Steven Spielberg makes a welcome return to light entertainment with the fizzing "Catch Me If You Can", which comes to DVD in a pleasing if insubstantial two-disc release. The quality of the film presentation is exemplary and the featurettes are good, but a single comprehensive documentary would have been more satisfying.

TECHNICAL FEATURES

Picture Crystal clear and filled with detail, this transfer is every bit as good as you'd expect it to be.

Sound Both the Dolby and DTS 5.1 mixes make the most of John Williams' Mancini-inspired score, but the DTS version wins in creating spatial depth.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Behind the Camera Appropriately for such a bubbly film, the shoot of "Catch Me If You Can" begins with champagne for Leo along with Steven and the crew he has worked with for his past seven films. Steven admits in this featurette that he accepted the project on impulse. As the scenes are so short, it meant that this comedy drama moved like an action piece and for Leo was the fastest-paced film he had ever worked on.

Cast Me If You Can It turns from this series of short featurettes on the casting of the movie that Leo was a long time fan of the book and pushed for it to be made. Never did he think that Spielberg would want to direct it. For Steven it was a chance to work with a dream cast, including Christopher Walken. This part of the DVD is also a chance for a lot of mutual praise, although you get the feeling it's heartfelt.

Scoring "Catch Me If You Can" This film is John Williams' 20th collaboration with Spielberg, but as he reveals here, the lightness of the project presented a number of challenges for him when he came to write the score.

Meet Frank Abagnale Spielberg is more than happy to reveal that he fell right under the seductive spell of king con artist Frank Abagnale, upon whom the movie is based. Indeed, everyone interviewed in this featurette seems to have fallen under the Abagnale spell, including Tom Hanks, who wishes he was more like Frank!

Frank Becomes a Pilot Frank Abagnale talks us through the reasons why he decided to impersonate a pilot and reveals how much of what happens in the film was actually true in those scenes.

Frank's Careers The problem with this featurette and the DVD is that there isn't enough of Abagnale. As he talks us though his various careers here, he could easily flesh out what he is saying. Ideally he should have done a commentary for the film where he could have detailed just how things happened in his life.

Frank Gets Caught and Turns Around Find out what Frank thought of getting caught and if he would do it all again.

The FBI Perspective Former FBI man Bill Rehder provided the technical assistance to Tom Hanks on how to play his part with conviction. It's fascinating to learn just how much of the film reflects truly on FBI procedures of the day.

"Catch Me If You Can" in Closing So how much of the film was actually accurate? The answer is here, along with Steven's confession as to his double life.

Photo Galleries Also on the DVD are the following image galleries: Cast, Behind the Scenes, and Costume Design.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Chapters: 22
Ratio: 1.85:1 (anamorphic)
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1
Audio Tracks: Multiple languages
Subtitles: Multiple languages
Captions: English
Menus: Cool abstract animated menus (like the film's opening title sequence) guide you around the extra features
Special Features Subtitles All of the special features come with subtitles.

This DVD was reviewed on a JVC XV-N5 DVD player.