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Cars DVD Review (Potential Spoilers)

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Today I picked up a copy of the R4 Cars single disc DVD from Blockbuster. As you may be aware, the Australian and the New Zealand release date for the Cars DVD was October 25, whereas the R1 DVD release date is November 7.

Now to the DVD

Upon insert DVD opens with the Ratatouille teaser trailer. Then the normal menu screen which can be viewed here (SPOILER). However on the R4 release of the DVD there is no Sneak Peek menu with previews of Peter Pan or Disney Blu Ray etc. You can view the Disney Blu Ray video here (SPOILERS). All the other menu’s are the same. I think maybe the main menu could have been better but other than that, the others are fine. Maybe Disney are holding off to make really cool menus for the 2 disc.
(SPOILER) Highlight to read: Watch out for the easter egg on the main menu!
7/10 for the Menus.

The cover and the disc are pretty much the same everywhere I think. They both can be seen here and here (SPOILERS). I really hope Disney has something good in store for when the day comes that they release a 2 disc edition of Cars as I for one, am not very happy with the effort the put in. 5/10.

The movie itself plays beautifully and top marks for that. I haven’t watched the main feature yet (will tomorrow), but skipping through it, it looks sweet! Can’t wait for the day that we get to watch it in HD and see all its tiny little details in super quality. The audio quality seems fine. No problems there. I will hopefully watch it in 5.1 surround sound soon and will edit this post to let you know how it is. For now, 10/10.

Now on the short films….

Mater and the Ghost Light was absolutely fantastic! You are all in for a treat. I take my hat off to John Lasseter and the rest of the gang as this is short is up there in my favourite short films list. The storyline was great and the shots they used when cutting together was really cool. 10/10.

As for One Man Band, I am very glad that I have had the chance to see it again as it is very cool! A job well done on the behalf of Andy Jiminez and Mark Andrews. I can’t wait for the chance to listen to this in 5.1 surround sound as it is definitely made for this kind of experience. 10/10.

Now as for the epilogue. In case you aren’t aware. It is bit of video that played during the credits of the film, except, THERE ARE NO CREDITS! YAY! I loved this part of the movie. Especially the part with the references to John Ratzenberger in all the other Pixar films.

The Inspiration for Cars video was great. It shows sections of the video Pixar made while touring Route 66 and shows some of the insight into the inspiration of Cars. It also shows Joe Ranft and we even get to see John Lasseter’s father! Definitely a worth a view. Seeing more of the video from Pixar’s trip on Route 66 would be an awesome feature for a 2 disc edition of Cars.

The last bonus features were the deleted scenes. They were pretty good. Also worth a view.

Overall for the bonus features I will give them an 8/10. I can’t wait for the day a 2-disc edition is released and we will get to see all the TV spots, World Premiere videos, gallery’s etc.

For the entire DVD, I give a score of 7.5/10. I am not impressed that we only received a 1 disc edition DVD. But for the moment it will do. I hope Disney releases a 2-disc edition DVD in the not too distant future. And that’s all for me. In my personal opinion, I would recommend renting the DVD to see the special features, and buying the film off the iTunes Store to watch the movie and hold out for the 2 disc. However, if you can’t wait and don’t want to do any of the above in fear that Disney will not release a 2 disc in the not so distant future, go for it and buy it!

The Cars is released on Nov 7 in the US and Nov 27 in the UK. Go Pixar!

UPDATE: Read Route 66 News’ review of the DVD here.

Last modified: October 28, 2006