Chris Columbus' follow-up to his hugely successful Home Alone comes to DVD with a widescreen transfer that preserves the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. English, Spanish, and French soundtracks are rendered in Dolby Digital Surround. English subtitles are accessible. Supplemental materials include talent biographies and the original theatrical trailer. This disc does a fine job of reproducing the film, but the high list price and the lack of interesting extras make it difficult to recommend without reservation.

"The #1 Thriller of All Time" comes to DVD as part of Hollywood Pictures' Collector's Edition series. Fans of M. Night Shyamalan's ingenious supernatural story will revel in the 1.85:1 widescreen (enhanced for 16 x 9 televisions) format and 5.1 Surround Sound which fully capture the intricate details of the film and tangible paranormal presence. What makes this DVD especially enjoyable, however, is the multitude of behind-the-scenes features, many of which are narrated by Shyamalan and other key crew members. Included are a French-language track; a "Storyboard to Film Comparison" of the anniversary dinner scene; cast and crew interviews; a fascinating "Music and Sound Design" presentation that illustrates how the incredibly creepy background track was created; and "Reaching the Audience," an explanation of how word of mouth made this movie the cultural phenomenon it became. Also included are "Rules and Clues," a guide to the hints threaded throughout the movie before its explosive, surprise ending; four deleted scenes, one of which is an extended finale; and an interview with Shyamalan in which he talks about his background and how it affected his filmmaking. Theatrical and TV trailers as well as cast and crew biographies round things out. Finally, viewers should click on the beribboned box for a real treat -- Shyamalan's first horror film, "Nightmare on Old Gulf," which was written, produced, directed, and starred in by the film phenom when he was 11 years old.

The DVD of this Alice in Wonderland-like children's film comes with four bios/filmographies, each two screens in length, a behind-the-scenes featurette of fuzzy audio and visual quality, and three theatrical trailers. Although presented as widescreen anamorphic (2:35:1 ratio) with dual-layered, English, two-channel Dolby Surround, the picture looks slightly grainy in places and a faint hiss persists in the audio background throughout the film. The puppet animations look and sound impressively lifelike and highly detailed. Also included are English and Spanish subtitles and a small three-fold booklet containing creation and production notes.