TOY STORY & TOY STORY 2
DVD release date: March 23, 2010
Blu-ray version (some materials may not appear on the DVD version)

Way back in 1995, the first completely computer generated animated film was released, and it changed animation history. What’s perhaps even more amazing is that it’s sequel is just as good! Whoever heard of a sequel that equals the first film? That sure makes me optimist about Toy Story 3, which I’m very excited for.

Now that I’ve seen both Toy Story films in 3D, what else is there to do before the release of Toy Story 3? Toy Story in hi-def Blu-ray, of course! There’s some new ultra-cool sneak peeks of the third installment in the meantime.

If you’re like me, you might already have the Toy Story films on DVD, and possibly more than one version of each. They were great with really fun bonus features, and now these new Blu-ray releases add more content to the collection!

The Blu-ray includes CLASSIC DVD BONUS FEATURES:

FILMAKERS REFLECT is self-descriptive, and THE LEGACY OF TOY STORY is really “others reflect.” People like George Lucas, Leonard Maltin, Roy E. Disney, Tim Allen, Tom Hanks, Buzz Aldrin, and Hayao Miyazaki.

No sense creating a new MAKING TOY STORY, because this twenty minute piece was so well-done initially. It’s also fun to see John Lasseter and the gang from over a decade ago!

Other classic DVD features include DESIGNING TOY STORY (6:12) and then a bunch of features in each of the following categories: STORY, PRODUCTION, MUSIC & SOUND, DESIGN, PUBLICITY and DELETED SCENES. These include everything from photo galleries to Randy Newman’s original music demos.

That’s a ton of content! And that’s not even the new content. All of the typical “making of” and “people reflect” features have already been done, so now they really got creative and it makes for a lot of fun.

Here’s what’s included in the NEW BONUS FEATURES:

AUDIO COMMENTARY with John Lasseter and many others involved in the film.

BUZZ LIGHTYEAR MISSION LOGS: BLAST OFF (3:27) is a fascinating piece about how a real live Buzz Lightyear doll went into space aboard the Space Shuttle, and this piece is cleverly produced with Buzz narrating.

PATHS TO PIXAR – ARTISTS (4:49) is unusual but cool. I love learning all about the people involved with Disney, and this piece focuses on the Toy Story artists. It’s a little more personal than just reflecting on the film.

The STUDIO STORIES are fun new, true stories, set to cute stylized animation. Wish there were more! JOHN’S CAR (1:27) is about John Lasseter’s pre-Toy Story car. BABY AJ (1:38)is a great story about how AJ Riebli won the Pixar Halloween contest. SCOOTER RACES (2:16) tells of how the Pixar people got into the hobby of riding scooters and the competitiveness that follows.

BUZZ TAKES MANHATTAN (2:13) is more reminiscent of Pixar’s Up than Toy Story. It’s the true story of the Buzz Lightyear balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. Love this!

BLACK FRIDAY: THE TOY STORY YOU NEVER SAW (7:34) – John Lasseter, Ed Catmull, Pete Docter, Joe Ranft. An amazing story of how Pixar was seeking the guidance of Disney and Jeffrey Katzenberg and just were not happy with the story reel they created, and how they followed their own hearts to create the finished product. We are then treated to that original story reel. Woody is just plain nasty! I think if kids saw THAT Woody walking round Frontierland they’d be running FAST in another direction!

Okay, so Toy Story 3 is not yet released and I’ve exhausted all the content on my Toy Story Blu-ray. But that’s okay… there’s the all-new Toy Story 2 Blu-ray!

Just like Toy Story, there are all the great CLASSIC BONUS FEATURES which includes MAKING TOY STORY, JOHN LASSETER PROFILE, a three minute piece that focuses on… you guessed it, the whimsical John Lasseter, CAST OF CHARACTERS is about the characters known as voice actors that speak for the animated characters.

Then there’s that big collection of content under the categories DELETED SCENES, DESIGN, PRODUCTION, MUSIC & SOUND, PUBLICITY and TOY BOX (that has the outtakes, Riders in the Sky music video and other fun features).

And here’s what the new BONUS FEATURES are on this Blu-ray release:

This also has AUDIO COMMENTARY with John Lasseter and several others involved in the film.

There’s a new BUZZ LIGHTYEAR MISSION LOGS: INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION (3:43). This “Mission Log” continues the real life story of a Buzz Lightyear toy that was brought into space, once again narrated by Buzz. This installment focuses on the International Space Station.

PATHS TO PIXAR: TECHNICAL ARTISTS (4:24) is another installment of “Paths to Pixar,” offering a little more personal insight into Pixar artists. Rather than all those well-known artists that we see over and over in all the “making of” features and documentaries, these are some of the lesser known people who deserve just as much credit.

Hooray! There are more STUDIO STORIES! These are those real life stories set to cute, stylized simple animation. TOY STORY 2: SLEEP DEPRIVATION LAB (1:25) is an interesting tale of what happened while cramming what is usually a four year process of creating films into just months, PINOCCHIO (2:15) is a silly story of how the staff found fun in getting toys stuck into the ceiling. THE MOVIE VANISHES (2:32) tells of the nightmare of accidentally deleting files, meaning much of the film’s work, and then discovering that the backups were faulty. This is a DRAMA! But sure fun and fascinating.

When PIXAR’S ZOETROPE (1:58) first debuted at Disney’s California Adventure I was so enthralled at how these static figures seemed to come to life when spinning under a strobe light. This little piece shows footage of the zoetrope with the story of how it came to be.

CELEBRATING OUR FRIEND JOE RANFT (12:46) is about the late genius, story artist Joe Ranft, who also provided some of the voices in the films, such as Heimlich in A Bug’s Life, Wheezy in Toy Story 2 and Jacques Shrimp in Finding Nemo.But his voices were just a sidebar to his incredible story work and artistic contributions to Pixar’s success. Joe’s life was taken way too soon and this beautiful piece features interviews with Joe and footage of him at work and clowning around (quite literally, in fact) and bringing a smile to the face of his co-workers, along with some sentimental reminiscences from his co-workers.

Phew! That’s the buzz of what's on the Toy Story and Toy Story 2 Blu-ray’s!