Contagion has some things going for it, but mainly from an acting and technical level rather than the story. The cast is mostly good despite having a limited amount of screen time and Soderbergh’s visual style, while nothing new from what he’s done in the past, still looks stunning and gives the film a certain gravitas yet at the same time I felt like I was more or less a spectator versus becoming involved or entrenched with what was going on.
Pixar Short Films Collection: Volume 2
REVIEW NAVIGATION
The Movie | Special Features | Video Quality | Audio Quality | Overall
Genre(s): Animation, Fantasy, Family
Disney | NR – 75 min. – $39.99 | November 13, 2012
MOVIE INFO:
Directed by: Various
Writer(s): Various
Cast: Various
DISC INFO:
Features: Commentaries on All Short Features, Student Films, DVD Copy
Number of Discs: 2
Audio: English (DTS-HD MA 7.1), English (DTS-HD MA 5.1), English (Dolby TrueHD 7.1), English (Dolby TrueHD 5.1), French (Dolby TrueHD 5.1), French (Dolby TrueHD 7.1), Spanish (Dolby TrueHD 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Video: 1080p/Widescreen 1.78
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Disc Size: 30.0 GB
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Region(s): A, B, C
THE MOVIE – 4.5/5
From the back cover: Disney and Pixar present a new collection of 12 short films, featuring multiple Academy Award nominees and a host of family favorites. Join the celebration of imagination with this collection, packed with unforgettable animation, fantastic stories and captivating characters.
Included in this second volume:
* Your Friend the Rat
* Presto
* BURN-E
* Partly Cloudy
* Dog’s Special Mission
* George & A.J.
* Day & Night
* Hawaiian Vacation
* Air Mater
* Small Fry
* Time Travel Mater
* La Luna
All of these animated shorts are great featuring some wonderful stories, incredible animation and great voice casting, most returning to the roles in the cases the animated short is associated with a movie (i.e. “Hawaiian Vacation” and “Small Fry” with the Toy Story franchise). Some of these have been on other Pixar releases before while others were shown in theaters, but having them all together on one disc is a treat. Along with the two Toy Story shorts, my favorites were “Presto”, “Day & Night” (which I saw originally in front of Toy Story 3) and “La Luna”.
SPECIAL FEATURES – 2.5/5
This release comes with a shiny and reflective slip cover.
Filmmakers’ Commentaries – Each and every animated short received a commentary and while a few aren’t that enticing, there are many that are fairly interesting. Each of the commentators provides background info on the story, animated and/or voice cast.
Short Student Films of Pixar Directors – The short films from John Lasseter (‘Nitemare’, ‘Lady and the Lamp’), Andrew Stanton (‘Somewhere in the Arctic’, ‘A Story’) and Pete Docter (‘Winter’, ‘Palm Springs’, ‘Next Door’) have been included in this set.
A DVD Copy is available as well.
VIDEO – 5.0/5
Disney presents the Pixar Short Films Collection, Volume 2 in glorious and eye-popping 1080p high-definition, each presented in their original aspect ratios. As with most new animated features (or shorts), the visuals on them are absolutely splendid with bright colors, nice line detail and little to no banding. In some of the shorts, such as “La Luna”, the glows alone are spectacular. Any fan of Pixar, or generally animation, could proudly play this in their home theater.
AUDIO – 4.75/5
Similarly, each of the 12 animated shorts get a lossless audio track, depending which one, it’s 5 or 7 channels and either DTS-HD MA or TrueHD. Either way, these short films sound incredible with nice volume coming from the center channel, mostly for dialogue or front action, while the surrounds are beautifully, and evenly, spread throughout the room.
OVERALL – 4.5/5
Overall, whether you’re a general fan of animation or of Pixar’s work, this Pixar Short Films Collection, Volume 2 is incredible filled with fun stories and spectacular animation that was made for Blu-ray. The features are somewhat limited but it is nice to at least get commentaries and more short films from 3 of Pixar’s most influential directors.
Published: 11/08/2012