If you haven’t seen this blockbuster film, here’s a brief synopsis: Andy, the beloved owner of the toys in the first two Toy Story films, is now 17 and heading to college. His mom gives him an ultimatum: pack up his old toys before he leaves for school of they wind up in the trash or donated to a local day care center. Through a mix up (there’s always a mix up), our beloved toys, who have been pared down to the core favorites- Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz (Tim Allen), Jess (Joan Cusack), Bullseye, Hamm the Piggy bank (John Ratzenberger), Slinky the dog (Blake Clark, replacing the late Jim Varney), Rex, the not so scary dinosaur (Wallace Shawn), Barbie (Jodi Benson), the Potato Heads (Don Rickles and Estelle Harris) and their adopted alien toys – nearly get crushed by a compactor, but then are driven off to the Sunnydale daycare center.

Woody is upset. He insists that being sent to Sunnydale is a mistake. Of course, the others don’t believe him. Besides, Sunnydale looks like the perfect retirement home. The gang is greeted by a parade of new toys, led by the ever-cheerful Lots-O-Huggin Bear (Ned Beatty) and his right hand doll er, man, Ken (Michael Keaton). Ken is immediately smitten with Barbie and Lots-O-Huggin sets the gang up in a room where children will play with them all day long.

Woody makes his escape, adamant that he should be with Andy. Meanwhile, the gang finds out that Sunnydale has a hierarchy and that all new toys must start at the bottom rung— with the toddlers, who beat and paint and slobber all over toys. This isn’t heaven; it’s toy hell. As you’d expect, Lots-O-Huggin wasn’t telling the whole truth. The gang, now led by Buzz, tries to clear things up with Lots-O-Huggin. Meanwhile, Woody winds up in the home of an adorable little girl named Bonnie, who has just as rich an imagination as Andy did when he was a little boy. Through the efforts of some new toy friends (voiced by Bonnie Hunt, Timothy Dalton, Jeff Garlin and Kristen Schaal) Woody meets at Bonnie’s house, he learns the dark truth about Sunnydale and sets off to rescues his old friends.

From there, the film turns into a Great Escape type adventure, with Woody and the gang battling a reprogrammed Buzz and having to avoid being caught by Lots-O-Huggin and his toy thugs. Toy Story 3 is exciting and heartwarming, and although some of the plot devices are lifted directly from Toy Story 2, there are still plenty of surprises and tears to keep everyone entertained and clapping in the end.  And should Disney and Pixar decide to make another Toy Story film, they certainly left the ending open enough to allow for a fourth film.

As with all Disney’s releases, Toy Story 3 is available on a Blu-Ray/DVD/digital combo pack. The picture quality is beautiful, as are all of the Pixar films on DVD and Blu-ray. It’s tough to justify going to the movie theater and having to sit through a scratchy film print or a muted projection when you know that the DVD will eventually be released with pristine clarity, letting you see every minute detail the artists at Pixar put into the movie. Moreover, the sound is phenomenal, with excellent separation between the dialogue and the music.

Every Pixar release comes with a boat load of bonus features, including a short film. The short on Toy Story 3 is the whimsical Day & Night, directed by Teddy Newton and featuring a great score by Academy Award winner, Michael Giacchio. In addition to the short film, the DVD also comes with these exceptional features:

Toys! – A closer look at all of Toy Story 3’s beloved toys from updating the classic characters to the creation of the Sunnyside Daycare and Bonnie’s Room toys.

Buzz Lightyear Mission Logs: The Science of Adventure – Produced in conjunction with NASA, this hybrid animation documentary of Buzz’s visit to the International Space Station focuses on research in zero gravity and Buzz’s triumphant return to Earth.

Paths to Pixar: Editorial – Pixar editors, past and future share anecdotes about their careers.

The Gang’s All Here – A touching look at the returning voice talent for ToyStory 3 and an introduction to the voices of the new characters.

A Toy’s Eye View: Creating A Whole New Land – A sneak peek at the new Toy Story-themed playland at Hong Kong Disneyland.

Studio Stories – A series of amusing animated anecdotes about life at Pixar.

The Blu-Ray contains all of these features, plus these additional bonus features:

Toy Story Trivia Dash – This cool game challenges you to sprint to the finish with Woody, Buzz, Jessie and Rex as you quickly answer questions about all three Toy Story movies.

Cine-Explore – Commentary by Director Lee Unkrich and Producer Darla K. Anderson.

Beyond the Toybox: An Alternative Commentary Track Featuring Leads from Story, Tech, Art and Animation – Commentary by StorySupervisor Jason Katz, Supervising Technical Director Guido Quaroni, Production Designer Bob Pauley and Supervising Animators Bobby Podesta and Michael Venturini.

Beginnings: Setting A Story In Motion – Screenwriter Michael Arndt analyzes successful opening scenes from Toy Story, Finding Nemo andThe Incredibles.

Bonnie’s Playtime: A Story Roundtable – A roundtable discussion with Director Lee Unkrich and the story artists who brought the “Bonnie’s Playtime” scene to life.

Roundin’ Up A Western Opening – The development of the movie’s exciting opening scene.

Life Of A Shot – Toy Story 3 artists and technicians describe their contributions to a few of the shots in the film’s “Western Opening.”

Goodbye Andy – An exploration of character design, acting and animation in the scene “Andy’s Goodbye.”

Accidental Toymakers – By creating the Toy Story characters, the Pixar filmmakers found themselves in the unlikely role of toy designers. Meet thetoy company that took a chance on manufacturing the now iconic toys and learn of their incredible success that began with a modest number of Woody and Buzz Lightyear toys 15 years ago.

Making of Day & Night – The story behind the unique 2D/3D blended short.

You can’t go wrong.  Whether you’re thinking of buying this for your child or simply for yourself, Toy Story 3 is one gift that everyone should hope to find gift wrapped for them come this holiday season.

Oh and if you’re Pixar, you do it on the same day you bring one of your earlier smash hits to Blu-ray — and attach just as much extra content to that release, too.

Since debuting with Toy Story in 1995, Pixar has defied expectations by not only cranking out smash hits while helping pioneer a brand new type of animation, but by opening up new vistas in the stuff that really matters — like, you know, storytelling. They’ve shown us what happens to our toys when we’re out of the room, peeked into the hidden lives of bugs and fish, proved that monsters are just as scared of kids as kids are of monsters, exposed the travails of former superheroes, let us hear cars talk, put a rat in the kitchen, and made us fall in love with a robot janitor. Every time they announce a new movie, the odds of it not living up to its predecessors grows — has a studio ever held a perfect batting average for this long? — so when it came out that Pixar’s 10th feature would follow the adventures of a grumpy old man who sails away in a house to which he’s tied thousands of helium-filled balloons, bets were high that Up would mark the spot where the house Buzz Lightyear built fell down.

How about that? With 98 percent at Rotten Tomatoes and almost $650 million in worldwide box office receipts, Up made it a perfect 10 for Pixar — and if you missed it in theaters, now’s your chance to bring it home in glorious high definition.

Up tells the story of Carl Fredricksen (Ed Asner), a widowed balloon salesman who once dreamed of high adventure in the jungles of South America, but ended up building a life with his wife instead — and since her death, he’s watched his neighborhood slowly be taken over by developers who would like nothing more than to buy his property and turn it into a plot for just another new building. Faced with losing his house and being committed to a rest home, Carl improvises by turning the entire building into an airship, finally setting sail for those jungles — with a surprise guest in tow. Eight-year-old Russell, a Wilderness Explorer Scout who’s been pestering Carl to let him help out around the place so he can earn a badge, just happens to be on the porch when liftoff occurs, and just like that, audiences have a mismatched duo to root for.

Eventually, Carl and Russell touch down at the mythical Paradise Falls, where they meet a talking dog named Dug (voiced, to great comic effect, by co-director Bob Peterson) and find themselves smack in the middle of a struggle between…well, I don’t want to give anything away. Suffice it to say that Up is more than just an opportunity for Asner to be crotchety for 90 minutes — there’s all kinds of dashing adventure and derring-do going on here, as well as at least one sweetly blossoming friendship, as well as the small miracle of cutting-edge technology being used to explore what it means to get old. Toss in an opening 15-minute sequence that draws you in and breaks your heart without a single line of dialogue, and you’ve got much more than just another hit: Up proves Pixar is still deepening and expanding its craft.

And hey, it looks great on Blu-ray, too. CG ‘toons take full advantage of the format, pushing visual fidelity to its limits without having to deal with things like dirt, scratches, or the vagaries of real-life lighting; Up is no different, and you can purchase this set knowing you’re getting exactly what you pay for: a beautiful (and beautifully made) film that the entire family can enjoy — and then they can gorge on all the bonus features, which include shorts (Partly Cloudy, which played before Up in theaters, and Dug’s Special Mission, which functions as a sort of prequel), an array of terrific documentaries detailing the making of the movie (including the filmmakers’ research trip to the tepuis of Venezuela), and all manner of games, alternate scenes, and expanded content.

Making this even more of a banner day for Pixar fans is the Blu-ray release of the studio’s fourth film, 2001′s Monsters, Inc., which stars Billy Crystal and John Goodman as a pair of monsters who unwittingly bring an adorable little girl (who they nickname Boo) through her closet and into their world, where energy is drawn from the screams of children — and because kids aren’t as easy to scare as they used to be, there’s a bit of an energy crisis. Boo, for one, isn’t afraid of the monsters at all — and making matters worse is their belief that children are toxic, so her presence in Monstropolis problematic, to say the least. Though it’s generally regarded as one of Pixar’s weaker films (hey, it’s only at 95 percent at Rotten Tomatoes), Monsters still boasts a pair of terrific performances from Goodman and Crystal, as well as a typically terrific script, and it’s never looked better than it does here.

The Monsters, Inc. Blu-ray includes features from the original DVD release, such as the For the Birds and Mike’s New Car shorts, and adds a ton of new bonus content, from stuff you probably won’t ever watch again (a look at the building of the Monsters, Inc. ride at Tokyo Disneyland) to stuff you probably will (a retrospective round table with the filmmakers). In fact, an entire disc of extra material — you get to go on a tour of the studio, hear about “banished concepts” that didn’t make it into the film, and play a game — plus Disney’s now-traditional DVD and digital copy discs. Of course, any major Pixar fan most likely already owns the double-disc DVD edition that was released in 2002, and it’s still available — but as of right now, it’s only $7 cheaper, and this movie has absolutely never looked or sounded better. If you don’t own it yet, this is the version to own.