|
 Movie A+ |
Video A+ | Audio A+
| Extras A | Highly
Recommended
voice talents of Billy Crystal, John Goodman,
Mary Gibbs, Steve Buscemi, James Coburn, Jennifer Tilly
director Pete Docter | Disney & Pixar Animation
2001 | Children - Computer Animation | G | 93 minutes
Region 1 | DVD-9
|
THX-certified | Dolby Digital
EX 5.1
anamorphic
widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio
or full screen options
Summary: Monsters, Inc. is the
2001 theatrical release of another successful Disney and Pixar Animation
partnership. In this feature length computer animated film, monsters
sneak into human children's bedrooms at night through their portal-like
closet doors and scare them. Not for the fun of it, but the monsters
need to harvest the children's screams to convert its energy to power
their civilization (very much like how we use fossil fuels and nuclear
fusion to generate electrical power). The power company for this
monster world is called Monsters, Inc. The company's top producing
scarer is the very adorable James Sullivan (a.k.a. "Sulley",
features the voice talents of John Goodman). Together with his best
friend Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal), they are the main characters.
A healthy competition between Sulley and another
scarer monster by the name of Randall for the title of the top producing
scarer is supposed to motivate all scarers to produce more scream
energy. But this competition heats up and gets out of control when
Randall works overtime to increase his yield of children's screams.
One evening, Randall leaves the magical portal closet door unguarded and a
small human girl wonders to the monster world, causing all sorts of
problems for the monster civilization and for Monsters, Inc. The
human girl befriends Sulley, when Sulley discovers that human children are
not dirty and disgusting (as the monster world would have him
believe). Sulley enlists his best friend Mike's help in trying to
return the human girl back to her bedroom before management of Monsters,
Inc. does something drastic. Will Sulley and Mike return the human
girl back to her bedroom? How will Monsters, Inc. produce enough
energy to meet the demands of their monster world, when human children
becomes increasingly jaded (perhaps due to their exposure to violent TV
shows and video games - what, could this be?) and as a result become more
difficult to scare?
As a child at heart when it comes to high quality
animated movies, I enjoyed this latest Disney-Pixar collaboration
immensely. It is the perfect family film and you can enjoy it with
your children again and again. The adult and parent in me loves this
movie too. It's good wholesome entertainment. The computer
animation is visually phenomenal. Simply put, it's eye candy for DVD
viewers. The animation is world class, bar none, and the picture
quality is THX certified for the
best possible "video" transfer. (I believe it's actually a
direct computer-to-DVD digital transfer.) The sound design is
equally fantastic, with lots of surround sound channel information in the Dolby Digital
EX 5.1 soundtrack. (For THX
trailer fans, this movie starts with a new THX logo featuring a pretty
cool cow mooing surround sound demo.) This Monster's Inc. DVD
is a very collectible DVD indeed. It gets my highest recommendation!
Special Features: There's a lot of bonus
features here in this 2-disc set. Most of it is on the dedicated
bonus disc. The first disc contains the feature film, including
audio commentary by the filmmakers and a dedicated Dolby Digital
EX 5.1 sound effects-only soundtrack, a THX Optimizer feature, and the
usual Disney sneak peaks/trailers of upcoming theatrical and DVD/home
video releases (Finding Nemo, Beauty and the Beast, Lilo
and Stitch, Inspector Gadget 2, Treasure Planet).
On the second disc, you'll find: outtakes which
includes "The Monster's Inc. Company Play" short, two animated
shorts called Mike's New Car (created exclusively for this DVD/home
video release) and the Academy Award winning animated short For The
Birds, and two "worlds" of bonus features (Monster World and
Human World). In the Monster World, you'll find a "Train For
Your First Day at Monsters, Inc." featurette, view "The
Monsters, Inc. Employee Handbook" featurette, learn "The History
of the Monster World", play a "Peek-A-Boo" Boo's Door Game
(a video game using the DVD navigation/cursor buttons; results will depend
on the speed of your DVD player), play a DVD-ROM game "The Lunch
Room" (a computer with DVD-ROM drive is required), and check out
other interesting facts. In the Human World, you'll find deleted
scenes, 3-D Location Flyarounds feature, Monstropolis Art Gallery (with
hundreds of images), animation gags and guide to "In" jokes, and
behind the scenes of If I Didn't Have You - 2001 Academy Award
Winner for Best Original Song. There's so much bonus material, it's
a good thing that Disney/Pixar included a fold-out booklet that helps
viewers navigate the various programs.
DVD released on 9/17/2002 | Reviewed 9/12/2002
List $29.99 | online $17.99 | order from Amazon.com
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Additional Notes: Unless we specify otherwise, the
video and audio quality are very good when their grades are "A-"
or better. Only the highest number of channels of surround sound
format is listed (e.g., Dolby Digital 5.1). If there are both Dolby
Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 soundtracks, then both are listed. All
DVD-Video discs are backwards compatible with stereo-only playback
systems.
Let us know what you think about this DVD review, write to us at
Editor@TimeForDVD.com.
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Associated equipment used in evaluation: Sony
DVP-S7700 reference DVD player, Sony
KP-61V45 61" rear projection TV (4:3 screen aspect ratio), Sony ES STR-V444ES A/V receiver, four
B&W CDM 9NTs as left/right main speakers
and left/right surrounds, B&W CDM CNT center channel speaker, Monster Cable M-series S-Video cable MSV-500, Monster
Cable Interlink LightSpeed 100 (Toslink) optical cable, Monster Cable
Interlink 400 MKII interconnects, Monster Cable
Original speaker cables in bi-wire configuration with Monster Cable twist-on gold-plated banana plug
connectors, Lovan Sovereign T HiFi audio
rack, and Sony MDR-V600 studio monitor headphones. Our home theater equipment was calibrated
with the Video
Essentials DVD.
Be sure to check out our Top 10 DVDs of the year
2001 and our list of this year's Oscar winners on DVD.
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United We Stand
