Splash (DVD)

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Sure, everything is righted in the end, but by then the audience may not have the same respect for Hanks's character or for the film itself that it had earlier. A formula car chase at the climax doesn't help to bolster our confidence in the script much, either. By the time it's over, the film has turned somewhat sappy and overly contrived. In any case, the first half carries the day, and the movie can still be considered good fun. Just not as much fun as I had thought it was going to be.

Video:
With a bit rate increased over the first edition, the colors in this remastered transfer come up deep and true; but you can probably only do so much with an original print that was not quite the equivalent of today's state-of-the-art product. The screen size measures a widescreen ratio of about 1.74:1, anamorphic (or enhanced for 16x9 televisions). The image is not as smooth as many viewers would expect. It's slightly rough and a touch grainy, with darker areas of the screen a bit too dark for their own good. Nighttime shots can be a tad murky, delineation is a little soft, and a few moiré effects are in evidence.

Audio:
The Dolby Digital 5.1 remix does very little with the rear channels until the very end of the picture, and then the sound is only marginally effective. This really isn't a bad thing, since there is little for the rear speakers to do, anyway, I suppose. Nor is the front left-to-right stereo spread is exceptional, although the soundtrack does have the merit of being clean and quiet.

Extras:
For a "20th Anniversary Edition," which would seem to promise a lot, there isn't very much in the way of extras on the disc. The two main ones are an audio commentary with director Ron Howard, producer Brian Grazer, and writers Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel; and a twenty-four minute documentary, "Making a Splash," which includes appearances by practically everyone who was in the film, including some older footage of the late John Candy. We learn a few things from the documentary, like "Splash" was the first film made under the Disney "Touchstone" banner, evidently a result of the amount of skin Ms. Hannah exposes in the film; and John Travolta and Michael Keaton were among the first actors considered for the starring role. The rest of the bonuses are the usual filler, though: two auditions taped by director Ron Howard, the first of Tom Hanks (sixteen minutes) and the second of Daryl Hannah (seven minutes); two Sneak Peeks at other BV titles (but no trailer for "Splash"); and twenty scene selections. English and French are the spoken language options, with Spanish subtitles and English captions for the hearing impaired.

Parting Thoughts:
"Splash" made a quite a splash for everyone concerned, getting Ron Howard, Tom Hanks, even Eugene Levy their first really big hit movie. Daryl Hannah had been in "Blade Runner," but it was here that she, too, made her big move to stardom. The movie is cute, light, and fluffy, perhaps not the laugh-fest I had remembered but enough to get by. It seems terribly dated now as only a sixties, seventies, or eighties film can date itself, but it is still entertaining in its own harmless way. You could do worse.

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