MousePlanet - Home Theater and Entertainment

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Ratings Summary
(Scored out of a maximum of five)

Audio

Video

Goodies

Interface

Value

Advanced Home Theater: Well, it's almost perfect...

The disc is divided into two "worlds." The "Human World," which focuses on the humans behind the making of the movie, is the place film buffs should focus their energy on. The "Monster World" allows you to enter Monstropolis and join Monsters, Inc. as an employee, and most of the material is targeted at a more general audience, including some children’s games.

Although the whole disc is a lot of fun to peruse, here are some of my favorites:

Besides those specific highlights, the rest of the production material is right on target for my taste. Even though I’ve seen similar material, I always appreciate being able to see how a particular film was put together. Each Pixar film usually has at least one or two major technical advances, and the disc nicely describes how they handled the animation of Sulley’s fur and Boo’s T-shirt.

The interface is simply fantastic. Just about every screen has some sort of animation, music, or sound. Everything is themed to the movie, and I could not ask for anything more. The first disc does have movie previews, but everything after perfectly sets up the movie’s feel and gets you into the mood.

Disc Two launches you right into the Monster’s, Inc. world, and closet doors give you access to the two "Worlds." The "Human World" setting is the closet door warehouse, with moving doors and everything, and the "Monster World" drops you off at the lobby of Monster’s, Inc. You have to see these screens. Pixar has once again shown what the DVD interface is all about.

The Advanced Home Theater

What can I say? They almost got it right. Here's what they missed the boat on with this otherwise exemplary title...

First is a major problem in the layer change for the widescreen version of the movie. It sputters (if not hangs up) not only my new top of the line unit (a Toshiba SD-5700) but on quite a few other models also from what I can find out. It's particularly annoying because it comes just before the final scene of the movie - which shoots the heck out of the mood at that point.

Second is the missing "highlights" for selections as you arrow to them on the menus - apparently once you drill down one layer on the disc 2 menus, the highlights of what you've selected (either underlines or circles of the chosen menu items) start disappearing.

From what I can find out from this happening with a few titles in the past is that this release may be suffering from some sloppy authoring. A DVD navigation system is not easy to assemble, as it can rival in complexity the writing of a computer program. A messy piece of code or a shortcut that was taken, can trip up even the best of players sometimes. Layer changes need to be selected with care, and tested on all sorts of players.

The past Pixar/Disney titles were pretty much flawless in these areas, so this is something that has been introduced into the authoring process since then, either via new software or a new production house.

The other disappointment here is the lack of 16x9 anamorphic enhancement for the majority of the additional materials on the two discs. Disney has proven in the past they can do an exceptional job in this area as they did with the Atlantis special edition. Yes, it does add to the production cost, but it's a minimal amount considering just how much the movie has already made, and will make on home video.

While current 4:3 screen owners may find this a petty complaint, the future of television is 16x9, and chances are very good their next higher-end set will be a widescreen model. It's annoying to find the movie itself, and the For the Birds short, along with the Nemo preview in 16x9, while all the other letterboxed trailers and the Mike's New Car short are presented in 4:3.

Disney is to be applauded by including both versions of the film in this one low-priced edition, but enhancing the rest of the materials would have made less of a hassle for widescreen / non-progressive scan disc player owners when they play back this title on their systems.

There have been some comments in a few early reviews of this disc online that the quality of this transfer is not up to past Pixar efforts, but in watching this title on a 50" widescreen set with a progressive scan player, the picture to me at least seems comparable if not better to past releases. There are no artifacts, the colors are rock solid, and there is abundant detail in all the shots. Textures abound. (Shrek on DVD also looks very good, but doesn't have the vivid color pallet this film presents.)

The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is truly dynamic - I have to say it was the first time I'd heard so much deep bass in one soundtrack, and it was all crystal clear. (To be frank here, I didn't know just what my system was capable of until I put this title on and shook the floor with the subs - those Cerwin Vegas do the job!)

The EX encoding is subtle enough should you have the sixth center real channel available, but you won't really miss it all that much if you stick to 5.1. Those lamenting the lack of a DTS track can relax, as there probably isn't much it could have added sonically, and the space saved on the disc by not including it probably gave us more bonus features to enjoy.

I also liked the use of a single disc Amray type plastic case, with an additional tray inside for the second disc (Shrek was also packaged this way). This saves shelf space, as we all know how our DVD collections will be growing by leaps and bounds over the next few weeks alone.

There are two Easter eggs that I know of, one each behind the Human Door and the Monster Door on the bonus disc. The Human side's egg is available once you open the door marked Pixar - highlight the flying paper airplane on the bottom of that menu and select it for an extended version of the paper airplane contest video footage seen on the Pixar building tour.

The Monster side's egg (a gag reel) can be found when you are on the menu which shows the receptionist behind the sign. Move the cursor over to the right from any selection on that menu to highlight the eye in Monster's Inc. logo on the wall behind her - you'll know you hit it when you see a Monkey pop up on your screen. The very last clip in the gag reel is the funniest one of the batch - but I won't spoil it for you.

While some of the things I mention here will be minor or non-existent problems for the majority of disc purchasers, the folks who have invested in the higher end systems will be left asking why a little extra effort wasn't made for them.

As this DVD edition is currently configured and authored, despite a terrific transfer, it falls just short of being the be-all / end-all ultimate disc for your widescreen top-of-the-line home theater system.

- Al Lutz

I won’t say that Pixar and Disney have outdone themselves with this set, but they have certainly delivered a package that more than satisfies. Don’t miss this one.


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