(Note: This review includes both DVD & Blu-Ray releases)
BOX-ART
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The cover features a scene of the Kranks caught trying to escape the hustle & bustle of the holidays with angry friends, family, and neighbors behind them. The Kranks house is unlit, dull, and boring, while the neighbors on both sides have gone all out with festive décor. A nice nod to what actually happens in the film.
The Blu-Ray's box art is mostly identical to the DVD, but with the the tech. specs. changed on the back.
MENUS
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The DVD menus opens with an intro animation then transitioning into still image menu. The still image uses the same render that's on the cover. There are options of play, language, scene select, and previews. Some festive music loops in the background. If you select the play option, you're taken to a menu with the option to choose between the original theatrical widescreen version or the cropped pan-and-scan version.
The Blu-Ray menus is the same static image, with options overlaid. There is no chapters menu, but the film does have chapter stops if you use your remote. It seems more effort went into the DVD menus.
AUDIO
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The DVD features a full bitrate Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound mix, along with a Dolby 2.0 surround French dub. This is true of both fullscreen & widescreen versions of the film.
The Blu-Ray's main track is a 24 Bit 5.1 DTS-HD MA English track. French & Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital dubs are also included, at 448 KB/s.
The mix is quite front heavy, with majority of the sound coming from the center, left & right channels. Bass is used sparingly, and most of the directional activity is music and sound effects. But, the movie is mostly dialog and Christmas music anyway so it's good for what it is.
VIDEO
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The average bitrate on the two DVD presentations is about 3.7 MB/s. While there are no obvious issues with the quality of the master, the compression leaves something to be desired. The MPEG-2 compression doesn't keep up well with the film grain & leads to a bit of mosquito noise throughout. Squeezing both version onto one disc is the likely cause, as there wasn't much room for higher bitrate to better preserve detail.
It's likely Sony used the same master for the Blu-Ray as the DVD as the only improvement, aside from compression & clarity, is slightly better colors. There doesn't seems to be any noise reduction or other digital tampering. It's a nice, sharp, vibrant presentation.
EXTRAS:
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No extras are present on either version, unless you consider trailers extras.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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I'm the kind of person who only watches holiday films around the holidays, but I love them. I was glad they finally decided to release this film on Blu-Ray, even if the improvement is minimal.
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 2.40:1 & 1.33:1 (Original Widescreen & Cropped Full Screen) (1.33:1 Ver. DVD Only)
DISC SIZE: Dual-Layer
REGION CODE: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English 5.1 (448 Kb/s) (DVD) | 24 Bit DTS-HD MA (BD)
French 2.0 Dolby Surround (192 Kb/s) (DVD) | Spanish, French 5.1 (Dolby 448 Kb/s) (BD)
SUBTITLES: English SDH, French, Chinese, Thai | English SDH, French, Spanish (BD)
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 39 Minutes
