I should know by now that the Toy Story films have grown as I have, over time. And Toy Story 3 speaks more clearly to me now than its predecessors do. It’s a story about change and how we accept it or fight to stave it off. Absolutely brilliant. The little-boy-that-was is now grown to a young man, preparing to move off to a college life and leave his childhood behind. That childhood, of course, consists of toys – Sheriff Woody, Buzz Lightyear et al. In this animated universe, however, those toys don’t drift off silently into the twilight (or garbage truck, or what have you.) These toys fight back. And they won’t be abandoned or destroyed. They will be played with. They will be loved. And they will make you cry.

Yeah, I got choked up a bit. The story is great here. The performances by the old standards (Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Joan Cusack etc.) and the new crew (Ned Beatty, Michael Keaton) are spot on. And the animation is beyond reproach – miles beyond what Pixar was able to accomplish in their last outing with the franchise. Toy Story 3 is as close to perfection as modern animated filmmaking can be.

Speaking of perfection, I can’t find even the slightest fault with the digital-to-digital transfer of the Blu-ray disc. This is phenomenal work from the folks at Disney/Pixar. Vibrant, pitch perfect colours, deep, dark blacks and incredible detail are the hallmark of every Pixar Blu-ray presentation and Toy Story 3 is amongst their finest. The same can be said for the stunning DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround track. With clean, clear voices up the middle, ever-present ambiance from the rear and a thundering LFE presence, this soundtrack is some of the finest demo-material you’ll find on Blu-ray this year. All around technical perfection!

Where do I start with the extras? Hmm… Well, there’s a ton of them. Enough to keep you engaged with this 4-disc combo pack for hours beyond your initial viewing of the film. There are two excellent commentary tracks, both found on the second Blu-ray disc of the set. Strange, I know, but I have a feeling that since the primary commentary track comes with picture-in-picture content in tow, the powers that be decided to move it over to the bonus repository where they could crunch the heck out of it (compress it down, taking up fewer gigs of precious disc space), leaving more bandwidth for the feature presentation on Disc 1. Good move! I don’t mind at all, Disney! They did leave enough room on that first disc, however, for the requisite accompanying short film. Day and Night screened alongside Toy Story 3 in theatres and is a wonderful complement here on the Blu-ray disc as well.

The bulk of the remaining extras are featurettes (you’ll find a couple of featurette clips above) covering every aspect of production from “Beginnings: Setting a Story in Motion” all the way to a look at film editing in “Paths to Pixar“. They can be found on the second Blu-ray disc of the set, organized into to convenient categories for easier consumption – “Film Fans” Featurettes and “Family Play” Features along with additional categories “Games and Activities” (containing the lone game, the “Toy Story Trivia Dash”) and “Publicity” (trailers, promos and posters.) The third disc in the set is a DVD copy of the film with the fourth a digital copy.

For a detailed list of the ample collection of special features, read our previous post here: Toy Story 3 and Ultimate Toy Box 3-movie collection coming to Blu-ray

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ARGH!! It’s another one of those killer, five-million-amazing-new Blu-ray-disc release weeks! Having so many great new titles out all at the same time makes it damn near impossible to choose a best and a second best release of the week. Unlike last week, where I felt the Alien Anthology was clearly the must-own newly released title, I wouldn’t blame you if you grabbed up any one of the discs listed below. They’re all equally amazing! But for the sake of the Top 5, here they are in somewhat arbitrary order…

1. THE SOUND OF MUSIC (45TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION)

There are a few classic releases out on Blu-ray this week but none sport a superior transfer or feature set to The Sound of Music: 45th Anniversary Edition. This is probably your best bet. Unless you hate musicals. In which case, I would usher you on to our number two pick this week.

For more information, read our rundown of the Blu-ray disc set here: The Sound of Music: 45th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray officially announced and detailed

Special Features:

Limited Edition Collector’s Set

• 2-Disc Blu-ray with all extras as detailed below
• Standard Definition DVD
• 45th Anniversary Soundtrack
• 100-Page “My Favorite Things” scrapbook
• Snapshots from Salzburg
• Reproduction of the original 1965 Souvenir program
• Exclusive “My Favorite Things” Music Box with letter of authenticity

Blu-ray Details: Blu-ray Disc 1:

• Feature Film Remastered in 1080p Hi-Def with 7.1 DTS-HD Sound
• Your Favorite Things: An Interactive Celebration — All-New Immersive Viewing Experience with Behind-the-Scenes Images, On-Screen Lyrics, Trivia Track and Location Quiz
• Music Machine Sing-Along
• Audio Commentaries with Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer and Director Robert Wise
• BD-LIVE**: Live Lookup™ Powered by IMDb®

Blu-ray Disc 2:

• Musical Stages: Creating The Sound of Music — All-New Interactive “Backlot Tour” with In-Depth Featurettes on the Songs, the Stage Show & Movie, the Film and Sound Restoration and the Real-Life von Trapp Family
• A City of Song — Virtual Map of Filming Locations in Salzburg, Austria
• Vintage Rodgers & Hammerstein and The Sound of Music Programs
• Screen Tests, Rare Treasures, Interviews, Photo Galleries & More!

DVD Disc:

• Feature Film In Standard Definition
  • Newly Remastered Picture and Sound
  • Optional Sing-Along Track
• Music Machine Sing-Along
• The Sound of Music Tour – A Living Story

Amazon: $19.99

ALSO AVAILABLE: The Sound of Music (Limited Edition Collector’s Set) – $59.99

2. THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI

David Lean on Blu-ray. ‘Nuff said, right? Well, The Bridge on the River Kwai is most certainly my personal top pick of the week but while it looks and sounds way better on Blu than ever before on a home video format, the disc itself is simply just not as technically impressive as The Sound of Music and doesn’t include anywhere near the exhaustive amount of special features as that title. Bridge is a must-own for any film fan but won’t blow you away, if you’re looking for the colour and pizazz of newer, slicker discs.

READ MORE: The Bridge on the River Kwai Blu-ray officially announced and detailed

Amazon: $20.99

3. TOY STORY 3

Toy Story 3 is, without question, one of the best films of the year. I finally got a chance to see it thanks to the Blu-ray screener that showed up last week and I have to say, the movie really delivers on every level. One of the finest to come out of Pixar. And, it goes without saying, that the digital-to-digital transfer is absolutely pixel-perfect, affording the Blu-ray disc one of the most stunning images of any disc released this year. The 4-disc combo pack includes a seemingly endless supply of special features as well as a DVD and digital copy of the film.

READ MORE: Toy Story 3 and Ultimate Toy Box 3-movie collection coming to Blu-ray

Amazon: $24.99

4. THE PACIFIC

I haven’t watched HBO‘s The Pacific yet (still waiting on my review copy!) but I’m setting this robust disc-set in the number-four position this week on the basis of the quality of it’s sibling show, Band of Brothers. If The Pacific is anywhere near as brilliant as Brothers, it’ll end up being one of my favourite TV shows of the year. And if the Blu-ray set is anywhere near as perfect as Brothers’, The Pacific could be a contender for TV-on-Blu set of the year!

READ MORE: HBO The Pacific Blu-ray set announced and detailed

Amazon: $56.99

5. CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG

Ian Fleming wrote more than James Bond novels back in the day. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a Ken Hughes/Roald Dahl adaptation of Fleming’s children book about an eccentric professor and the fantastic car he invents. No screener for this one yet either but I’m hoping for the best for the transfer. The special features on the disc are, sadly, quite focused on the younger-set but thankfully offer up a few nuggets for cinefiles, like the “Remembering Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with Dick Van Dyke” and “A Fantasmagorical Motorcar” featurettes.

Amazon: $19.49

6. THE GOONIES (25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION)

Another week with six films in the Top 5?! I just couldn’t let the list go without mentioning that The Goonies is out on Blu-ray today. I’m excited to see it for the first time in years in this new Blu-ray edition from Warner. If you’re not interested in picking up this huge boxed-set edition of the film, filled to the brim with goo-gahs and goodies, I’m certain that there will be a film-only release cropping up at some point in the next year. As much as I want to see the film again, I’ll be holding out for the version without the crap.

READ MORE: The Goonies: 25th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray coming in November

Amazon: $34.99

TV ON BLU-RAY: V: The Complete First Season

Despite my better sense, I really enjoy this revisionist modern version of V. I doesn’t have the impact of the original mini-series’ (naturally, as both the original and sequel series were finite stories with a definitive ending) but it certainly has its charms. The cast is strong and the sci-fi concepts are as fun as ever. I wish the show had a bigger budget or was given more production time though, as I find myself being taken out of the program every time the characters appear to be floating in their greenscreen environments. And they float a lot. The second season of V kicks off in January with a very special, very evil guest star from the original series! Can’t wait!

Amazon: $33.99

ALSO AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY THIS WEEK
Clicking an image will take you to Amazon.com where you can learn more about and purchase the Blu-ray disc:

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Still catching up on news announcements, here’s a look at all the great new Toy Story Blu-ray stuff coming out in November – a couple of different versions of Toy Story 3 and the full 3-movie, 10-disc Toy Box Collection.

Toy Story 3 comes in a standard 2-disc Blu-ray edition as well as a 4-disc Combo Pack that comes with a DVD and a Digital Copy. The Toy Box Collection (MSRP $100.00) simply contains the 3 Combo Pack versions of all 3 films. No extra content there, so no real reason for fans who’ve already got the first two films on Blu to re-purchase.

Special Features:

• Day & Night: The innovative and entertaining short from the imagination of Pixar artist and director Teddy Newton.
• Making of Day & Night: The story behind the unique 2D/3D blended short (BD-exclusive)
• Cine-Explore: commentary by director Lee Unkrich and producer Darla K. Anderson (BD-exclusive)
• Beyond the Toybox: an alternative commentary track featuring leads from story, tech, art and animation – commentary by story supervisor Jason Katz, supervising technical director Guido Quaroni, production designer Bob Pauley and supervising animators Bobby Podesta and Michael Venturini (BD-exclusive)
• Beginnings: Setting a Story in Motion – Screenwriter Michael Arndt analyzes successful opening scenes from Toy Story, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles (BD-exclusive)
• Bonnie’s Playtime: A Story Roundtable: A roundtable discussion with Director Lee Unkrich and the story artists who brought the “Bonnie’s Playtime” scene to life (BD-exclusive)
• Roundin’ Up a Western Opening: The development of the movie’s exciting opening scene (BD-exclusive)
• Life of a Shot: Toy Story 3 artists and technicians describe their contributions to a few of the shots in the film’s “Western Opening.” (BD-exclusive)
• Goodbye Andy: an exploration of character design, acting and animation in the scene “Andy’s Goodbye.” (BD-exclusive)
• Accidental Toymakers: by creating the Toy Story characters, the Pixar filmmakers found themselves in the unlikely role of toy designers. Meet the toy company that took a chance on manufacturing the now iconic toys and learn of their incredible success that began with a modest number of Woody and Buzz Lightyear toys 15 years ago. (BD-exclusive)
• Toys!: A closer look at all of Toy Story 3′s beloved toys from updating the classic characters to the creation of the Sunnyside Daycare and Bonnie’s Room toys.
• Buzz Lightyear Mission Logs – The Science of Adventure: Produced in conjunction with NASA, this hybrid animation documentary of Buzz’s visit to the International Space Station focuses on research in zero gravity and Buzz’s triumphant return to Earth.
• Paths to Pixar – Editorial: Pixar editors, past and future share anecdotes about their careers.
• The Gang’s All Here: A touching look at the returning voice talent for Toy Story 3 and an introduction to the voices of the new characters.
• A Toy’s Eye View – Creating a Whole New Land: A sneak peek at the new Toy Story-themed playland at Hong Kong Disneyland.
• Studio Stories – A series of amusing animated anecdotes about life at Pixar.
  • “Where’s Gordon?” – An animator finds a hidden room at Pixar.
  • “Cereal Bar” – The majestic and expansive Pixar cereal bar is explored.
  • “Clean Start” – The Toy Story 3 animators shave their heads to mark the start of the film.
• Toy Story Trivia Dash – This game challenges you to sprint to the finish with Woody, Buzz, Jessie and Rex as you quickly answer questions about all three Toy Story movies (BD-exclusive)

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