD DVD side of this combo disc is an audio commentary with Ron Howard, presented on the DVD side as an "enhanced feature commentary". Nope, no U Control for the HD DVD this time around. The "enhanced" bit is kind of clunky: a giant icon in the shape of a present pops up on-screen periodically, and clicking on that jarringly shifts to a letterboxed, non-anamorphic version of the movie with behind-the-scenes video overlays. There's no way to access this footage without going through the commentary, but it really doesn't amount to much anyway. The DVD side of the combo disc also includes three interactive games, a bunch of recipes, and a PSA courtesy of our pals at Wendy's.
Conclusion: Unless your kids are home theater nuts, they probably won't care if you shell out thirty bucks for this HD DVD combo disc or if you fish one of the older, cheaper DVD releases out of the bargain bin. Better yet, consider getting them a movie that's actually good instead. Skip It.
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