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: * * * ½
Disc: * * ½

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.