The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Comedy, Drama • 1h 49m
Director: Wes Anderson
Cast: Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, Danny Glover, Seymour Cassel, Kumar Pallana, Alec Baldwin, Grant Rosenmeyer, Jonah Meyerson, Aram Aslanian-Persico, Irina Gorovaia, Amedeo Turturro, Stephen Lea Sheppard, James Fitzgerald, Larry Pine, Don McKinnon, Frank Wood, Jennifer Wachtell, Donal Lardner Ward, Andrew Wilson, Dipak Pallana, Sanjay Mathew, Mary Wigmore, Sonam Wangmo, Gita Gabriel, Pawel Wdowczak, Peter Leung, William Sturgis, Liam Craig, Sheelagh Tellerday, Max Faugno, Guido Venitucci, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Brian Smiar, Jan Austell, Rony Clanton, Salim Malik, Tom Lacy, Keith Charles, Greg Goossen, Saidah Arrika Ekulona, Vic Mata, Michael Conti, Tatiana Abbey, Kalani Queypo, Mel Cannon, Leo Manuelian, Amir Raissi, Roger Shamas, Philip Denning, Rex Robbins, Nova Landaeus-Skinnar, Sam Hoffman, Brian Tenenbaum, Stephen Dignan, Eric Chase Anderson, Wes Anderson, Gary Evans
Best English-friendly & video release · updated 1 year ago
UHD tiers
Overview
Royal Tenenbaum and his wife Etheline had three children and then they separated. All three children are extraordinary --- all geniuses. Virtually all memory of the brilliance of the young Tenenbaums was subsequently erased by two decades of betrayal, failure, and disaster. Most of this was generally considered to be their father's fault. "The Royal Tenenbaums" is the story of the family's sudden, unexpected reunion one recent winter.
Director: Wes Anderson
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Criterion 4K Blu-ray see caps and Chris's review
Director: Wes Anderson
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Universal 4K Blu-ray caps. The Blu-ray was clearly low-pass filtered. Luckily, the 4K looks excellent.
Director: Wes Anderson
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Criterion 4K Blu-ray see Chris's review
It's a conservative regrade over previous Blu-ray https://slow.pics/c/CyqhRf9W
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Criterion 4K Blu-ray was an upgrade over previous Blu-ray, removed the orientalist yellow tint, but not much besides that https://slow.pics/c/4b9tem5K
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
2K DI Upscale, see caps. SDR grade in HDR container
Director: Wes Anderson
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
2K DI Upscale, see caps
4K Blu-ray is slightly cropped on all sides compared to Blu-ray, but "that appears to be a conscious choice as the compositions don’t seem to suffer. They also slightly expanded the black bars in order to hide the ringing on the borders."
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Criterion 4K Blu-ray is best, but has surrounds 3 dB too loud
Director: Wes Anderson
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Wes Anderson
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Criterion 4K Blu-ray is 2K DI upscale but better encoded than the previous Blu-ray see caps
Director: Wes Anderson
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Criterion 4K Blu-ray, 2K DI upscale, see Chris's review
Director: Terrence Malick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Lovely underlying remaster by Criterion and Resillion but encode is sadly low-pass filtered by Pixelogic, and even then, the encode is still less than ideal. Still easily obliterates any prior disc release, but certainly wouldn't hurt to have a UK or German label take a crack at this same master.
Director: Anthony Mann
Criterion 4K Blu-ray, Universal 2008 DVD
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
2008 Universal DVD mono
The mono on the Criterion is severely filtered resulting in it sounding incredibly muffled. It is nearly as filtered as the 2003 original Universal DVD which had extreme filtering and sounds horribly thin. The 2008 DVD remaster and original Laserdisc analog mastering are mostly left alone. The original LD master is from a worn element but otherwise sounds very natural. The 2008 DVD is the highest quality version we have without the heavy filtering and the defects of the LD master. It isn't perfect but easily the best of the main four sources by a dramatic margin.
The existing 4K SDR restoration looks excellent, but the Criterion extras are limited and disappointing. The classic Stewart interview commentary from the LD is ported over but given a new mastering. Compared to past releases it has been very slightly noise reduced.
Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Eureka UK are considering doing a 4K and actively exploring the possibility: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24363810&postcount=264
Wonderful underlying remaster by Criterion and Resillion, but NexSpec encode has clipped highlights with the occasional blockiness. The Criterion Blu-Ray, sourced from their 4K remaster, ironically makes for a more consistent and overall pleasing experience.
Director: Luis Buñuel
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
For Blu-ray Criterion Demy Set > StudioCanal
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
See chris's review
1991 Daiei LaserDisc
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
(same as all tracks since the DVD)
Criterion 4K Blu-ray see caps
Phenomenal disc, and perhaps the single greatest testament to NexSpec's positive 180 this year. Highlights are beautifully handled and grain structure is fully intact in areas where NexSpec's (and Pixelogic's) encodes would frequently fall apart in 2025 and before then. Criterion BD encode also looks to be robust from linked caps, save for this one frame: https://slow.pics/c/cMjMefmi
Criterion Box Set coming October 20th with FiM encode, work done to un-Nolan the 4K master, the first ever appearance of the 35mm mono track on physical media and a new restoration/remastering of the 70mm 6-track mix.
(early pressing has errors of a shot, later pressings fixed)
More Comedy on Blu-ray
TV series
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative for all episodes
Director: Norman Taurog
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Delbert Mann
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Garson Kanin
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
Only Streaming has 1080p
Director: Preston Sturges
No information on French Elephant Films Blu-ray
Director: Ralph Bakshi
Director: Tommy O'Haver
Director: Howard Hawks
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Edit history

Every recommendation follows the same method — how these calls are made.






























