FROM: It Came from Disney! Published Tuesdays

Disney Second Screen

In my day, you waited for movies to show up in TV Guide and then made plans to watch them. We loved it! Nowadays, 'interactive' is the buzz word, and Jessica Clawson has found the ultimate in interactive: Disney Second Screen.

- by Jessica Clawson, March 15, 2011

My family and I are big movie collectors. We had collected tons of DVDs and were so proud of our collection.

Then came Blu-ray.

Jessica Digs Blu-ray

At first I thought, "Darn ever evolving technology!", and refused to buy into Blu-ray. Then I saw the clarity and brilliance of a movie on Blu-ray, especially the Disney animated movies!

I'm not ashamed to admit that when I first watched Beauty and the Beast on Blu-ray with the image restoration, I had a tear in my eye. I couldn't believe the smoothness and the clarity. I was blown away! I had to get every Disney animated feature on Blu-ray.

As if the clarity of seeing older animated features on Blu-ray was not enough, Disney now has a new technology called Second Screen which I experienced for the first time on my Bambi Blu-ray.

I just have to share the experience with you!

Jessica Digs Second Screen, Too

Second Screen is a free feature that you can unlock after you buy the Blu-ray. To unlock it, visit the Second Screen website, select your movie (currently, only Bambi and Tron are enabled for Second Screen), select your device type (Mac, PC, or iPad), enter the Disney Movie Rewards code (which you'll find in the Blu-ray box), and off you go!

When you press Play to start your Blu-ray movie, you'll now have Second Screen as one of several options. If you select it, you'll see a gray counter in the bottom left corner of your screen after the movie starts. The counter is there to help you sync Second Screen.

You can sync either manually (plug in the counter number yourself) or automatically (make sure no one in the room is talking and the volume is turned up to a decent level so the device can sync itself with the movie).

Now the fun begins!

Second Screen content includes paintings of scenes, videos, games, sketches from the film, trivia, and even flip-books of the animation. There is so much content, in fact, that you may want to pause the movie so you'll have time to enjoy everything - or you could just wait until the movie ends and then spend time exploring Second Screen content, which is what I did.

The screen changes every few seconds to display another feature relevant to the part of the movie then playing.

Buy It on Blu-ray!

I know there are people out there who buy movies to enjoy the film, period. I completely understand. The Bambi Blu-ray is worth it for the clarity of the restoration alone.

But if you like exploring and learning more about your movies, this Blu-ray offers much more. Besides the treasure trove that is Second Screen, it also has deleted scenes, a deleted song, a feature called "Inside Walt's Story Meetings", and even a version of the movie with an introduction by Diane Disney Miller!

Bambi on Blu-ray is worth every penny. (And Second Screen is worth every dollar!)

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