Toy Story 2: Special Edition (Blu-ray) (1999) |
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Toy Story 2: Special Edition (Blu-ray) (1999) |
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| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Animation |
Featurette-Toy Story 3 Sneak Peek: The Characters Audio Commentary-with John Lasseter,Lee Unkrich,Ash Brannon & Andrew Stanton Featurette-Buzz Lightyear Mission Logs: International Space Station Featurette-Paths to Pixar: Technical Artists Featurette-Studio Stories: Toy Story 2 - Sleep Deprivation Lab Featurette-Studio Stories: Pinocchio Featurette-Studio Stories: The Movie Vanishes Featurette-Pixar's Zoetrope Featurette-Celebrating Our Friend Joe Ranft Featurette-Making Toy Story 2 Featurette-John Lasseter Profile Featurette-Cast Of Characters Featurette-Toy Box Featurette-Deleted Scenes Featurette-Design Featurette-Production Featurette-Music & Sound Featurette-Publicity Web Links-Disney BD-Live |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 1999 | ||
| Running Time | 92:25 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | Dual Layered | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Language Select Then Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 4 | Directed By | John Lasseter |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Walt Disney Studios Home Ent. |
Starring |
Tom Hanks Tim Allen |
| Case | Amaray Variant | ||
| RPI | $39.95 | Music | Randy Newman |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English DTS HD Master Audio 6.1 ES Discrete (4608Kb/s) Czech Dolby Digital 5.1 EX (640Kb/s) Slovak Dolby Digital 5.1 EX (640Kb/s) Greek Dolby Digital 5.1 EX (640Kb/s) Bulgarian Dolby Digital 5.1 EX (640Kb/s) Arabic Dolby Digital 5.1 EX (640Kb/s) Ukranian Dolby Digital 5.1 EX (640Kb/s) English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 (320Kb/s) |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 1080p | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
English Czech Slovak Greek Bulgarian Arabic Slovenian Ukranian Latvian Lithuanian Estonian English for the Hearing Impaired |
Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
For the this review of Toy Story 2 on Blu-ray I have utilised my review of the Toy Story 2 2010 Special Edition release on DVD. The purpose of this review is to inform our readers of the quality of the video and audio transfer of Toy Story 2 on Blu-ray and discuss its special features.
It's not often that a sequel to a film is more successful than the original, both critically and at the box-office. Toy Story 2 cost three times more to make than Toy Story ($US90 million or about $US 1 million a minute of screen time) and took $US485 million in gross revenue. At the time of it's release, in 1999, Toy Story 2 was the 2nd highest grossing animated film of all time behind The Lion King. This has since been surpassed by Finding Nemo and Shrek 2. However, the story behind the development of the sequel to the massive Pixar hit of 1995, Toy Story was not all smooth sailing, at one point Pixar was developing a film that was nothing like the film we have come to know and love today, released theatrically in 1999.
The original idea for Toy Story 2 was to develop a direct-to-video release that was no longer than 60 minutes in length. The thinking behind this idea from Disney executives was the financial success of the two direct-to-video releases of the sequels to Aladdin (in fact, the second sequel released in 1996, Aladdin and the King of Thieves grossed $US186 million). When Disney executives viewed the film they were highly impressed. They decided to make Toy Story 2 into a theatrical feature which required a great deal of work from the Pixar animators in a very short time. The documentary The Pixar Story by Leslie Iwerks on the Wall-E Blu-ray/DVD release includes details of Pixar's history from this era, with John Lasseter especially suffering from burnout and stress. He wouldn't direct another film until the release of Cars in 2006. At the time the distribution deal between Disney and Pixar was for five films, when Toy Story 2 was developed into a theatrical feature Pixar felt that it should count as part of the five-film deal whereas Disney did not. The experience in making this great animated film led to Pixar eventually seeking a distribution deal with another company after 2004, but after Disney CEO Michael Eisner left, Disney and Pixar made peace, allowing Disney to buyout Pixar in 2006. The relationship between Disney and Pixar has come full circle since 1999 with Pixar board member Steve Jobs now occupying a place on the Disney board. However, the strong assertion by Pixar that sequels should only be made if the story is strong enough still remains, even if it is only a 'gentleman's agreement' and not enforceable under contract terms legally.
The development of the characters, specifically Sheriff Woody, the introduction of new characters and the larger 'world' in which the story develops are the elements which make Toy Story 2 an improvement over the original. The larger world allows for more action sequences as most of the story in Toy Story 2 is not set in Andy's room, like in Toy Story.
Toy Story 2 has been released on Blu-ray for the first time in 2010, in time for the theatrical release of Toy Story 3 in June, 2010. This release includes the film on DVD as a bonus disc.
Toy Story 2, like Toy Story, has always looked good on DVD. This 2010 Special Edition release on Blu-ray is simply awe-inspiring with an average bitrate of 24.48 m/b per sec.
The aspect ratio of Toy Story 2 is 1:78:1 transferred in high-definition 1080p 24/fps using AVC MPEG-4 compression, 16x9 enhanced for widescreen televisions.
As per the DVD, the Blu-ray version of Toy Story 2 looks superb. The transfer particularly excels in shading and lighting, even more than Toy Story. There is no film grain.
The colour on Toy Story 2 is again rich, bright and vibrant. Shadow detail is fabulous. This is evident in the action sequences in Al's Toy Barn with various degrees of shade and lighting in these scenes.
There are no film artefacts present whatsoever.
Subtitles are available in English, Czech, Slovakian, Greek, Bulgarian, Arabic, Slovenian, Ukrainian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian and English for the Hearing Impaired.
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The audio transfer of Toy Story 2 on Blu-ray really emphasises the subwoofer, even more than on the Blu-ray release of Toy Story.
There are nine audio tracks on the Blu-ray. The main soundtrack is an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 ES track encoded at 4038 kbps. The Czech, Slovak, Greek, Bulgarian, Arabic and Ukrainian tracks are all encoded in Dolby Digital 5.1 EX at 640 kbps. The English Audio Descriptive and audio commentary tracks are encoded in Dolby Digital 2.0 at 320 kbps.
Dialogue is clear and audio is synchronised.
Randy Newman again wrote the film score and contributed two new songs, including the beautiful sad song, When She Loved Me performed by Sarah McLachlan. You've Got a Friend in Me is also played in the film in two new versions, in a 'round-up' style by Sheriff Woody and as a 'Vegas' number at the end of the film.
Surround Channel Usage again, like in Toy Story, combines sound effects, background sounds, the film score and dialogue to create an ambient sound experience whereby all channels are used wonderfully throughout the film.
The subwoofer supports the bass channel to emphasise the many action sequences of the film, including the Buzz Lightyear opening sequence, the scenes in Al's Toy Barn and the action scenes at the end in the airport.
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| Surround Channel Use | |
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The Blu-ray disc has a language selection option prior to loading the main menu when inserted into your Blu-ray player. The main menu gives you six main options - Play Movie, Scene Selection (select from 35 chapters), Bonus Features (which are identical to the 2010 DVD Special Edition release bonus features except that all the featurettes are in high-definition), Classic DVD Bonus Features (with extras, in standard definition, ported from the 2005 2-disc Anniversary Edition of Toy Story 2), Set-up (including an option to maximise your home theatre set-up) and Disney BD-Live.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
Toy Story 2 has been released in the United States, United Kingdom and France with the bonus DVD feature, like the Australian release. The Blu-ray releases in Germany, Sweden, Holland and Canada do not include a bonus DVD as a second disc.However, a combined Toy Story/Toy Story 2 collection box-set is available on Blu-ray in the United Kingdom and Germany. These releases only vary in their language and subtitling options. Extras are identical and all Blu-ray releases worldwide are encoded Region-ALL.
Toy Story 2 on Blu-ray, like Toy Story excels in its video and audio transfer. The extras are similarly extensive. In reading this interview, you likely already own Toy Story Special Edition, so make your Blu-ray collection complete by adding this animated masterpiece.
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| Extras | |
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Sony BDP-S550 (Firmware updated Version 020), using HDMI output |
| Display | Samsung LA46A650 46 Inch LCD TV Series 6 FullHD 1080P 100Hz. Calibrated with THX Optimizer. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Sony STR-K1000P. Calibrated with THX Optimizer. |
| Amplification | Sony HTDDW1000 |
| Speakers | Sony 6.2 Surround (Left, Front, Right, Surround Left, Surround Back, Surround Right, 2 subwoofers) |