Alright, four horror films in a row, including the infamous "video nasty"
Anthropophagus and
possibly the most mean-spirited Texas Chainsaw Massacre flick of all. We've gotta lighten the mood. How about one of the most beloved American family comedies of all-time? I've been meaning to tackle this one for a long time, actually, because the extras situation is frustrating, and I'm not sure how many fans even realize. And any opportunity to drag people down into my frustration and annoyance is an absolute must, right? But seriously, there's some compelling info about this title and its many editions that doesn't get discussed, so I wanted to spread the word.
Of course, for a "family comedy" - one written by
John Hughes at that -
Harold Ramis's
Vacation sure is R-rated. Must be the
National Lampoon influence. They later softened up the sequels to PG, but this original film has an edge. Granted, the remake went back to R; but the only funny thing about
that film was the younger son's insane, terroristic relationship with
his older brother. The original, on the other hand, works on so many different levels at the same time. On the one hand, it is that sentimental, Hughes comedy about family, but it also gets pretty dark, undercutting any mainstream schmaltz with harsh comic reality at almost every turn. Vacation gives us one of
Chevy Chase's greatest comic performances, if not his literal all-time greatest, while also pulling together a terrific ensemble of supporting players including
Beverly D'Angelo in her quintessential role,
John Candy,
Imogene Coca,
Eugene Levy, old Hollywood star
Eddie Bracken,
Brian-Doyle Murray, a very young
Jane Krakowsi, and of course
Randy Quaid. It's got an unforgettable soundtrack (despite Warner Bros being too cheap to keep paying for "I'm So Excited" over the years) with an iconic theme song and one scene after another that's forever embedded in a generation's memory.
Naturally, Warner Bros has put out
Vacation a number of times, starting with a barebones fullscreen DVD in 1997. But there was a much more compelling 20th Anniversary Special Edition released in 2003 (and also included in the 2003 Ultimate Vacation Collection
boxed set), that's still relevant to this day. It was alternatively bundled up with
Police Academy, as well as released as a 2-disc set with
European Vacation in 2006, then the Ultimate box and the double feature were both reissued with new art in 2009. 2010 then saw us the first version since the 2003 20th Anniversary that we actually got a different disc and not just a repackaging, because that's when Warner first released the film on blu. But curiously, they took a step backwards in the extras department, losing some stuff. There was also a DVD edition of that version, naturally, and in 2011, there was a National Lampoon's Vacation Collection which included just parts 1, 2 and 4 on DVD, which seems a little odd. And a "Bromantic Comedies" DVD which included the first two
Vacation movies and a can cooler... even though I don't see how either
Vacation film qualifies as bromantic.
If nothing else, we get a sense of this movie's popularity just because it's apparently profitable for Warner to keep reissuing the same disc over and over again with variant, tacky packaging. They just keep selling; and this doesn't even include the dozens of other
Vacation discs Warner has released in every other region around the world. Meanwhile,
Looking for Mr. Goodbar can't get a single DVD in the history of the format. It was nominated for two Oscars for chrissakes. Anyway, refocusing, Warner even included
Vacation in a couple of 4 and 5 Film Favorite DVD collections as recently 2016, but at this point the blus are of much more interest. So after the original 2010 DVD, it was re-released on blu in 2013 as the 30th Anniversary Edition, with an all-new "featurette." That edition was also included in a 2014 3-disc set with
European Vacation and
Planes Trains and Automobiles. So out of all those releases, the two versions to care about are the 20th Anniversary DVD and 30th blu-ray. We'll take a look at those, plus the original 2010 blu-ray.
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| 2003 WB DVD top; 2010 WB blu-ray middle; 2013 WB blu-ray bottom. |
All three discs feature a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, despite the blu-ray cases claiming 1.85:1. Still, the framings of the DVD and blu-rays are not exactly the same. The DVD is a little zoomed in, with the blus displaying a little extra picture information along all four sides. The DVD also has a slightly redder push. Looking at little
Anthony Michael Hall in the first set of comparisons; I'd say I prefer the blus colors. The DVD also has a little haloing and natural SD smudginess that I'm happy to see cleared up on the blus. But the two blus themselves are essentially identical; they're clearly using the same transfer.
All three discs feature the original mono track, in DTS-HD on the blus, with optional English subtitles. And as usual with Warner Bros, they also include a number of foreign language options. The DVD throws in both French, Spanish and Portuguese dubs and sets of subtitles. But what's a little bit interesting is that the 30th Anniversary blu has more language options than the 2010 edition. 2010 has French and Spanish dubs and subs, while the 2013 has Spanish, Castillian and German dubs, plus Castillian, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Norwegian, Spanish and Swedish subtitles. But who cares about foreign dubs, let's get to the important difference between the blu-ray editions.
The 20th Anniversary DVD came up with a pretty strong, if decidedly imperfect, selection of extras. The biggest selling point is the packed audio commentary by Harold Ramis with, producer
Matty Simmons, Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Anthony Michael Hall,
Dana Barron and Randy Quaid. They do a great job walking the line of having fun with all those people cracking jokes but still being informative. The only thing is that they mention deleted scenes in the commentary that they say will be on the DVD but aren't, and to this day have never been released. But okay, let's stick with what else we do get. There's a brief video introduction to the film by with Chase, Quaid and Simmons kidding around, the theatrical trailer and a "Family Truckster Featurette Gallery." We've go to talk about that.
So it's kind of a big collection of easter eggs. You click around the image of this car and get different, short video clips. For example, if you click on the front bumper, you get a brief interview with Dana Barron talking about why she didn't appear in the sequel, or if you click on the front tire, you get an interview with
Christie Brinkley. If you click on the front windshield, it takes you inside the car where you get another layout of the radio, and clicking each station button gives you more little videos. Now, these videos really range in quality. One of them is a great little featurette with Matty Simmons and stunt coordinator/ driver
Dick Ziker talking about the famous station wagon. But then clicking on the roof rack just brings up a montage of Aunt Edna gags from the film with no new footage. One radio button just gives you a clip of Brinkley introducing the 20th Anniversary, apparently an alternative they would've used to the film intro if they couldn't get Chevy. There are also three outtakes from that video recording with Chevy joking around, Sana Barron introducing a clip of the family singing in the car, and a featurette where Brinkley and Simmons talk about the hotel dinner scene.
I can see why they left it off later editions as-is. The novelty/ chore of clicking around hunting for easter eggs has gone out of fashion, and while some of the clips are great, and feature interviews with people who weren't included on any of the other extras, others are pretty worthless, like the clips from the film. Plus, most of them are really short, and they don't exactly cut together into a cohesive documentary. But it's really a shame to see some of them go, and they could've at least strung the more substantive interviews into a single featurette for future editions. It's even got
its own IMDB entry as if that had been the case. But nope, they just scrapped it all.
So the 2010 blu-ray is just a straight step backwards. They have the commentary and the introduction, but that's it. Yup, they even lost the trailer. That's just straight-up lazy in my opinion. But the 30th Anniversary Edition, while still not restoring the Truckster stuff, coughs up something new. First of all, they recover the trailer, which is a good start. But the important thing is "Featurette: Inside Story: National Lampoon's Vacation." On the plus side, this "featurette" is almost 90 minutes long, and includes interviews with just about everybody, from the main stars to the crew and supporting cast who have been left out of the other special features. But in the minus column, this isn't something new or original, this is an episode of Biography's regular
Inside Story series, full of commercial breaks and "coming up next" bumpers. So it's full of great interviews and content, but it's horribly edited to the point of being seriously annoying, playing the same soundbites over and over. But at the end of the day, despite the problems, it's well worth having. But it's the only new thing we get for this fancy new Anniversary Edition.
Ultimately, we fans still can't get rid of our 20th Anniversary DVDs (which comes in an ugly snapper crapper case, but at least has the terrific poster art, instead of the photoshop abominations on the blus). And even if you kept that and double-dipped on the original blu-ray with the new one for the television special, it still feels like kind of a light special edition for a such a classic, beloved film. Where are those deleted scenes? How about some original retrospective content as opposed to the awfully edited television piece? Or at least cut out all of the bumpers and constant repetition from that. But on a more positive note, both the 20th and 30th Anniversary editions can be had for pretty cheap (WB knew their double-dip was a slim upgrade), and for all its flaws, there are a lot of funny anecdotes, memories and serious insight into the making of this film, so long as you know to get the right editions. And if this was the worst treatment any film got in the home video market, we'd be in a pretty happy place.
