Monkeys, Go Home! Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Monkeys, Go Home! Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman April 29, 2021

1967’s Monkeys, Go Home! typifies the mild Disney live action fare from the era. It’s charming, capable, and colorful, a film that aims to blend zany antics with grounded drama and more than a sprinkling of agreeable romance. There’s nothing heavy here. It’s a lightweight movie with aspirations of simple entertainment, which it delivers in fruitful portion. A classic it is not but a well aging and agreeable little film it is.

Hank Dussard (Dean Jones) has just returned to his mother's home in a small French village where he’s going to take over a vineyard home to some 480 olive trees that he is looking to farm. But times have changed. There is no more money in olive oil, he’s told. He’s not dissuaded, but he does come to realize after a chat with the local preacher, Father Sylvain (Maurice Chevalier), that he’s going to need some hands to tend to it. Small hands, preferably, such as those belonging to children. But Hank is single and has no children, so he employs the next best thing: trained monkeys. It’s a surefire solution but Hank is going to need to be careful that his secret doesn’t get out. One of the first to know is local beauty Maria Miserau (Yvette Mimieux) who takes a liking to Hank and pursues a romantic relationship with him. But as word gets out, trouble brews when the locals don’t take kindly to trained monkeys doing the work a human could perform for pay.

Monkeys, Go Home! boils down to a few simple ingredients: simplicity breeds necessity breeds the introduction of something unfamiliar breeds opportunities aplenty of humorous asides. Add a bit of romance and the movie hits all the proper notes needed for a basic family film. Whether families in the 2020s will find this 1960s Comedy as effective today as it was then is up for debate, but there’s no mistaking the movie’s loving adherence to simple times and basic formulas that yield a perfectly agreeable little movie. The acting is fine, the production values are solid, and the movie makes for an enjoyable escape with admittedly little staying power but enough charm in the moment to make a watch well worth the time investment.

Monkeys, Go Home! Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Disney's 1080p Blu-ray presentation of Monkey's, Go Home! looks terrific. These Disney Movie Club exclusives truly do stand as some of the hidden gems on the Blu-ray format, and this one also excels. The picture is perfectly filmic, holding fast to a natural grain structure. It's delightfully true to form and a pleasure to watch. The old French town seen at the beginning is rich in living texture on the roughhewn exteriors and, of course, so too is the vineyard, whether the homestead or the trees or the support elements all around it. These locations, as well as some other home interiors and various other places, reveal all of the old world charm, clutter, and furnishings with exacting precision. Color output is superb. Natural greens are rich, red hair leaps off the screen, clothes are dynamic, and the entire spectrum is well balanced and lively as applicable and grounded where warranted. There are no serious print anomalies and no obvious encode failures of note. The movie could not look much better on Blu-ray.

Monkeys, Go Home! Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The included Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack plays with acceptable front side spacing, allowing music to flow across the front with a fair sense of engagement through both speakers. It's at least not jumbled to the middle, and while clarity is wanting, the net effect is a positive one if only for the width. There is a mild feel for disbalance to light atmosphere, such as on the street in the opening minutes. Certainly between the lossy encode and the lack of surround channels opportunity for rich location immersion is limited, but there's no feeling for tight and cramped environmental elements here. Heavier effects don't play with much authority, either. Dialogue drives the bulk and plays with good essential detail and pleasing front-center location imaging. There's nothing in the least bit memorable here, nothing that tests even the most modest of sound systems, but it gets the listener through the movie well enough. And for a low-effort Blu-ray for a movie released in 1967, it's hard to find too much fault here.

Monkeys, Go Home! Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Monkeys, Go Home! includes no supplemental content. The main menu screen only offers options to play the film and select scenes. No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

Monkeys, Go Home! Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Monkeys, Go Home!'s simple charms may not find much staying power with today's younger audiences but it's certainly a fun little escape that might tickle the fancy of anyone who grew up in the era or who doesn't mind a movie of more relaxing pace and structure. The bottom line is that it's a fun little escape and well worth the time investment. Disney's featureless Blu-ray delivers exceptional 1080p video and passable two channel lossy audio. There are no supplements included on the disc. Recommended.