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Standard DVD includes cartoon shorts; Blu-ray adds geography quiz
By Rich Heldenfels
Beacon Journal popular culture writer
Published on Sunday, Nov 08, 2009
I envy the gifts of the people at the Pixar animation studio. They have repeatedly disarmed with the charm and skill of their productions.
Of course, I'm not alone in admiring their work, as was obvious with the success of Up, the story of an old balloon salesman (voice by Edward Asner) who goes off on an extended adventure. Just the opening minutes, describing the man's long and loving relationship with his wife, are transfixing.
The film received 98 percent positive reviews, according to the Rotten Tomatoes Web site (which makes me wonder about the basic decency of that other 2 percent). It has grossed more than half a billion dollars worldwide and is among the top U.S. box office hits of 2009, according to Box Office Mojo; only the franchise-driven Transformers and Harry Potter films have done better.
And the visual splendor of it is more than evident on the new high-definition Blu-ray release. Just when I think that I can't be dazzled more, along comes something like Up, with an almost 3-D-like depth of image and beauty in all its detail.
Disney is releasing the movie on Tuesday in two packages: a two-disc standard DVD version ($39.99) in which the second disc is a digital copy, and a four-disc combo pack ($45.99) that includes the movie on Blu-ray and on standard DVD, a second Blu-ray disc of extras and a digital copy.
The standard DVD extras include two short cartoons, Partly Cloudy and the new Dug's Special Mission; an audio commentary; and a discussion of the different possible endings the filmmakers considered for the villainous Muntz.
The Blu-ray adds still more making-of pieces, such as one on the design of the flying house in the film. There's also an onscreen game testing your geography knowledge; I had quite a time trying to remember all those state capitals I had memorized — about 50 years ago.
Also on Tuesday, Disney will bring out Monsters, Inc., from the same director as Up, on Blu-ray in a four-disc package ($39.99) also including a standard DVD of the movie and a digital copy.
Katherine Heigl keeps venturing from TV (where she co-stars on Grey's Anatomy) into movies, and the general conclusion is that she should stick to TV.
The latest evidence of that is The Ugly Truth, a romantic comedy starring Heigl and Gerard Butler as a mismatched pair whom you know will eventually end up a couple — although only after some plot reverses and distinctly R-rated laughs.
Nor is that the only element of predictability in the film. As I said when it hit theaters, when a character's cat climbs into a tree, you can pretty much anticipate the next couple of beats in the story. Or, when the film introduces vibrating underwear with a remote control, you know the remote is going to fall into the wrong hands.
I also didn't find much chemistry between Heigl and Butler, the hunky star of 300 and P.S. I Love You. But you can judge for yourself when the movie arrives on DVD ($28.96) and Blu-ray ($39.95) on Tuesday.
In each format, the Sony release adds six deleted scenes, two alternate endings, a blooper reel, commentary from the director and a producer on ''selected scenes'' and a couple of making-of segments. The Blu-ray adds BD-Live pieces (which require an Internet connection to your player) and a digital copy.
Also Tuesday: Sesame Street marks its 40th anniversary, and the celebration includes 40 Years of Sunny Days (Vivendi, $29.93), a two-disc set including about 41/2 hours of highlights from the series.
The highlights are arranged chronologically, with each disc covering 20 seasons of the show. Extras include an interview with Jon Stone, who helped create the series; rehearsal footage; and a piece on the origin of Elmo. There's also a fun, optional extra in which facts about the show pop up on the screen as the highlights roll along. And the package includes a small illustrated book about the series.
The latest of the Three Stooges collections, Volume 7, not only covers 22 productions from 1952-54 (with a list price of $24.96) but also has some items of special interest.
According to Sony, a number of the shorts have been restored to widescreen versions that haven't been seen in decades. And two find the Stooges (Moe, Larry and Shemp for these shorts) jumping on the 3-D bandwagon. Two shorts, Spooks! and Pardon My Backfire, are included in both their 3-D and regular-image versions; the set also has two pairs of 3-D glasses.
But it's low-grade 3-D, probably because the Stooges were laboring under budget constraints. As the box notes, the studio Columbia ''forced director Jules White to recycle some old footage'' for these films.
The classic TV series The Prisoner comes to TV in a new version on AMC beginning Nov. 15, and A&E Home Video has reissued the original Patrick McGoohan show on Blu-ray ($99.95) and standard DVD ($59.95).
Judging from the Blu-ray, the 17-episode set is a considerable visual improvement of previous U.S. releases of the series, since it draws on a remastering done a couple of years ago for a British DVD release. But I ran into problems with the extras disc (which is in standard format even in the Blu-ray set); it would not work in my Blu-ray player but did work in a standard DVD machine.
If you have a similar problem, A&E said in a statement that ''we want to assure our customers that A&E Home Entertainment will replace Disc 5 should they experience any problems. Customers who have a problem with Disc 5 can contact us for a replacement by e-mailing AETNcustomer@aetn.com.''
Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal, in the HeldenFiles Online blog at http://heldenfels.ohio.com, on Facebook and on Twitter. He can be reached at 330-996-3582 and rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com.
I envy the gifts of the people at the Pixar animation studio. They have repeatedly disarmed with the charm and skill of their productions.
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