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Deep within a snowflake, the residents of Whoville are obsessed with Christmas. The presents, the decorations, the food, it's an annual celebration that would seem to take a year's preparation. But as narrator Anthony Hopkins explains, all is not well. A young Who had been scarred by childish taunting and ran away to hide in a mountaintop cave to become the quintessential curmudgeon, the Grinch (Jim Carrey). He lives with heaps garbage, delights in scaring Whos - children and adults alike - and is mean to his dog. Only one little introspective resident of Whoville questions the meaning of Christmas and the Grinch's true nature: the impossibly cute Cindy Lou Who, wonderfully played by Taylor Momsen (only seven during principal photography). The Grinch isn't bad, she reasons; he's just misunderstood.

Much to her parents' - Lou Lou Who (Bill Irwin) and Betty Lou Who (Molly Shannon) - chagrin, and with the extreme displeasure of Mayor May Who (Jeffrey Tambor), Cindy Lou nominates the Grinch to reign over the town's Christmas celebration. The experiment might have worked had it not been for the Grinch's sensitivity. An inadvertent slight resurfaces childhood humiliations, and the Grinch will have his revenge. He will steal Christmas.

How will the Whos survive this calamity? Will little Cindy Lou come to the rescue with her irresistible charm? Will the Grinch win the object of his childhood crush, Martha May Whovier (Christine Baranski), who's shamelessly preoccupied with status? Is this film overproduced? In answer to the last question, yes. But how else could Mr. Howard bring such a fanciful story to the screen? Jim Carrey puts on quite a performance, and hidden behind Rick Baker's great prosthetics, he's completely unrecognizable until he moves or talks. His elastic face, aided by occasional CGI exaggeration, and his odd choice of a Sean Connery voice just seem appropriately right.

The film works on several levels. It's full of puns that young children will miss; but, they will enjoy the whimsy of it all. Some of the humor is a bit crude (Mr. Carrey's influence?), but I'll confess to three laugh-out-loud chuckles, two of which involve Max, the Grinch's dog. So I guess I'd have to say that the film is at least a partial success. But my opinion doesn't matter one bit; this is essentially a review-proof film.

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

Originally released in separate pan & scan and widescreen transfers in late 2001, Universal has now re-released Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas in a new 2-disc set. Both pan & scan and 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen versions are now included in the set, with the full frame transfer on disc one and the widescreen on disc two. These appear to be exactly the same transfers as before, and with one notable exception, look quite fine. We skipped the full frame version (why bother?) and just checked out the 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer on disc two. Note that although the second platter is less crammed than the previous widescreen release, it does contain an "Enhanced Viewing Option" with additional video footage, plus a new commentary, so the bit rate is actually not noticeably increased over the previous version.

I'll start with the bad news: the transfer lacks deep rich blacks. Instead, they're a very dark gray. The good news is that the transfer is otherwise quite film-like, with virtually no edge artifacts in the form of halos. Digital Video Compression Center performed the work and I found this to be a source of further frustration and confusion. Based on the logo screen that appears after the closing credits of The Phantom Menace, DVCC did that compression as well. Yet Phantom Menace is plagued by halos. The compression is greater in this one-disc release of Grinch, and it's also loaded with supplements. Since the compression engine was undoubtedly the same for Grinch and Phantom Menace, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to conclude that neither the compression engine nor the level of compression causes halos. I'd love to get to the bottom of this someday.

Color is first-rate. Whoville and the Whos are a riot of colors. Every green and red and blue is vividly painted to the screen. Chroma noise is nonexistent. Compression artifacts are not noticeable. Brightness and contrast are fine with the sole exception of the absence of deep blacks. I can easily forgive that in exchange for the virtual elimination of edge artifacts.

Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?

Like the previous versions, these new special edition features identical sound mixes. Both the pan & scan and widescreen transfers include two 5.1 English tracks on this DVD, Dolby Digital and DTS. Each offers aggressive surround effects that entertain. Each offers a fine presentation of James Horner's imaginative orchestral score. Each has room-shaking bass (particularly during a Whoville explosion), but here we find a difference. The DTS mix seems to exaggerate the low end. This is most obvious in Anthony Hopkins' narration. On the Dolby Digital track, the upper bass in his voice is in balance with the rest of his speech, but on the DTS track, the bass component of his voice seems excessive and boomy and not at all natural. That places the entire DTS mix under suspicion, despite the DTS track having an edge with regard to a more natural timbre.

An alternative French track is available in Dolby Digital 5.1 on both versions, while only the pan & scan version contains a rare application of Descriptive Video Service in 2.0 Dolby surround. Activate DVS and you'll hear a narrator describing the scenes in between the film's dialog; surround effects are in Dolby Surround in this mode. DVS is even available for the menus; very thorough. Universal has also included optional English captions encoded as subtitles, plus Spanish subtitles on the widescreen version only. No true Closed Captioning is provided at all.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

This new 2-disc set doesn't feature very much in the way of new supplements so largely feels like a gimmick. But let's start with what's familiar, starting with disc one, which is simply the exact same disc as the full frame version released last year. Two pages of supplements are available from the Bonus Material menu. There are no fewer than five featurettes. Spotlight on Location is a 7-minute fluff piece that encourages the viewer to watch the film, and includes onset interviews with director Ron Howard, producer Brian Grazer, makeup guru Rick Baker, assorted crew, and actors Jim Carrey and Taylor Momsen. More than an extended trailer or a backslapping mutual admiration society, the featurette does offer interesting glimpses, covered in more detail within other featurettes, into the making of the film. Who School runs 5 minutes and demonstrates how the actors were taught a unique body language for their characters. It also highlights the participation of members of Cirque du Soleil who perform remarkable feats of agility and acrobatics that are almost thrown away in the film. Makeup Application and Design clocks in at 6 minutes and focuses on Rick Baker's contribution to the show. Every adult or adolescent player wore at least one appliance. And, of course, Jim Carrey's makeup took many hours to apply and remove. He managed to cope for ninety-two days; it's rumored that it became necessary to train Carrey in torture resistance techniques to survive the abuse. The 5-minute Seussian Set Design makes us conscious of the subtleties of the Whoville architecture. Suggestive of classic styles; amazingly, no structure contained a right angle! And finally, the 10-minute Visual Effects reveals how the practical and computer generated effects were seamlessly integrated.

Deleted Scenes includes a sequential 9-minute presentation of sequences removed for pace or simply because they didn't work, and not all are completely finished in terms of effects. Interesting, but ultimately you'll come away with the impression that Ron Howard made the right choices. Outtakes are among my favorite supplements. There's something particularly infectious about cast and crew laughter when someone screws up. You'll also find a Faith Hill music video entitled “Where Are You Christmas?” for those with a masochistic streak.

For the kiddies we have Wholiday Recipes, a lighthearted collection of recipes, though adult supervision strongly recommended. (I'm not sure if the disc's producers were entirely serious about the onion sandwich?) By The Numbers is an impressive accounting of the excesses on this show. It enumerates eleven impressive statistics; for example, the number of makeup appliances used during production: about 8,000! Max's Playhouse may be found on the main menu page, and here there are diversions for the very young, including sing-alongs and games. (The very, very young.)

Rounding out the extras on disc one: the Theatrical Trailer is shown in 1.85:1 non-anamorphic widescreen letterbox. The Grinch's Special Offer is simply a commercial for Universal Studios Hollywood and Orlando. Production Notes offers twenty-three text pages that fill in some of the blanks left by the featurettes. Cast and Filmmakers provides short biographies and filmographies for nine of the principals. GRINCH Game Trailer is a preview of a computer game based on the film, and DVD Newsletter is an invitation to subscribe to a Universal Studios publicity periodical. There are twenty chapter stops.

Now, onto disc two. By far the only real extra at all attractive to those who already own any of the previous versions is the Enhanced Viewing Option with audio commentary by director Ron Howard. You can access either separately, i.e., just watch the branching version or Howard's commentary on their own, or combined. Similar to many other DVDs lately, activate the Enhanced Viewing Option and wait for the Grinch icon to appear then click your remote. I only counted eight segments in all, and rather than actual video featurettes, video overlays pop up that show silent behind the scenes and/or conceptual art footage. This option really only works well with Howard's commentary activated, as without his explanation the material makes little sense.

Luckily, as gimmicky as the Enhanced Viewing Option is, Howard's commentary is excellent. He hasn't really done that many commentaries as of yet for DVD, but if this one is any indication he should do more. He's lively, talkative and full of enthusiasm and knowledge about the film. Howard is known as one of the "nicest guys in Hollywood," and whether or not that's true or whatever you may think of the film, he certainly comes off great here. While the constant positively of the track feels a bit suspicious after a while (especially given all the talk of strife between Howard and star Jim Carrey) fans of the film should definitely give this a listen.

The remaining extras on disc two are pretty slim. Whobilation 1000 Games actually only offers 3 challenges: "The Whobilator," "Trim the Tree" and "Puzzles." Anyone over the age of twelve like won't find these very difficult, but the Puzzles are rather fun. More Wholiday Recipes are just that, four more "scrumptious" dishes presented in the same format as on disc one. Rounding it all our are four trailers for other Universal titles (no additional Grinch spots are provided), plus two adverts in the "Special Announcements" section for other Universal attractions. And that's it.

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

Just like the DVD-Video features, most of the ROM extras are simply regurgitated from the previous releases. Disc one is exactly the same, right down to the same clever animated interface. Navigate around Whoville to find content available elsewhere (like the bonus materials) plus some new computer-related extras. Sound bites, a screen saver, an Internet Explorer skin, and stills are among the goodies. Cute. Within this interface, Universal has included an option to turn off repetitive sounds (thankfully) and further links are available to several Universal sites, like Home Video, Pictures, Theme Parks, and Studios.

Pop in disc two and a more basic player skin pops up. The same weblinks as on disc two are included, but the only actual ROM feature is KazooStudio, which is exclusive to this set. It's actually kinda fun, allowing you to import personal photos and add a bit of Grinch magic. The interface is fairly easy to use (although kids might find it a bit too complicated), and in addition to simply overlaying Grinch images to your pics, you can add a bit of 3-D and other tricks to make them even cooler. Note that you have to download the included KazooStudio 1.4 software to access this feature

Parting Thoughts