Toy Story (10th Anniversary Edition) [DVD]

This is a fabulous movie. It has everything going for it, a great storyline, great acting, great animation! I decided to replace our VHS with a DVD and am very glad that I spent a little extra for this 2010 Special Edition re-issue of this 1995 classic. When you go to the Bonus Features Menu, the Commentary track is listed as the second extra, but I'm going to cover it first. I've listened to a lot of Audio Commentary tracks (you watch the movie, and they are commenting while the movie is in progress about what's happening) and I really enjoyed this one. Participants in the commentary: John Lasseter (director and co-writer), Andrew Stanton (co-writer), Pete Doctor (supervising animator), Ralph Eggleston (art director), Bill Reeves (supervising technical director), Bonnie Arnold (co-producer), Ralph Guggenheim (co-producer). The first thing they talked about, because it's the introduction that sets the stage for the whole movie, is the beginning song by Randy Newman, "You've Got a Friend in Me". As Bonnie says, the movie's "songs actually told about an emotional moment in the film, [rather than] the character singing about those things." It's a shortcut, and very effective, for giving the audience all the background it needs to understand what happens when Buzz Lightyear interlopes. The movie has a mix of real-life toys and made-up toys. For the real-life toys, they had to receive permission to use them in the movie. As one man said, "The hours I spent on the phone with Mr. Potato Head's lawyer, just trying to work out the use of Mr. Potato Head in our movie." It was no small thing for the image-conscious manufacturer. When we first meet Sid, the toy torturer next door, he is about to blow up a Combat Carl infantryman. They had really wanted to use G.I. Joe, but Hasbro refused the rights to use Joe if they were going to blow him up. And speaking of soldiers, I think we all love the green plastic soldiers, marching while attached to their little stands. And we are so wrapped up in the movie that we can, as a commenter says, "suspend disbelief" so far that it seems logical that the sergeant can actually see through his green plastic binoculars. Remember when they're trying to rescue Buzz by using a ladder made from the "Barrel of Monkies" game? The line "We need more monkies!" always cracks me up. And they started using it around the studio. When they needed another person for a job it was "We need more monkies!" Lastly, you may have to listen to the commentary to answer these questions: What is "The Big Cheat"? Where do you need to know Morse Code? Can you catch all the homages made to the creators' favorite movies? Here are the Bonus Features on the DVD disc of this great Toy Story (Two-Disc Special Edition Blu-ray/DVD Combo in Blu-ray Packaging): 1. "Toy Story3: Sneak Peek" (2:02 minutes) This is a preview-like short where "Toy Story 3" director, Lee Unkrich, gives us a peek for the then-forthcoming 3rd movie. TS3 was released in Nov. 2010, while the Special Editions of 1 & 2 were released in March 2010. 2. Audio Commentary 3. "Buzz Lightyear Mission Logs: Episode 1: Blast Off" (3:27) This is a great little introduction to the space shuttle and space station, with lots of real on-location footage provided by NASA. It looks like a Buzz Lightyear figure actually made it into space on the Discovery! 4. "Paths to Pixar - Artists" (4:49) Four people tell how they got to Pixar and where they worked on "Toy Story". Tia Crater tells, "When I started I had a business card that said 'Tia Crater - Imperfectionist'. Because it was my job to mess up everything that was created so perfectly in the films". In other words, smooth hair to be messed, etc. 5. "Studio Stories: John's Car" (1:27) The three studio stories are great. They are like storyboard clip reels with cute simple graphics. This first one is about director John Lasseter's car, called the "death box car" - over 500,000 miles and looked every inch of those miles. Narrated by Glen McQueen and Darla K. Anderson. 6. "Studio Stories: Baby AJ" (1:38) Narrated by A.J. Rieble. A J tells how he won the Halloween costume contest one year. Truly above and beyond the call of duty! 7. "Studio Stories: Scooter Races" (2:16) In 1991, Pixar was a small company and they'd just moved into a big building that had lots of empty space. They started riding motorized scooters for fun and then they started racing. And then the racing got very fierce. Very funny short, narrated by Pete Doctor and Andrew Stanton. 8. "Buzz Takes Manhattan" (2:13) In 2008, Buzz Lightyear was a giant balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. It was a dream come true for John Lasseter, who by this time was the Chief Creative Officer for Pixar & Disney Animation. Lasseter and Roger Gould (now Creative Director for Pixar Theme Parks) star in these movie clips about raising and pulling the balloon. As Lasseter says, "He was MEANT to be a balloon, cause he was FLYING!" 9. "Black Friday: The Toy Story You never Saw" (7:36) This extra makes the Special Edition totally worth it. Wow. This is the very beginning, where Pixar was storyboarding "Toy Story", to be the very first full-length future done 100% on the computer. Everything had to go through Disney. Disney kept wanting multiple changes, and, in particular, Jeffrey Katzenberg "would rip them apart". He wanted the story more edgy, more cynical and more adult. John Lasseter explains how the Pixar crew finally went down to Disney with about half the movie storyboarded into a movie with voice acting (though not by the actors who would be hired to do the final film)- the way they thought Disney wanted it. The character of Woody took the brunt of the rewrite, becoming unappealing and even mean. Lassiter cringes and covers his face in his hands as he introduces part of the reel that was showed Disney on what they dubbed "Black Friday". You will not believe it when you see it. It is mean-spirited and something you might see on [adult swim], but not a Pixar-Disney movie. Pixar hated it, and so did Disney. Disney tried to shut them down, but Lasseter pleaded for two weeks reprieve while they reworked the story. In two weeks, in a giant collective of brains and enthusiasm, PIxar totally redid "Toy Story" the way they wanted it, and came up with the start of the movie that we now know and love. Commenters in this short include these people, showing their current titles, not their titles as they worked on "Toy Story": John Lasseter (Chief Creative Officer for Pixar & Disney Animation) , Ed Catmull (President of Pixar & Disney Animation), Pete Doctor (director "Up"), Joe Ranft (co-director "Cars"), Thomas Schumacher (former President Walt Disney Animation), Andrew Stanton (director "Wall-E"). 10. "Learn How to Take Your Favorite Movies on the Go" (1:00) This is an ad for digital files of Disney movies. Great extras for a movie that is timeless. This Special Edition for "Toy Story" came out the same time as the Special Edition for "Toy Story 2". Toy Story 2 (Two-Disc Special Edition Blu-ray/DVD Combo w/ Blu-ray Packaging) Many of the Bonus extras on the TS2 issue compliment the extras on "Toy Story". For example, there are three different Studio Stories, Episode 2 of Buzz's Mission Log, and a "Paths to Pixar" that covers the technical artists. Highly recommended! Happy Reader