Monsters, Inc. 4K Blu-ray Movie 
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital CopyDisney / Pixar | 2001 | 92 min | Rated G | Mar 03, 2020
Movie rating
|
| 8.4 | / 10 |
Blu-ray rating
| Users |  | 4.5 |
| Reviewer | | 4.5 |
| Overall | | 4.5 |
Overview click to collapse contents
Monsters, Inc. 4K (2001)
Monsters, Inc. is a factory which sends monsters around the world to scare kids who are trying to sleep. It's nothing personal, in fact the screams are used to power Monstropolis where the monsters live. This job isn't easy for the monsters, who believe children are toxic. James P. Sullivan, a large woolly blue monster, is one of the company's top scarers. Teamed up with a troublesome green one-eyed monster named Mike Wazowski, the two roommates and best friends are finding that today's kids are not as easily scared as they used to be. One night Sulley accidentally lets a young girl named Boo into the monster world. Now Sulley and Mike must risk their own safety as they race to get Boo back into the human world without letting anyone know of her existence.
Starring: John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Mary Gibbs, Steve Buscemi, James CoburnDirector: Pete Docter, Lee Unkrich, David Silverman (I)
| Family | Uncertain |
| Animation | Uncertain |
| Adventure | Uncertain |
| Fantasy | Uncertain |
| Comedy | Uncertain |
Specifications click to expand contents
Video
Video codec: HEVC / H.265
Video resolution: 4K (2160p)
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Audio
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 EX (640 kbps)
English: Dolby Digital 2.0 (320 kbps)
French: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 EX
Subtitles
English SDH, French, Spanish
Discs
Blu-ray Disc
Three-disc set (3 BDs)
Digital copy
4K Ultra HD
Packaging
Slipcover in original pressing
Playback
Region free
Review click to expand contents
Rating summary
| Movie |  | 5.0 |
| Video | | 4.5 |
| Audio |  | 4.0 |
| Extras | | 4.5 |
| Overall | | 4.5 |
Monsters, Inc. 4K Blu-ray Movie Review
Reviewed by Martin Liebman March 5, 2020Disney has released the fur-tastic Pixar film 'Monsters, Inc.' to the UHD format. New specifications include 2160p/HDR encoded video resolution and a Dolby Atmos soundtrack. No new extras are included but the studio has bundled in two Blu-ray 2-D discs that contain extras previously found on the 2013 Blu-ray 3-D release
It turns out there’s a reason monsters haunt children’s closets, and it’s not to devour them. Instead, monsters wish to harvest their vocal energy. Behind every scare there’s a sophisticated network powering an entire monster realm. Screams are captured and transformed into energy to power the monsters’ city. But there’s a shortage of screams. Children have grown desensitized to scares and become less and less likely to be terrified by a monster. The city is facing rolling blackouts as a result. Capturing screams is big business -- what energy sector isn’t? -- and there’s a race to the top to see which monster can capture the most. The current leader is a monster named Sulley (voiced by John Goodman), but hot on his trail is Randall Boggs (voiced by Steve Buscemi) and several others chasing glory. But there’s a danger to the job: humans are more of a threat to monsters than monsters are to humans. It is believed that, to monsters, humans are toxic, and every precaution is taken to ensure monster safety. But when a human girl (voiced by Mary Gibbs) finds herself transported into the monster’s world, Sulley and his best friend Mike (voiced by Billy Crystal) learn the truth about humans and fight to protect the little girl at all costs.
For a full film review, please see Kennth Brown's writing here.
Monsters, Inc. 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality
The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc.
Monsters, Inc. makes its UHD debut with a 2160p/HDR UHD presentation. This is a fairly basic UHD upgrade, presenting an
appreciable, but not dramatic, suite of improvements over the aged, but still very visually robust, Blu-ray that debuted way back in 2009, over a decade ago. The HDR color
spectrum renders the movie a bit cooler compared to the Blu-ray, which takes on, overall, a warmer appearance. On the UHD, tones are deepened but
also brought to life with an improved feel for liveliness and vitality, strength and screen command. Sulley's fur, for example, leaps off the screen with
dynamic color qualities that blend the teal and purple to terrific visual result. Mike's green body finds added color depth and nuance, a deeper, more
pronounced shade that helps separate the character from colorful backgrounds and other monsters, which of course appear aplenty throughout. There's
no shortage of spectacular colors to enjoy for the duration, each of them beefed up with more vitality, clarity, and accuracy compared to the Blu-ray.
Additionally, whites appear with greater intensity, brilliance, and accuracy while blacks and low light scenes offer very impressive improvements to
overall depth and shadow detail.
Textural gains within the 2160p resolution are not dramatic, but viewers will certainly note modest, but ultimately critical, adds to sharpness
and clarity. Henry J. Waternoose's vest and jacket, for example, appear with greater care for fine fabric definition and offer a more tactile, in-depth look
compared to the Blu-ray, which offers the same materials looking flat and smooth by comparison. Sulley's fur enjoys sharper strands, and the barrage
of
monsters seen throughout the film all feature improved clarity, whether slimy bodies or hair-covered exteriors. Backgrounds and locations are
playgrounds for the bumped resolution, allowing for satisfying gains in wear and tear on one extreme and slick and smooth surfaces on the other.
Everything is improved across the board. While not a transformative experience, the textural solidification and color improvements make this UHD well
worth the upgrade.
Monsters, Inc. 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality
Monsters, Inc. growls onto the UHD format with a generally effective Dolby Atmos track that only comes up short in the usual Disney areas. The Atmos track is rather typical of a Disney outing. It's slightly volume challenged at reference, calibrated levels, but not to a degree where a volume adjustment is immediately necessary or plainly obvious, as has been the case with numerous past Atmos releases from the studio. The track does deliver plenty of information throughout the entire channel spectrum. The overhead channels engage during the simulation announcement early in the film with a clear top end pronouncement, and similar effects are heard at a couple of other junctures throughout the film. There's a nice bit of ambient din inside the Monsters, Inc. headquarters. Ringing phones, chatty employees, and the like pleasantly fill the stage to impressive result, with plenty of full stage and discrete effects alike filling the listening area with monsterific goodness. Music is lively and spreads wide along the front, lacking a solidified low end depth and beefier detail but offering good essential clarity and naturally immersive spacing to what's there. Monster growls, giant footfalls, and other sound effects that rely on the bottom end are left a little shortchanged, but not so flat as to destroy the experience. Dialogue is clear and presents with fine front-center positioning and prioritization. While not perfect, this Atmos track delivers a satisfying listen in its sum.
Monsters, Inc. 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras
The Monsters, Inc. UHD disc contains no supplemental content, but the pair of bundled Blu-rays do include a rather large assortment of
content. See below for a list of what's included and please click here for full coverage. Note that some of these extras were
seemingly not present in the original 2-D Blu-ray; the link above points to the 3-D set. A Movies Anywhere digital
copy code is included with purchase. This release ships with an embossed slipcover.
Blu-ray Disc One (Feature Film):
- Toy Story Tunes: Partysaurus Rex
- For the Birds
- Mike's New Car
- Filmmakers' Round Table
- Audio Commentary
Blu-ray Disc Two (Bonus Features):
- Roz's 100 Door Challenge
- Pixar Fun Factory Tour
- Story
- Story Is King
- Monsters Are Real
- Original Treatment
- Story Pitch: Back to Work
- Banished Concepts
- Intro to Banished Concepts
- Assistant Sulley
- End of Day
- Bad Scare
- Scream Refinery
- Original Sulley Intro
- Storyboard to Film Comparison
- Storyreel
- Final Color
- Split-Screen Comparison
- Art Gallery
- Designing Monstropolis
- Set Dressing Intro
- Location Flyarounds
- Monster File
- Cast of Characters
- What Makes a Great Monster?
- Animation
- Animation Process
- Early Tests
- Opening Title Animation
- Hard Parts
- Shots Department
- Production Demonstration
- Animation
- Final Color
- Music & Sound
- Monster Song
- Sound Design
- Release
- The Premiere
- Trailer #1
- Trailer #2
- TV Spot: Men in Teal
- TV Spot: Your Eye
- TV Spot: Green Skin
- TV Spot: Your Eye #1 Review
- International Inserts
- Multi-Langauge Clip Reel
- Toys
- Outtakes and Company Play
- Wrap-Up
- New Monster Adventures
- Monster TV Treats
- "If I Didn't Have You" Music Video
- Behind the Screams: On the Job with Mike & Sulley
- Orientation
- Welcome to Monsters, Inc.
- Your First Day
- History of the Monster World
Monsters, Inc. 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation
Monsters, Inc. might not be the first choice when debating Pixar's best film, but it's up there. Colorful, charming, and visually and dramatically robust, the film certainly stands as one of the studio's best. Disney's UHD release delivers a quality 2160p/HDR video presentation and an imperfect but generally effective Dolby Atmos soundtrack. A large assortment of extras port over from previous high definition releases. Highly recommended.
