James P. Sullivan (Sulley) and Mike Wazowski work for Monsters, Inc., the leading energy company in the monster world. Energy they get by scaring human children and converting the screams into power for light, cars and everything lse that makes their world run smoothly. However, there’s a power shortage, kids aren’t so easy to scare these days, and things are looking grim for the future so the pressure is on everyone to keep those children screaming.

At Monsters, Inc. they have a copy of every childs bedroom closet door, which can be used as a gateway into the room at night to scare the kids. Sulley, an enormous blue monster with orange spots, is their top scarer and Mike, a little green eyeball on legs, is his Scare Assistant, best pal and room mate.

One day, after a pretty hectic shift and while Mike rushes off on a date, Sulley accidentally lets a human child, which as every monster knows is one of the most toxic and disease ridden things known and a source of pure terror to any sane monster, into their world.

The movie follows the hilarious antics of Sulley and Mike as they try to return the little girl to the human world while avoiding such obstacles as the CDA (Child Detection Agency), their own co-workers and the rest of the monster world.

Review

The team that brought us Toy Story have done it again with Monsters, Inc. This is one excellent animated feature with loads of humour for both kids and adults.

Casting is excellent with the voices of John Goodman as Sulley; Billy Crystal as Mike; Steve Buscemi as Randall Bogs, the main villain of the piece; Jennifer Tilly as Celia Mae, Mike’s medusa girlfriend and the late James Coburn as Henry J. Waternoose III, CEO of Monsters, Inc.

The animation is superb and Pixar have improved the technology since previous productions. Things you’ld take for granted in a live motion film are fast becoming possible with todays technology such as lifelike fur and clothing that reacts realistically to motion and weather effects, including even the settling on of snowflakes in a blizzard.

Given that the movie is a comedy and mainly intended for children, the humour is excellent and pretty well balanced with lots of little bits that can be appreciated by adults as well. An absolutely excellent movie.

Audio/Video

This is a THX certified production so you pretty much be sure picture and sound are excellent. The Setup section comes with the THX Optimizer, which allows you to set up your sound and picture for the best effect.

The picture is presented in 1.85:1 Anamorphic widescreen and is absolutely crystal clear with vibrant colours throughout. The sound options are Dolby Digital Surround or DTS 5.1 and is very good. They used something called binaural recording, of which there are some samples in the extras, to give you a feel of being right in there.

Extras

The Collector’s Edition is a two-disc production so there are loads of extras…

Disc 1

• Audio Commentary by Pete Docter, Lee Unkrich, John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton – This is pretty good although,a s there are four them, it’s quite difficult to tell who is saying what.
• Trailer for Finding Nemo, which is the partnership’s next movie for release in 2003 and it looks pretty good.
• 5.1 Surround Sound Effects Mix, which allows you to listen to the movie minus voice and music, just the sound effects.

Disc 2

This is all extras, with a short introduction by some of the team giving a guide to the two main routes through the material.

Outtakes – As shown through the end credits, these were obviously specially produced and are a set of pretty high quality snips that add some extra comic moments.

Mike’s New Car – An animated short film, featuring Mike and Sulley. last about three and a hald minutes and is pretty funny.

For The Birds – Another animated short, which was shown in the UK theatres alongf with the movie. It’s pretty short at three minutes but it’s hilarious and won Best Animated Short Film prize at the 2001 Academy Awards.

Human Door – Behind this door, you’re in the door vault and there are more doors to look into…

• Tour – This is a 20 minute combination of some of the material in this area.
• Pixar – This contains the Pixar Fun Factory Tour – A three and a half minute piece introducing the team and a short tour of the Pixar studios and an Easter Egg.
• Story – Over 36 minutes of material on how the story was developed. Includes story boards, deleted scenes and a childs picture book concept of the original story line.
• Monster Files – About seven and a half minutes of stuff on the cast and what makes a great monster. Includes a gallery of character design artwork.
• Design – A guide to Monstropolis and the set designs used in the movie. Includes six galleries of images, a virtual fly through of five of the sets used, how they dressed the sets and a guide to some of the “in” jokes used on the sets.
• Animation – Over 20 minutes of detailed information on the techniques and technology used to animate the characters, clothing and weather effects
• Music and Sound – Goodman and Crytal recording the Monster Song, a piece on the sound design and information and examples of the binaural recording techniques used.
• Release – All the promotional material such as the US premiere, trailers and TV spots, outtakes (again), a poster gallery, how they changed the English signs and voices to accomodate international releases and a multi-language clip reel with samples of over 30 languages they used.

Monster Door – Behind this door, the material is more monster oriented…

• New Monster Adventures – A range of short animations and games such as Mike’s New Car (again); Monster TV Treats; Ponkickies 21; Boo’s Door Game; Welcome to Monstropolis, an animated interactive comic and a music video.
• Behind The Screams – Outtakes (again), a 23 page amusing programme to accompany the company play “Put That Thing back Where It Came From!” and a special, on the job report on the energy shortage with Mike and Sulley explaining how Monsters, Inc is helping make thing better.
• Orientation – You’re a new employee of Monsters, Inc. and here’s all the information you’ll need to get through your first day such as the welcome speech, the short tour, the history, the employee handbook and everyones ultimate goal – the Monster of the Month gallery.

Overview

Disney and Pixar have done it again! This is a marvellous film and the complete DVD package is excellent.

I’m not sure how long folk will be impressed with the amount of detail or volume of information provided in extras of this quality but this is definately a “Get it while it’s hot!” package.

Highly recommended!

View The Whole Blog At Movie District

Monsters Inc, DVD Review

I was surprised to find that I really enjoyed watching it again and it was a different viewing experience to the last time I watched it. The last time I saw this film I was a child myself and I just saw it as a cool film about a boy that befriends an alien. As an adult though I could pick up the underlying story of the film. The loneliness a child can feel when their parents separate and the need for companionship and a soul mate. E.T. is a heart-warming story that can be enjoyed by people of any age and thankfully Spielberg hasn’t done anything in this new cut to lessen the experience.

As for the new release itself, many of the changes are very subtle. E.T. has far more facial expressions in many of the scenes and there are one or two short deleted scenes that have been added to the film. There are also the more controversial changes like the removal of the guns, to be honest I was so engrossed in the film that I didn’t even really notice these changes.

As you can probably gather, I really enjoyed watching this film again. The cast are all really strong; especially considering the age of some of them (Drew Barrymore was only six). The plot is emotional and gripping throughout and in this new print the film looks and sounds excellent.

Video/Audio

From the opening credits you can instantly see that a lot of care and attention has gone into the video quality of this DVD. There is not a scratch or defect in sight, the colours are strong and vibrant and the image is nice and sharp. Several points in this film feature very foggy or smokey scenes, which can cause a lot of problems for DVD’s. This print handles it perfectly though, without an artefact in sight.

Looking at the back of the box you would assume that there are three choices of audio track here DD 5.1 EX English, DD 5.1 EX Dutch and DTS 5.1 ES English. However if you go into the Bonus Features menu on Disk 1 you also have the option to watch the film with the John Williams score from the live 2002 premiere performance. I viewed the film with the DTS 5.1 ES soundtrack and I can say that it’s a top quality track. Very atmospheric and the dialogue is perfectly crisp and clear throughout.

Extras

Disk 1

Disk one contains a short introduction by Steven Spielberg that is really just Mr Spielberg explaining why he wanted to come back to the picture and update it with new CG and additional scenes etc. The only other extra on Disk 1 is the option to watch the film with the live John Williams score from the 2002 re-release premiere.

Disk 2

At 50 Minutes in length, Evolution and Creation of E.T. is an excellent featurette packed with all kinds of information. There’s behind the scenes sections from the 1982 original film. There are loads of interview clips with cast & crew including Spielberg, Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore etc. Spielberg talks at length about the film and the new version including his controversial removal of all the guns through CG. There’s also a look at some of the new C.G. with comparisons of original and new version scenes. This is a very interesting featurette.

The Reunion is a 17 minute long group interview with Spielberg, producer Kathleen Kennedy and the main cast. As this is a recent interview the cast are now all adults and they all speak of their experiences and feelings for the film. It’s an interesting enough feature although the sentimentality is rather laid on with a trowel. The Music of John Williams is a ten-minute feature that contains some interview clips with composer John Williams and some behind the scenes footage of the making of the score.

The 20th Anniversary Premiere is a 17 minute feature that concentrates on the live soundtrack performance that John Williams and the orchestra made for this performance. The first half of the feature gives a good insight into how incredibly difficult it is to perform a live soundtrack for a film, the second half shows many clips of the performance itself. Designs, Photographs and Marketing contains sections of concept design drawings, some on set photographs and merchandising images, including a very odd looking E.T. finger.

Space Exploration, I’m trying to think of something positive to say about this feature but I can’t, as it’s one of the most stupid extras I’ve seen in a long time. You are presented with images of all the planets in the solar system. If you select a planet E.T. gives you lots of facts about the planet except that the long drawn out drone of his voice is painful to listen to. What a waste of disk space. Finally we have a set of Trailers for E.T., Back to the Future Trilogy and E.T. the game on various computer formats.

The DVD’s are packaged in a nice cardboard box with external cardboard sleeve. It also comes with a six-page booklet containing some quite extensive production notes. The film is broken into 20 chapters and subtitles are available in English and Dutch. Most menus are animated, although to be honest they are not the best animated menus I’ve ever seen on a DVD.

Overall

I have to confess that I probably wanted to dislike this release if only for the fact that unlike the US we are not going to get the original version of the film on the standard release. Now that I’ve seen the new version though, I don’t know if I’m that bothered if I never see the original again. The picture has been lovingly cleaned up and looks as good as any new release film. E.T. has been made to look more realistic thanks to the C.G. with far more facial expression and better, more fluid movement. Finally I’m tempted to agree with Spielberg that on reflection guns don’t really belong in a film like this.

I’m sure there are many people who would disagree with me, but I personally think that this is an excellent DVD release, that is only let down by the lack of a commentary track from the man himself.

View The Whole Blog At Movie District

E.T. – The Extra Terrestrial Special Edition, DVD Review