As 2010 comes to a close, there are several holiday Blu-ray/DVD releases worth purchasing to bolster your collection or as Christmas presents: As far as animation, there's LEGEND OF THE GUARDIANS: THE OWLS OF GA'HOOLE (Warner Home Video) on Blu-Ray/DVD; SHREK:THE WHOLE STORY (Paramount Home Ent.) on Blu-Ray; and three Disney docs on DVD: WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY, WALT & EL GRUPO and THE BOYS: THE SHERMAN BROTHERS' STORY (Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.). And on the VFX side, there's INCEPTION (Warner Home Video) on Blu-ray/DVD.
As 2010 comes to a close, there are several holiday Blu-ray/DVD releases worth purchasing to bolster your collection or as Christmas presents: As far as animation, there's LEGEND OF THE GUARDIANS: THE OWLS OF GA'HOOLE (Warner Home Video) on Blu-Ray/DVD; SHREK:THE WHOLE STORY (Paramount Home Ent.) on Blu-Ray; and three Disney docs on DVD: WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY, WALT & EL GRUPO and THE BOYS: THE SHERMAN BROTHERS' STORY (Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.). And on the VFX side, there's INCEPTION (Warner Home Video) on Blu-ray/DVD.
Unfortunately, LEGEND OF THE GUARDIANS does not include the early dark scene cut from the Zack Snyder-directed film in which Soren discovers that his parents have been killed and the forest burned out as a result of his brother. However, Animal Logic's animation looks brilliant on Blu (the color palette is darker and richer). While the special features are very kid-friendly, there's an alternate opening and the inclusion of the FUR OF FLYING short with Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote.
SHREK: THE WHOLE STORY offers the DreamWorks blockbuster franchise on Blu-ray, allowing us to view the animation maturation throughout all four films. Among the voluminous bonus features are 10 deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes accounts about the making of the films and \ DONKEY'S CHRISTMAS SHREKTACULAR, with the iconic cast performing classic holiday songs in true SHREK fashion.
The Disney docs are indispensable in learning more about the ups and downs of the second animation renaissance (WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY, directed by Don Hahn and produced by Peter Schneider); Walt's inspirational government tour of South America (WALT & EL GRUPO, written and directed by Theodore Thomas); and the creative and stormy relationship between musical legends Robert and Richard Sherman (THE BOYS: THE SHERMAN BROTHERS' STORY). Bonus features include deleted scenes and audio commentary from WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY and WALT & EL GRUPO; SALUDOS AMIGOS from the latter; and featurettes about the Sherman's "Process" and "Disney Studios in the '60s."
Meanwhile, Chris Nolan's INCEPTION, a dark horse for the VFX Oscar, thanks to Double Negative's superlative work and Paul Franklin's expert supervision, not only looks and sounds great on Blu, but offers a slew of informative features, including "Extraction Mode" (which allows you to infiltrate the imaginative landscape to learn how they created the signature moments); "Dreams: Cinema of the Subconscious" (in which Joseph Gordon-Levitt and a host of scientists lead us through the latest in dream research to shed light on Cobb's mental state); and "INCEPTION: The Cobol Job," a motion comic prologue that sets up the events leading to the beginning of the mind-bender.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
