Like many preschoolers, my kids only like to watch movies that they’ve seen many, many times before. I guess there’s something comforting about a movie where they know everything that is going to happen, and also, the more they watch it, the more they pick up on what is going on, so it’s a learning process. Anyway, for the past year or so we’ve basically only ever watched three movies: Cars, Toy Story 2, and Winnie-The-Pooh’s Heffalump Movie. I’ve seen each of them at least 20 times.
We have Toy Story and Heffalump on DVD, but in all this time, we’ve only had a downloaded version of Cars to watch over our XBox. I’ve been meaning to actually buy the DVD for ages now, though, because we watch it so much it seems like we should pay for it, and also, having a portable copy to take on long car rides is well worth it. So last week, when I was looking for something extra to add to my Chapters Online order, to qualify for free shipping, I bought the DVD.
It arrived yesterday and we put it in, and man, it was like seeing it for the first time. I am intimately familiar with every scene, every line, every sound in this movie, but it was just mind-blowing how much clearer the visuals were, and how much more detailed the sound was. Our surround sound system was in heaven and our big TV was having a field day. I could definitely have watched it all day — those Pixar people really know what the hell they are doing.
TurtleHead 
Is the DVD version wide screen?
Yes, but our downloaded version was widescreen, too, so it’s not like there is extra picture (I remember watching the widescreen version of Star Wars after having seen the fullscreen version about 15 times, and wow, that was like seeing it for the first time, too).
It’s just the amazing amount of detail that was missing from the downloaded version that is mind blowing. Every scene is brighter, clearer, and more detailed. The backgrounds in particular are so beautiful — every shadow, every plant, every reflected gleam from the cars. And the sound! So much of the surrounding noise, especially in the race scenes, was missing — it has really made us appreciate anew why we bothered to install the surround speakers.