This week on DVD - November 10, 2009

November 10, 7:40 AMSalt Lake City DVD ExaminerTyson Huber

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This week is a fairly light week for DVD and Blu-ray releases, but one of the releases this week is a big one!

Disney/Pixar's UP hits DVD and Blu-ray today and brings along with it a ton of extra features (see specs below)! Arguably one of the best films of the year (if not the best), UP is a fantastic film that I think everyone will enjoy. Pixar has yet to let their audience down putting out incredible movie after incredible movie. For me personally, UP was probably the Pixar movie that tugged at the heart strings the most. It was touching, it was funny, and it was everything you'd expect from the folks at Pixar and a little more.

If you can't tell by now, I can't recommend this film enough. If you missed UP while it was in theaters then be sure to check it out now. If you did see UP in theaters, then you already know it's a must own.

2-Disc Special Features

• Commentary by director Pete Docter and co-director Bob Peterson.

• Dug’s Special Mission – An all new original short film that follows the misadventures of Dug as he attempts to complete his “special mission.” The short is directed by Up Story Supervisor, Ronnie Del Carmen.

• The Many Endings of Muntz – Many ideas were hatched about how to dispose of the film’s arch villain, Muntz, and now viewers can see the many alternate endings proposed during story development.

• Partly Cloudy –The hilarious short film that preceded screenings of Up. Everyone knows that the stork delivers babies, but where do the storks get the babies? The answer lies up in the stratosphere where the cloud Gus is a master at creating “dangerous” babies, which prove to be more than a handful for his loval delivery stork Peck. Directed by Pixar story artist, animator and voice actor Peter Sohn.

• Adventure is Out There – This action-packed documentary tells the story of the filmmakers’ own trek to the tepuis mountains of South America to research the design and story of the film.

• Digital Copy

4-Disc Blu-ray Special Features

• Includes all of the 2-disc special features plus the following:

• Cine-Explore – A visual montage of concept art, clips and documentary coverage that illustrates the directors’ commentary.

• Geriatric Hero – A character study of Carl, from research to realization including art and design, rigging, animation and story. It focuses on the issues of aging, “simplexity”, shape-language and compelling character arcs.

• Canine Companions – For anyone who ever wondered where CG puppies
come from, an introduction to the design, behavior and language of dogs.

• Russell: Wilderness Explorer – A character study of Russell from inspiration and design to finding the character arc and authentic voice for this wilderness ranger.

• Our Giant Flightless Friend, Kevin – Find out how avian research and development at Pixar helped bring a mythical, 13-foot tall iridescent bird to life.

• Homemakers of Pixar – Carl and Ellie’s house is an important “character” in the film. Fans follow the development of the house from story to art to its ultimate realization in the computer.

• Balloons and Flight – Carl’s house and Muntz's dirigible presented the filmmakers with two different problems—how could they make a physical impossibility possible? And, in the case of the dirigible, how would they unearth a fallen giant and let it soar?

• Composing for Characters – Composer Michael Giacchino returns to score his third Disney Pixar feature film. See how the Up filmmakers collaborated with Giacchino to create the memorable score and compelling musical themes.

• Married Life – The original story concept that became the powerful “Married Life” scene, showing Carl and Ellie’s love story.

• Global Guardian Badge Game – Players try to locate countries, states and capitals around the globe in a multi-layered BD-Exclusive geography game enhanced by BD-Live.

• Digital Copy & Standard Definition DVD

Bruce Timm's hit animated series, Justice League, is coming to DVD today, collecting the complete series. I'm sure many of you fellow geeks and nerds out there are familiar with Bruce Timm's work on Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, etc, so needless to say this is an easy recommendation for any fans of these prior series.

Aside from a few romantic comedies like The Ugly Truth and The Accidental Husband coming to DVD this week, that's about it! Next week sees another big week though with the release of JJ Abrams' Star Trek!