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A Bug's Life has made it to DVD in an absolutely spectacular
Collector's Edition double-disc set. I'm sure everyone is familiar
with the story so I'm not going to recap the movie itself as we
normally do here at DVDFILE. Instead, I'm going right to the special
features of this release which are the most extensive I've seen
on DVD. This Collector's Edition chronicles the entire preproduction
from the first pitches and treatments up through recomposing the
full frame version of the film for video release. The only thing
I've seen that equals the depth and scope of this release is the
Terminator 2 laserdisc box set (for those that don't remember,
laserdisc was 12-inch optical disc medium for movies that went
the way of the Booby when DVD came along), which means this release
keeps lofty company indeed!
Disc One
Disc One contains the anamorphic widescreen (yea!) and
recomposed full frame versions of the film. Interestingly, different
audio options are available for each version. The widescreen version
has the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, a 2.0 Dolby Stereo track
of the isolated music score, and a running commentary with director
John Lasseter, and co-writer and co-director Andrew Stanton and
film editor Lee Unkrich, which is terrific. The real-world inspirations
that made this movie are revealed, along with many of the hidden
references in the movie. This is a strong commentary track.
The full frame version offers two Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks,
one is the film's 5.1 while the other is an isolated sound effects
track that is fascinating! I flipped it on to listen to a couple
of sequences and ended up listening for at least a good hour while
I should have been getting started on this review!
I should also mention at this point that this film boasts one
of the finest Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks that you will ever
hear. The sound effects themselves are amazing, and this is one
thunderously dynamic soundtrack that aggressively uses the surrounds
to create a consistent 360° soundfield. The bass is deep
and tight, and the final battle between the ants and grasshoppers
during a rainstorm is as good as movie sound design gets!
Of course, the major feature of Disc One is the anamorphic widescreen
presentation of the film in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, which is created
directly from the digital source material. This visual quality
of this disc is so stunning that it practically defies description.
It is simply the best image quality I have ever seen on DVD. To
put a finer point on the matter, it will be somewhat deceptive
when you look below at the video rating and only see a 5-star
rating because this disc is clearly so much better than anything
that has come before it rated at 5. This disc clearly represents
a new standard as the finest quality that is available with the
current technology. It is so three dimensional it could be mistaken
for Hi-Def! The colors pop from the screen and are so deep and
rich that they are mesmerizing. Sometimes I was so enraptured
with the image quality that I wasn't even paying attention to
the movie! There are no artifacts of any kind at all! There simply
hasn't been anything like this!
Disc Two
Disc two is the one that's jam-packed with features. I'm going
to start with the Main Menu seen to your right and try and follow
every branch of that menu tree from its selections, which are:
Pre-Production, Production, Sound Design,
Release, Outtakes, and Geri's Game. I will
use as paragraph headers with all of the sub-menu items from each
listed in its paragraph.
Before I get started there are a couple of things I worth mentioning.
The menus feature very nice graphics throughout that are from
the movie itself. Also, John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton, among
others, personally introduce almost every feature on this disc,
which is a nice touch. Another thing is that these menus navigate
painfully slow on my Toshiba SD-9100 DVD player. It all worked,
but it took a day and a half.
Pre-Production
This section starts with a goofy little short known as the "Fleabie
Reel" that has some bizarre live action stuff from Pixar
along with some early animation on the project. This piece was
originally a filmed update on the progress of the film presented
to the different Disney organizations.
Story and Editorial features the "Original Treatment"
of the film, which is a loose 3-act script with some great color
drawings as accompaniment. Interesting here is the Flik's name
in this treatment is "Red." Also included is a "Storyboard
Pitch" that first shows some storyboards of the storyboarding
process. It then breaks into artist Joe Ranft's storyboard pitch
for the Circus routine in the upper right hand corner of the screen
with the actual storyboards he's pitching in the lower left. As
an aside here, his voice for Heimlich is so dead-on because he
did the voice for the film as well. His pitch must have been pretty
good!
A "Storyboard-to-Film Comparison" covers the "Dot's
Rescue" sequence with the storyboards on the top of the frame
and the movie on the bottom. Also included in another menu item
are storyboards of "Abandoned Sequences" of an alternate
opening for the film and another scene in P.T. Flea's office.
Research goes into the bug documentaries and film shot
by Pixar with miniature cameras of bug and ant environments that
they used for inspiration to create the film. There are lots of
(ultra!) low angle shots fro the bug's perspective that obviously
influenced the film and no doubt had a lot to do with many of
the clever things we see in the film. One of the things director
John Lasseter spoke of during this section that made sense was
that to ants blades of grass must feel like the redwoods.
Design sections features drawings and three dimensional
models broken into three subsections. First is "Characters"
which shows literally every character that appears in the film,
the ant Colony, the Grasshopper Gang, the Circus performers, and
other Miscellaneous Characters. "Locations" shows the
art for the Ant Island, the City, the Circus Tent and Wagon, and
Hopper's Hideout. Last, "Concept Art and Color Scripts."
Color scripts are more abstract, showing lighting effects and
colors.
It's fitting that the Pre-Production section is the most extensive,
which probably parallels the real-life experience of making the
film, which is very front-heavy in that respect. One thing that
comes across watching the Pre-Production sequences is how extensive
the storyboarding and drawing processes are, as well as how vital
it is for Pixar's films. They have to know exactly what they're
doing and how well it's paced and will work before they spend
the time and money to animate it. This section is terrific with
lots of great looking drawings and art
Production
The first items here are three featurettes that run about five
minutes apiece. One is catchily-titled "Behind the Scenes,"
while the others are "Voice Casting," which shows footage
of the voice talent at work, and "Early Tests" of the
computer animation for the film.
Progression Demonstration is perhaps the most fascinating
feature on the disc. Using the multiple angle feature, this section
shows the same sequence at four different stages of animation.
There is the Story Reel, the Layout, Animation, and finally Shaders
and Lighting. There is an introduction for each with the talent
involved, and as you watch each individually you can use the angle
button to switch back and forth between all four stages. This
is incredible and the Shaders and Lighting piece will astound
you when you see what it adds to the film.
Sound Design
This is another great feature of this disc. This section runs
about 15 minutes with Gary Rydstrom's voice telling us how he
did certain sound effects, and playing each one at a time, and
then playing them again mixed together with the other sound effects
as they appear in the film. Anyone who appreciates the art of
sound in movies will love this.
Release
Theatrical has a gallery of Posters/Ad Campaigns, and
two Theatrical Trailers. The teaser has a terrific soundtrack
that is worth mentioning. Another neat feature here is the "Character
Interview" which features four of the film's characters being
interviewed as though they're real actors on set. Similar to the
famed outtakes, but cute all the same.
Video Release contains a "Reframing Featurette"
that runs about 5 minutes on the different methods used to create
the recomposed full frame of the film's video release. After that
is an appropriately named section called "Reframing Examples"
that has over 20 different short examples of every method of recomposing
the film in the Reframing Featurette.
Outtakes
Both sets of the famous end credit outtakes are included here
along with a five minute featurette on the outtakes that feature
various Pixar talent mentioning which outtakes are their particular
favorites.
Geri's Game
And finally, "Geri's Game," The Academy Award-winning
short film by Pixar is included. I must admit that I'm not among
those who appreciate this little bit, but it completes the disc
nevertheless.
Parting Thoughts
As we've seen with the transfers of Shakespeare in Love,
eXistenZ, and now this fine A Bug's Life Collector's
Edition, when Buena Vista does DVD right the results can be stunning.
For this release the audio is among the finest you'll ever hear,
and the video is in a class by itself with the anamorphic widescreen
presentation of this direct digital transfer. The supplements
here are painstakingly thorough, and this set raises high hopes
for the Tarzan Collector's Edition as well as future animated
projects. It's unfortunate that this kind of lavish detail wasn't
expended on the first wave of classic animated titles, but if
this kind of work becomes the norm with Disney's animated product,
I'll be buying every one of them. I simply can't recommend a DVD
higher than this even at the $49.95 price tag. If you love this
movie you simply have to have this disc!
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