“A MONSTER IN PARIS” (Blu-Ray/DVD Review)

A Monster in Paris

A Monster in Paris

When one of our staff writers reviewed a theatrical pre-release of “A Monster in Paris” over a year ago we certainly were looking forward to this film’s domestic release. Certainly the film was met with a mediocre reaction and almost vanished from cinemas overnight, but the movie did have a charm and beauty of it’s own that now a year later I was hoping that my 5yr old daughter would appreciate with it’s release on Blu-ray/DVD. Out this week is “A Monster in Paris“an animated film about a wacky inventor, his camera-crazy best friend and a madcap monkey who make a massive mistake when let loose in a mad scientist’s laboratory. With lotions and potions spilling everywhere, the troublesome trio accidentally creates Franc, the product of a reaction between a common flea and one of the scientist’s mystery concoctions. What they fail to realize, however, is that this ‘monster’ is actually a soft-centered soul with an astounding talent for music. With the help of an enchanting nightclub singer Lucille, Franc becomes the talk of the town, just as stories of Paris’s newest monster attract the attention of the egotistical police commissioner, hell bent on securing a big prize to help his battle to become mayor. The unwitting scientists and the singer must team up to protect Franc, a monster with more than a musical career to protect! Read ahead for our review and check out the details about the home video release.

 

 

The Movie:

Sometimes it’s refreshing to take a break from talking Cars, smelly ogres, escaped zoo animals and bands of ice age old mammals and sink your teeth into some artistic independent animation. That’s what you get in the Frech film, “A Monster in Paris.” The Europeans have a sense of style and comedic timing all their own in the world of animation, and I love classics like Chicken Run, PIRATES! and Wallace and Grommit, yes I know those are all clay-mation, but the vibe is expressed as easily in animated features as well. Director, Bibo Bergeron’s story about a flea who grows to an epic size was an entertaining one to say the least. The film features an All Star Voice Cast of Vanessa Paradis, Catherine O’Hara, Bob Balaban, Sean Lennon, Adam Goldberg, Jay Harrington and Danny Huston. Though the story had elements of classic monster movies like Frankenstein, King Kong and Phanthom of the Opera, it also balanced out with bright and colorful backgrounds, characters, and musical numbers. The story had it’s challenges at times and though I overlooked and compensated for other elements I enjoyed, I noticed my 5 year was not as forgiving and was distracted and bored in some parts. The acting and musical performances from the cast was great and the story felt original and held my interest for most of the duration.

 

A Monster in Paris

A Monster in Paris

 

Picture:

The film is bright and colorful, image is sharp and clear, and the lights and darks are well balanced as to not love quality and clarity of the backgrounds or character detail. The visuals are fun and the cinematography, even for a computer generated film was impressive, quite fluid in movement and scope the characters felt like Paris was a bustling playground to sing, play and dance in this artistic adventure.

Sound:

With the 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio there was plenty to keep your senses going in this film. The spoken dialogue was crisp and clear, the background sounds and atmosphere was bustling with some great sound effects and ADR detailing. The music is as good as any professional musical performance recording with clear and melodic perfection. At times it felt like a Disney or Dreamworks production which was quite enjoyable for this smaller film, and impressive!

Bonus Features:

Sadly, just a trailer, would have been nice to see some behind the scenes, making of features, or original French audio recordings of the musical numbers

Final Thoughts:

This film had the warmth and heart of some lesser received classics that I loved like IGOR and ANASTASIA, from the music to the characters, it was a fun watch. My daughter had an issue with keeping her focus and attention during this film, which is surprising because she loves the afore mentioned animated films, and she’s not asked to watch this again, yet. For us older animation fans, this is a beautiful stand-alone film and a breath of fresh air from the constant onslaught of the tent-pole animated films from some of the bigger studios and I feel one day soon it will be respected for the classic it will become.

 

“A Monster in Paris” is now available on DVD and TWO-DISC BLU-RAY™ 3D COMBO PACK WITH BLU-RAY 2D + DVD + DIGITAL COPY from SHOUT! FACTORY

 

Click HERE to purchase A Monster in Paris Blu-ray-DVD

Click HERE to purchase A Monster in Paris Blu-ray-DVD

 

 

 

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