Grease is back for its 40th anniversary, bringing new extras and a great looking picture and sound!
“The classic tale of good girl Sandy (Olivia Newton-John) and bad boy Danny (John Travolta) gets tuned up with some new special features in this Grease: Exclusive 40th Anniversary Edition. Your favorite movie musical just gets better with time. It’s peachy keen jellybean!”
When you think of musicals, Grease is one of the top films many immediately go to. It’s a timeless classic that has entertained young and old for decades, now celebrating its 40th anniversary with this new edition available for the first time on 4k.
As far as musicals go, this one hits on all the criteria to ensure an entertaining thrill ride for those who haven’t seen it. I’ll be honest, as much as I enjoy musicals, I never saw Grease all the way through. Of course everyone knows the songs regardless of if you’ve seen the film or not, that’s just how permeated Grease is in pop-culture. So much so that for me, even though I had only seen parts of the film I had felt like I had seen it already, and it wasn’t until I sat down and watched it I discovered that I in fact haven’t. It’s an odd phenomenon that I think applies to more people than just me. So, for a genuinely first time viewer, although I enjoyed the film overall, I felt the first half was a bit dull with the songs falling a bit flat. Although that statement may be met with hostility, I do feel that more of the classic songs are so popular and are so well known, the rest of the lesser known songs don’t seem as powerful. This is a direct result of that phenomenon I spoke of, having one idea and expectation in your mind and finding out that wasn’t true. Underneath, Grease tells a timeless tale of two people of different backgrounds falling in love, and regardless of my personal opinion of some of the songs in the film, Grease has spawned a sequel and Broadway shows, and is a beloved classic that will continue to be a staple in the musical genre for another 40 years and beyond.
This 40th anniversary brings with it a wealth of impressive additions and improvements to the film that aren’t advertised. One issue with previous versions of the film I’ve read about is an audio track which was horribly mixed, which has been beautifully restored and mixed properly for this release. Another subtle change which I was fascinated by was a Coke advertisement that was in the background of the diner in previous releases. Because they didn’t have the permission of Coca Cola to use their logo, and the fact they thought the subject matter was not family oriented, Coca Cola refused to let the filmmakers use their logo in the film. The only solution at the time was to blur out the image behind them, leaving an odd looking blurry blob behind the actors in the scene for all subsequent versions on different formats. For this release, however, a beautifully digital matte was created behind them, the Coke advertisement removed and replaced with Pepsi, which looks fantastic and like it was there the entire time. Although these fixes seem like minor tweaks, for Grease fans they are huge bonuses for an already stellar set.
Video
Grease is presented in 2160p Ultra High Definition Widescreen. The HDR and Dolby Vision really highlights and accentuates the bright colors that Grease is known for. For the average viewer this set is going to look great, with some great detailed scenes and really bright colors. However, there are a few scenes in which the detail goes out the window and can look rather blurry. Additionally, at times some of the scenes seem overly saturated, making the actors look less than human. Thankfully, these are few and far between an otherwise fantastic job at making this film look great for a new format.
Audio
The audio is presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1. As I mentioned earlier, this remixed track fixes previous issues with the audio to the joy of fans. The track sounds fantastic, and the new mix delivers some powerful musical numbers that utilize the surround sound to its fullest potential. Dialogue is crisp and clear, never being overpowered by the rest of the surrounds.
Special Features
This 40th Anniversary includes some new extras, which combined with the 4k version and great audio make for a fantastic set.
- Rydell Sing-Along
- The Time, The Place, The Motion: Remembering Grease
- Grease: A Chicago Story
- Alternate Animated Main Titles & Alternate Ending
- Deleted/Extended/Alternate Scenes
- Grease Memories from John and Olivia
- The Moves Behind the Music
- Thunder Roadsters
The popularity of Grease and great care and attention given to its 40th anniversary ensures that fans of the film and new generations will be able to experience this iconic musical.
