Includes a Spotlight On Location segment; descriptive video service for the visually impaired; sing-along & read-along segments; deleted scenes; a Faith Hill music video; a featurette on Whoville, Grinch make-up & special effects; outtakes; Kazoo 3D segment; Grinch screen mate; games; screen saver; Grinch computer browser;
Story Synopsis:
How The Grinch Stole Christmas is Dr. Seuss
DVD Picture:
The anamorphically enhanced 1.85:1 DVD exhibits a very pleasing visual experience. Colors are rich and vibrant, with well-balanced who-tones, and deep blacks. Overall the picture is sharp and satisfying. Many of the close-ups might seem just slightly soft, or lacking in crisp detail, but those scenes were often intended to make the actors/actresses look great on film...considering their outrageous make-up and hair. A soft light and filter were used on the actresses
Soundtrack:
The 5.1-channel soundtracks are wonderful, delivering a soundstage consisting of liberal, crafted utilization of dimension, as well as impressive dynamic range and fidelity. The recording quality is certainly reflective of the state-of-the-art. The audio overall is certainly spacious and holosonic in nature, but also is somewhat louder-sounding than expected, with voices and sound effects seeming to be rather forward at times. There
This Disc Contains The Following WSR-Rated Superb Qualities: Subscribe Now!
WSR DVD-ROM Review
DVD-ROM Enhancements Rating:
Awesome
DVD-ROM Review:
After loading the InterActual Player 2 software, the amazing DVD-ROM main menu loads up, with a beautiful layout complete with a cheery (but repetitive) background music clip and a Whoville town map. On the bottom of the screen, you can find different interesting facts about the film, as well as information on Dr. Suess' books. Also on the screen is a large magnifying glass that you drag over different sections of the town to find links to the different sections of the DVD-ROM content. The sections you can find are the Whoville Post Office, The Lou Whos, the Whoville Theater, and Mt. Crumpit. In the Whoville Post Office, you can find a Grinch Screenmate, some Sound Snippets, and a Grinch Game. The links for these features do not just pop out at you, you must search around and find the package that holds that link (words will appear when your mouse hovers over the correct one). The Grinch Screenmate is a miniature Grinch who causes all sorts of mischief while running around your desktop quoting lines from the movie. It is a fun little toy at first, but gets quite annoying very quickly. Clicking the Sound Snippets present will pop up a new window with six quotes from the film. When your mouse hovers over these lines, a sound clip of the Grinch speaking will automatically play. The Grinch Game, which is only available for DVD-ROM users, is a demo to the retail version created by Konami. In the game, you control the Grinch, and must reek havoc on the city of Whoville. It is a good looking 3D game, but has poor documentation, making the game harder then it really should be. Trying to beat the game is a great way to waste a few hours, however. The Lou Whos' house is where you can find a Grinch Screensaver, a Grinch Browser, and Grinch recipes. The Grinch Screensaver that is included in this section is laid out exactly like the DVD-ROM main menu, with the same Whoville map and magnifying glass telling what each building is. The Grinch Browser is a great Internet browser, with a wonderful easy to use layout, and customizable skin. If you are running on a resolution, the bulky framed design may not appeal to you, but at higher resolutions you can still get all the page content to fit in the browser window. Four real recipes can be found by clicking the Grinch recipes link. Unlike the title suggests, these are not mock recipes, but actual guides for creating holiday treats. By clicking the Whoville Theater, you are brought to a list of the special features available from the DVD-Video main menu making it easy to navigate through these without having to manually search through the DVD-Video portion of the disc. Venturing to Mt. Crumpit, you can find links for viewing Production Notes Who Pics, and Cast and Crew biographies. Viewing the Production Notes is very easy, as they are broken up into 10 well indexed sections and are displayed in an appealing to the eye large clear font. Twelve images from scenes of the film can be found in the Who Pics section. Each of these loads directly in the Flash page, so they are not easy to save directly, but an easy to use link is made available for storing the image as your desktop wallpaper. The last feature, Cast and Crew, contains 10 biographies of the more famous cast and crew, including their main achievements and films they have worked on. When playing the movie from the InterActual software, it loads to some Universal previews and then over to the opening credits. This is a great title to check out, with all the extra bonus features packed onto the disc, and the great, well developed Flash content found in every section. A script would have been a wonderful addition, but the lack of one is not going to change my views much. The Grinch is truly a great addition to any DVD collector's library.
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