At first I was pretty excited by the news but after a while I started to wonder what would exactly be remastered?
I saw that the textures will be refined as well as the music re-recorded (though in my opinion the original music was excellent and didn't deserve to be remastered). I also see that there would be a new lighting system which will give good results but probably not in all environments.

Now I have more expectations than just that.
- how about 2D background? Is it going to be refined?
- how about models? Are we going to have more polygons? Glottis seems to still be very square angled.
- how about cut-scenes? They are very low-res dated today.

I would also have expected real 3D models for environments instead of 2D backgrounds but I understand that this may be questionable.
In the meantime I still own the 2 CDs and play the game with Residual.
Can I really expect a groundbreaking change?
Double Fine seems to have abandoned or slowed down a number of developments recently and I'm a bit concerned that they are just trying to make quick and easy money with an upscale of their original game as well as a port on more platforms.
I was about to pre-purchase the game but after having seen screen shots I'm less than convinced. I have even seen similar comments on the Residual Grim Fandango Deluxe version. So far they had remade Manny and Glottis and had done a better job. I wish DF would have done a better job and now I also hope that the GF Delux project will not stop.

Edit: just saw a video from Double Fine. They found cut-scenes generated before the deep compression that was used to produce masters and probably plan to use that as a replacement. This will certainly look better but somehow I'm disappointed that they will just re-use material and not actually improve it with nowadays techniques. Again, it looks like a quick restoration and not a HD remake.

Double Fine themselves are talking extensively about what (and how) is being remastered or changed in the three making of videos released (all of them easily accessible in the official web page http://grimremastered.com/) and the interview at PAX ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEqwk6spwRI ).

You can't expect dramatic changes to the original. Basically the stuff you noted in your post (dynamic lighting, cleared up textures and newly recorded music (an orchestral version of the original).

I am guessing that the models are not going to look different (or if the polygons will be increased significantly or at all) but the basic idea and part of the style of this game is that they are supposed to look like that (rough edges, very obvious polygon corners). It worked better (as a funny take of the 3d models/ embrace of that limitation) in the context of the era that the game was originally released but it is still a part of the game that should be preserved intact.

OP, what you're asking is more of a remake than a remastered edition of a game. The people at Double Fine compared this project to something like a Criterion Edition of a movie. They're not aiming at completely remaking the game, all they're trying to do is releasing the same game with a bit of polish. Like, well, what you do with DVD and BD reisssues of classic movies -- still the same movie, just crisper.

Grim Fandango is a classic video game, lots of gamers grew up hearing about the game but without having access to it, unless they resort to piracy. I think it's fair that the new generations of gamers have access to the game via legal means, and, let's face it, LucasArts/Disney wasn't going to do anything with the game, or they would have done so already. Double Fine wants to make the game available for a digital age, the same game we know and love, with crispier textures and some of the bells and whistles of the modern technology, and I think that's nice of them to do (I would've said "noble" of them, but, let's face it, they're still a company, and there's obviously economic interest involved).

When people say this is a "shameless cash-grab move" from Double Fine, I wonder if they are happy with the shameless cash-grabs of those people who sell Grim Fandango on auction sites or second hand stores for an absurd amount of money. I'd rather pay €12 for a classic game made available today with some minor graphical updates, than having to pay more than €100 or €200 euros for an obsolete disc copy that doesn't even run off-the-box on modern systems. People are way too quick to judge.

This isn't a remake at all, it is just what you called it, a restoration. That's why it's labeled as remastered. A remaster is a process when a product is restored from the master (source) material to make a product look as good as possible from that base. That's exactly what's happening here. Double Fine was able to get their hands on most of the original material that made the game (the textures, uncompressed videos, music sessions before the original digital backing tracks were added, etc.) and are now working from that to remaster the game to make the game look as good as it possibly can from the master material.

Oh rats. That probably means the wonky movement system is still in. I was hoping they'd update that. The "tank" style movement was the only part of Grim Fandango I didn't like. (Yes, I've preordered because I have to visit Manny Calavera again and the old Manny doesn't like my new computer.)

I thought I'd seen that, too, but the new info doesn't say anything about it, which alarmed me (apparently unnecessarily). Thanks for helping clear that up.

Have you given a chance to residual?
http://www.residualvm.org/

I didn't know about this before! Thank you! (Still glad to have the new remastered GF with the point and click interface though.... today!)

Another VM to go with ScummVM and DOSBox on my hard drive.

If you want to play your original datafiles with the mouse too, there's a modification of ResidualVM called Grim Mouse. It was the inspiration for the point and click controls in Grim Fandango Remastered, and its author, Tobias Pfaff, actually worked with Double Fine to get the mouse controls working in the remastered version.

Thanks! Although unless it's for nostalgic reasons I guess since I've preordered the new one there's not much need now. Haha! Still bookmarked just in case.