Monsters, Inc. was one of those films that simply looked great on DVD on any HDTV. I was really interested to see just how much better the film could look in high def and even better on Blu-ray. Given that the same team involved with UP were involved in the production of Monsters, Inc. I guess it is appropriate that the release of Monsters, Inc. on Blu-ray is timed to the release of UP. I am pleased to report that the video as well as the audio improvement on the Blu-ray edition of Monsters, Inc. over the DVD is simply staggering and a must buy for fans of the film.
Film
Monsters, Inc. is one of my favorite Pixar films. Pixar films are really like your children in that it is difficult to say that you love one more than the other. However, I really enjoyed Monsters, Inc. both in the theater and again at home by way of the DVD and it is near the top of the list when it comes to my ratings of the Pixar films.
I am sure that most of you are very familiar with the plot line in Monsters, Inc. The film takes place in the imaginary world of Monstropolis, where they are having a bit of an energy crisis. All of the energy they use to power their world is generated by way of the screams of children which are harnessed in canisters at their energy company known as Monsters, Inc.
The closet doors of each home in our world is kept there. each door is brought down periodically to the scream floor where monsters of varying kinds enter the door where they are transported into the child’s closest where they come out at night and scare the kids, with the rest of the team harnessing the screams to be converted back at the plant into power. However, the scream teams for want of a better word, are not producing the same amount of scream power as the kids are not as easily frightened as they once were.
The film focuses on one scream team in particular, the number one scream team at Monsters, Inc., a large bluish purple furry bear like creature with a soft heart named Sulley (voiced by John Goodman) as well as a one eyed greenish yellow ball of a creature, MIke Wazowski (voiced by BIlly Crystal). The team is the leader in terms of producing scream power. However, one of the other monsters, Randall Bogg, a lizard who can make himself invisible and who is jealous of Sulley’s sucess, resorts to cheating by opening doors after hours to harness screams. Randall leaves one of the doors open by mistake, allowing a small child named Boo to enter their world. It seems as though the monsters at Monstropolis are more scared of the human children than the children are scared of them, as they are though to be toxic. Through the balance of the film, Sulley and Mike try to return Boo to her rightful place in our world and in the process, get trapped there.
Monsters, Inc. is a wonderful and inventive film that uses the fear that many kids have of some kind of monster hiding either under their bed or in their closest at night and combines that with a story about the value of friendship along with a bit of social commentary about the energy crisis to weave a tale that appeals to kids of all ages. Very highly recommended.
Video
I must say that I was expecting that this release would have some great looking video and that my expectations were exceeded. The improvement in picture quality between this release and the DVD is simply staggering. As one would expect, the film features bright and bold colors with some truly eye catching reds, blues, greens and yellows. Detail is amazing, from the individual hairs on Sulley’s body to the numerous and until this release, unknown to me, spots on the face and body of Mike Wazowski.
The level of overall clarity here is amazing, with a razor sharp picture with incredible visual depth. Black levels are deep and inky which only add to the utter three dimensionality of the image. Given that the film is computer generated, there is no film grain present and no digital noise reduction or edge enhancement that I could detect. What you are left with is a bright and bold image that literally looks as if it is going to leap off the screen with a level of overall clarity and detail that is probably only possible with computer animation. The improvement in picture quality offered on this release over the DVD is so significant that the Blu-ray release is a must buy, even for those that already have the DVD. My DVD copy will be making its way to ebay or Amazon any minute now.
Audio
While I was expecting a significant improvement in the video performance of this release over the DVD, I was not quite prepared for how much better the lossless DTS HD Master Audio track sounds in comparison to the DVD. The improvement in sound quality is noticeable from the very beginning of the film at the monster training facility, where the background voices had a much better sense of space and depth than they do on the DVD. From there the sound only gets better, with amazing fidelity, bass response, transparency, imaging and dynamics.
The surround speakers are used early and often and quite aggressively, creating an excellent sense of immersion, placing you right in the middle of the action. As was the case with UP and the prior Pixar Blu-ray releases, the dialogue track is captured with excellent fidelity, creating the palpable sense of real voices in the room with you rather than the recorded variety. Try as I might, I could find no fault with the audio presentation on this release. It is darn near perfect and of reference quality in all respects. Crank this one up if you can.
Special Features
As was the case with the review copy of UP, I was provided with the four disc combo set for review. Disc 1 included the Blu-ray version of the film, along with new bonus features not included with the original DVD release and created especially for the Blu-ray release. These extras consist of the featurette Monsters, Inc. Ride and Go Seek: Building Monstropolis in Japan which shows the Monstropolis ride at Disney’s theme park in Japan. Also included is the filmmakers’ Round Table where the director and creative forces behind the film reflect on the film eight years after its initial release.
Also included is an audio commentary along with the animated shorts, For the Birds which won the Academy Awards for Best Animated Short FIlm in 2001 as well as Mike’s New Car Short, all presented in HD. Disc 2 contains extras ported over from the prior DVD release of the film along with an all new Roz’ 100 Door Challenge Game, Pixar Fun Factory Tour and banished concepts showing potential scenes in the film which went no where or ended up on the cutting room floor or its computer equivalent. Disc 3 included a DVD copy of the film and Disc 4 a digital copy compatible with Macs and PCs. The release is not BD-Live enabled.
Final Thoughts
Monsters, Inc. on Blu-ray offers a substantial improvement in both video and audio performance over the original DVD release and is such, an absolute must buy for fans of the film. Very highly recommended.
