The Classic Christmas Specials Collection (4k UHD + Blu-Ray + Digital HD)
Blu-Ray Reviews | Nov 13th, 2022
Starring: Various
Written By: Various
Directed By: Various
Studio: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Buy On Amazon.com
The classic Christmas specials are re-released every year but this year it’s different, they are on 4k! Seeing Rudolph, Frosty and…that other one hasn’t looked any better.
For this collection, there’s the 3 classics of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman and Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town. By now, you should know the plots of these since they have been out for ages, and get re-released every year. Besides the 4k being remastered, the Blu-Ray was as well. You can either get the 3 specials set or you can buy them individually.
I usually don’t watch Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving but I had to this year. I wanted to see how these specials would look. Rudolph and Frosty are Christmas staples in my house, but I actually never saw Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town after all these years. Not sure why I never watched it; maybe I have but don’t remember it. I’ve seen Rudolph’s Shiny New Year but this isn’t included with these. I could probably see why that one isn’t included though. Rudolph, the characters, the songs, the animation style – it’s all just wonderful to watch every year. Frosty is good but it’s too short. After finally watching Santa Claus…I’m just not that big of a fan of it as much as the other ones from Rankin/ Bass. Not sure why The Year Without Santa Claus isn’t included in this set.
As far as the quality goes, Rudolph looked amazing in 4k. Of course, they are not widescreen but they look better on video regardless. Rudolph looks the best out of the 3 specials. Frosty looks better obviously than the Blu-Ray/HDX but you can still notice some things in there. The same goes with Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town. For some reason, the digital codes aren’t UHD in all streaming platforms. They show up as UHD on Movies Anywhere but Vudu it’s still HDX so not sure what’s up with that. I already had HDX versions of them on Vudu but I never owned Santa Claus…so that isn’t really an issue. If you’re watching on streaming, just be sure to watch on Movies Anywhere.
The extras are carry-overs from past Blu-Ray releases but the main selling point is the remastered look for these 3 specials. If you haven’t seen The Animagic World of Rankin/Bass featurette, that’s still worth watching since it’s about 45 minutes long or so. There’s a few other extras on here like audio commentary and some other smaller featurettes.
If you never owned these, now is a good time to get them since they all have been upgraded!
Features:
The Animagic World of Rankin/Bass
Restoring the Puppets of Rudolph
Reimagining Rudolph in 4D
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Attraction Film
T.E.A.M. Rudolph and the Reindeer Games
Video:
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Audio:
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS 2.0 Mono
Spanish: DTS 2.0 Mono
French: DTS 2.0 Mono
Subtitles:
English SDH, French, Spanish
Bottom Line: Worthy purchase just for the 4k UHD upgrade alone.
Running Time: 128 mins
Rating: NR
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating:
