Reviews

Monsters Inc. Blu-ray Disc Review

By brenden ⋅ November 18, 2009 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

MONSTERS INC. (2001, Blu-ray released November 10, 2009 - MSRP $40.99)

Everywhere you look, everyone is talking about Disney Pixar’s Up, newly released to home video this past week. But there’s another film from the same studio and the same creative team that’s also now available on Blu-ray and it’s equally as incredible. Monsters Inc. is not only every bit as well crafted a film as Up but also just as well put together on Blu-ray disc!

I wasn’t looking forward to watching Monsters Inc. again. I had seen it in the theatres in 2001 and enjoyed it, as far as I can recall. But there’s something about those designs that never worked their magic on me. Something about stars Billy Crystal and John Goodman that actually makes me want to avoid putting the disc on. For some reason, something about the film felt like it would be a struggle to enjoy. Boy, would I have made a big mistake if I had avoided it! Monsters Inc. is phenomenal! I’ll still take issue with some of the character design work (that Boo kid looks like ass most of the time) but on the whole, the film is outstanding! The story involves Monstropolis’ best and spookiest scare-lebrity, Sulley and his pal Mike who, together collect the screams of innocent children to power their city. When a little human girl sneaks into their Monster-world and befriends them, it upsets the balance of things and causes the Monsters to question everything they hold to be true. It’s a cute story, full of humour and adventure, well played by the cast and, of course, brilliantly animated by Pixar.

And does that animation ever shine on Blu-ray! Monsters Inc. is another home video home-run for the Disney Pixar team. I guess it’s tough to screw up a transfer that doesn’t involve analogue film elements but instead moves ones and zeroes from computer directly to disc but I’m still ceaselessly amazed by the results. This disc, like Up before it, is as close to perfect as Blu-ray can be. The detailed, brilliant image and the crisp, immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 audio track make the Monsters Inc. Blu-ray another near-perfect choice of demo disc!

Also, much like the Up Blu-ray, Monsters Inc. is available in a 4-disc edition that provides the film on Blu-ray, a disc of HD extras, the film on DVD and an additional disc holding a digital copy, ensuring you can watch it on as many devices as you’ll ever own. The highlight for me, once again, is the wonderful commentary track (carried over from the previously available DVD), this time courtesy of Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, John Lasseter, and Lee Unkrich. They also get together for a brand new, BD exclusive “Filmmakers Round Table” featurette, which turns out to be a delightful 22 minutes of conversation between colleagues and good pals (Check out a preview video above!)

In addition to carrying over all the supplemental material from the 2001 DVD (tons of featurettes, trailers, gag reels, deleted scenes and more), the Blu-ray provides a lot of brand new, HD goodies to enjoy, like the “Monsters, Inc. Ride and Go Seek: Building Monstropolis in Japan” (preview clip above) which details the new Monsters Inc. ride in Disneyland, Tokyo. There’s also a brand new introduction to the film by director Pete Docter and a new HD game “Roz’s 100 Door Challenge“.

Tags: CGI, Disney, Monsters Inc, Pete Docter, Pixar, Walt Disney Home Entertainment