Up - 3D

Pixar films are demonstration gold in every format they tackle. First with DVD, then Blu-ray, and now, to no one's surprise, Blu-ray 3D. These computer generated movies -- with their lavish colors, detailed textures, and vivid animation -- probably sell more HD displays than any other demo material (well, maybe live sports help... a little). 'Up' debuted theatrically in 2D and 3D, but we've had to wait three years for the Blu-ray 3D. The original 2009 2D 'Up' Blu earned a full 5 star video score, and there's no question this MVC MPEG-4 encoded 3D disc matches, and in some ways even exceeds, that presentation.

Bold claim, no? Well, it's true. I've always enjoyed 'Up' on Blu-ray, and watch the film several times per year. It's colorful and crisp and shines on any display, but the movie has always felt a little flat when compared to my memory of seeing the film theatrically. In Blu-ray 3D, other than a few newsreel shots, the dimensionality is astounding. Despite the fact I know it's a cartoon, the film feels, somehow, more real. I can see into this beautifully rendered universe. In terms of the "3D effect", most of world expands behind the screen, but there are also a few great shots of faces and objects jutting out towards the audience. Cross-talk, for those with certain display technologies, was minimal.

I would also argue this 3D home experience is even better than my theatrical one. I first saw the film in 2D, but loved it so much, my wife and I went back to see it in 3D. Directly comparing them at the time, I recall not being too impressed with the 3D, which felt darker, muddier, than the 2D. It must have been a projector settings issue, because brightness levels match the 2D Blu perfectly. Colors pop and shadow details remain (there are a number of night sequences). In fact, it's just like watching the 2D version, but with a more immersive feel. In fact, pop back to the 2D version after watching the 3D and, while the film's still gorgeous, I personally missed the third dimension.

Anytime a Pixar movie arrives on home video, enthusiasts have especially high expectations. I'm happy to say 'Up - 3D' features another flawless, demo-worthy video presentation (in two OR three dimensions) and it alone makes this release a Must Own for 3D fans. Seriously, some of the best 3D I've seen, but then again, I'm about to review 'Finding Nemo', so who knows.

I just have to give it up to Pixar at this point for their Blu-rays. I remember the double disc 'Bug's Life' being one of the first really amazing DVDs, and here they are again, upping the ante with the new format. Just great. This two-disc set is just awe inspiring. The only thing it's really missing is some kind of promotional art gallery, showcasing the different sketches and posters and whatnot. Also, I'd like to praise the ease and elegance of the menu design - everything is really fluid and easy to navigate. Also worth noting is that this disc is Region "A" locked.

In addition to the Blu-ray, the four disc set also comes with a DVD of the film and a digital copy.

• Party Cloudy (HD, 5:49) This charming animated short, directed by Pete Sohn (who served as inspiration for rambunctious Wilderness Explorer Russell), we see how babies are made - by a bunch of cute cloud spirits. They make all sorts of babies - but it seems that one unfortunate cloud can only produce scary, sharp, stingy creatures. This gives his stork a lot of grief (since he's the one that has to carry the babies down to earth), and at the center of this short is the relationship between the cloud and the stork. Pixar has honed the amount of time it takes for you to fall in love with a character to around 30 seconds.
  
• Dug's Special Mission (HD, 4:42) This is an all new animated short that follows talking dog Dug, right before he meets up with Carl and Russell. I really don't want to give away anything else, but this might be the best new-short-for-home-video since "Jack Jack Attack" from 'The Incredibles.'
  
• Adventure is Out There! (HD, 22:18) A lot of times on these Pixar discs, they'll talk about the research trip they went on to get information for a project. Like the brief trip the 'Ratatouille' gang spent racing around Paris trying to soak up the atmosphere. But this is the first time I've seen an honest-to-god documentary solely about one of these research expeditions, and the results are truly spectacular. They went down to the South American jungles with a guy named Adrian Warren, who has written and documented these plateau-type mountains you see in the film. Very few humans have ever set foot on the top of the mountain, so it was a real coup for a half dozen or so animators, technical guys, and the film's directors, to get to do it. (Most of them talk about how otherworldly it was.) This documentary mixes footage they actually shot of the journey, with interviews with the guys that went down there, and it's just spellbinding.
  
• The Many Endings of Muntz (HD, 4:56) The villain Muntz was a real tough nut to crack. I remember a friend of mine was talking to somebody involved with Pixar, and they were telling him that they struggled with the Muntz character until the last possible minute. This brief but fascinating documentary showcases some of the possible deaths of Muntz, and how director Pete Docter had a fundamental opposition to even having a villain in the movie, but felt it necessary in a thematic context. (Also, without Muntz, you wouldn't have had a hilarious old man fight.) One of the best bits in here is a kind of 'Shining'-esque moment where Muntz gets lost in a labyrinth of rock formations; chilling stuff. (I'll talk more about this in a minute.)
  
• Documentaries About 45 minutes worth of documentaries reside under the simple heading of "Documentaries." Each one is essential viewing. Here is where you will find the following: Geriatric Hero (HD, 6:24), in which the various animators and behind-the-scenes elves talk about going to an old folks home and studying the wrinkles and pores of old people. They also talk about the thematic, emotional resonance of old age, and co-director Bob Peterson talks about a video he took of his grandparents' house in the early 1990's, and how they drew from that heavily. Wonderful stuff. Canine Companions (HD, 8:26) showcases the amount of study that went into crafting the dogs in the film - both the loveable Dug, and the villainous pack. There are interviews with prominent dog behaviorist Ian Dunbar, and footage of lectures he gave the Pixar animation crew about dog psychology. Russell: Wilderness Explorer (HD, 6) is all about the evolution of Russell, both from a design point and from a character point of view. A lot of it focuses on the similarities between Russell and animator Pete Sohn, who also provided Russell's voice on the scratch track (he's the voice of Emile in 'Ratatouille'). Our Flightless Friend Kevin (HD, 5:04) is about the achingly painful process of figuring out what, exactly, Kevin is, from a biological standpoint but (again) from a thematic one. At one point he was a kind of mythological bird god who breathed fire, in another incarnation his feathers were made out of gold, in yet another, he was a missing link between man and dinosaur. But what they settled on was an ostrich-like bird with a beautiful, iridescent coat of feathers. It shows the animators interacting with live ostriches, which is also very amusing. It's weird that they don't mention the innate power of having a flightless bird be central to a story about the imaginative power of air travel, but I guess they left it to geeks like me to discuss. Homemakers of Pixar (HD, 4:38) is all about bringing Carl's home to life. They actually made a perfect model of Carl's house and photographed it with different light sources, took it outside and put it up to the sky, and it's an amazingly real, tactile version of the animated house. Balloons and Flight (HD, 6:25) talks about the physics of the balloons, and this was probably the least interesting because it was the most technical based. Still, I'd recommend watching it. Lastly, there's Composing for Characters (HD, 7:37) which, if you bought the film's score on iTunes, you've already seen. Still, I hadn't seen it for a while and it was amazing. This is mostly about Michael Giacchino's amazing score, and I tell you what, just listening to him play the main theme on a piano, tears welled up. It's really that great.
  
• Alternate Scene: Married Life (HD, 9:13) This is a really great piece. The first half talks about the power and importance of the opening "Married Life" sequence, which charts the marriage of Ellie and Carl, wordlessly (it was inspired by Pete Docter looking at old 16 mm footage from his childhood and being taken aback by how much more power there was without sound). This bit of the movie is one of just incredible power, and to have something like a miscarriage appear in the opening of a children's film is ballsy and truly unique. So they talk about how that all came together, and then they show us, via storyboards, an earlier draft of the same sequence. (With Michael Giacchino's music, I could have watched a werewolf attacking a nun and found it moving.) The differences are interesting - this one is way longer and has some bizarre subplot about a Muntz museum opening up in Carl and Ellie's town, complete with a display of a bird that looks as lot like Kevin. The finished product is much better, but this, like virtually every other special feature, needs to be seen.
  
• 'Up' Promo Montage (HD, 6) I don't know if this stuff was shown on the Disney Channel or on the internet or what, but it's these brief character moments, like Kevin holding onto a bunch of balloons and floating upwards, or Russell trying to set a trap. All of them were animated by Pixar and look gorgeous and are brief and hilarious and really satisfying. They are so short I’m not sure where they would fit, exactly, but I loved watching this little reel. Great stuff.
  
• Worldwide Trailers This is sort of weird. For one, they don't have the charming teaser trailer (you can pop in your 'Wall-E' Blu-ray for that one), and because, well, even though it says 'Worldwide Trailers,' it's really just the two theatrical trailers (which are presented in HD and run 1:48 and 2:29 respectively). Oh well.