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As 2009 begins to come to a close and critics and pundits consider the movies that will ultimately make their Top Tens and Best Of lists, Up seems like a shoe-in for all of them. Effortlessly charming, deeply affecting and genuinely rousing, Pete Docter's follow-up to Monsters, Inc. is nothing short of spectacular. I'm especially reminded of this now that the film has arrived on Blu-ray, in no less than an epic four-disc set. But even as one of the best films of the year, is its home video iteration one of the best Blu-rays as well? Looking at the material contained (if also spread out) in this collection, I'm not so sure, even if everything on it nevertheless manages to make Up look like a masterpiece all over again.

Disc One features the film itself, two short features, and a modest but potent slate of extras. In terms of presentation, Up looks simply gorgeous, offering remarkable clarity and vividness no matter what's up on the screen, while the audio is muscular without being overwhelming. Meanwhile, the two shorts – "Partly Cloudy," which was attached to theatrical prints of Up, and the interstitial "Dug's Special Mission" – offer further adventures for viewers to check out once they've cried their eyes out watching the movie itself.

Additionally, the two featurettes, "The Many Endings of Muntz" and "Adventure is Out There," showcase specific aspects of the creative process that will probably be of most interest or importance to viewers: the first examines the way the filmmakers came up with the "villain"'s comeuppance, and what other options were available; and the second follows the creators as they journey to South America to visit the real-life tepui mountains that gave them inspiration when conceiving the film's picturesque vistas.

On November 10, 2009, Walt Disney Home Entertainment is releasing a 4-disc Blu-ray set for Monsters, Inc., Pete Docter's feature directorial debut. Much like Finding Nemo set the stage for what Andrew Stanton eventually did on Wall-E, the 2001 Pixar film offers a glimpse of what was yet to come from Docter – who went on to direct this summer's Up, also out next week – but it also reiterates some of the themes that run throughout all of the studio's best work, including the concept of an alternate perspective on a place or idea that seems obvious, and the idea of families that are both familiar and unconventional. But how effectively does it examine and explore those things, particularly in light of what the studio has done since?

Suffice it to say that the Blu-ray set offers not only the best presentation of the film imaginable, but a bounty of extra content that expands the film's universe in new and interesting ways. As for the movie itself?

I was just watching Monsters, Inc this past week, and wondering why it belonged to Pixar's no sequel club ... and guess what's in the works now? Dedicated Disney blogger Jim Hill visited this year's Licensing International Expo, and talked to the fine people who were representing Disney and Pixar, and buying up licensing rights.

Reportedly, Pete Docter (fresh off his success with Up) is planning to return to Monstropolis and helm a sequel to his previous Pixar effort, Monsters, Inc. Obviously, story details are shrouded in secrecy, but they've got Cars 2 and Toy Story 3 in the works, it's not much of a stretch to believe they'd revisit Mike and Sully. While it's a delightfully complete film, it's also a wonderful world, and I'd like to go there again.

Hill also reports that Disney is really focusing its efforts on The Lone Ranger, and are hoping to have it in theaters by Summer 2011. As you may remember, Mike Newell was hired to direct, and Johnny Depp is set to play Tonto.
Intent on launching a Ranger franchise, they've pushed back Jack Sparrow's, and are now planning to release the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean installment to a tenative date of Summer 2012. Both franchises offer a dose of Depp, so the Pirates fanbase should be pretty happy with that. Frankly, I'm willing to trade tricorns just to know just who they cast as that masked man ....

Did the Marx Brothers ever get serious? Pixar seems to have perfected the art of mixing dramatic themes into their comic adventures, pleasing audiences both young and old. (Moviefone's current poll of readers on Pixar's best reflects this as well, with a top choice that may surprise you.) Up is a rather magnificent tale that's filled with witty dialogue, visual gags, and laugh out loud moments, even as it "moves smoothly from romance to drama to fantasy to comedy to action-adventure and then back to sentimental drama again," in the words of Jette Kernion. Sam Raimi took modern horror in a new direction by coupling jolts with jokes in The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II, expertly playing one against the other. His latest, Drag Me to Hell, marketed as a straight-up horror tale, is, in fact, "a convulsively funny movie with chills and thrills," as I've written before. Really, it's more of a comedy than anything else.

This week's widest releases appear to be more straightforward comedies: Todd Phillips' The Hangover stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis as three friends who stumble around Vegas after a bachelor party gone wild; Brad Silberling's Land of the Lost stars Will Farrell as a scientist who stumbles around a prehistoric world with dinosaurs and fantastic creatures. Meanwhile, Donald Petrie's My Life in Ruins looks more like a traditional romance with comedy and drama, starring Nia Vardalos as a Greek tour guide.

How do you like your laughs? Do you prefer your comedy straight up, no chaser? Or would you rather have other elements added to the mix: drama, horror, adventure? Take our poll and let us know.

I'm a little annoyed with Up right now, because it made me cry in the first 10 minutes. Crying at the end of a movie is easier to hide -- you can mutter about allergies or how too much computer time makes your eyes red. But crying at the beginning of the movie makes you feel like an awfully sappy wuss. Thank goodness I had big ol' 3-D glasses on, which at least managed to hide any telltale traces of weakness ... until I cried again at the end, damn it.

Up is the latest film from Pixar, and this time the main character is not a robot or rat or monster, but rather a little old man who looks like Spencer Tracy and occasionally growls like Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino. After his wife dies, Carl Fredericksen (Ed Asner) faces a lonely life ahead, possibly in a retirement community. He decides to have the adventure that he and his wife always dreamed of, and sets out for the quasi-legendary Paradise Falls in South America. His method of travel? The family home, lifted by an amazing canopy of balloons. However, he isn't alone ... he's inadvertently picked up an enthusiastic 8-year-old Wilderness Explorer, Russell (Jordan Nagai), who only wants to help.

With the releases of The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and Wall-E, Brad Bird and Andrew Stanton may have opened the gates for directors of computer-animated features to be taken seriously as capital-f filmmakers, but it was Pete Docter who served as the medium's first great shepherd. After writing both Toy Story and Toy Story 2, Docter wrote and directed 2001's Monsters, Inc., a film that was not only a watershed moment in computer animation's history, but the real proof that Pixar – not to mention the studio's contemporaries – was a creative force that could transcend franchises and familiar characters to create something unique and memorable.

Docter returns to the director's chair this month for the release of Up, an epic new tale from Pixar that follows the adventures of a 78-year old widow named Carl (voiced by Ed Asner) and the wilderness scout who inadvertently tags along after the crusty septuagenarian ties thousands of balloons to his lifelong home and literally sails off into the sky. Cinematical recently spoke to Docter via telephone to discuss the process of mounting his second directorial effort. In addition to talking about the challenge of constructing a compelling story, Docter explained how he managed to tie so many disparate ideas together so well in Up, and discussed some of the quintessential summer movies that inspired him as a filmmaker.

I have an embarrassing confession to make: I have never watched a Pixar movie from start to finish. The closest I ever came was 1999's A Bug's Life, but I've been told often enough that Life was hardly the best of the bunch. Maybe I'll have better luck with their latest (following WALL-E), Up! The first image released seems to be concept art that is reportedly on display at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Luckily, some intrepid tourist snapped some pics and we can get our first look up above; you can also sneak a larger version of the photo here.

The film will mark Pixar's 10th animated feature film, and the story has been compared to a re-telling of Don Quixote. It centers on a man in his late 70's who joins up with a befuddled park ranger for some sort of adventure. The official description from Pixar describes our hero as the kind of guy who 'travels the globe, fights beasts and villains, and eats dinner at 3:30 in the afternoon' -- aww, I'm sold on the cuteness already. But then again, I guess I'm not the best judge when it comes to Pixar.

Pete Docter is already set to direct the "coming-of-old-age story", but so far there is no word on a cast. Docter is a long-time Pixar collaborator; he helped write the scripts for both Toy Story films, as well as directing Monsters, Inc. in 2001. But I wouldn't worry, judging by some of the big names that previous Pixar flicks have been able to get, I don't think Docter will have much trouble getting some solid voice talent. Up! is scheduled for release on June 12th, 2009.

[via Coming Soon]