Toon Talk: Toy Story 10th Anniversary DVD - Sep 6, 2005

Toon Talk: Toy Story 10th Anniversary DVD
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by Kirby Holt (archives)
September 6, 2005
Kirby reviews the Toy Story 10th Anniversary DVD release.
 
Toon Talk
Disney Film & Video Reviews by Kirby C. Holt

(c) Disney

Toy Story
10th Anniversary Edition DVD

Plastics

Has it really been ten years since the debut of Toy Story, the world’s first fully-computer animated feature film? For better or worse it has been an eventful and fruitful decade for the medium since the introduction of Buzz and Woody and all the gang from Andy’s bedroom, ten years that have seen the highs of such popular and critical successes as Finding Nemo and the Shrek films to the lows of such stinkers as Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and Valiant, from the institution of an animated feature Academy Award to the marginalizing of traditional hand-drawn animation.

Four years following its debut, Toy Story spawned a well-received sequel with Toy Story 2 (that rarest of breeds, a 2 equal to 1), and both films were paired together in 2000 in the best-selling DVD set Toy Story: The Ultimate Toy Box, a three-disc compilation filled to the brim with extras and bonuses galore. Also released the following year were single discs of each movie with minimal extras, for those who didn’t want to shell out the big bucks for the deluxe Toy Box. So why do we need a 10th Anniversary Edition of Toy Story (followed later this year by Toy Story 2)?

Well, just as the medium of computer animation has grown by leaps and bounds through technical advances in the past ten years, so has home video technology. With a new transfer direct from the digital source, the film certainly has never looked as fresh and crisp before; ditto for the sound quality, which has been remastered and is available in two separate options (a Dolby Digital EX mix provided by Oscar-winning sound whiz Gary Rydstrom and a DTS track, a first for a region one Pixar title).

Bottom line: if your home theater system cost more then your car, then this is a must own, even if you already have the Ultimate Toy Box. If not and you’re perfectly happy with the Toy Box edition, this two-disc set does feature a handful of new bonuses that might tempt those who can’t get enough of such things and might be worth a look-see (even if just a rental). On the other hand, if you only own the single disc version, you should pick up this new model, which does carry-over a good number of the features that were only previously available in the deluxe package.

And as for the film itself, its not surprising that it still holds up today just as well as it did back in 1995, as I’m sure it will in 2045. After all, as Buzz Lightyear always says: “To infinity and beyond!�?

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