THE STRAIGHT DOPE:
Not being too familiar with Monsters, Inc. and not having any kids I was at a loss on how to adequately review Monsters, Inc. Disney Read-Along. So I borrowed my three-year-old neighbor Hailey for a couple of hours. (Full disclosure: Hailey's mom made us popcorn.) Haley, a big-time Monsters, Inc. fan who already has the film on DVD ("We don't have the tape," she informed me. "We only have the CD.") was very excited to see this new version and even though she might be a little young for the read-along content I figured she'd enjoy herself.

Monsters, Inc. Disney Read-Along is basically a slide-show version of the film featuring the voices of the film's stars (Billy Crystal, John Goodman, et al.) plus narration by Dom De Louise (!) with the text run across the bottom of the screen. The dialog goes by fast enough, however, that the effect of reading along might not work so well. Plus, the graphic images might be less distracting than if they were the original animations but they still pull the eye away from the text. It's a kind of lame compromise: Not as beautiful as the original film but still too distracting to read along to.

But what did Haley, think of it? She took one look at the presentation style and proclaimed "it's a story." Hailey, who's an old pro and has already been to Disney World, basically enjoyed watching all her favorite characters from Monsters, Inc. (She did say "I don't like Fungus," however, to which I thought, "Who does?") but wasn't able to make too many comments. "Mommy said don't eat while you're talking," she informed me. Darn that popcorn! She did enjoy laughing along with Mike and Sulley, even though they were static in this version. She also enjoyed playing with my cats. "Cats love to climb up couches," she smartly observed.

Ultimately, however, she made her most eloquent point by getting up during Monsters, Inc. Disney Read-Along, walking over to the bookshelf, picking up Fraid E. Cat, and requesting we read her that instead. It seems that a read-along DVD is no substitute for a real book.

(She also wanted to draw pictures of our dog, Pete, but, as she said, "mommy says no pens... but mommy's not here right now!" Uh-oh...)

VIDEO:
The still images are not as vibrant as the original film but they look fine. The presentation is full-screen.

AUDIO:
The audio is available in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. which is pretty neat. There isn't anything spectacular about the sound, although the music sounds good. It's a good, clean Dolby Digital mix.

EXTRAS:
There is a decent amount of extra material on the disc. There's a vocabulary section that wouldn't be too exciting on its own, but what really makes it cool is the ability to switch languages for each word. When asked if she spoke Spanish, Hailey shocked us by nodding her head and saying "cinco!"

A song section features read-alongs for three of the film's Randy Newman-written songs. Hailey loved this section. In fact, she really enjoyed dancing to "Under the Bed," which we replayed a number of times.

A "Making of Monsters, Inc. Scream Factory Favorites" sequence is an okay look at how the Riders in the Sky came up with original material for a tie-in CD release, but like much else on this disc it's basically Disney cross-promotion.

There is also a simple game that basically just tests how well you've memorized Monsters, Inc. The disc also features some previews for other Disney products including the feature film Treasure Planet, an interactive game called Moop and Dreadly and the upcoming Disney/Pixar collaboration Finding Nemo. More selling to kids.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Disney is king at reselling the same content to parents over and over. Monsters, Inc. Disney Read-Along is no replacement for reading a real book to children. It was obvious that Hailey was more interested in the story than the reading element, although, like I said, she's probably a bit young. Still, the story is fun and at under half an hour, this is a seriously distilled version of Monsters, Inc. Maybe it would work best as a Cliff's Notes version of the film, to keep the tykes occupied during short car rides and stuff like that.