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Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Extraordinarily Deluxe Edition

Monty Python Box Set (2005)
With some half-dozen editions released just in Region 1, a new DVD of Monty Python and the Holy Grail isn't exactly something completely different any longer. If you're a longtime fan, you're shouting "My brain hurts!" Gumby-style at the prospect of yet another dip into the Python troupe's shameless-capitalists well. Nonetheless, 2006's three-disc "Extraordinarily Deluxe Edition" improves on the two-disc Special Edition from 2001. That Special Edition's "new high definition widescreen presentation with pink frilly edges" sported a new master print struck from the original negative. Now this edition cleans up that print even further, then gives it a new transfer that opens it up to a comfy-chair anamorphic 1.66:1, so we get noticeably more image than the previous 1.85. As before, this one is touted as "remastered for High Definition," and it does display a slight improvement in sharpness and vividness over its predecessor; however, on this score the uptick is nominal and the Special Edition's image was so good that this new one is an optional upgrade chiefly for the HD-DVD warriors who tolerate nothing less for their HD players and HD screens. The abundant extras from the Special Edition are all still here, plus now we get a not-too-shabby selection of new stuff, including a third disc that's the audio CD of Monty Python's 1975 novelty album devoted to the film. To put it succinctly, it's a lumberjack ... and it's okay. Trifold digipak in paperboard sleeve.
—Mark Bourne

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(Editor's note: 2005's "Monty Python Box Set" includes only Disc One from 2001's two-disc Special Edition.)

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