DVD Review: Pixar Short Films Collection (2007)

It's the greatest idea no one had ever thought of until now. You know those little Pixar shorts that play before movies, including For the Birds and Lifted? Now you can watch almost all of the Pixar shorts on a single DVD, thanks to the new Pixar Short Films Collection, available on Tuesday.

Pixar Short Films Collection contains the following short films:

• The Adventures of Andrew and Wally B.
  This is one of Pixar's oldest movies, from when they were still a part of Lucasfilm. Good animation for the time, though the movie itself is nothing spectacular compared to some of the others on the list.
  
• Luxo Jr.
  Is this the living lamp one that the Pixar logo is based on? If so, this is one of the better early ones and really doesn't show its age.
• Red's Dream
  This is the worst out of the group. It's basically about a unicycle that dreams that ugly, creepy clown that's riding it gets displaced and for once, it, the unicycle, steals the show. There's nothing spectacular here in terms of animation or story.
• Tin Toy
  This one is pretty imaginative and well animated, though it falls a bit flat at times. The baby that serves as "the monster" is quite creepy looking, and not necessarily intentionally.
• Knick Knack
  One of the best of the shorts, this one is about a snowman inside a snow globe who desperately tries to break free to get to a seductive bikini doll only a few feet away. His efforts, as you might imagine, don't go too well.
• Geri's Game
  This one is okay, if not a little creepy. Geri's Game is about an old man who plays chess with himself and gets quite clever in the process; of course, when you think about it, it's sad and suggests mental illness.
• For The Birds
  Probably one of the best known animated short ever, this is the one where a big, stupid bird tries to hang out with a bunch of tiny, smarter (but meaner) birds, and the results are hilariously disastrous.
• Mike's New Car
  A short based on Monsters, Inc. has the two leads from that feature length movie getting in trouble with Mike's new car. The hijinks are funny at first, but eventually you realize there's not much cleverness to the routine.
• Boundin'
  Boundin' is a clever little skit with a rhyming narration about a sheep that learns to be happy even when all of his wool is removed each year. Ultimately, the short isn't that funny, but I give it props for imagination.
• Jack-Jack Attack
  I'm not a huge fan of these short films based on actual movies, but this one is definitely quite entertaining. Jack-Jack Attack is basically a deleted scenes from The Incredibles, and shows us what happens to the babysitter who is watching young Jack-Jack, who suddenly begins to show his powers. I like how Pixar made this as if they pulled it right out of the movie (which is one of my favorite Pixar movies).
• One Man Band
  Another funny short, this has a poor little girl torn between two competing street musicians who are vying to get her golden coin. The twist at the end is great.
• Mater and The Ghostlight
  Cars was the worst Pixar movie ever, and is just a boring movie overall. This short film based on the Cars characters is just as dull, although had they stretched the story of this one into a full-length movie, Cars still would have been better.
• Lifted
  Another Pixar classic, Lifted is about a teenage alien who is going through "driving school" with an alien instructor, only this driving school is actually a test to abduct a human being. Basically, the teenager isn't very good, and the result is the human being bounced all over the place.

The Pixar Short Films Collection is a great idea and I'm happy Disney finally decided to put these together. Some of the shorts are better than others, but if you've always wanted to see them all, it will certainly make a good rental.

DVD Review: Ratatouille (2007)

Ratatouille (2007), one of my 14 underrated movies of the year, is coming to DVD on November 6th. The movie was a bit of a box office disappointment in terms of Pixar standards, but is certainly going to be a hit on the small screen. It is an excellent movie and easily one of the best films of the year.

You can read my full Ratatouille movie review here.

The DVD is a bit of a disappointment, a precursor, I'm sure, to a two-disc special edition. The features are pretty slim, and somewhat misleading.

The only real highlight is Fine Food & Film, a featurette that looks at how the Pixar guys came about creating a movie about food. The featurette includes interviews with acclaimed chef Thomas Keller ("acclaimed" because it says so on the box), as well as the creators of the movie.

The animated short Your Friend The Rat is pretty lame; I tuned it out within a minute.

The deleted scenes are where I really have a problem. I absolutely hate DVDs that advertise deleted scenes, only when you try to watch them you realize they were deleted at the screenplay review stage. The deleted scenes here are not CGI, but instead rough hand drawn animations with voice overs. The commentary introducing each scene is slightly interesting, but a deleted scene shouldn't be a deleted scene until after it is "filmed" and then cut.

The DVD also includes the short film that ran before the film, titled Lifted, which is a pretty funny little animation about a teenage alien doing "driver's ed" by abducting a human.

Overall, the DVD looks like it was put together at the last moment and will not appeal to fans who really like DVD features. Oh, at least the DVD includes a $10 rebate if you also buy Ratatouille on Blu-Ray. Are you kidding me? Why would you buy the movie on two different formats?

DVD review: Darkwing Duck, Volume 2

I, like many of my friends and colleagues, like to reminisce on the cartoons we loved as children. As most of us now agree (and probably our parents before us), the quality of cartoons have gone heavily downhill, as companies have resorted to cooler effects and other gizmos at the expense of quality stories and fun, memorable characters. That conclusion, of course, comes from seeing the occasional commercial for today's children programming.

But think back to the 1990's, and you may or may not remember "Darkwing Duck". About twice a year I get on the conversation of what television shows I loved as a kid, and as we list off dozens (how the heck did we manage to watch so much TV?), we get lost in the memories of yesteryear. Alas, not once has "Darkwing Duck" been mentioned... at least not until I received an email saying that Disney's "Darkwing Duck: Volume 2" was coming to DVD (since I'm sure Disney, who sent me the DVD, wants me to pitch the film a little bit, I'll mention it hits stores Tuesday, August 7th at 12:56am. Don't wait in line, because I made that last part up and all stores will be closed).

"Darkwing Duck" is as good as I remember it. Of course, now that I am 25, there is no possible way I'm ever going to watch all 27 episodes, let alone four or five, but parents should be taking full advantage of all these classic cartoons that are coming to DVD. "Darkwing" may not be as classic as some of the others, I'll admit, but how can you go wrong when you essentially turn Daffy Duck into a crime-fighting superhero, tack on a hot daughter (just kidding there) and a lovable sidekick named Launchpad McQuack? The show is funny, well-written and has an enjoyable, idiotic main character whose ego so gets in the way that often he boggles his crime fighting attempts. The show actually is a bit dynamic, as compared to the carbon copy shows of today.

I can't imagine that too many fans of the show are scooping these DVD sets up for the special features, which is probably why there are none (unless you count a French language track). So what you see on the cover is what you get, 27 episodes from the middle of the series.

Parents and children can enjoy "Darkwing Duck" together - why not let your kid watch some quality programming for a change?

Disney bans smoking in its movies

The Hollywood Reporter has said that The Walt Disney Co. will ban smoking from all future family films, and will place anti-smoking ads on its DVDs.

Universal Studios also adopted a similar policy in April, banning smoking from youth-related films that Universal or related studios produce. Other studios will no doubt follow suit, as between these two companies and the MPAA's scrutiny on the smoking issue, it would be bad PR not to follow suit. It sounds like politicians will be using Disney as an example to force other studios to do the same:

"Disney's decision to take a stand against smoking is groundbreaking, and I commend CEO Bob Iger for this important commitment," Rep. Markey, D-Mass. said. "Now it's time for other media companies to similarly kick the habit and follow Disney's lead."

Even in this day and age, about 90% of smokers begin smoking before age 21. American Legacy, a nonprofit created out of landmark litigation between the tobacco industry and states attorneys general, claims that 90% of all films depict smoking, and children with the highest exposure to smoking in movies were nearly three times more likely to start smoking. It contends that tobacco is featured in three quarters of G-, PG- and PG-13-rated movies and 90% of R-rated movies.

While these movies are most necessary, my question is this: how are kids so stupid? How do people get lured into smoking these days? Unlike when I was growing up, smoking is no longer cool. It doesn't look cool, it doesn't smell cool, and everyone knows it kills. How is the tobacco industry continuing to market effectively to these kids?

Oh, yeah. Movies.