How the Grinch Stole Christmas 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Review

The Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas: 25th Anniversary Edition 4K UHD presentation is framed at 1.85:1 and encoded in HEVC at native 4K (2160p), retaining a pleasing, appropriately fine grain structure that reads as naturally filmic in motion. Detail is generally strong, with notably improved clarity over the earlier 4K master in elements such as the Grinch’s brown coat and the intricate facial makeup, as well as background Whoville crowd work. Dolby Vision HDR brings modest but real gains: colors are richer and more vibrant, with reds in particular gaining extra pop, while bright highlights feel more fully realized without pushing into artificiality. The Whoville sequences benefit most, with ermine trim, fur, ribbing, and velour fabrics exhibiting a tactile, three‑dimensional quality.

Despite the Dolby Vision pass and “newly remastered” billing, this is not a radical overhaul of the prior transfer. The overall palette remains relatively muted by design, so the image never becomes the kind of eye‑searing showpiece one might expect from this cartoon‑to‑life aesthetic. Some inherent photographic limitations persist: certain shots, such as the Grinch outside his cave or an early mini‑car insert, soften noticeably, with fur textures and rocky surfaces losing crispness, and one problematic angle even looking harsher under HDR’s scrutiny. Shadow detail is improved but still somewhat subdued; blacks are deeper and more stable than before, yet a few areas drift into mild murk where greater separation would be welcome. Even so, image depth—especially in wide town vistas and the final singing sequence—shows a subtle uptick, and the overall presentation is clean, free of distracting noise or compression artifacts. The result is a generally strong, filmic 4K image with incremental but appreciable refinements rather than a ground‑up reinvention.

The How the Grinch Stole Christmas 4K disc delivers an engaging English Dolby Atmos track, with an alternate English DTS‑HD Master Audio 5.1 option. Directionality is precise, from the mayor’s amplified announcements echoing across Whoville to the whoosh of Arctic and mountaintop winds that swirl convincingly around the soundstage. Height channels are used to expand both the festive bustle of the town square and the desolation of the Grinch’s lair, with object-based effects like echoes in the cave, the Christmas tree igniting, and the Grinch’s chaos in town travelling fluidly overhead. Surround activity is especially striking whenever the Grinch is outside on his ledge, where wind envelopes the listener, and during Whoville scenes rich with playful ambient noise and crowd chatter.

Bass is deep and booming when required, adding weight to set‑pieces such as the explosion at the 58‑minute mark and providing satisfying low‑frequency support to the score and effects, with the LFE receiving slightly more emphasis than before. Dynamics between the Atmos mix and the DTS‑HD Master Audio 5.1 track are broadly similar, though the Atmos presentation introduces a bit more punch in key moments, such as when the Grinch powers up his sleigh to descend into town. Dialogue remains clean and intelligible, generally anchored to the center channel but allowed to move naturally with on‑screen action, as in the early sequence with the teenagers approaching the Grinch’s door. Subtitles are offered in English SDH, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish, rounding out a polished and immersive audio package for How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

The extras package on the How the Grinch Stole Christmas 4K UHD disc is anchored by a substantial new retrospective, 25 Years Later: The Gift of The Grinch, in HD, with Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Rick Baker, and Taylor Momsen revisiting the film’s origins, design, and enduring legacy. It explores the grueling Grinch makeup process for Jim Carrey, production anecdotes, on-set rehearsal material, and the Antoni Gaudí–inspired sets, while legacy supplements—largely SD featurettes, a full audio commentary, and promotional materials—continue to provide a thorough, production-focused archival record.

Extras included in this disc:

• Feature Commentary with Director Ron Howard: Scene-specific track covering production and themes.
• 25 Years Later: The Gift of The Grinch: New retrospective with key creative participants.
• Spotlight on Location: Overview featurette on the shoot.
• Deleted Scenes: Excised material with finished footage.
• Outtakes: Bloopers and on-set flubs.
• Who School: Look at Whoville performance and movement.
• Makeup Application and Design: Focus on Rick Baker’s creature makeup.
• Seussian Set Decoration: Breakdown of stylized production design.
• Visual Effects: Examination of practical and digital work.
• Music Video: Faith Hill “Where Are You Christmas?”: Promotional music video.
• Theatrical Trailer: Original trailer presentation.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas, directed by Ron Howard, expands Dr. Seuss’ compact holiday fable into a full-scale origin story for the misanthropic Grinch (Jim Carrey). Set in the hyper-saturated snowglobe of Whoville, the film traces his childhood humiliation at the hands of schoolmates and the town’s mayor (Jeffrey Tambor), which fuels a lifelong resentment of the Whos’ noisy, consumerist Christmas. Only the guileless compassion of little Cindy Lou Who (Taylor Momsen) prompts the town to invite him back as Holiday Cheermeister—with chaotic results.

Narrated by Anthony Hopkins, the film eventually settles into the familiar Christmas Eve heist and redemption arc, mirroring the book’s structure after a lumbering, overstuffed first act. Whoville’s design is a dense visual confection, with sets and costumes deliberately pushing a “cartoon come to life” aesthetic that sometimes overwhelms the simple moral at the core. The tone veers between broad slapstick, occasionally crass gag work, and pockets of genuine sentiment anchored by Cindy Lou’s clear-eyed empathy.

Carrey’s Grinch, brought to life under Rick Baker’s extensive prosthetic make-up, is a fully physical creation—every snarl, contortion, and aside turned into a showpiece. The performance functions as a live-action cartoon, bursting with frantic invention that can elevate weaker passages while also tipping the film into excess. The production sits at a transitional moment where large-scale practical effects, creature work, and elaborate sets dominate, with digital effects deployed mainly to extend environments and impossible gags. That blend gives How the Grinch Stole Christmas a tactile, handcrafted quality even as its maximalist style, merchandising satire, and sheer sensory overload sometimes blur the line between critique of consumerism and participation in it.

Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas: 25th Anniversary Edition 4K delivers the strongest overall presentation this film has received on home video, even if it is not flawless. The image retains some inherent unevenness and the characteristically dark photography can still be a limiter, but colors are richer and more vibrant and fine detail receives a modest yet tangible lift over earlier discs. Production design, elaborate sets, intricate costumes, and makeup work are showcased more convincingly, underscoring the scale and craftsmanship that characterized Ron Howard’s original production. In both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, the film has likely never looked or sounded better, with the new mixes offering a subtle but appreciable refinement rather than a wholesale transformation.

Supplements are a key differentiator. This edition adds a new retrospective feature running over 30 minutes, while also carrying forward the legacy DVD extras, even if those older materials remain bound by their low‑resolution origins. Performance-wise, Jim Carrey’s aggressively physical turn as the Grinch continues to be the defining element, with his elastic expressiveness and interaction with the ensemble giving the film much of its energy, even as the story itself often runs on autopilot. For first‑time buyers or fans still holding only earlier HD formats, Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas: 25th Anniversary Edition 4K stands out as the best and most complete version currently available and is easy to recommend. For those already owning the prior 2017 4K “Grinchmas” edition, the upgrade case is more conditional, hinging largely on the appeal of the incremental A/V improvements and the new documentary material.