Cars Toon: Mater's Tall Tales (Two Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) Review

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(More customer reviews)For those of you who do not have the Disney Channel, Mater's Tall Tales are five minute CGI animated shorts based on characters from Pixar's Cars. They are about the tow truck, Mater, regaling his friends on his numerous (and outrageously unrealistic) adventures such as meeting a UFO, being a world famous bullfighter, professional wrestler or daredevil, and other crazy situations. These shorts always fall back on the same joke where Lightning McQueen challenges Mater's tale as being true and Mater replying with, "Don't you remember? You was there too", which ends with McQueen being in the thick of the tall tale.
The animation quality is on par with the movie. Plus you get appearances of other Cars characters like Sally, Red, Mia and Tia and more. They even get just about all of the original actors to do the voiceovers with the notable exception of Owen Wilson as Lightning McQueen (replaced by veteran voice talent Keith Ferguson). All in all a fun little cartoon to fill time between shows on Disney.
This Blu-Ray collects all of the shorts ever released and a couple that haven't come out yet. This totals nine cartoons, so it's not exactly a large amount of content at about 40 minutes. You do, however, get about 50 minutes of additional features to whet your whistle. Here's a list of the bonus stuff:
Paths to Pixar - Similar featurette to the ones on other Pixar collections this has interviews with Pixar artists, editors and such and gives insights on their experiences and other career details.
Studio Stories: McQueen Has No Hands - The challenges of manipulating a map when your character doesn't have any hands.
Mater: Bumper to Bumper - Goes into detail about the creation of Mater and how he is animated.
Making of Mater's Tall Tales - Self Explanatory. Documentary on creating the Mater shorts from conception to finished product.
Unmade Tales - Some of the ideas that didn't make it to production. Each one has an intro by Director Rob Gibbs and are pitched by the story artist. Tales include Runway Mater, Stunt Mater, Backwards to the Forwards, Car-nival and Import Mater.
Cars Toons Story Reels - Mater the Greater, Unidentified Flying Mater and Mater Private Investigator all shown in their conformed storyreels shown against the final audio track. You also have a picture in picture option to see both the reel and the finished product.
Cars Land Sneak Peek - Just as it says you get to see the upcoming Disney California Adventure attraction Cars Land. Mainly behind the scenes stuff.
If you love the movie Cars and/or the Mater shorts then of course this is the disk for you. Makes me wonder if they will re-release the Toy Story Treats that were done in 1996 somewhere on a Blu-Ray collection. Just keep in mind you are paying for about 90 minutes of content including all of the bonus features. It's a short disk.

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Monsters, Inc. (Four-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy) (2001) Review

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(More customer reviews)Before anyone starts saying this has not been released yet and there cannot be a review of the Bluray edition let me tell you this, this movie has been available in Japan and Mexico for quite some time now, and I was able to get a copy of the Mexican edition, which was at one time, identical to the one to be released in the US. It is a 3 disc edition (2 BD plus DVD copy of the movie), this has now been changed to a 4 disc set in the US to include the additional digital copy.

Disc one starts with an intro by director Pete Docter, in which he pretty much explains all the contents in this 'glorious' high definition version of the movie. A mini documentary on the 'Monsters, Inc: Ride & Go Seek ' ride in Disney Japan is also included. The highlight to me was the creators 'Round table' in which they talk about the process of creating the movie, some deleted scenes not included in prior DVD versions are shown here and they finally explained to me why is it so difficult to get a reservation at 'Harryhausen's' if all the staff from the scare floor seems to hang around there!

The Pixar shorts 'For the birds' and 'Mike's new car' (originally made on 4:3 format) are also included in HD format (as previously released in 'Pixar shorts)

The movie is presented in 1:85:1 aspect ratio. The word that comes to mind to describe how this looks is simply 'Beautiful', the colors, the textures, Sullivan's fur, the character's skin textures, Roz' sweater. Details pop up, colors are bright and clear. I had never noted that the real name of 'Boo' is actually in the movie until I saw it on Bluray!

The audio is another improvement of this BD edition. Presented in an uncompressed 5.1 track, the music by Randy Newman and the sound effects (check the audio in the door chamber sequence or every time 'Boo' laughs/cries and there is a power variation) sound just great. Spanish and French Dolby Digital tracks are also included. An audio commentary with the creators provides a lot of details of the movie, since I have watched this over and over with my 2 year old kid I have been able to play the commentary a couple times so he watches the movie and I learn about how it was made.

One thing I noted though, the end credits in the Bluray are not the same as in the DVD. The DVD will have the bloopers play while the credits roll, while the Bluray does not. Those 'Bloopers' though are included in disc 2 as additional features.
Disc 2 includes a feature called the 'Employee's manual' Additional spots created to promote the film are included too. Storyboards and drawings from the artists in HD as well as the '100 doors challenge', which is like a trivia game in which based on your responses you will be offered a position in Monsters Inc. Disc 3 as mentioned earlier, is a DVD copy of the movie (in the Mexican edition the 4:3 presentation is included, NOT widescreen) which is great as my kid can have that to watch it as many times as he desires.

Fans of the movie or any Pixar movie should not miss this!


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Experience the film that captured the hearts of critics and fans around the world in a breathtaking new way. MONSTERS, INC. is visually dazzling, action-packed and hilarious, raves the Boston Herald. And now, with eye-popping, crystal-clear visuals and theater-quality sound, it's even better on Disney Blu-ray Hi-Def! Lovable Sulley (John Goodman) and his wisecracking sidekick Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) are the top scare team at Monsters, Inc., the scream-processing factory in Monstropolis. When a little girl named Boo wanders into their world, it's the monsters who are scared silly, and it's up to Sulley and Mike to keep her out of sight and get her back home. Open the door to a fantastic world of fun and imagination that will have you screaming for more. Featuring never-before-seen bonus features, the original DVD and a DisneyFile Digital Copy of the movie, MONSTERS, INC. is a sensational new experience on Disney Blu-ray. Bonus Features Include: MONSTERS, INC. Ride And Go Seek: Building Monstropolis In Japan Go Behind The Scenes Of The New Attraction In Tokyo Disneyland, Filmmaker's Round Table Filmmakers Reflect On The Creation Of The Film, Audio Commentary, Pixar Fun Factory Tour, Banished Concepts, DVD Of Film Plus Original DVD Bonus, DisneyFile Digital Copy

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