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Monsters University: Collector's Edition
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (10th December 2013). |
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The Film
 Back when Michael Eisner was CEO of Disney he set in motion plans to sequelize the Pixar films, a plan that saw massive disagreement from Overlord Steve Jobs, primarily because the sequels were going into production at a different animation studio and featured weak stories developed to simply take advantage of the goodwill Pixar spent years building. Releasing sub-par sequels would damage the company's reputation. A sequel to "Monsters, Inc." (2001) was among those planned. Thankfully none of the sequel ideas Disney was working on materialized, instead Disney bought Pixar and as part of the deal Pixar was able to retain the rights to the films, allowing them and only them to develop and produce Pixar-related sequels. In the years that would follow Pixar would release "Toy Story 3" (2010), which ended up being a terrific film, a sequel to a film nobody particularly wanted except maybe John Lasseter, in "Cars 2" (2011) and a prequel was also being developed which would end up being "Monsters University". The original concept for a second "Monsters" movie was a straight sequel which would find our heroes Mike and Sulley trapped in the human world, which as a single pitch line sounds pretty good, but Pixar opted to drop that script commissioned by Disney and work on their own film. Deciding to take a prequel route, the film would take a look at Mike and Sulley during their University days, a sort of ragtag group of misfits trying to make a name for themselves at University, impress their teachers and also gain the respect and admiration of the most popular kids on the block... sound familiar? Yeah it's the plot to pretty much every University themed movie... it plays out like a "G" rated animated version of "Old School" (2003), it even includes the "win at games to avoid being kicked out of school" plot device, complete with evil(ish) headmaster, the popular frat house boys whom our heroes covet their friendship (only to discover they don't need it), and finding friendship among adversity... yadda, yadda, yadda. All things considered, it's not a bad film. In fact "Monsters University" is a funny and touching film, two things Pixar does in spades. The best thing about this film is the terrific character interactions between Mike (Billy Crystal) and Sulley (John Goodman), built upon the same foundations that made the first film as brilliant as it was. Pixar has a unique knack for perfect casting, and this cast is no exception. Billy Crystal and John Goodman are so great together, they riff off each other, have incredible chemistry, and all within a 3D created world, it's truly impressive how they manage to illicit such human performances in a virtual environment. Rounding out the exceptional voice cast are Steve Buscemi, Sean Hayes, Dave Foley, Charlie Day, Helen Mirren, Alfred Molina, Nathan Fillion, Aubrey Plaza, John Krasinski, Bonnie Hunt, Bill Hader and Pixar regular John Ratzenberger among others, and what a cast, huh? Everyone here delivers and every monsters is as memorable as the last. The production design and animation are taken to another level, carrying on the tradition of Pixar's incredible artistry with flawless precision. The world of the film is intricate and beautifully mapped out, the university campus looks and feels like a real one and the character designs couldn't be any better. Significant improvements have been made on fur, Sulley look fantastic, his fur flows naturally and it looks real. The previous film had it spot on, but minor details and finer animation techniques helped create a more realistic fur. What it doesn't have is the same "magic" as the first, it really feels like the creative team ran out of ideas and everything about "Monsters University" feels second hand. Some jokes hit really hard while others feel forced, despite having some great sequences there aren't many true stand out moments that other Pixar films had in spades, overall it felt as if the filmmakers played it safe here.
Video
Presented in a widescreen ratio of 1.78:1 mastered in HD 1080p 24/fps and using AVC MPEG-4 compression, this transfer easily makes the argument for being one of the absolute best of the year. Taken directly from the original digital source the image is clean, crisp and vibrant. Character detail stand out brilliantly, with fine textures and colors that pop off the screen. The lush image is a cacophony of colors that stand out wonderfully helping to add depth to the animated world of these characters. The 2D image represents the best that Disney has to offer and they deliver it in spades here. Nothing to complain about.
Audio
Three audio tracks are included here in English Dolby TrueHD 7.1 surround mixed at 48kHz/24-bit as well as tracks in French Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 surround and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 surround. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its English audio. The dialogue was clean and clear, the surround channels get a terrific work out and are active and aggressive when they need to be and quite and subtle when necessary. The range is handled well, the film's music makes excellent use of the sound space and helps to add further depth to the overall sound mix. It's another winner that pairs perfectly with the flawless image. Optional subtitles are included in English, English for the hearing impaired, French and Spanish.
Extras
One thing Disney does really well - finely produced supplemental material for their animated features, "Monsters University" is packed with extras. They include an audio commentary, a short film, ten featurettes, deleted scenes, promotional material, set flythroughs and art galleries, below is a closer look at these supplements. DISC ONE: Blu-ray First up is a feature-length screen specific audio commentary with director/co-writer Dan Scanlon, producer Kori Rae and story supervisor Kelsey Mann. The participants take a look at the genesis of the film's story, the development process, laying out the story and working through the best ideas and characters, the challenges that arose from such a complex and costly project, the animation process and the getting the cast back together as well as adding a slew of talent people. The track is informative and occasionally entertaining, for fans of the film and to get a better understanding of the amount of work that's put into making a film like this this track is worth listening to. "Blue Umbrella" (1080p) is a new Pixar short film which runs for 6 minutes 46 seconds and is a sweet little film about two umbrellas falling in love in the rain. Bonus trailers (1080p) are also included for: - "Frozen" - "The Jungle Book: Diamond Edition" - "Planes" - "Disney Movie Rewards" spot - "Disney Store" spot - "Disney Infinity" spot - Mary Poppins: 50th Anniversary Edition:" - "Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United" - "The Pirate Fairy" DISC TWO: Blu-ray "Campus Life" (1080p) is the first featurette which runs for 15 minutes 14 seconds, this clip takes a closer look at the film's production process at PIXAR, it's like a video journal of the daily work that various departments are responsible for. If you ever want to work at PIXAR then this clip will provide a nice look at the culture and working style at the company. "Story School" (1080p) is the next featurette which runs for 8 minutes 38 seconds. This feature takes a look at the storyboarding process and developing the boards, revisions and crafting the narrative that would eventually become the final version of scenes seen in the film. "Scare Games" (1080p) is a featurette which runs for 4 minutes 30 seconds, the film has a sequence where the characters enter a series of University scare games, in this clip the staff at PIXAR have a little fun themselves by holding their own games. "Monthropology" (1080p) is a featurette which runs for 5 minutes 47 seconds. This feature takes a closer look at the design process of the various characters in the film, modelling, animating and casting as well. "Welcome to MU" (1080p) is the next featurette which runs for 6 minutes 9 seconds, this is look at the design and development of the university campus, the inspirations for the campus, mapping it out the grounds and building among other things. "Music Appreciation" (1080p) is a featurette which runs for 7 minutes 29 seconds, this clip delves into the music for the film as viewers are invited to sit in on the symphony recording with composer and PIXAR regular Randy Newman. "Scare Tactics" (1080p) is another featurette which runs for 5 minutes 16 seconds, animators refine the expressions and scare tactics in this clip, a cool look at the process that breathes life into the scares. "Color and Light" (1080p) featurette runs for 5 minutes 16 seconds, this clip takes a look at the production art that's created to help the animators and artist establish tone, color schemes and use of light from start to finished product. "Paths to PIXAR: MU Edition" (1080p) featurette runs for 7 minutes 40 seconds, sees a bunch of PIXAR staff sharing their stories on how the came to work for the company. "Furry Monsters: A Technical Retrospective" (1080p) featurette runs for 5 minutes 2 seconds. This clip takes a look at the evolution of fur animation and the challenge of animating 250 characters with intricate fur! Following those clips are a series of deleted scenes (1080p). Each scene includes an introduction by the film's director, there are four deleted scenes that are assembled as storyboards. They include: - "Rivalry" which runs for 4 minutes 45 seconds. - “Recon” which runs for 3 minutes 3 seconds. - “Movie Night” which runs for 4 minutes 18 seconds. - “Drama Class” which runs for 8 minutes 55 seconds. Promo picks (1080p) are next and are a series of promotional materials created for the marketing campaign for the film: - "Monsters Mash Up" is a series of animated gags that runs for 4 minutes 1 second. - College Campaign: -- features a "College Commercial" which runs for 32 seconds. -- "March Madness" is a spot about the basketball team which runs for 27 seconds. -- "Admissions" runs for 1 minute 33 seconds, is a recruitment video. - Theatrical Campaign: -- Teaser trailer runs for 1 minute 10 seconds. -- "Back Then" theatrical trailer runs for 2 minutes 25 seconds. -- "One Night" theatrical trailer runs for 1 minute 10 seconds. -- "Japan" theatrical trailer runs for 2 minutes 23 seconds. Set flythroughs (1080p) runs for 6 minutes 25 seconds, these features allow you to explore the various virtual sets created for the film in awesome detail. Finally there's an art gallery (1080p) that takes a look at the following categories: - "Characters" (130 images) - "Color Keyes" (30 images) - "Development Art" (61 images) - "Environments" (77 images) - "Graphics" (37 images) DISC THREE: DVD Copy This disc is a DVD version of the film and also included is a code for a digital copy version of the film for portable media devices.
Packaging
Packaged in a 3-disc Blu-ray case housed in a cardboard slip-case.
Overall
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