Wes Anderson narrates opening animatic for The Grand Budapest Hotel

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

"Take your hands off my lobby boy!" One of Wes Anderson's finest films, in my opinion, recently joined the ranks of the Criterion Collection, and one of many special goodies included on the new disc is a series of storyboard animatics narrated by director Wes Anderson himself. You can check out one such animatic above, which explores the introduction of THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL.

"At the opulent Grand Budapest Hotel, the concierge M. Gustave (Ralph Fiennes) and his young protégé Zero (Tony Revolori) forge a steadfast bond as they are swept up in a scheme involving the theft of a priceless Renaissance painting and the battle for an enormous family fortune—while around them, political upheaval consumes the continent," reads the official synopsis. In addition to Fiennes and Revolori, THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL features an all-star ensemble that includes F. Murray Abraham, Adrien Brody, Saoirse Ronan, Willem Dafoe, Jude Law, Harvey Keitel, Jeff Goldblum, Mathieu Amalric, Tilda Swinton, and Bill Murray. The new Criterion Collection edition features a new 2K digital transfer supervised by Wes Anderson, as well as an audio commentary featering Anderson, Roman Coppola, and Jeff Goldblum. Here are the rest of the special features including on the new disc:

• Selected-scene storyboard animatics
• The Making of "The Grand Budapest Hotel," a new documentary about the film New interviews with the cast and crew
• Video essays from 2015 and 2020 by critic Matt Zoller Seitz and film scholar David Bordwell
• Behind-the-scenes, special-effects, and test footage
• Trailer
• Two pieces by critic Richard Brody and (with the Blu-ray) a double-sided poster and other ephemera

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL is now available on Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection.