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Home Theater Movie Renter's Guide - November, 2011

"Toy Story 3D" (Blu-ray) - Reviewed by Chris Heinonen

Synopsis

Woody is a toy cowboy, and the leader of a group of toys belonging to Andy.  They live a fairly peaceful existence until Andy receives a new toy for his birthday, Buzz Lightyear.  Unfortunately Buzz isn’t clued into how things are and believes that he is actually a spaceman on a mission to a different planet and not a simple child’s toy.  His features and new toy status threatens Woody’s position as the favored toy for Andy.

One night when Andy and his family go out to Pizza Palace he takes both Woody along for the trip.  Buzz comes along for the trip as well and confronts Woody about his attempts to have him replaced, but in their argument and fight they wind up falling out of the car and being left behind at a gas station.  Now they must both try to find a way back to Andy’s house and safety.

Commentary

The film that launched the Pixar empire is back, and with a 3D makeover.  The Pixar films are one the wonderful things left behind by Steve Jobs, and Toy Story is certainly a fantastic one.  Accessible to both kids and adults of all ages, the story is both touching, and fun, and a poignant reminder of childhood for everyone.  It really holds up now as it did before, even after repeated viewings.

In giving Toy Story a 3D makeover, Pixar didn’t decide to go and throw things at your face as many 3D films do, but instead they just rendered every scene with depth that stays inside of the frame.  While some people might want to have Buzz Lightyear fly out of the screen at them, I personally find the lighter touch of rendering for depth inside the screen to be more enjoyable.  Scenes go from looking almost real, to looking incredibly real with depth and shading that makes everything look very lifelike.  The overall visuals aren’t as good as the recent Pixar films, since this was their first feature over 15 years ago, but it still looks very good.

The soundtrack doesn’t disappoint either.  It’s been so long since I’ve seen Toy Story in the theater that I can’t tell you for sure if anything has changed, but the soundtrack is very well done.  Great use of the surrounds, clear dialogue, and a very immersive experience are what you expect from Pixar and they do a wonderful job here.

Extras

This comes as a 4-disc set, with the Blu-ray, 3D Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital Copy each having their own disc.  The Blu-ray features commentary, countless featurettes, deleted scenes, and more.

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