PIXAR Short Films Collection 2 (Disney Blu-ray w/DVD)

 

Picture: B/B-     Sound: B-/C+     Extras: B     Shorts: B

 

 

Now for a new collection of shorts from PIXAR, now a subdivision of one-time distributor-only, Disney, the PIXAR Short Films Collection 2 offers everything from spin-offs from its hit features to some interesting originals.  Here are the main shorts:

 

1)     John Capobianco’s Your Friend The Rat

2)     Doug Sweetland’s Presto

3)     Angus MacLane’s BURN-E

4)     Peter Sohn’s Partly Cloudy

5)     Ronnie Del Carmen’s Dug’s Special Mission

6)     Josh Cooley’s George & A.J.

7)     Teddy Newton’s Day & Night

8)     Gary Rydstrom’s Hawaiian Vacation

9)     Rob Gibbs’ Air Mater

10)  Angus MacLane’s Small Fry

11)  Rob Gibbs’ Time Travel Mater

12)  Enrico Casarosa’s La Luna

 

 

Most are spin-off sequels to their feature film cousins, but Presto is a charming stand-alone that holds up well, Partly Cloudy also offering stand-alone fun, George & A.J. a sort of test run for Up and La Luna my favorite, stand-alone or otherwise.  It has no real dialogue, the best use of color, the cleverest humor, the cleverest visuals and offers something profoundly special as two broomsmen and a young child who joins them has to sweep stars on the surface of the moon.  It goes beyond the familiar CG style and becomes something more; making it one of the best pieces of computer animation I have seen to date.  However, this is a solid set of work overall and shows why PIXAR remains the king of CG animation, even with others starting to catch up.

 

Some of the shorts were also screened theatrically in 3D, but none of them appear that way here, yet we expect some PIXAR 3D shorts set down the line.  The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer quality is just fine throughout with some nice demo shots here and there, but color and style do vary.  The spin-offs of the hit features are in the style of their respective sources, Day & Night is on the abstract side and La Luna is my particular visual favorite as well.  The anamorphically enhanced DVD version is not bad for the format, but no match for the Blu-ray.

 

As for audio, the first 6 shorts are only offered in lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes on both formats, which will disappoint some, though those mixes sound a sliver better on the Blu-rays than the DVDs, then #7 (Day & Night) is in a DTS-HD High Resolution 7.1 mix that is very dynamic and more than satisfactory.  The rest are in 7.1 lossless mixes on the Blu-ray except the two Cars/Mater spin-offs (#s 9 & 11) which are here instead in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mixes, with #8 in DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) and #s 10 & 12 in Dolby TrueHD 7.1.  Needless to say the 7.1 shorts have the best sonics, but all are very well recorded and play very nicely.  Just wish the early shorts were lossless in some format.  The DVD has nothing but lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes at its best and is not a match for the Blu-ray overall.

 

Extras include audio commentary tracks on every single short by the director, sometimes joined by others who worked on their given shorts, original student shorts by John Lassiter (Nightmare, Lady & The Lamp), Andrew Stanton (Somewhere In The Arctic, A Story) and Pete Doctor (Winter, Palm Springs, Next Door).

 

 

For more on the first PIXAR shorts Blu-ray, try this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6243/Pixar+Short+Films+Collection+%E2%8

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo