Monsters Inc. 2001

In the city of Monstropolis the monsters get their power from children’s screams. There is a major power plant called Monsters Incorporated where the monsters scare kids and absorb power from their screams and then supply it to the city to power all their electronics and such. The top monster that scares kids is James P. Sullivan or Sulley. Sulley is a giant bear like monster that is blue with purple spots, and his green one eyed helper is Mike Wazowski. Mike manages the technical aspect of the scaring that Sulley does. When Sulley nears breaking the all-time scare record another monster, Randall, sneaks in some extra scare time. Sulley notices and goes through the closet door to see what Randall is up to and accidently lets a kid into the power plant. Kids are thought to be toxic in the world of monsters and there has been an agency formed for the protection of monsters from children. After Sulley accidently lets the kid into Monstropolis he informs Mike of his problem and all hell breaks loose to try and get the kid back where it came from.

Monsters, Inc. is the most lovable of all the PIXAR films; I guess that would be the best way to describe it. Besides actually having a giant cuddly main character, it has the most lovable story from its very childish antics and heartfelt lessons. The imagination is a limitless element when it comes to the human mind and the folks at PIXAR know how to tap into the bottomless wells of it. Everything in this film was from the depths of imagination. Even the concept of monsters needing to scare children as their source of power and to have a factory floor full of doors that open to a parallel universe was an incredible reach into the creative psyche. There is no better word than amazing for the look of this film. Everything was specifically designed to work with one another. The people at PIXAR even plotted out the look of Monstropolis so it could accommodate the monsters of different shapes and sizes. They also created a special program to handle fur/hair, its movements, and shadows; called FIZT. If you look closely on the door control panel in the movie you will see a button with “FIZT” on it as a PIXAR self joke. Even in the design of Sulley they paid homage to the monster from Little Monsters by using the blue with purple spots and the small horns.

However, the look of the main monsters brought forth some issues. Stanley Miller, accomplished artist for the Grateful Dead, filed suit against PIXAR because the main characters looked eerily similar to the monsters he had been most famous for drawing. The lawsuit was mostly over the design of Mike Wazowski, and it was found that one-eyed creatures had been in existence in numerous places throughout history. This was just one of the lawsuits PIXAR had to face while creating Monsters, Inc. Lori Madrid was a children’s song writer and she also wrote a story called “There’s a Boy in My Closet,” which had its share of similarities to Monsters, Inc. She found out about the movie and filed suit against PIXAR and they were on trial the day before its release. They decided to not postpone the release; however they continued with the lawsuit and eventually found it coincidental. The story had not been conceived from some woman’s children’s short story that hadn’t even been published and distributed yet.

This brings me to my next point that the story was beyond my expectations. As a little kid I think everyone feared monsters in their closet but never thought about it the other way around. At that they took it even further with screams powering the city and having an energy crisis and then figuring out that laughter was much more powerful than screams brings a lot of heart to the story because it is a ridiculously happy ending. Although the general animation may not have been the focal point of impression in this movie, it sure had a lot to offer. It was visually attractive because of the variety of monsters, it was conceptually appealing because of the doors and energy, and it had an edge-of-your-seat story because of the importance to get Boo back home. Monsters, Inc. may not be my favorite PIXAR film but it holds one heck of a high ranking. If you haven’t seen it yet then go watch it because it is like seeing dreams actually come to life. If you don’t like Monsters, Inc. then you might not be human…in which case I recommend moving to Monstropolis.

Run time: 92 mins.

Directed by: Pete Docter, David Silverman (co-director), Lee Unkrich (co-director)

Written by: Pete Docter, Jill Culton, Jeff Pidgeon, and Ralph Eggleston.

Starring: John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Steve Buscemi, Mary Gibbs, James Coburn, Jennifer Tilly, Bob Peterson, John Ratzenberger, and Frank Oz.