The Grinch: Collectors Edition

Mention the name Theodor S. Geisel and most likely 99 out of 100 people will go, "who?". Divulge the name he wrote children's books under, Dr Seuss, and 98 out of those 99 will surely have loving visions of felines fond of fabulous fedoras, carnivorous quadrupeds crazy for hosiery, numerically knowledgeable piscine pals of several shades, elephants expressing their innermost bird and mouldy chicken produce served with slab-like slices of succulent swine. As for anybody still in the dark, well you have a justifiable case for claiming you were a seriously deprived child…

Amongst the 44 wondrous childhood memories that Dr Seuss blessed the world with was a Christmas tale told in a manner that only he could, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. A Christmas Eve staple for children the world over, it was made into quite a successful film back in 1966, one of only two previous big screen Seussian outings (the other being the live action 5000 Fingers of Dr T, which was apparently such an ordeal for Seuss that he swore never again to venture anywhere near the world of moviedom). Sadly the good not-really-a-doctor passed away in 1991, however happily his great legacy lives on, and with the advances in special effects of late allowing whimsical worlds hitherto unexplored properly to be brought to life, his widow Audrey eventually allowed director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer's Imagine Entertainment to employ all manner of technological wizardry to bring her late husband's festive fantasy to life for a new generation.

And come to life it most certainly does. Utilising the largest set ever constructed at Universal studios, production design that has to be seen to be believed, incredible makeup effects from the rather legendary Rick Baker and more computer effects than you could poke a Jar-Jar Binks at, no expense was spared to do Seuss' tale justice - in fact the final budget ran to a figure that would even have Dr Evil agog, a staggering $123 million. Still, it grossed almost three times that at the box office alone, so nobody's crying. These dollars show in every nook and cranny of the ever so spectacular world of Whoville and succeed in making The Grinch a fantastic festive fairytale for families to flip over, in combination with the clever script by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman that manages to work on two levels - plenty for the littlies, and much for adults to appreciate (and possibly have to explain, too) - and there are even a few of those clever in-jokes for the more alert audience members - a certain be-capped Grinch in one scene being a particularly show-stealing example…

Story-wise, it's simple - as all good children's tales should be. The town of Whoville exists inside a single snowflake, and its inhabitants live for one annual celebration, and one annual celebration only, let there be no Who doubt. Easter? Mrrf! Halloween? Double mrrf! Thanksgiving? Triple mrrf! Christmas? Why of course! For naturally there is no place like Christmas day. Give the Whos puddings, stockings, pine trees, candy canes, pressies and copious amounts of fairy lighting and there could be no more happy a race on the planet - well, all except for one inhabitant.

For high up on Mount Crumpit, to the north of Whoville, lives the ever so green and fuzzy Grinch, and his remarkably loyal canine companion, Max. They say he was born with a heart two sizes too small, and if it comes to a choice between eating yummy pudd or raw onions, well suffice it to say, "hold the brandy sauce". He relishes the fear he instils in the Whos, and one day just for the heck of it decides upon a quick spot of social interaction, donning a disguise and popping off to Whoville to get up to some mayheminous mischief. An encounter with young Cindy Lou Who, daughter of postmaster Lou Lou Who and wife Betty Lou Who, has Cindy curious as to whether this Grinch fellow is really such a bad egg, and she sets out to get him involved with the town's 1000th Whobilation - a very auspicious occasion indeed. He's made Cheermeister of the event, but things like judging pudding cook-offs, sack races and leading conga lines all gets to be a bit much, and after some childhood skeletons are dragged from his personal closet, he is bent on revenge against the hapless Whos and goes straight for their Achilles heel - Christmas itself…

"Blast this Christmas music, it's joyful AND triumphant!"

All the money lavished on effects, sets, makeup et al would have amounted to nought without a good cast - and The Grinch certainly delivers on this front. Jim Carrey was quite simply born to play this role, one that suits his remarkable plasticine-like elasticity to a tee, and giving him ample opportunity to turn the camp-o-meter up to eleven as seems to be his penchant. He's ably supported by a stellar cast who, whilst not being A-list performers, show a delightful understanding of the Dr Seuss magic - Jeffrey Tambor (The Larry Sanders Show) as the grumble bum mayor May Who, Bill Irwin (Yay! Mr Noodle from Sesame Street!) as Lou Lou Who, Molly Shannon (Saturday Night Live) as his wife Betty Lou, Christine Baranski (Cybill) as the lovelorn, lighting obsessed Martha May Whovier and probably the most important one of all, young Taylor Momsen as Cindy Lou Who, as without her stunningly innocent and non-sickly turn Carrey would have had nobody to play off so effectively. Anthony Hopkins narrates, and his glorious "Hello, I'm a British person" accent rounds out this tale with suitably apt aplomb.

Mr Grinch arrives in lovely anamorphically enhanced 1.85:1, and in all this is a remarkably sharp yet still very 'filmic' looking transfer that is mostly problem-free. Mostly? Well, other than occasional white flecky dropouts (and no, they are NOT snowflakes!), the only major let down is in the black levels, as for some reason everything is a little over-bright, making them seem more a kind of dark grey. This doesn’t affect shadow detail severely (not that there is much in the way of visual darkness here), and the myriads of gloriously vivid colours of Whoville are rendered quite magically. Anyway, our tale is all set in a snowflake, so perhaps the brightness was intentional? We await our postcard from Imagine with great anticipation…

The inevitable layer change is noticeable - not surprising in a frantically paced film such as this - but does pass by relatively painlessly and is fairly well placed.

Holy snorkelblats! Here's another local release featuring a very welcome DTS soundtrack, and one that utilises it to wondrous effect. The Grinch's audio could never be described as pedestrian, with almost violent use of the surrounds at times as all manner of aural Who-ish delights zoom around, and plenty of subwoofwoof action.

For those who don’t have DTS the news is almost as good, however, with a 5.1 mix that is only marginally less exciting. Everything in this sonic-fest is balanced wonderfully, with the many cartoon-like effects never overpowering the in-film dialogue or Anthony Hopkins' captivating narration, and synching that is pretty much spot on for a film that had more dialogue looping than your average air show.

The score is another gem from James Horner, managing to bounce between festive, menacing and all manner of stations in-between. Being a modern film there just HAD to be a soundtrack CD, and helping out to this end are the likes of the incomparable Ben Folds (sans his Five), Barenaked Ladies, eels and those latter day soundtrack sluts with a fetish for big green ugly dudes, Smash Mouth (for they also did work for Shrek). The 'hit' from the film, Where Are You Christmas?, is a hideously overwrought dirge written by Horner, Will Jennings and… wait for it… Mariah Scary (we assume before she melted down), and even worse it's performed by paint-drying impersonator Faith Hill. As you may imagine, something with such a pedigree is basically icky, icky, puke, puke - BLEAH!

It's always pleasing to come across a disc labelled 'Collector's Edition' that can actually live up to the claim. The Grinch certainly earns its stripes (or should that be fur?) with quite an impressive array of bonus inclusions for young and old alike. Starting with an elongated collection of scenes from the film, each choice from the anamorphically enhanced main menu gives another short animation before arriving at what you selected, and relatively subtle orchestral, and decidedly Christmassy, music plays away whilst it awaits your choice. As for the actual extras…

Making of - Spotlight on Location: (7:17) This full frame example of the usual sell-sell-sell type fluff we've come to expect from such presentations carries brief interviews with Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, actors Jim Carrey and Taylor Momsen plus some of the crew from behind the scenes - all interspersed, as expected, by some scenes from the film. There are some interesting moments, highlights of which are a few seconds of footage of the great man Dr Seuss at a book signing, and scenes of Howard made up as The Grinch - proving that visually at least most anybody could have looked the part in the role.

Deleted scenes: (9:27) Six separate chapters of both entire cuts and extended scenes, most of which are incomplete as far as effects and music are concerned. Mostly they're simply more of Carrey whooping it up in his inimitably over the top style.

Outtakes: (3:17) A gag reel featuring a few minutes of Carrey saying "sorry" over and over, dental nightmares, people being decidedly unco and other assorted silliness.

Featurette - Who School: (5:44) A look at actors learning 'how to Who', as special choreography was used to make everybody appear suitably Seussian in their movements. Included are interviews with some of the actors and stunt people.

Featurette - Makeup Application and Design: (6:58) Award winning makeup guru Rick Baker leads the interviews here with a look at the use of incredible prosthetics to give most every actor in the film that delightful smooshy-faced Seuss look - and the sheer torture Carrey endured to become the Grinch.

Featurette - Seussian Set Decoration: (5:16) More interviews, including the only appearance of Seuss' widow Audrey Geisel, and a look at the simply mind-boggling right-angle free sets employed for The Grinch - from towns to mountains to toasters and other household appliances.

Featurette - Visual Effects: (10:51) Discussion with many of the clever techy nerd boys on what was faced bringing Seuss' delightful 2D world into the third dimension, with many of those fascinating progress shots of the surprising amount of CG effects whereby you see wireframe, rough rendering, final rendering and then the entire scene. It's also interesting to note how many of the Whoville inhabitants weren't even real - and one scene is shown where they were all simply the product of the boffin department.

Theatrical trailer: (1:10) More a very red teaser really, with little in the way of Grinchy exposition, and a warning that "you better watch out". It's always nice to hear In the Hall of the Mountain King though.

Grinch game trailer: (1:11) Probably not the wisest of inclusions if they wish to sell any copies, this quick look at some scenes from yet another 3D Super Mario World type affair leaves you with the hope that it has nice, solid game play, as graphically it is utterly APPALLING.

Wholiday recipes: Cute. Three recipes that provide the perfect opportunity for a smidgeon of product placement in a film that made it rather difficult to do so. MMMmmm, designer onion wreaths…

By the numbers: Eleven impressive statistics on the film on a single static page.

Production notes: A pleasingly thorough 24-page look at the production, which fleshes out the myriad of information contained in the featurettes nicely.

Cast and filmmakers: Exceedingly brief bios and those nefarious 'selected' filmographies on Jim Carrey, Jeffrey Tambor, Christine Baranski, Bill Irwin, Molly Shannon, Taylor Momsen, Anthony Hopkins and Ron Howard - plus an exceptionally non-brief section on producer Brian Glazer. The fact that there is no summation of Dr Seuss' work here, or in fact anywhere else on this disc, is a curious and extremely disappointing oversight.

Music video - Where Are You Christmas? - Faith Hill: (4:14) AGH, it's back!!! There must be some unwritten Hollywood law that when talent like Ben Folds appears on a soundtrack, rather than promote that particular song you pick the most feckless, insipid piece of nauseating dreck and give that the major flogging. For those types who get off to the sound of nails scraping down blackboards, this features Faith in all her crimped hair tackiness wandering around some sets of The Grinch, corrupting young Cindy Lou Who, and superimposed in other scenes. Bah humbug!

DTS trailer - The subtle but very effective piano one.

DVD ROM materials - Potter around Whoville and check out such features as a screen saver, a browser skin, links, stills and sound grabs.

Max's Playhouse: Now this is something we'd like to see more of, a section especially for children - or phenomenally bored adults - with some elementary interactive games to while away some time. There's Rhyme Time, with four Seuss rhymes that need blank words filled in from a choice of six; How Do I Find Things? - Move around and select the doggy, pussy cat, horsey or monkey, a section designed to teach kids how to navigate the DVD menus - something which even the two-year olds out there are probably instructing their parents how to do; Dress the Grinch - A static piccie of the fuzzy green one can be adorned with an array of eight different Village People-like costumes - what, no nurse's uniform?; The Care and Feeding of a Grinch - A quite thorough storybook presentation of the movie version, able to be read alone or with voiceover by Max - which is curious as he can’t speak during the film; Sing Along - Links to the songs Where Are You Christmas? and You're a Mean One Mr Grinch as featured in the film, with the words popping up in giant, friendly letters highlighting the words as they're sung karaoke style; Music video - I don’t believe it, I won't, I cannot - it's that Faith Hill once more with her melodic rot… Disregarding the last one, this is a fabulous feature that makes the mind boggle at the possibilities - why was there no Hannibal's Playhouse included with Silence of the Lambs?

An enchanting and enduring Christmas tale, with a sweet but not skull-hammering moral, given a masterful chance to captivate audiences afresh - quite simply The Grinch should become as much a staple at Chrissie time as the evergreen It's a Wonderful Life. It's bright, it's fun, is most definitely WAY over the top at times and has plenty of hijinx for all ages - and most importantly it does justice to Dr Seuss' classic tale.

The disc is stuffed stuffier than the stuffedest stocking with extra bits and pieces, and whilst the usefulness of some of them can be questioned, it does manage to show up all those companies releasing bare bones discs as the Grinches they in fact are. Add to this a DTS mix and an almost as good 5.1 track, plus vision with only minor niggles, and The Grinch is well worthy of a place in that treasured Chrissie-stuff box you bring out on that one special day for all the family every year.

It would have been better if it had some Tweetle Beetles though...