The Princess Bride Criterion Collection 4K UHD Review: As You Wish in 4K

The Princess Bride has been in 4K digitally but The Criterion Collection brings us the first disc release in the U.S. It appears to be the same transfer, but always worth owning physically too.

The Princess Bride 4K preserves the grain of the 1987 film. The green farmlands are lush. The palace courtyard is bright with vivid red and blue flags, showing all the detail in the stone. Likewise for the Cliffs of Insanity.

Humperdinck’s red garb and Buttercup’s red dress stand out, especially when Westley is dressed in black and Fezzik and Inigo in gray. It’s pure night when Vizzini kidnaps Buttercup on the boat with the moonlight on deck.

The matte paintings are seamless to convey the epic scope of the adventure. Old school effects like that still look better than CGI.

The fire swamp has starker lighting but it’s still clear enough to see all the detail in the set and the ROUSes. The Pit of Despair is even darker but still holds up. Miracle Max’s shack and makeup too.

The 4K disc includes audiobook excerpts and commentary but the Blu-ray has all the previous extras.

One word of caution, users with Panasonic players are reporting playback problems and alas, I was one of them. It is a player specific issue as I was able to get a backup player that worked. But if The Princess Bride glitches and freezes for you it could just be incompatible with specific players.