DVD Reviews

Toy Story (Two-Disc Special Edition Blu-ray/DVD Combo) – Blu-ray Review

By Dana Rae Mar 25, 2010, 15:53 GMT

$Experience a hilarious fantasy about the lives toys lead when they\'re left alone. Woody (Tom Hanks), an old-fashioned cowboy doll, is Andy\'s favorite. But when Andy gets Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) for his birthday, the flashy new space hero takes Andy\'s room by storm! Their rivalry leaves them lost with a toy\'s worst nightmare -- Sid, the toy-torturing boy next door. Woody and Buzz must work together to escape, realizing$

Experience a hilarious fantasy about the lives toys lead when they\'re left alone. Woody (Tom Hanks), an old-fashioned cowboy doll, is Andy\'s favorite. But when Andy gets Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) for his birthday, the flashy new space hero takes Andy\'s room by storm! Their rivalry leaves them lost with a toy\'s worst nightmare -- Sid, the toy-torturing boy next door. Woody and Buzz must work together to escape, realizing ...more

For the first time ever, the beloved 1995 animated classic Toy Story comes to Blu-ray with enhanced 1080p picture exclusively for high definition and HD Master Audio sound. This is a rare treat for fans who eagerly await the next installment of Toy Story 3 - which hits theaters this summer.

For children just coming up, their parents will want to revisit these beloved characters and story for them. We had a family night and watched both Toy Story and Toy Story 2 back to back and my children, ages 6 and 11. They had never seen them before, and loved the films. We watched them again the next night.

For those of my generation, the magic is still there and greatly enhanced with the new 1080p picture. I was wowed by how much I could see that I had missed before.

I have always been suspicious that toys moved when you leave the room. I have even, in my youth, tried to catch them in the act. Toy Story just cemented my belief that they really are alive and you should take great pains to take care of them - as the villainous Sid, that horror of a neighbor kid, finds out.

This first movie introduced us to its many toy characters: the cowboy doll, Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks), the space toy Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Tim Allen), Mr. Potato Head (voiced my Don Rickles), Slinky Dog (voiced by the late Jim Varney), the piggy bank Hamm (voiced by John Ratzenberger), the beautiful sweetheart of Woody, Bo Peep (voiced by Annie Potts), and that lovable Tyrannosaurus dinosaur, Rex (voiced by Wallace Shawn).

The humans in the mix are: Sid (voiced by Eric von Detton), Andy’s mom (voiced by Laurie Metcalf), and Andy (voiced by John Morris), and later at Sid’s house, his sister, Hannah (voiced by Sarah Freeman).

The premise of the film is that Andy’s toys come to life when children or adults are not in the room. The toys in Andy’s room have distinct personalities and the special ones that he really loves have his name lovingly written on the bottom of their feet.

The problem arises at Andy’s birthday party when he receives a battery-powered space toy named Buzz Lightyear. Andy’s favorite toy, Woody, is incredibly jealous and afraid he will be misplaced. To add to the hilarity, Buzz doesn’t know he is a toy and thinks that he is on a space mission.

Both Buzz and Woody end up at Sid’s house, to their horror. Sid destroys toys. He blows them up in the backyard and all of the toys in Andy’s room are incredibly afraid of Sid (as they watch through the window as he blows a toy up).

Buzz and Woody must help each other as they struggle to escape, and a friendship unfolds in the process. It is the start of a beautiful friendship, and one of the best ever of film as their story continues in Toy Story 2.

The genius of Toy Story lies not only in its blending of characters but of adding nostalgic value to those characters. How many fans played with a Mr. Potato Head or a bucket of army men?

Of course, Woody and Buzz are made up toys, but who out there had a Speak and Spell? Or an Etch a Sketch? The film becomes a round-about of nostalgia, as we remember our childhood and the toys we played with and loved, and as we remember our love of this film and its classic characters.

Add the voices of Tim Allen and Tom Hanks and a really great story, and you have a certified winner. Nominated for three Oscars and numerous other awards, Toy Story didn’t disappoint when it first launched into our hearts, and it doesn’t disappoint on Blu-ray.

All of the fun is there, plus the Combo Blu-ray + DVD is packed with all-new bonus features. Some of these include a series of shorts by the artists as their share their experience and advice, amusing studio shorts about life at Pixar, Buzz takes Manhattan which was Buzz’s debut at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Buzz Lightyear Mission Logs, and Black Friday, the Toy Story you never saw, where producers and the like discuss the early cut of the film.

The enhancement of the film on Blu-ray is amazing and won’t disappoint. For adults and their children, grandparents and their grandchildren, for anyone who has ever played with toys and had a few special ones that they cherished, this film is for you. Don’t pass it by.