MONSTERS, INC. (2001)
Tagline: You Won't Believe Your Eye.
(Adventure, Animation, Comedy) [G]
In this one, we get introduced to a world of monsters called Monstropolis where no humans and definitely not kids are allowed. They have developed a way to syphon power for the city in the form of kids' screams. Mike and Sully work for a company called Monsters Inc. that provides power. There is a group called the CDA that monitors any actual humans getting into Monstropolis, but occasionally an object or person from the human world gets in. This time it’s much worse… a little girl whom Sully calls “Boo” is now in the monster world. If they get caught with her, they could lose their jobs. Can Mike and Sully get her back to her own world before the sinister Randall exposes what’s happened?
Let me just say this first. I think when MONSTERS, INC. first came out “Boo” was probably considered cute. By today’s animation standards, especially regarding “eyes”, she’s almost creepy. The animation in the rest of this thing though is pretty solid for it’d day. This was only the 4th film PIXAR released.
Where this movie succeeds is in its originality. Some of the concepts are over the top awesome. While it seems impractical that Monstropolis would have cars that look just like the cars in the human world, a lot of the other concepts are awesome. The monsters need to go to kid’s rooms to scare them so MONSTERS, INC., literally has every door imaginable that would lead to a kid's room on a gigantic conveyor belt that essentially looks like the world’s largest dangling roller coaster. It’s pretty great. While this movie doesn’t reach the level of creativity of its follow up, still to this day it’s incredibly imaginative. When this movie came out it had the highest box office performance of any animated film even beating out anything Disney-related. Disney of course bought Pixar in 2006, because Pixar was crushing it, but also likely because Disney always has to be number 1 when it comes to animation.
The characters in this movie are likable to an extent, but I think I was more blown away by the concepts than the actual story or the characters. Another great thing about this movie is that Pixar included bloopers. That was actually one of the main things I liked about A BUGS LIFE. I also like the voice actors in this movie. I’ve always been a fan of John Goodman (who plays Sully) even when he’s playing a villain. In this one, he isn’t though. Billy Crystal (who plays Mike) is great, and choosing Steve Buscemi to play the villain Randall was a stroke of genius. Everything about this film works well.
So rating this thing I have to take into account how it hits me now. It’s a good movie and fun to watch but I didn’t like it as much as the follow-up. I actually kind of hated the premise for what would have been a part II (MONSTERS, INC. 2: LOST IN SCARADISE), but take place after MONSTERS, INC. It involved Mike and Sully trying to get to Boo’s birthday party and getting stuck in the real world. Lame, especially given how this movie ends.
Anyway just looking at this film I have to give it a 4 out of 7. It’s pretty solid but now exists in a world that is loaded with animated flicks that have surpassed this one.
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF PIXAR ANIMATION STUDIOS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.
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