Little Monsters: Vestron Video Collector's Series - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Little Monsters: Vestron Video Collector's Series



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
Following it up with the 19th Vestron Video release we get something a bit more….tame… I guess you could say. Littler Monsters is not really “horror” but more of a kids monster movie, but one of those Vestron Studio releases that got bounced around to MGM/UA who did the DVD release, and is only recently gotten back to the Lionsgate/Vestron fold. I remember watching this all the time as a kid on VHS and DVD, and even later picked up the international release, only to find out that several lines are altered in the International release from what I remember (the “Friend of Maurice line”, the classical music playing in the background as the dad runs over the bike). Turns out that MGM actually altered the theatrical release for home video, mostly likely hoping to make it more humorous. But as a result, they basically made a “for home theater” edit that altered the original score and some lines. Luckily from all I could research and tell, this Blu-ray is from the International cut, which is about as spot on to the theatrical release as is out there.

Little Monsters capitalized on a young Fred Savage before his cute, chubby faced, shine was gone from cinemas, especially after The Princess Bride. It follows the Stevenson family as they move into a new “project” home. Father Glen (Daniel Stern of City Slickers fame) and mother Holly (Margaret Whitton) are fighting non stop, and blaming young son Brian (Fred Savage) for a bunch of little pranks that crop up around the house. Thing thing is, it’s actually not Brian’s fault. There IS a monster under the bed as Brian’s younger brother cries about the first night they’re there. The monster turns out to be a monstrous goofball known as Maurice (Howie Mandel) who takes a shine to Brian and brings him down to his magical “monster” realm to wreak some mischief and blow off some times.

However, as nice as Maurice is, there’s another agenda at play. The other monsters secretly keep trying to lure Brian down into the monster realm in order to convert him to one of them if he stays long enough. Being that all the monsters down there are just humans who stayed in the magic realm too long (basically Peter Pan meets Monsters Inc) and while Brian comes to his senses in time, the evil Snik (Rick Ducommun, best known for the chubby neighbor in The Burbs) has plans to take Brian’s brother and leverage him to become one of him. Now it’s up to Brian and his friends to arm themselves with the monster’s only weakness (light) and rescue his little brother before they spend too much time down there and become what they’re trying to save him from.

Little Monsters is equal part slog, and equal part fun, earning it it’s place in cult cinema history, but also proving that copying the Beetlejuice persona was a bit of a mistake. Fred Savage is perfect as Brian, but Howie Mandel’s manic personality just doesn’t jive with the fun. He becomes serious and relatable too late in the film, and I really wish he had dropped the crazy monster act in the first act of the film, instead of the 3rd. That last act works a lot better due to his change in personality. Another thing, the main villain of “The Boy” (A baby faced Frank Whaley) comes out of nowhere in the 3rd act, making me really suspicious that there was a lot of deleted scenes on the floor, as he really isn’t even introduced until the end, and it’s as everyone knew who he was. That transition is kind of jarring and makes for a confusing third act, until you get into the flow of things.

I really loved the flick as a kid mainly because it felt like a “dirty” kids movie. It was only rated PG, but there was a lot of stuff that might actually push it into PG-13 ratings in today’s market (where Maurice pants’s Brian the other monster makes a snide comment, a few adult words etc). It’s kind of awkward and goofy today, and you can see the obvious nods to Beetlejuice (Maurice), Peter Pan (the whole monsters being lost boys type of thing) and where Monster’s Inc got their premise from (Monsters terrorizing young children for fun). It’s a bit of a mixed back flick, and while it is kind of weakly edited, still a fun classic watch.




Rating:

Rated PG by the MPAA




Video:

Again, like with Shivers, not exactly sure how old master is or what shape it’s in, but the results are decidedly in the middle of the road. The transfer is a bit soft and dated, but the detail levels and colors are definitely better than the my old DVD I have lying around. The image and colors are a bit dark, but they’re well saturated and nicely detailed. Especially in the daylight sequences with Brian and his family. Blacks are going to be a bit grainier than usual, but they still show off plenty of detail and only some black crush due to the darkness of the movie (it DOES take place mostly in the monster world or at night) is there to mar it. Solid enough transfer, but my guess is definitely on an older one.








Audio:

Like Shivers, Little Monsters gets a 2.0 Mono track, but it fares a little bit better. There’s no real major signs of hiss or popping, and the vocals are crisp and clean without major distortion. It’s still limited to the 2.0 Mono design of the mix, but it’s very stable and clean to listen to. Nothing really wrong with it outside of a few instances of lost dialog as Maurice mumbles in the underground world. Simple, effective, solid.









Extras:

• NEW Audio Commentary with Jarret Gahan, Editor-in-Chief of CultofMonster.com
• NEW Isolated Score Selections and Audio Interview with Composer David Newman
• NEW "Call Him Maurice" – An Interview with Actor Howie Mandel
• NEW "Beneath the Bed" – An Interview with Producer Andrew Licht
• NEW "Monsters Big & Small" – An Interview with Special Makeup Effects Creator Robert Short
• NEW Vintage Interviews with Actors Fred Savage, Ben Savage, Special Makeup Effects Creator Robert Short, and Director Richard Alan Greenberg
• Behind-the-Scenes Footage
• "Making Maurice" – Vintage Footage of Howie Mandel's Makeup Transformation
• Vintage EPK & VHS Promo
• Theatrical Trailer
• Still Gallery

Final Score: ​

Little Monsters is kind of a fun change of pace for Vestron Video films. It’s not horrific or gory, but really a really light hearted PG kids monster movie, ala Monster Squad. The movie isn’t a perfect film, but has solidified itself in film history for being a very quirky cult film. Lionsgate releases the film on a rather mediocre decades old master unfortunately, but luckily the audio is quite good and the film still enjoyable. Definitely worth checking out for nostalgia.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Fred Savage, Howie Mandel, Daniel Stern, Margaret Whitton, Frank Whaley, Rick Ducommun
Directed by: Richard Alan Greenberg
Written by: Terry Rossio, Ted Elliott
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 2.0
Subtitles: English, English SDH, Spanish
Studio: Lionsgate
Rated: PG
Runtime: 101 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: September 15th, 2020

Recommendation: Check It Out

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Never heard of this movie. I am interested thou, will check it out once available on amazon prime/netflix.