Elf 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		2.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

Elf 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Everyone Loves Farrell.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III November 9, 2022

Fast approaching its 20th anniversary (!), Jon Favreau's Elf makes its debut on 4K with an impressive 2160p transfer that greatly improves upon Warner Bros.' 2008 Blu-ray, a relatively early HD disc that, like others in WB's New Line catalog, was plagued by digital noise reduction, filtering, and other issues (they're all repeatedly mentioned in that linked review, but for some reason it still got a rather strong rating for picture quality). Sadly, that new 4K transfer is the only thing to get excited about: no new extras have been created and, rather than pressing a newly-remastered Blu-ray for this combo pack, WB has annoyingly just recycled the old one. Son of a nutcracker. Even so, if you're a seasoned fan of this 21st century Christmas staple and a 4K adopter, it's pretty much a no-brainer.

For a synopsis of the main feature, please see Sir Terrance's review of the 2008 Blu-ray linked above. I'm actually a late-comer to the charms of Elf: despite my review subtitle up there, I was once not a fan of Will Ferrell and the film never connected with me during the mid-2000s, so I finally revisited it a few years ago and had a blast. But whether you're like me or have loved Elf since 2003, the strengths of this 4K disc make it worth adding to your list.

Elf 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Warner Bros.' new 2160p, HDR10-enhanced transfer quite simply runs circles around their 2008 Blu-ray which, to be fair to our review of that disc, probably looked fine enough on smaller displays in 2008. But it's great to see the candy-colored Elf get a hefty new 4K visual upgrade, one that brings out substantially more fine detail, texture, depth, film grain, and contrast levels to its workmanlike visuals, with the result standing as one of the more tangible night-and-day visual improvements for a major studio home video release in recent memory. It's tempting to award Elf the full five stars for that reason alone -- more on that soon enough -- because in a pound-for-pound comparison, even those who don't think comedies deserve to look great on disc should be able to notice the differences here. Depth, stability, and fine edges are much improved, with the clean new 4K scan and lack of noise reduction allowing costume textures, close-up details, and wide shots to earn much higher visibility, with most colors also getting an appropriate boost such as the North Pole crew, big-city signage, and the colorful Christmas displays at Gimbels department store.

Then, of course, there's the "bonus" of finally having the film in its proper 1.85:1 aspect ratio rather than the open-matte 1.78:1 version seen on the previous disc, a common WB practice in the early years of Blu-ray.

The new HDR10 grade, by and large, offers its own usual brand of improvement but also leads to this transfer's only slight speed bump. First, the good: overall saturation levels are often quite appealing and add a nice level of punch that seems perfectly suited to many of Elf's appropriately candy-colored elements, such as set design and costumes where bright primaries dominate. Dynamic contrast range and shadow detail also enjoy a nice bump, allowing us to enjoy its stray darker moments as well as a wide range of appealing gradients. One exception, similar to the HDR grade seen on National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, is that certain skin tones again learn towards reddish-orange shadows and, in extremely dark moments, this shift takes over almost completely and stands out a touch too strongly against the background. It's not nearly as pervasive as Christmas Vacation due to the different visual aesthetic -- after all, slightly boosted colors are almost expected for this kind of film -- but unfortunately keeps Elf from flirting more closely with perfection. Had WB included a remastered Blu-ray, it would've been interesting to see this new master without HDR metadata added; even with the drop in resolution, it may have competed better than you might expect.

Disc encoding is very good with no visible compression artifacts thanks to the film getting its own 66GB disc, although a newly-mastered 50GB Blu-ray, even with bonus features, would have likely not required much of a sacrifice. But since the included Blu-ray -- which is where this review's screenshots were sourced from, albeit reluctantly -- is identical to its 2008 counterpart, see our review linked above for a critique of its ancient VC-1 encoded 1080p transfer.

Elf 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Despite what normally might be a simple re-encode of the Blu-ray's capable Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix, Warner Bros.' similarly lossless DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track isn't exactly the same as its earlier counterpart; remember, new 4K masters often make a difference in overall sonic fidelity as well. And while this certainly isn't a night-and-day difference (compounded with the fact that Elf isn't exactly a tour de force to begin with), you can take the general sentiment of our 2008 review and add in a touch more warmth, overall fidelity, and sonic oomph despite their largely similar overall presence and base-line volume levels. It's simply a fine mix that gets the job done, plain and simple.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles, as well as foreign dubs and subs, are offered during the film and select extras.

Elf 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This two-disc release ships in a dual-hubbed keepcase with attractive new cover artwork (and a really tiny cast credit for the late, great James Caan), a glossy matching slipcover, and a Digital Copy redemption code. Since the included Blu-ray exactly matches its 2008 counterpart (reviewed here), the bonus features are all 100% recycled and listed below mostly in name only, although both vintage audio commentaries are helpfully repeated on the 4K disc.

4K DISC (Movie and Bonus Features)

• Audio Commentary #1 - A solo track featuring director Jon Favreau.

• Audio Commentary #2 - Another solo track featuring actor Will Ferrell.

BLU-RAY DISC (Movie and Bonus Features)

• Audio Commentary #1 - Same as above.

• Audio Commentary #2 - Same as above.

• Documentaries 9 mostly self-explanatory featurettes with a "Play All" option.

• Tag Along with Will Ferrell (7:02)
• Film School for Kids (20:38)
• How They Made the North Pole (11:31)
• Lights, Camera, Puffin! (6:37)
• That's a Wrap... (12:13)
• Kids on Christmas (6:32)
• Deck the Halls (10:26)
• Santa Mania (6:30)
• Christmas in Tinseltown (6:51)

• Fact Track - Pop-up trivia during the main feature

• Focus Points - Bite-sized featurettes accessible during the film

• Elf Karaoke (3 songs, 4:37 total) - With or without vocals.

• Theatrical Trailer (2:30)

• Deleted/Alternate Scenes (8 clips, 11:30 total) - With optional director's commentary.

Elf 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Jon Favreau's Elf is a modern holiday classic that's perfectly suited to star Will Ferrell's brand of humor, and even if you're not his biggest fan it might the strongest gateway drug. Fans have put up with Warner Bros.' lackluster Blu-ray since 2008 and, while it's a shame that Warner Bros. didn't include a freshly-minted 1080p disc to replace it in this combo pack, the strengths of this new 4K master make a it a no-brainer for format adopters. Recommended.