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4.5
How cool that they could follow up "Toy Story" with an equally fabulous sequel. Who can forget the lines when the clueless Buzz Lightyear is battling Emperor Zurg and Buzz says, "I'll never give in. You killed my father!" And Zurg replies, "No Buzz, I AM your father."And the visual jokes, such as when the toys are trying to rescue Woody, trapped in a suitcase rattling down a conveyor belt in the airport luggage handling system. Buzz chases the green case, and from the back, we see that across his derriere he has a baggage sticker for Butte, MT.And don't forget to watch the fake "bloopers" that accompany the credits!I decided to replace our VHS's of "Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2", and purchased the 2010 Special Edition reissue of each of them. "Toy Story 2" came out in theaters in 1999, and is as funny and heartfelt today as it was then. It was the third film for Pixar. "Toy Story" was 1st, and then "A Bug's Life".There are ten Bonus Features on the DVD, and this is a list of the DVD extras, only. The second is the audio commentary track, where you watch the movie but listen to commentary throughout. Commentary tracks have become one of my favorite extras, and I'm going to cover it first.Commenters for "Toy Story 2" are: John Lasseter (director), Lee Unkrich (co-director), Ash Brannon (co-director) and Andrew Stanton (co-writer). They are proud of the new programs that allowed them to make "Toy Story 2" look more realistic than "Toy Story". Andy has a new puppy, Buster, received as a Christmas gift at the end of "Toy Story". He is much more realistic than Sid's dog, Scud, could be. "One of the new technologies... is that we actually were able to put real fur [on Buster]. The fur on the dog is like thousands and thousands of individual little hairs."Also, when the characters go outside, "all the leaves on the trees are billowing and kind of gently swaying in the wind. The trees weren't like that in the first "Toy Story". We did all kind of research on "a Bug's Life" and figured out how to make grass and leaves more like that."I never thought of it, but Robert Goulet sings Wheezie's big band version of "You've Got a Friend in Me" at the end of "Toy Story 2".Can you find these homage moments in the movie? Superman, "2001", "Toy Story", "A Bug's Life", Jerry from the short "Jerry's Game", Odd Job from James Bond, Star Trek, "Jurassic Park" and "Spinal Tap".Bonus extras on the DVD disc for Toy Story 2 (Two-Disc Special Edition Blu-ray/DVD Combo w/ Blu-ray Packaging):1. "Sneak Peek Toy Story 3 - The Characters" (4:00 minutes) Lee Unkrich, director of TS3, shows us the recurring and new characters to come in the 3-quel. TS3 was released in Nov. 2010, while the Special Editions of 1 & 2 were released in March 2010.2. Audio Commentary3. "Buzz Lightyear Mission Logs: Episode 1: International Space Station" (3:43) This confirms that a Buzz Lightyear action figure actually made it into space and the Space Station. Buzz covers many parts of life on the station, including EVA's, Extra Vehicular Activity, AKA space walks. "When I was on board I observed that the average space walk was between 3 and 8 hours". Produced in collaberation with NASA, there's lots of real video from the station.4. "Paths to Pixar - Technical Artists" (4:24) Six people who worked as "technical artists" in TS2 talk. Fascinating stuff, and a good idea of what goes into perfecting the animation to look real. Lisa started at Pixar in 1995. For a young person who wants to get into animation, the most important thing is high school math! Algebra and geometry. For example, this equation:a x b = |a| |b| cosign thetais needed to calibrate how light bounces around in a scene!5. "Studio Stories: TS2 Sleep Deprivation Lab" (1:25) The first draft of TS2 was not a success and they had to start over. Unfortunately, they had 8 months to do a year's worth of work. Narrated by Lindsey Collins, "We were frequently actually working 36 to 48 hours straight. It was like a pysch lab."6. "Studio Stories: Pinocchio" (2:15) For TS2, Pixar was still housed in a giant warehouse. The rooms had high ceilings with insulation hanging. One day they decided to throw toys up so that they'd stick in the insulation. You may be able to guess how the Pinocchio doll stuck. Narrated by Doug Sweetland and Dylan Brown. Dylan mentions: "I think we threw things in the ceiling because none of us had girlfriends."7. "Studio Stories: The Movie Vanishes" (2:32) Completed and draft footage are stored on several Linex and Unix machines. Command RM* starts erasing film as fast as it can. "Somebody" hit RM* and in 20 seconds a year's worth of work disappeared. Watch this extra to find out how the movie was saved by a newborn baby named Eli. Narrated by Oren Jacob and Galyn Susman.8. "Pixar's Zoetrope" (1:58) A zoetrope is an amazing device, sort of an accelerated flip book using sculptures, and Pixar created one using characters from TS2. Narrated by Pete Doctor (director "Up") and Nick Berry (project manager).9. "Celebrating Our Friend Joe Ranft" (12:46) This is a heartfelt tribute to Joe Ranft, who passed away near the end of production on "Cars". Participants include John Lasseter (Chief Creative Officer), Dan Scanlon, Bob Peterson, Pete Doctor and Andrew Stanton. Joe Ranft started with Disney, but joined John at Pixar for "Toy Story". John Lasseter says, Joe "was one of the greatest story artists of all time. He was the heart and soul of Pixar. And he's a big part of why people connect so deeply with our movies." He is sorely missed.10. "Learn to Take Your Favorite Movie on the Go" (1:00) This is an ad for digital files of Disney movies.This Special Edition for "Toy Story 2" came out the same time as the Special Edition for "Toy Story".Toy Story (Two-Disc Special Edition Blu-ray/DVD Combo in Blu-ray Packaging)Many of the Bonus extras on the "Toy Story" reissue compliment the extras on "Toy Story 2". For example, there are three different Studio Stories, Episode 1 of Buzz's Mission Log, and a "Paths to Pixar" that covers the artists. Highly recommended!Happy Reader
