DVDs In Brief: November 11, 2009
It’s frustrating to watch Disney’s increasingly mercenary tactics for wringing money out of its dutiful audience, which is already expressing outrage over the way Up (Buena Vista) is being released: The latest CGI film from hit factory Pixar (Toy Story, The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, etc.) is available on DVD in a standard-issue $20 disc or deluxe two-disc $30 edition (the extra $10 mostly gets you a digital copy to download onto portable media), but Blu-ray fans will have to cough up a whopping $45 for a four-disc edition. (Weirdly, one of those discs is just the film again, but on DVD.) With the holiday season approaching, Disney has to know that a lot of people will grumble but shell out: Up will no doubt be a highly sought-after Christmas present. The latest from Monsters, Inc. co-director Pete Docter and Nemo co-director Bob Peterson starts out with a heartbreaking character sketch as nuanced and sensitive as anything Pixar has ever done, then heads off into a crazy, unpredictable adventure. It’s a must-see, and even at $45, for a lot of people it’ll be a must-have…