MONSTERS
VS. ALIENS
Monsters vs. Aliens (2009)
Actors: Seth Rogen, Reese Witherspoon, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett,
Paul Rudd
Format: AC-3, Animated, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled,
Widescreen, NTSC
Region: 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Paramount
DVD Release Date: September 29, 2009
Run Time: 94 minutes
Ginormous extras:
- Modern Monster Movie
Making
- Three
Never-Before-Seen Deleted Scenes (Monger's Plan, War Room Turns on
Monsters, If You Don't Know)
- DWA Music Video Juke
Box
- Filmmaker Commentary
- The Tech of Monsters
vs. Aliens
- Top Secret Sneak Peek
Files (How To Train Your Dragon, Shrek The Musical, Kung Fu
Panda World, The Penguins of Madagascar, Shrek The Halls, Secrets of the
Furious Five, Monsters vs. Aliens Activision Game trailer)
Movie:
 
Disc:
 The
best place to have seen Monsters vs.
Aliens was in a 3-D cinema, as its makers intended (even if you find
those 3-D glasses fidgety). Unlike other recent 3-D offerings such as
Coraline, Monsters vs. Aliens made
effective use of its 3-D format to supply audiences with thrills and spills
as they used to say.
Normally we'd say that DVD
would be the second best place to see
Monsters vs.
Aliens, but that is no longer the case. Nowadays the format comes a
distant fourth (after 2-D cinemas and Blu-Ray). In fact the most
disappointing thing about this DVD is its image transfer which now looks
humdrum when compared to HD. (Computer animated movies usually impressed the
most in the digital format of DVD ? probably because it was all digital to
begin with.)
This aside,
Monsters vs. Aliens is still a
hugely entertaining affair. A comedic homage to old ?Fifties movie monsters
such as
Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Blob and the original Fly
the movie single-handedly makes up for the slew of recent lesser animated
DreamWorks efforts such as Madagascar 2 and Shrek 3. With its
cartoonish look and feel, kinetic gags and colourful animation style the
movie is ostensibly aimed at kids who will have a blast sure, but adults -
and science fiction fans ? will find loads to appreciate as well.
The plot involves a ragtag
group of loveable monsters being recruited to fight an alien invasion. There
are loads of gentle digs at genre conventions and we particularly loved a
gender role reversal sequence in which two roadside would-be smoochers come
across a crash-landed alien giant robot. (There's a bizarre thumb gag that
is truly inspired too. Check out a list of stuff we liked
here.)
THE DISC: The extras
aren't exactly "ginormous" (as advertised) and the deleted scenes aren't
exactly deleted scenes either (they're storyboard sequences for which the
soundtrack has already been recorded). Along with a lacklustre and
uninformative commentary track the special features can't exactly make up
for the mediocre image quality of the main feature, a letdown in the age of
high definition.
WORTH IT? Check out
the Blu-Ray instead if you're a serious audiophile.
RECOMMENDATION: If
you want a virtual babysitter for the kids, then this will do. But whichever
format you chose, Monsters vs. Aliens is the sort of rewatchable
flick that deserves a place in your DVD collection.
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