Review of Monsters Inc. Read Along DVD

Introduction

Disney/Pixar`s Monsters Inc is one of 2002`s big family movie releases on DVD. Collectors have been awaiting the two-disc release with its plethora of extras since its announcement at the start of the year. Of course, the key demographic family audience has also been looking forward to taking the adventures of Sulley, Mike and Boo home. All in all, the movie looks set to outstrip predecessors A Bug`s Life and Toy Story.

Disney have always had a name for quality - deserved or not - and certainly at a price, but you cannot escape the fact that they are the leaders in the field of family entertainment and family education. Monsters Inc Readalong is just such a product, taking the characters and situations of the movie and using them to encourage young readers. I remember when I was very young having a set of Disney storybooks at the heart of my five-year-old`s library. Unfortunately, the company`s expertise in educational printed matter has not extended to the digital realm.

This is a very unsatisfactory disc. Looking at it from an adult - potential parent`s - viewpoint, there is little to recommend the disc and a great deal to criticise. I`m pretty sure smaller members of the tribe might lap the material up, but compared to the user-friendliness of a good old-fashioned book-with-big-pictures, this is a non-starter.

Reviewing the disc has its problems - this isn`t a movie disc, it`s a series of bits and pieces, so what do you call the main feature and what do you call extras? I`ve decided to cover the disc a little in each section, but if areas overlap, bear with me.

The story is condensed into 23 minutes which might be a little long for some of today`s attention-span-of-a-goldfish youngsters. On the other hand, it may be unsatisfactory for the dyed-in-the-wool Sulley fan. The story is not broken up into chapters, as the author seems to expect the story to be read from the start every time. Navigation may be made by fast-forwarding, but that`s hardly user-friendly to the target audience. You can, however, read the story multilingually by changing audio or subtitle settings.

Video

I sincerely hope that the quality of this disc does not reflect the quality of the feature release (a fortnight from the time of writing). Image quality on all sections of the disc is very low, with a great deal of pixellation especially around lettering. The disc is presented in 4:3 fullscreen, with any widescreen material letterboxed.

The most important caveat about this disc is that, other than the short trailer for the movie in the "Magical World of Disney" section, THERE IS NO FOOTAGE INCLUDED from the movie "Monsters Inc." All that accompanies Dom DeLuise`s narration are still frame-grabs from the movie that for quality look like they were sourced from bad VHS or a pirate VCD.

"The Story" and "The Songs" are both treated this way, although your little monster can learn "If I Didn`t Have You" in German if he or she prefers and you don`t mind them singing "Ohne Dich" in front of Auntie Audrey.

"Videos" takes you to a ten-minute promo for the "Monsters Inc. Scream Factory Favourites" album featuring that chart-topping super-group Riders In The Sky (who performed the "Woody`s Roundup" theme for Toy Story 2).

The only genuinely educational item other than the story readalong is the "vocabulary" section which puts movie still images to words like "helmet" and "teeth" in all five languages the disc is presented in.

Audio

All sound on the disc is plain Dolby 2.0. The story readalong is narrated by former Burt Reynolds sidekick Dom DeLuise. Three songs from the movie are presented in the "songs" section, complete with karaoke-style lyrics so your five-year-old can embarrass himself trying to sing like John Goodman. Especially when you show him that video you shot of him in full voice.

Features

All things considered, the bulk of the material on this disc is promotional material for Disney. The "video" and "Magical World" sections are both simply trailers for Disney product. There are trailers for the upcoming "Treasure Planet" and "Finding Nemo", but neither of these are selling points for the disc.

Conclusion

This is the sort of disc that could give Disney a bad name. A possible excuse is that it`s produced by "Disney Records" rather than Buena Vista who handle the film releases. One thing is certain, there`s not much value in the material on the disc and it could have easily been included in the extras of the Family Edition rather than released separately.

One last curiosity - the back of the box shows two children playing the disc on an Alba 113/513-type DVD player. I tried running this disc on my Alba 113, and it crashed the machine completely. Fortunately it worked on another machine, but I also noticed the menu shown on the illustration bore no resemblance whatsoever to the menu on the disc. Very sloppy, Disney. Uncle Walt can`t be pleased.