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Toy Story 3 [Blu-ray]
(Lee Unkrich, 2010)
Review by Gary Tooze
Production: Theatrical: Pixar Animation Studios Video: Disney*Pixar
Disc: Region: FREE! (as verified by the Momitsu region FREE Blu-ray player) Runtime: 1:42:53.768 Disc Size: 47,682,374,159 bytes Feature Size: 29,342,251,008 bytes Video Bitrate: 24.43 Mbps Chapters: 34 Case: Standard Blu-ray case inside cardboard slipcase Release date: November 2nd, 2010
Video: Aspect ratio: 1.78:1 Resolution: 1080p / 23.976 fps Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio English 5506 kbps 7.1 / 48 kHz / 5506 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit) DTS-HD Master Audio English 3998 kbps 5.1-ES / 48 kHz / 3998 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1-ES / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit) Dolby Digital EX Audio French 640 kbps 5.1-EX / 48 kHz / 640 kbps Dolby Digital EX Audio Spanish 640 kbps 5.1-EX / 48 kHz / 640 kbps 'Descriptive Video': Dolby Digital Audio English 320 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 320 kbps / Dolby Surround
Subtitles: English (SDH), English, French, Spanish, none
Extras: • Maximize your Home Theater • Screen Saver mode • Buzz Lightyear Mission Logs: The Science of Adventure (conj with NASA) (4:30)• Toys! - A look at all the toys from updating classic characters to developing the Sunnyside Daycare and Bonnie's Room toys (6:37)• Day & Night (6:05)
Disc 2 (dual-layered Blu-ray - 38 Gig) • Cine-Explore by Dir. Lee Unkrich and Prod. Darla Anderson (1:42:33) - the film with storyboards etc. picture-in-picture • Beyond the Toybox - an Alternate Commentary featuring leads from the story, tech team etc. (1:42:30)
•
Interactive Game: Toy Story Trivia Dash (1:21:57)
• The Gang's All Here (10:46)
•
Life of a Shot - Overview of artist contribution to each
step of the production pipeline on a select group of shots from the Western
Opening of Toy Story 3 (6:57) • Paths to Pixar (4:38)
• Studio Stories (Where's Gordon - 2:16, Cereal Bar - 1:36, Clean
Start - 3:05) BD-Live functionality
Bitrate:
Description: The creative minds behind Disney•Pixar's groundbreaking animated blockbusters invites you back inside the Toys' delightful world for a heartwarming and hilarious Hi-Definition movie experience you'll never forget. All the original voice talent returns (including Tom Hanks and Tim Allen) plus new talent including Michael Keaton as Ken and Ned Beatty as Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear. It's "the biggest, best, most exciting Toy Story of them all," raves Access Hollywood.
The Film:
And how many real kids who have grown up with Buzz Lightyear and Sheriff
Woody have unspooled their own improvised movies on the rec room floor?
Perhaps no series of movies has so brilliantly grasped the emotional
logic that binds the innate creativity of children at play to the
machinery of mass entertainment. Each one feeds, and colonizes, the
other. And perhaps only Pixar, a company Utopian in its faith in
technological progress, artisanal in its devotion to quality and nearly
unbeatable in its marketing savvy, could have engineered a sweeping
capitalist narrative of such grandeur and charm as the “Toy
Story” features. “Toy Story 3” is as sweet, as touching,
as humane a movie as you are likely to see this summer, and yet it is
all about doodads stamped and molded out of plastic and polyester.
Firstly, I have, and are reviewing, the 2 Blu-ray disc release - there is also a 4-disc edition (same 1080P feature transfer and second Blu-ray supplements disc) which also includes a DVD of the film and a Digital Copy. It costs about $5 more.
Almost 7-minutes of, skippable, Previews (A Christmas Carol and Cars 2 included) which seem excessive to me but anyway I wouldn't let it ruin this magnificent presentation. We can pretty much parrot our comments from Toy Story + Toy Story 2 Blu-rays in regards to image. The benefit to the higher resolution appears to be in the dimensionality - even without-3D + glasses. As we have said in the past - digital animation is that it is essentially flawless - it should have none of the common deficiencies that we can find when transferring live-action film to high-definition digital - things like edge-enhancement or noise removal manipulation don't exist. Haze and blurriness are intentional effects to create the perception of motion. Out-of-focus experiences are simply created to make the true focal object more primary to our vision. By rendering digital animation to Blu-ray we should be able to obtain the highest accuracy of the original. This is a prime example and I'll wager it may actually look better than theatrical - dependant on your individual system. There are a lot of varied visuals in Toy Story 3 from the western motive start with open plain vistas to the flame and crunched metal dump-site conclusion. It is close to the absolute best I have ever seen the medium look on my plasma television. It's hard to turn your eyes away once it starts. I sincerely doubt it can ever look any better.
CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
Audio :While some can debate the hypnotic video being 'reference' - surely the audio with a crystal clearly and sharp DTS-HD Master 7.1 at at resoundingly dynamic 5506 kbps must be in the running for best lossless track of the year. Aside from the voice characterizations every sound in the film is an effect noise - and done with the expected extreme levels of Disney proficiency. Separations are coming out of everywhere - especially in the action-infused opening and the later stages of escape. Luckily, not a lot of the nasal crooning of Newman but his score runs aside the film sounding brilliant. This track is absolutely perfect. There is an untested DTS-HD Master 5.1-ES at 3998 kbps, a 'Descriptive Video' track, and standard Dolby 5.1 French and Spanish DUBs plus subtitle options and m y Momitsu has identified it as being a region FREE disc playable on Blu-ray machines worldwide.
Extras :Blu-ray disc one - along with the feature film has 18 :11 worth of video extras (not counting tutorials, excellent Maximize your Home Theater feature, and Screen Saver mode option). Day & Night (which I also saw before the theatrical film) is a unique and creative 6-minute short with the animation through the bodies of two characters. We also get 5-minutes of Buzz Lightyear Mission Logs: The Science of Adventure (in conjunction with NASA) and 6-minutes of Toys! - A look at all the toys from updating classic characters to developing the Sunnyside Daycare and Bonnie's Room toys.
Okay, there is a second Blu-ray disc which is incredibly deep (Bonuses under headings 'Family Play', 'Films Fans', 'Games and Activities', + 'Publicity') - this includes the film again in 1080P (22 Gig feature with English - SDH, English, Chinese (traditional and simplified), French, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai subtitle options for the extras involved directly with the film) with both the Beyond the Toybox - an alternate commentary featuring leads from the story, tech team etc. and the Cine-Explore with Director Lee Unkrich and Producer Darla Anderson - the film with storyboards etc. picture-in-picture. So it's the entire film again from a technical production standpoint - quite the education. There is an, untested, Interactive Game: Toy Story Trivia Dash, Bonnie's Playtime -a roundtable discussion with the Lee Unkrich and the story artists who brought the "Bonnie's Playtime" scene to life , The Gang's All Here (10:46), Roundin' Up a Western Opening - development process and scene analysis of "Western Opening" in its various iterations through the story process (5:42), Goodbye Andy - an exploration of character design, acting and animation in the scene "Andy's Goodbye" (8:02), The Accidental Toymakers of Pixar - meet the makers of the original Buzz Lightyear and watch how the newest version of Buzz - the Ultimate Buzz is constructed (3:56), A Toy's Eye View (5:19), Life of a Shot - overview of artist contribution to each step of the production pipeline on a select group of shots from the western opening of Toy Story 3 (6:57), Making of Day and Night (2:00), Paths to Pixar (4:38), Studio Stories shorts including Where's Gordon - 2:16, Cereal Bar - 1:36, Clean Start - 3:05 plus an Epilogue - Stand-alone 1.33 version of the Epilogue (4:23) and some humorous faux publicity like Ken's Dating Tips (1:30), Lotso Commercials (:30 X 2 - one in Japanese) Making of Lotso Commercials (1:28), "Dancing with the Stars" at Pixar (2:21) and more, plus a Poster Gallery and the disc has BD-Live functionality. Exhausting to say the least - no stone appears left unturned. Just like the other recent Disney Blu-rays this will remember where you last left off and ask if you would like to continue from that point or start from the beginning.
BOTTOM LINE: Gary Tooze October 26th, 2010
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About the Reviewer: Hello, fellow Beavers! I have been interested in film since I viewed a Chaplin festival on PBS when I was around 9 years old. I credit DVD with expanding my horizons to fill an almost ravenous desire to seek out new film experiences. I currently own approximately 9500 DVDs and have reviewed over 3500 myself. I appreciate my discussion Listserv for furthering my film education and inspiring me to continue running DVDBeaver. Plus a healthy thanks to those who donate and use our Amazon links.
Although I never wanted to become one of those guys who
focused 'too much' on image and sound quality - I
find HD is swiftly pushing me in that direction. So be
it, but film will always be my first love and I list my
favorites on the old YMdb site now accessible
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