Animated Short - For the Birds:  While Monsters, Inc. didn’t take home the gold for Best Animated Feature at last year’s Academy Awards, they did earn another statuette to add to their long list of acclaimed short films with For the Birds, presented here. A laugh-a-second look at our fine-feathered friends, with beautifully rendered characters uttering only chirps and rubber toy noises, this short is, pure and simple, a hoot.

An alternate audio commentary by director Ralph Eggleston doesn’t have a whole lot of time to add much insight, and he tends to lapse into a bit too much technical jargon for us layman to comprehend. Eggleston does point out that For the Birds was the last film completed at Pixar’s old Point Richmond studio and does mention the contribution of the composers to the short’s score, Riders in the Sky. (Titled “Big High Wire Hop”, the track is featured on the Riders’ recent CD release, Monsters, Inc.: Scream Factory Favorites.)

Animated Short - Mike’s New Car:  In the first of several new pieces of animation created for the disc, Mike and Sulley return in their very own short, titled Mike’s New Car.

Apparently, Mike feels the need for speed, for he has went out and purchased a new “six-wheel drive” roadster; the short consists almost solely of Mike and Sulley sitting in the car as they prepare to take it out for a test drive. What sounds so simple is, of course, not (reading the owner’s manual was obviously not very high on Mike’s to do list) and the results is a delightfully slapsticky little film that Pixar is famous for.

Mike’s New Car also has an audio commentary, provided by Docter and Gould, which offers a refreshingly candid, alternate viewpoint of how computer animation is done. Not to be missed ... hehehehe ...

You now have the option to click on the door into the ‘Human World’ (where you visit Pixar and see the making of Monsters, Inc.) or the door into the ‘Monster World’ (lots of fun, never before seen stuff).

Click on this door and you are sent into the vast Door Vault of Monsters, Inc. Several doors offer you glimpses into the various stages of production of Monsters, Inc. (Note: each door is themed to a different setting of the movie and has its own sound effects when opened.)

John Lasseter takes you on a private tour of Pixar’s new studio, including peeks into the infamous “Love Lounge” and even Steve Job’s office (“his is the cleanest here”). (This section can also be accessed through its own door, named Pixar Fun Factory Tour.)

Pete Docter then takes over as they walk you through each department and, along with his creative team, explains how they all helped in the creation of Monsters, Inc. (Each individual section can also be accessed through their respective doors, where they are the first chapter, and will be discussed below in those sections.)

Following the tour, you come upon a screen full of doors featuring a variety of DVD ‘Easter Eggs’, including a never before seen early test reel, DVD credits and outtakes from the filming of the DVD bonus features.

Story is Key: Take a look at a story meeting supervised by Bob Peterson, a.k.a. the voice of Roz, and see how the most important element of any Pixar production is the story.

Monsters Are Real: Various cast and crew members elaborate in this brief segment on the theme of how every kid was afraid of things that go bump in the night, and how they turned that concept upside down for Monsters by having the monsters even more frightened of the children they are trying to scare.

Original Treatment: Concept art and narration take you through the original story treatment for Monsters, Inc. where Sulley was a rookie scarer named Johnson and Boo was an older girl named Mary who helps him become ‘Monster of the Month’. A fascinating glimpse into the early story development, interesting in how a lot of the elements remained through to the final film.

Story Pitch: Back to Work (Early Version): You are part of the audience as Peterson walks us through an actual story pitch meeting for the original version of the scene where Mike and Sulley sneak Boo back into Monsters, Inc. Here, Sulley is Randall’s assistant (oh, how the mighty have fallen); most of this didn’t survive.

Banished Concepts: Following a brief Introduction, you can view four different story reels of abandoned story ideas:

• In Assistant Sulley, its Mike’s turn to be Randall’s assistant.
• End of the Day shows how Assistant Sulley “grabs the door by the knob” to prove himself, leading into …
• Bad Scare, or ‘When Boo Met Sulley’. Very similar to the final version.
• And in Scream Refinery, we see Sulley working in the bowels of Monsters, Inc. as a scream laborer.

Original Sulley Intro: Mentioned in the audio commentary, Sulley’s first introduction started with his exercise scene, which came off to menacing for a lead character in which we are sympathize. The final version, with him sleeping in his bed, hinted at the softer side of Sulley that would eventually be revealed.

Storyboard to Film Comparison: Using your angle button on your remote, toggle back and forth between the story reel, final color or split screen views of the two, of Boo’s first night in Mike and Sulley’s apartment.