Toy Story of TERROR! Blu-Ray Review – A Look at the Extra Features and More

Do you remember last October when you sat down at home to watch the premiere of Toy Story of TERROR! on ABC? It was such a unique experience to see the premiere of a new Pixar project from our couch that the excitement was palpable as we counted down to 8:00 PM. When we opened our copy of the Toy Story of TERROR! Blu-Ray, those same feelings came back. We were excited to not only view the short again in full 1080p resolution but also to dig into the behind-the-scenes moments from Pixar’s first television special. 

Pixar’s presentation of the special is what we’ve come to expect – the image is stunning with an amazing amount of detail and crispness which couldn’t be fully portrayed in the high definition television broadcast. The surround sound also shines with its amazing panning and deep bass (which is even more prevalent in subtle moments like Jessie’s heartbeat during her moments of stress). That being said, what would a Pixar release be without the many in-depth looks and extra features that we’ve come to expect?

BLU-RAY DETAILS AND EXTRAS

Below is a list of the special features included on the Blu-Ray release with our additional comments.

• Feature – Toy Story of TERROR! (22:00)
• “Toy Story Toons” Shorts
  • Hawaiian Vacation (5:50)
  • Small Fry (7:07)
  • Partysaurus Rex (6:31)
• Audio Commentaries
  • Toy Story of TERROR!
  • Hawaiian Vacation
  • Small Fry
  • Partysaurus Rex
• Team of Specialists
  • Director Angus MacLane goes deep behind the scenes to introduce the team of specialists required to make Toy Story OF TERROR!
• 3 Deleted Scenes + Editor Introductions
  • Pencil Topper Trilogy
  • Travel Brochures
  • Road Trip Roulette
• Vintage Toy Commercials + Director Introductions
  • Old Timer
  • Combat Carl
  • Transitron
• D23 Teaser

It should be noted that there is a difference between the Blu-ray and DVD releases – the DVD version does not contain the 3 additional deleted scenes with editor introductions. The Disney Movies Anywhere edition doesn’t contain the audio commentary tracks.

Additionally, be sure to log in to Disney Movies Anywhere (online or app) to view two extra bonus features listed below (only available on Disney Movies Anywhere).

• Film Studies With Professor Pricklepants – A new short piece about Angus MacLane’s many film references during the making of the special. (2:35)
• Bob’s Boatyard – with Axel Geddes introduction – Deleted Scene (2:04). This animatic looks at the reason that Ron (the hotel manager) is motivated to sell the toys Mr. Jones steals. Additionally, we also get a peek at Al, who’s still wearing his chicken suit and celebrating after he win the auction for Woody.

AUDIO COMMENTARIES

Toy Story of TERROR!

Be sure to listen to the audio commentary track for Toy Story of TERROR! as Angus MacLane (director), Ian Megibben (Director of Photography – Lighting) and Axel Geddes (Editor) discuss so many great insights and background details into the short. In fact, here are three of my favorite moments from the commentary (but be sure to listen to the entire thing for all the details).

• You know when Combat Carl Jr. says, “Sassafras” after dropping the last paperclip? Well, Andrew Stanton suggested that Carl should shout that phrase – it got a ton of laughs.
• Why was the iguana named Mr. Jones? There were four references actually, but the one that got me laughing the most was because Ron (the hotel manager) was a big Counting Crows fan – and Mr. Jones was Counting Crows’ biggest hit.
• It was also great to hear about the montage which was eventually cut due to time constraints in which we got to see where all of the toys which escaped from Ron’s cabinet ended up – including a great iguana paradise for Mr. Jones.

Partysaurus Rex

Although Partysaurus Rex had been previously released on the reissue of the Monsters, Inc. Blu-Ray, this is the first time that an audio commentary was released for the short. Without any doubts, this is the most unique and fun commentary track we’ve heard from Pixar – it’s like listening to an old radio show (with sound effects) being performed during a party. The full commentary roster is:

• Mark Walsh (Director)
• Axel Geddes (Editor)
• Kim Adams (Producer)
• Darwyn Peachey (Supervising Technical Director & CTO of Pixar Canada)
• A.J. Riebli III (Production Manager)

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Again, we don’t want to give away too much, but we did learn that the biggest shot in Partysaurus Rex contained 3.3 million bubbles – that’s a lot of digital suds! Additionally, we loved hearing how much Mark kept pushing to get the now-famous What Up Fishes!? line just right – he didn’t feel right until Jay Schuster finally uttered the line in a brainstorming session.
We didn’t dig into the director’s commentary tracks for Hawaiian Vacation as well as Small Fry because these commentary tracks were previously released on the Pixar Short Films Collection 2 Blu-Ray.

EXTRAS

Toy Story of TERROR! ran for a little over 21 minutes, the bonus features certainly don’t make you feel like it’s a short film. The most informative special feature on the disc is called Team of Specialists which takes you through a high-level look at the creation of the special. To tease this feature, the official Disney•Pixar YouTube page uploaded a short preview of the approximately 12 minute bonus feature.

The full Team of Specialists feature looks at the characters, showcases some amazing concept art of the graveyard scene with the vampire (including rubber bat screen tests) and peeks into the animation review process, editorial process, sound editing at Skywalker Ranch (with a great look at the foley work) and wraps up with Michael Giacchino talking about how he accentuated the on-screen suspense through his score.

Additionally, in the background on the Blu-Ray (as well as this additional video from Team of Specialists on Pixar’s YouTube), we happened to have spotted what appears to be some concept art from Inside Out – possibly of the spirited Riley? Let us know your thoughts and chat more about this artwork in the Pixar Post Forum.

VINTAGE TOY COMMERCIALS

Another major highlight of the release are the three vintage toy commercials for Combat Carl, Old Timer, and Transitron. Our personal favorite of the bunch was the Old Timer commercial in which the cranky old clock hurls insults and other quips at his young owner – the best line in the commercial involves a tuna fish sandwich! The Transitron commercial is a great playoff of Godzilla and other foreign stop-motion monster movies (with a costumed Dice Tsutsumi).

To also give an idea of the hilarity of these commercials, Disney•Pixar’s YouTube has also uploaded the full Combat Carl commercial, in which he teaches two kids how to properly cough – thanks, Combat Carl!

We can’t recommend picking up this release enough – whether you get the Blu-ray, DVD, or Digital release, you won’t be disappointed with the detail, quality, and features on Toy Story of TERROR!.

DELETED SCENES

All three deleted scenes on the Blu-Ray are introduced by Axel Geddes, who also digs into the reason why these scenes were cut. Some were cut due to time constraints, but others were cut because the scene added too much complexity to the story. In this abbreviated clip from Pixar’s YouTube, called Pencil Topper you can see an example of a scene that was cut back due to added story complexities.

PURCHASING

You can order the Blu-ray and DVD on Amazon or Digitally on Disney+ utilizing the links below.

MORE DETAILS

Finally, if you haven’t seen our in-depth look at the hidden items in Toy Story of TERROR! be sure to check our updated post with high-resolution screen grabs from the Blu-Ray – we even added one nod to Russell from Up in the post as well.