Monster House Blu-ray Disc Review

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Title: Monster House

Region: A

Media: Blu-ray Disc

Genre: CGI Animated Dark Fantasy

Starring The Voices And Motion Capture Performances Of: Steve Buscemi, Nick Cannon, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kevin James, Jason Lee, Catherine O’Hara, Kathleen Turner, and Fred Willard

Writers: Dan Harmon, Rob Schrab, and Pamela Pettler

Based On A Story By: Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab

Director: Gil Kenan

Feature length: 91 minutes

Extras: 7 Inside Monster House Featurettes, Evolution Of A Scene, Filmmaker Commentary, Photo Galleries, Previews

Languages: English PCM 5.1 Uncompressed Surround Sound and English, French, and Korean Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Subtitles: English Subtitles For The Deaf And Hearing Impaired and English, French, Korean, Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, and Thai Language Subtitles

Packaging: Blue BD Case

Chapter Stops: 28

Sound: PCM 5.1 Uncompressed Surround Sound and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Year of Theatrical Release: 2006/Blu-ray Disc Release: 2006

Theatrical Distributor: Columbia Pictures

Home Video Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

MPAA Rating: PG

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

When DVD first came out in 1997, two of the first original releases were Amblin Entertainment titles. They were Twister and The Color Purple. It took a while until the first Spielberg related titles were strong enough to call attention to the format. DreamWorks’ Saving Private Ryan was probably the first A- list Spielberg directed film to be released on DVD and arguably it did as much to legitimize the format as a true contender as the release of The Matrix on DVD from Warner Home Video in 1999. Now we are in the high definition optical disc era with two competing formats on the market that has reminded some of the VHS vs. Betamax format war of the late 1970s and early 1980s. While strong titles are being released on both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc, only recently has there been some real must-own titles released on both formats. However regardless if you are a fan or not, certain filmmakers have name recognition that can make or break a film. There are many, but because these filmmakers touched a generation of young movie fans’ hearts with fantastic fantasy adventure films for the whole family and broke box office records in the process, filmmakers like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Robert Zemeckis have the kind of name recognition that regardless of who directed it, the visibility factor of an Amblin Entertainment or Lucasfilm LTD association and then add to that having Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg as executive producers on a film and the effect would be akin to being a first time filmmaker at a film market or film festival and have no one pay too much attention to your film and then all of the sudden, Steven Spielberg walks over and shakes the young filmmaker’s hand and says, “I liked your film” and then just walks away without saying another word or even paying a parting glance at the filmmaker. Suddenly that filmmaker gets noticed and everyone wants to talk to him about his film because like Hollywood movie stars, certain filmmakers can merely point their finger and change the fate of a movie and those involved.

Now as far as I know, George Lucas had nothing to do with Monster House, but Zemeckis and Spielberg’s names are there and as far I know about Amblin Entertainment, this might be the first Spielberg related film to be released on any high definition optical disc format. Robert Zemeckis’ adaptation of The Polar Express is already out on HD DVD and will probably come to Blu-ray Disc sooner or later, but to me anyway, even if Spielberg had little hands on involvement in the making of the movie, the fact that his name and Amblin Entertainment’s association with the film appears on the back the of packaging and no one had to wait for a certain number of Blu-ray Disc player units to be sold before Monster House was released on Blu-ray Disc means a whole lot. It is at the very least, an unofficial endorsement of the Blu-ray Disc format since industry heavyweights like Spielberg and Zemeckis can influence studio distributors how they wish their titles to be distributed on some level and lets face it, would you tell either of these guys, “Sorry, but Monster House was a big hit summer film and we want it out for this Halloween as a Blu-ray Disc showcase title…” I don’t think so… Thus here is Monster House now officially available on Blu-ray Disc and it is a real treat to have this Halloween season.

Forget the whole we all grew up with spooky house stories in our neighborhoods because we all grew up with a lot of things, but a good film is a good film and Monster House is definitely a fun CGI animated dark fantasy picture with just the right bit of pathos in the back story to prevent it from becoming saccharine. The talent in front of the cameras who lend both their voices and their physical acting for computer motion capture is perfect. Sometimes certain characters come off a little grotesque and most look a lot like action figures from time to time, but overall the picture and animation quality for this Blu-ray Disc release is top shelf. Monster House has been released in high definition widescreen (2.40:1) 1920 x 1080p to jaw dropping effect complete with a rousing English PCM 5.1 Uncompressed Analogue Surround Soundtrack for lossless audio quality between 7.1 surround sound receivers and Blu-ray Disc players with analogue composite audio outputs and inputs. Optical digital or coaxial digital audio tracks are also included in English, French, or Korean Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired as well as English, French, Korean, Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, and Thai Language Subtitles have been encoded onto the Blu-ray Disc as options too. An interesting mix of audio comments that include Director Gil Kenan and Producer Steve Starkey among others is included as a feature length audio commentary track, but while the development and challenges in making the film are discussed articulately, the speakers are never identified by name through subtitles or mere audio introduction and so far despite doing some quick online research to find out who the speakers on this commentary track exactly are, I have no way of saying who is who and who said what beyond generalizations, which I find frustrating. Hopefully this will be rectified in future releases. This is the same audio commentary being released on the widescreen and full screen standard definition DVD releases too.

The other extra value features are very interesting and have all been formatted with widescreen TVs in mind too. They also feature optional Korean Language Subtitles, but no English SDH. First there is the “Inside The Monster House” 7-part featurette that can be viewed in individual segments or collectively using a “Play All” feature (24:34). The elements are detailed as Imaginary Heroes – Character Design, Beginners Luck – Casting, The Best Of Friends – D.J. & Chowder, Lots Of Dots – Performance Capture, Black Box – Motion Capture, Moving It, and Did You Hear That? Sound Design. Next is a seven part anatomy of the opening scene from the film (20:00) that can also be viewed separately or as a whole complete with an introductory featurette, story reel animation, performance capture footage, layout and staging, animation, the final scene, and then all of the above mentioned steps are shown at once in little boxes to show how the composite occurs collectively like a review of the process for the viewers.

Three easy to navigate still galleries of beautiful artwork for Monster House that cover concepts, including artwork for deleted scenes, people, including a mix of black and white storyboard like images, and places and things wraps up the extra value features directly related to Monster House on this Blu-ray Disc release. High definition previews with English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound for RV (2:20) and “The Benchwarmers” (2:30) are included on the disc, but unfortunately there are no trailers for Monster House at all. The interactive menus that can be activated while the film is in progress without interrupting or stopping it are easy to navigate, but some of the printing is a bit hard to read.

Monster House is a terrific film for the Halloween holiday for viewers of all ages and is available now on Blu-ray Disc at retailers on and offline courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

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