Just forget the words and sing along

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Stuff for Tuesday!

So, there's a few things that crossed my mind yesterday that I felt I should, nay, needed to share with the world.

First up, you may remember, back on Thursday, I was geeking out about the all the new information released on Pixar's epic for 2012, Brave.  Well, as expected, when Cars 2 hit theatres on Friday, the first teaser was in front.  And here it is!







As previously mentioned, it hits theatres next June.

Next up, there was a Blu-Ray announcement yesterday that had me geeking out.  Coming out on October 25, just in time for Christmas, for the first time on Blu-Ray, The Jurassic Park Trilogy.

The big boxed set contains all three films (Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and Jurassic Park III).  You get ALL of the bonus features from the previous DVDs, and brand new to this set is the all new, 6-part documentary Return to Jurassic Park, which features brand new interviews with the cast and crew, including director Steven Spielberg.  The Blu-Ray set will be available in two versions:  regular, and "box full of swag," which has a little statue of the T-Rex bursting through those legendary "Jurassic Park" front gates.

The only film I have of the trilogy on DVD is Jurassic Park, and I've been thinking about succumbing to the double-dip for quite some time.  When the DVD was first released, it was released in two versions:  the regular Dolby Sound edition, and the DTS edition.  On the DTS edition, in order to make room for the DTS soundtrack, they wound up removing pretty much all of the bonus features.  And then, they discovered an error in the DTS soundtrack, and issued a recall on the disc.

I have the DTS edition, and I didn't notice I had the pre-recall version until it was too late to get my free replacement.

So, yeah.  I think this is one worth the upgrade to Blu.

Man o man, The Lord of the Rings: Extended Editions hit Blu-Ray today, The Superman Anthology came out a month ago, The Star Wars Saga comes out this September, and now this...2011 is turning into one damn expensive year.

And speaking of Star Wars, I caught a little bit of The Phantom Menace on TV last night.  And it got me to thinking about the upcoming Blu-Ray...I wonder if the Blu-Ray will have the "digital Yoda" version of The Phantom Menace?

For those who don't care, when Lucas was making The Phantom Menace, he felt that the computer animation technology wasn't quite there yet to do a fully computer animated Yoda, so most of Yoda's scenes were done the old fashioned way:  with a puppet.  Yeah, they attempted a computer animated Yoda in some long shots, but it's pretty much all puppet Yoda in The Phantom Menace.

When production started on Attack of the Clones, making Yoda completely computer animated was a top priority.  To test out their new animation software, and to get the animators all warmed up for animating Yoda, the computer animators went back into The Phantom Menace, digitally removed puppet Yoda, and replaced it with a completely computer animated digital Yoda.

Obviously, the "digital Yoda" version of The Phantom Menace is George Lucas's preferred version, as whenever someone wants a clip of The Phantom Menace for some Star Wars retrospective, Lucas sends them a clip featuring digital Yoda.  But the entire digital Yoda version of The Phantom Menace has yet to be released.

I exchanged a few text messages with some of the more hardcore Star Wars fans I know, and it's pretty much agreed that when The Phantom Menace hits Blu-Ray, it will most likely be the digital Yoda version.

It makes me wonder what other new "Special Edition" tweaks Lucas will be making for the Blu-Rays....

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