A Monster in Paris - DVD

Movie: Paris in 1910: while the whole city suffers from the flood of the century, shy film projectionist Emile and his best friend, the somewhat cranky inventor Raoul, have quite different problems: actually, they should just drop off an important delivery to a genius professor. But Raoul wants to give his film-obsessed friend the opportunity to take some spectacular shots in the fascinating ambience of the professor's laboratory, which looks like a giant greenhouse. In the process, they accidentally turn a small flea into a giant monster, which quickly brings the entire constabulary, led by the self-absorbed police chief Maynott, into action. There is fear and terror of the monster of Paris. Only the kind-hearted singer Lucille realizes that the mutated flea is not a monster, but a sensitive creature that must be saved from Maynott and his henchmen. With the help of Raoul and Emile, Lucille tries to hide the monster as her new stage partner, Pranecoeur, in the theatre where she is performing. But of course, a Maynott is not so easily fooled.

A Monster in Paris is a very charming animated film directed by Bibo Bergeron (Big Sharks - Small Fish) and produced by Luc Besson. Although the imaginative adventure in terms of animation can not quite keep up with the higher budgeted works from the hause Pixar or Dreamworks. But the exciting story, which is full of allusions to classics from The Phantom of the Opera to King Kong, the not too overdone slapstick humor and charming characters make this animated film an entertaining and very fun adventure, in which quite especially, but just not only small viewers will have a lot of fun.

What is particularly positive are the many loving details with which Bergeron and his team bring the Paris of 1910 to life. Be it the small projection room of Emile, where he dreams of his own big movie and his so far unfulfilled love, the huge greenhouse, where the little flea becomes the big monster, or the theater, where he discovers his love for music as Pranecoeur, all these places are full of warmth and small details, which it is really fun to discover. But the many street scenes and the grand finale on the Eiffel Tower also ensure that the Paris of the late Belle Époque is brought to life here in a quite magical way.

A Monster in Paris may not be the best animated film released in recent memory. But the pleasantly unexciting humour and child-friendly action, combined with the catchy songs and the many original ideas with which the story is constantly peppered, make it a home cinema premiere that is more than worth seeing, offering the best entertainment in both 2D and 3D for all fans of humorous animated adventures. Recommended!

Picture + Sound: The picture of the DVD pleases especially because of its strong, very nicely matched colors, which let the Paris of the early 20th century with all the loving little details come to the fore excellently. The sharpness of the picture and the matching of the contrasts are also convincing. The audio has some good surround effects to offer, but overall tends to be dominated by more understated moments dominated by the dialogue. Good.

Extras: The bonus material shows in a short featurette, how Lucille and Pranecoeur learned to dance (about 3 min.), offers a look at the work of the sound designers (about 2 min.) and also has two interviews on board (about 6 min.). In addition there are the teaser and the trailer. Disappointingly, all extras except for the trailer are only in the French language version without any subtitles. Too bad!

Conclusion: A Monster in Paris is a very charming animated adventure that, while aimed primarily at children, can also entertain adults very well with its lovable characters and an engaging attention to detail. The DVD is technically well realized, the clear bonus material disappoints by the lack of subtitles. Nevertheless, the bottom line for this DVD is a clear: Recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp