Historically, Blu-ray and DVD releases of films were the venue of choice for behind-the-scenes extras, while digital downloads tended to include solely the film and perhaps a short featurette delving into one aspect of the filmmaking process. That has changed recently, though, as downloadable copies of films have included many more extras and sometimes contain exclusive features that are not available elsewhere. Monsters University has just been released for digital download on iTunes, and it packs in a wealth of extras including deleted scenes. Find more details after the break!
The digital release of the film precedes its Blu-ray and DVD release by an entire three weeks, quite the coup for iTunes, which has often featured Pixar films due to Apple’s close ties with the animation house. There are also a significant amount of extras attached to the download. iTunes’ description reads:
Monsters University iTunes Extras include: Music Appreciation, which goes behind the scenes of the film’s music with Oscar winning composer Randy Newman, and the short, The Blue Umbrella, plus Campus Life, Story School, Scare Games, Monthropology Welcome to MU, Scare Tactics, Color and Light, Paths to Pixar: MU, Furry Monsters, Deleted Scenes & much, much, more!
USA Today has a first look at one of the included deleted scenes, which features Mike and Sulley in a drama class together.
There is also an extensive gallery of concept artwork from the film’s development, which includes a look at the evolution of the characters’ designs and the architecture on the MU campus:
The days where buying a digital copy of a film meant losing out on the fantastic extras included with its home release are gone and that cannot be better exemplified than with the Monsters University release on iTunes. The only caveat is that solely the HD version of the film ($19.99) is now on sale, with the SD version ($14.99) coming on October 29th with the Blu-ray and DVD sets. However, the HD copy includes a copy of the SD version of the film, so if your device is unable to play the high-definition version, you can watch the standard definition edition.
