Overview: Disney and Pixar present an incredible new collection of 12 short films, featuring multiple Academy Award nominees (best short film, animated: Presto, 2008; Day & Night, 2010; La Luna, 2011) and a host of family favorites.

Blu ray+DVD Verdict: OK, in truth, if you like Pixar Shorts and want to watch them all in one place - without popping discs in and out - this is a great deal. Well, this and the first volume, of course!

However, there are definitely a couple of ways in which this second volume falls into the first volumes' shadows. Firstly, the first volume had some Pixar stuff that had never been shown before, along with specials/shorts from the various title discs. That said, as you are going to probably beat me to the punch here on the "big reveal," this one has stuff found elsewhere before.

No big deal, truly. Anyway, also, the first volume had a "Play All" option which was great for just popping the disc in and watching. This volume doesn't seem to have that feature. Which means you have to keep selecting the next short to watch. Again, nothing major to have to deal with, but a fair point to, well, point out, I thought.

Moving on to the actual Shorts collection and this second volume is, as expected, very entertaining. An imaginative collection of brilliantly animated characters, of course being a huge fan means I have always been a big fan of pixar films/shorts. The nice thing is they are dated by year so one can see how they developed their techniques and talents, taking advantage of the much improved technology.

Coming in at @ 75 minutes, lovingly each can be played with or without the Directors' audio commentaries. And the other "bonus" is a selection of seven Student Films from the three top Pixar directors: John Lassiter, Andrew Stanton and Pete Doctor! These were made in the late 1980s and each one (they run about six minutes each) is introduced by the Director himself. Some are just animated line drawings with sound while others are more fully realized and were shown in the Mike and Ike Animation festival. All were new to me and I found them fascinating and fun!

As for the meat and potatoes of this second volume, two are offshoots of the film 'UP'. The first features Doug, the dog and the other 'George & AJ' shows that the senior, Carl (Ed Asner in 'Up') was not the only one who wanted to escape the retirement home! 'Toy Story' also has two offshoots - 'Hawaiian Vacation' takes on Barbie and Ken as they try to leave the toy chest for Hawaii. The other, 'Small Fry' takes digs at Fast Food "meal deal prizes"!

Oh, and amongst others, there are also two offshoots of 'Cars,' with the hayseed pickup, Mater, telling "tall tales". A lot of fun, very well thought up, and a lot of fun for the young 'uns to sit in front of and be amused for quite a while. This is a Full Screen Presentation (1.33:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs.

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