The Great Outdoors (Original DVD & BD)

 

BOX-ART

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All versions of the film on home video have some variant of the theatrical poster on the cover, with renders of the lake, Chet & Roman. The back has various screenshots from the film, along another render of Chet/Roman. The usual tech specs are at the bottom with a film synopsis in the center. The layout is different between Blu-Ray & DVD, but the same images are used.

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MENUS

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The DVD menu is styled the way many early DVD's were; static with no animations or music. It also has sub menus with tedious production notes & bios you can go through one at a time. And yes, much like a lot or 90's DVDs those are considered "bonus features." It's interesting to note that unlike most modern menus that would have play at the top as the default button, here it's at the bottom and chapters is the default. My theory is that maybe this was intended to be an early DVD release, but they just never released it until much later. That would explain too, why the film is letterboxed as opposed to anamorphic. The backgrounds are a mixture of cast renders, with artwork of the lake from the film. Some menus have additional renders of the racoons and/or the bear too. Options are overlaid on top of buttons that look like wood planks.

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The Blu-Ray, rather lazily, has no main menu. All options must be managed via the overlay system during playback. I'm not a huge fan of this, I mean really... how hard would it be to have a simple static image at the start for menu options?

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AUDIO

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Both the DVD & Blu-Ray feature stereo English & French mixes. The DVD has the advantage though, of being Dolby Surround, whereas the Blu-Ray is simply 2.0. The French track is also only 2.0 (with no matrix encoding) on both versions, but is DTS instead of Dolby Digital on Blu-Ray.

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I get that they wanted to use a 2.0 set-up because that's technically accurate to how it was presented in theaters (and maybe they didn't have a discrete mix?), but DTS-HD MA tracks can't do matrixing so why not also include the Dolby Surround mix from the DVD? Even if it was lossy, it would still give you the option to choose whether you want uncompressed audio or the original surround experience.

VIDEO

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The stand alone DVD release of the film is presented in a letterbox full-screen format. The versions bundled with other films are anamorphic, and based on the same transfer as the Blu-Ray. This version appears the be from a film print, rather than the remastered version used later on. As such, it looks a bit more worn with print debris and such. Colors look more warm & subdued but with decent colors & clarity. Grain seems in tact with no signs or digital tampering. It's not terrible, but the newer version looks better for sure. The biggest issue is the mediocre resolution thanks to the letterboxing.

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The Blu-Ray looks pretty much how you might expect. Colors are more vivid, with better grain & compression management. The framing is slightly looser, gaining you a bit more image on all side. I'd say the biggest different between the DVD & Blu-Ray is contrast and red levels. Red colors look so much better here, and are a faded almost orangey-red on the DVD. At times contrast is a bit blown out too, with more the Blu-Ray managing the white levels better.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

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I'm not sure what's up with the timing of the releases, as both came out ten years after their respective home video formats, but at least they're available. It seems none of these John Candy films are getting remasters though either, but seeing as how it took so long for the originals, who knows if/or when 4K versions may pop up!

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I always really liked this film, I guess because I saw it a lot on TV as a kid. It's also similar to National Lampoons Vacation, which Is another dysfunctional family vacation themed movie I like. Also, speaking of seeing this on TV as a kid, I remember there being an awkward censored version, that I don't think they use anymore. I specifically remember the, "blow it out your ass, " line being overdubbed to, "blow it out your kazoo." The other week, it was on TV and they simply muted swears like that. I'm not sure if they just no longer use the older dub, or if it depends on who airs it or what? It's also worth noting that this dub is not on any home video version.

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TECH. SPECS.

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                                                                  ASPECT RATIO: 1.85:1 (Original Widescreen)
                                                            NUMBER OF DISCS: 1

                                                                        DISC SIZE: Single-Layer (DVD) / Dual-Layer (BD)
                                                                   REGION CODE: 1 (DVD)

                                                                   VIDEO CODEC: MPEG-2 / AVC (31.9 MB/s)

                                                                             AUDIO: 24 Bit English DTS-HD MA 2.0 (3.6 MB/s)

                                                                                       English 2.0 Dolby Surround (192 KB/s | DVD)

                                                                                       French 2.0 Dolby Digital (192 KB/s | DVD)

                                                                                       French 2.0 (DTS 768 KB/s | BD)

                                                                       SUBTITLES: English SDH, Spanish (DVD Only)
                                                                        RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 30 Minutes