Pixar in HD - coming soon!

Well, you've heard me talk about it and hope for it before.
It is here at last...sorta.

Pixar is going to release a collection of its short films on Blu-Ray. Release date Nov 6th. $24.49 on Amazon.

That seals it. If Gran Turismo 5 wasn't enough (and my back catelog of PS1 and PS2 games), we are getting a PS3. Maybe not this Christmas, maybe not in a year, but sometime. Sometime soon. I really feel silly with how excited i am about this.

The regular DVD description on Amazon says this is "Volume 1" but it looks like it will be (almost) all shorts to this point. They are just smart enough to know there will be more in the future so they just called this one "Volume 1". It will have everything from The Adventures of Andre and Wally B. (which was actually done under Lucasfilm...making this the first Lucasfilm property to be released on HD format) all the way to Lifted. Only things not included will be the shorts they did for Sesame Street ("Light & Heavy" and "Surprise"). For a list of their short films (and to watch some of them) check here. Looks like commentaries and a featurette or two will be included as well.

I'm curious which version of Knick Knack will be included...the original version from way-back-when had a much more "buxom" version of the mermaid figurine than the one released on regular DVD a while back. I'm hoping they go more Pixar archivist and include both, not Disney whitewash and just include the new version.

Nothing mentioning Blu-Ray only content. Man i hope this is full 1080p. I can't imagine it not being. And i can't wait until they release the full length movies. The Blu-Ray version is just $2 more than the standard DVD.

I'm not surprised that Disney/Pixar is going Blu-Ray now that i think about it. Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, funded and still owns a large stake in Pixar. Pixar essentially owns Disney now. HD-DVD is Microsoft's baby... so Disney goes Blu-Ray. Gotta love it.

In format-war related news: I'm really not sure why Paramount just decided to go from releasing in both formats to releasing HD-DVD only. Everyone i know has said Blu-Ray is the superior format, and thanks to the PS3, there are more players out there (even if half the people that have PS3's don't know they play Blu-Rays), and Blockbuster is going Blu-Ray only. I still think that eventually all players will just play both formats, but if i had to pick a 'winner' it would be Blu-Ray at this point.

Oh - in Pixar related news: The teaser site for BuyNLarge (the mega-corporation from the upcoming Pixar movie Wall-E) has been updated. Check it out. Much fun.