The real Santa Clause made his most memorable movie appearance in the beloved holiday perennial Miracle on 34^th Street (1947, Fox). Edmund Gwenn, who stars as a department store Santa who may indeed be the real Saint Nick, picked up the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his delightful performance. Maureen O’Hara and a young Natalie Wood co-star in this charming classic, which also won two other Academy Awards, two Golden Globes, and was recently named one of the top ten most inspiring films of all time by the American Film Institute.

Miracle will be re-released in a two-disc special edition DVD on November 21 from Fox Home Video, which includes both the original black-and-white version as well as the less desirable colorized version. Also avoid the 1994 remake … as far as Santas goes, it’s best to stick to the original.

Just in time for holiday gift-giving, Pixar’s summer hit Cars makes its DVD debut this week … but you better put on the brakes before you buy it. Unlike all other previous Pixar films, this one comes as a mere single disc edition, with limited bonus features.

Available separately in widescreen and full screen versions, what you will get with this release is the typically nice transfer of the film itself, plus two animated shorts (the Oscar-nominated One Man Band and the new, only slightly amusing Mater and the Ghostlight), a nifty full screen look at the epilogue without the end credits, ten minutes of inconsequential deleted scenes, and a brief "Inspiration for Cars" featurette, which offers a peek at the filmmakers’ road trip on Route 66 and even a glimpse of the "real" Mater (there’s also a cute "Easter Egg" found on the main menu … wait for the Dinoco logo to appear in the lower left corner of your screen).

As anyone who has watched any of Pixar’s previous DVD releases can tell you, those wacky guys in the Hawaiian shirts don’t leave anything unfilmed during the making of their movies, so you know there’s a lot more to see, and this Cars is clearly being released now to benefit from seasonal shoppers. But it is pretty obvious to anyone who pays attention to DVD releases that this is purely a placeholder until the inevitable two-disc "special" edition comes down the pike, most likely post award-season early next year.  If and when that happens, expect a full Toon Talk review of that release.

But if you can’t wait or don’t care about "double-dipping" in the near future, at least head over to Wal-Mart, where they are offering a store exclusive "bonus disc" highlighting the music of Cars, including the making of the Rascal Flatts hit cover of "Life is a Highway".