Is Arrow Video’s “The Mask” Limited Edition booklet worth the splurge?
Written by Matt Long
This is a review of the booklet included as part of the limited edition of The Mask (1994), released by Arrow Video in 2025 on 4K-UHD and Blu-ray. Arrow Video includes the printed materials, such as this booklet, only in the limited edition versions of their releases. When the limited edition of The Mask is sold out, the standard edition will be available without this booklet and other extras.
The front cover of the booklet for The Mask, which was released by Arrow Video in 2025.
Professionalism and production quality
This 40 page perfect bound book is excellently put together. The paper used is a thicker matte stock that is rarely used for physical media booklets, but it provides a much better feel and look compared to the glossier stock often used. The images are a great combination of stills from the movie, promotional material, and behind the scenes images, and they are all printed in high resolution. The text size is readable with a very clean layout. In a perfect world, the font size would be a point larger to improve readability, but it matches the text in many books. There are no obvious spelling or grammar errors. I’m glad The Mask got the Arrow hard box treatment for its limited edition because this is a very well-made booklet.
Score (out of 10): 10
Text-to-image ratio
Similar to my feelings on the recently reviewed Peanuts Blu-ray collection, I’m not going to complain about a booklet for The Mask having a lot of images because the visual effects and the movie’s amazing cast, including Jim Carrey, Cameron Diaz, the recently deceased Peter Greene, and the dog Max, are so important to success of this movie. Every two-page spread in the booklet has at least one image, so it leaves a little less room for text, but I don’t get the feeling that it detracted from the presentation. This one is a lot of fun and close to perfect; I just prefer a higher balance of text to image to be perfect.
Score (out of 10): 9.5
Content
The noteworthy content starts with the cover of this booklet. Arrow used a newspaper article written by reporter character Peggy Brandt (played by Amy Yasbeck) featured in a scene from the movie as the cover of the booklet. It’s a fun touch, giving interested fans the chance to read the article without having to read it on their TV screens by pausing on the perfect spot. That’s probably possible with the fantastic transfer Arrow gave The Mask, but this choice by Arrow was appreciated.
The booklet opens with the table of contents and a cast and crew list, and production credits for the disc release are at the end. The booklet has two main features.
The first is an essay by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas that provides an excellent example of why she’s one of the best writers and supplements producers working today. The essay, titled “Masks of Dreams, Masks of Nightmares,” is packed with information in it’s only nine pages of text. Heller-Nicholas provides key information about the shift in the adaptation of the source material from horror to comedy once Jim Carrey signed on. Heller-Nicholas then offers a rich history of the power of masks. Her argument is well-aided by having written the book Masks in Horror Cinema: Eyes Without Faces, which was published in 2020, as it shifts then into a short history of masks in film, especially in horror. I found these examinations to be especially fascinating.
Finally, Heller-Nicholas ties back all those elements into how director Chuck Russell used the mask, specifically that “the possessing object is played for laughs, not frights,” and reviews why it works and how the characters think of the mask within the movie. This section again ties into the historical elements within the film, specifically the connection to Loki, the trickster Norse God.
This essay is robust with information while being incredibly readable. Each section felt like its own essay, with writing so confident that it did not need to use any extra words.
The booklet with a small sleeping cat for scale. After multiple readings and flip throughs to look at the images, the cover is still quite flat.
The second featured section of this booklet is titled “original production notes.” This was a surprisingly interesting inclusion. The first part is called “about the production,” and it features a few pages of information like a breakdown of the plot of the film, the shooting locations, the inspiration for the visual effects, how Industrial Light & Magic achieved them, how Jim Carrey changed their approach, and more. Reading their overview of production compared to the final product and the recounting of the production in the supplements provided a very interesting perspective.
Of equal interest is the next section “about the cast.” Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz were both incredibly new, this being Diaz’s debut feature film after a short career as a model and it being early enough in Carrey’s career that it notes “his next feature film is New Line’s Dumb and Dumber.” Richard Jeni comes across as the star ready to hit it big. It even features three paragraphs about the dog that played Milo, Max. Very fun.
Finally, the third section is called “about the filmmakers.” This section has three pages of information about the crew, like the director and director of photography John R. Leonetti. The photos in this section are all behind the scenes photos, which was a nice touch. I appreciated this background at the technical people that made this movie possible instead of focusing strictly on Carrey and Diaz or Chuck Russell.
In conclusion, when I first looked at the contents, I was a little worried that this leave me wanting more, but I believe all the material here supplements the movie very well, and isn’t that what this is all about? Alexandra Heller-Nicholas’ essay was insightful and entertaining, and the production notes were more interesting than expected. Perhaps there could have simple been more, like some examples of the original comic strip, for example, to offer a complete understanding of how the movie transformed the material via the adaptation, but I can’t fault what is included.
Score (out of 20): 17
Creativity
As I outlined in more detail in the section above, I found Arrow overcame potential limitations with what to do with a comedy from the 1990s through interesting choices. I loved the cover of the booklet featuring a reproduction of a newspaper from the movie. That could have been an extra all on its own that only could have been improved if it went beyond the cover. I was wary of the production notes section, but they were interesting and offered some value. Finally, the actual design of the booklet and its use of images was different than usual and created an interesting dynamic visual style befitting the movie.
Score (out of 10): 7.5
Final score (out of 50): 44
This is a deceptively strong booklet. Both Heller-Nicholas’ essay and the production notes provide different levels of concept that help you appreciate this silly movie. I appreciated the respect Arrow Video gave to The Mask. It was one of my favourite movies growing up, so seeing Arrow give it the full limited edition treatment was a nice surprise. I hope they release the theatrical cut of Dumb and Dumber with a similar treatment (please!).