Brave is coming to Blu-ray, DVD, and digital on Tuesday, November 13. Joining it on shelves is the
Pixar Short Films Collection–Volume 2, which brings together all the studio's shorts since
Volume 1 was released in 2007.
Earlier this week, Disney sent me the
5-Disc Ultimate Collector's Edition (pictured at left) of
Brave, which sports an appealing lenticular cover. Inside are copies of the film on Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, DVD, and digital copy, plus a second Blu-ray of extras.
After last year's
Cars 2 Blu-ray, with its dearth of quality extras, Pixar has packed this release with some solid features focusing on different aspects of the filmmaking process. You'll never think of moss—or ripped tapestries—the same way again.
Both the Blu-ray and DVD include a new, feature-based short,
The Legend of Mordu, that combines 2D and CG animated scenes. Visually, the 2D scenes are unlike anything Pixar's done before. The ending is very unexpected.
Brave is also being sold in a
3-Disc Collector's Edition Blu-ray/DVD combo pack. Less overkill when it comes to formats, but still provides the second Blu-ray full of extras. There's also a
single-disc DVD, which includes
La Luna and
Mordu and a directors' commentary
.
Despite its sparse cover art,
Pixar Short Films Collection–Volume 2 includes all of Pixar's shorts released between 2007 and 2012 (excluding
Partysaurus Rex), as follows:
The collection is available in a
Blu-ray/DVD combo pack and
1-Disc DVD. While many viewers probably own most or all of the shorts already, this collection comes in handy if you want to watch them back-to-back without switching discs a dozen times.
It also reminded me to watch
BURN-E again. I hadn't since it the
WALL-E DVD came out in 2008. Seven minutes of pure amusement. Poor BURN-E, never can catch a break!
Best of all, there are seven student films made by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, and Pete Docter during their CalArts years, restored from the original prints. Look closely and it's easy to spot the seeds of the ideas and characters that ended up in Pixar's films.
My personal favourite ended up being Docter's
Winter. There's a great simplicity about it, and its as funny as heck. Make sure you watch the director's introduction on all the shorts to get some context.