Toy Story And Toy Story 2 Blu-Ray

With the upcoming release of Toy Story 3 not all that far away, you now have the chance to catch up with Buzz and Woody on new Blu-Ray releases, and enjoy their antics in high definition for the first time. Toy Story and Toy Story 2 are now available in Blu-Ray + DVD combo packs, and the releases are packed with brand new special features.

I suspect these films need little introduction, or recommendation, by now, but these releases are pretty special, and you're going to want to pick them up.

Toy Story

Toy Story, the first full-length computer-animated feature film, is "a wonder to behold." – People Magazine. Experience a hilarious fantasy about the lives toys lead when they're left alone. Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks), an old-fashioned cowboy doll, is Andy's favorite. But when Andy gets Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Tim Allen) for his birthday, the flashy new space hero takes Andy's room by storm! Their rivalry leaves them lost with a toy's worst nightmare -- Sid, the toy-torturing boy next door. Woody and Buzz must work together to escape, realizing along the way that they've got a friend... in each other!

New Special Features

• The Story: An Exclusive Sneak Peek at Toy Story 3
• Buzz Lightyear Mission Logs:
Episode One: Blast Off – Buzz reports back about his adventure to the International Space Station.
• Paths to Pixar: Artists – In this series of shorts, Pixar artists talk about their career path and share advice to aspiring filmmakers and animators.
• Studio Stories: A series of amusing anecdotal shorts about life at Pixar.
“John's Car” recounts how Toy Story director John Lasseter refused to stop driving his beat-up car even after the film's success.
“Baby AJ” tells the hilarious story of how important Halloween is to the Pixar team and how one Pixar employee dressed up as the oversized baby from the short Tin Toy to win a prize.
“Scooter Races” takes the audience on a rousing scooter race around the studio with John Lasseter and other employees.
• Buzz Takes Manhattan - Spectacular footage from Buzz Lightyear's premiere as a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon.
• Black Friday: The Toy Story You Never Saw - The Toy Story filmmakers discuss the early cut of the film that very nearly shut down production entirely.

These are all great additions, especially the Studio Stories, which let you in on life behind-the-scenes when you have to work this long on a film. Black Friday is a great little featurette with not only a thorough explanation of how a really bad initial version of the film came to be, but you also get to see part of that rough cut. Apart from a nice addition as part of the film's overall history, it's also a great little tale about trying to produce art by committee.

Toy Story 2

A Golden Globe® Award winner for Best Motion Picture – Comedy Or Musical, Toy Story 2 has become a favorite all across the world, garnering praise from fans and critics everywhere. It's "an instant classic," raved New York Magazine. While Andy is away at summer camp, Woody is toynapped by Al McWhiggin, a greedy collector who needs Andy's favorite toy to complete his “Woody’s Roundup” collection. Together with Jessie (voiced by Joan Cusack), Bullseye, and the Prospector, Woody is on his way to a museum where he'll spend the rest of his life behind glass. It's up to Buzz, Mr. Potato Head, Hamm, Rex, and Slinky Dog to rescue their friend and remind him what being a toy is all about.

New Special Features

• Characters: An Exclusive Sneak Peek At Toy Story 3
• Director Commentary
• Buzz Lightyear Mission Logs:
o Episode Two: International Space Station - Buzz reports back about his adventure
to the International Space Station.
• Paths to Pixar: Technical Artists - In this series of shorts, Pixar artists talk about their career
path and share advice to aspiring filmmakers and animators.
• Studio Stories: A series of amusing anecdotal shorts about life at Pixar.
o “Toy Story 2 Sleep Deprivation Lab” gives audiences an inside peek into the intense
time pressures under which the Toy Story 2 editors found themselves.
o “Studio Stories: Pinocchio” shows an impromptu competition between the animators
to decorate their workspace by throwing toys into the ceiling.
o “Studio Stories: The Movie Vanishes” tells how a mischievous technical error
almost erased all of Toy Story 2 from the computer system.
• Pixar’s Zoetrope - A look at the creation of the live-action zoetrope that Pixar created to
capture the principles of animation in a live sculpture.
• Celebrating our Friend Joe Ranft - A tribute to beloved Disney and Pixar story man Joe
Ranft, regarded as one of the industry's most gifted story artists.

The big sell here is pretty clearly the commentary track by Lasseter. This is going to be better than the norm just by the mere design of creating such movies over the course of such a long period of time. Lasseter gives an entertaining mix of behind-the-scenes anecdotes and story history, and the result is supremely watchable.

The others are all a lot of fun as well. The Movie Vanishes is a great little story about how working from home saved the film, and the Zoetrope is simply amazing. The tribute to Joe Ranft is brilliant as well, and gives a nice recounting of a pretty amazing career.

All of these are in addition to the "regular" special features from the previous DVD release of the films, which are included on the Blu-Ray in a different section. That gives you another generous helping of features with each release.

All of that, put together with the fact that the movies look incredible in 1080p, and that you simply must own the films anyway, and this is a pretty easy sell. It's also a pretty good argument to add to the list for upgrading to Blu-Ray.

Own them on Blu-Ray today!

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About Marc Eastman

Marc Eastman is the owner and operator of Are You Screening? and has been writing film reviews for over a decade, and several branches of the internet's film review world have seen his name. His reviews have brought him personal praise from the director of a major motion picture, and have been used as required reading in a course at a major University. These priceless rewards, along with just bags of cash, keep him from straying from freelance writing. He is also a member of The Broadcast Film Critics Association and The Broadcast Television Journalists Association.

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