Monsters Inc. is also another favorite from Pixar. It has balance between every emotion you can think of. And an energy crisis sub-plot that is relevant right now, if you live in a certain Lone Star State. With the three Pixar films that I’m talking and going to be reviewing, they’re mostly relics in my childhood that I really want to go in depth with a clearer mind to really understand just why in my mind they’re classics. And to really represent my alma mater somehow.
1. Mike and Sulley
These two are the best part. Mike and Sulley are a small green one eye monster and a blue spotted hairy monster who are big in the company they work for. Mike is usually full of himself and coaches Sulley on how to properly scare. Since Sulley, is the main monster who scares effectively is looking to be the record holder for scares administered. All that goes south when Sulley spots a particular door. A little girl scares Sulley and brings her with him.
Most of the comedy works as an opposite of what we are told. It’s established that kids are dangerous to monsters, even their clothes are proved to be a massive threat. Especially for one monster, George who goes through a “2319” procedure. When the duo sees the little girl, she just laughs at how the monsters are very afraid of her. This is where we see the two characters grow up.
With Sulley, he acts like a father figure to the little girl. He really understands that she’s not a threat and that she fears the monster she is assigned, Randall. The lovable monster really cares for her, and moments like when he is surprised by just how much she has a penchant to escape. Like this one part where he sees her getting in a garbage pile, and sees the trash being compacted. He faints and realizes that Boo was with a little kid tour group the whole time.
Mike meanwhile, wants nothing to do with the girl and just wants her out of their lives. I think what’s surprising is that he’s willing to sell her out to Randall, when he wants Wazowski to have her in her room. I like that most of the contention is when they have differing plans on what to do with her since she’s not supposed to be in their world or dimension. Not that Mike is the bad guy, but he really wants Sulley to get the record since it means something to both monsters. Eventually, he realizes his mistake and helps Sulley.
This is animator Pete Doctor’s first film for Pixar. He manages to do a great job on the character dynamics. I inevitably saw his subsequent films and the main motifs is that his film focuses on duos or groups of characters working in tandem. They usually go through something crazy or unexpected, which is to say is a recurring thing for Pixar films. I just wanted to give a big spotlight on the director since the whole process, is yes, a group effort. Though the director is ultimately the one who has the vision.
2. Energy Crisis
Now the sub-plot is one of the things that flew over my head. It’s relevant now for the obvious reasons if you live in Texas. Anyways, it’s established that the company prioritizes monsters scaring kids to give their city energy it desperately needs. So the boss, Mr. Waternoose wants them to be like Sulley as he sees the lovable monster as The scarer the company needs.
I feel that the whole sub-plot really establishes the world. Like when we see the duo walk to work as Mike wants to use his fancy new car. We are reminded of it, as it’s a front-page story for their newspaper. It also shows just how much Boo contributes to the plot of the story. Like when Mike makes her laugh, her laughter makes the power max out to the point their place has an outage.
This is when we see that both Randall and Waternoose using their new machine which extracts screams from children. It was horrifying seeing it on Randall’s assistant since he looked drained and his whole complexion being pale. Come to think of it, this might be the scariest thing Pixar may have came up with, and I really don’t want to see that on a kid.
3. Boo
She is the heart and soul of the whole movie. Her real name is Mary, named after her voice actress Mary Gibbs. The interesting tidbit is that they got the daughter from one of the Pixar workers to do the voice. The problem with that was she couldn’t stand still in the recording booth. To work around that, the sound crew followed her around the studios.
Using the recordings they felt was good enough for the final cut of the film. It must’ve been a challenge to write a script or a scene with the sound footage that they had. In Inside Out, Pete Doctor reuses the recordings for the character Riley when she was small.
4. Overall
Obviously, the film was a massive hit. It spawned a prequel and an upcoming show on Disney+. One last bit is that Sulley was named after my alma mater’s president. More so is that, in the university’s visual arts building there is a statue of both characters on display. With pennies being placed on Sulley’s furry statue. You guys wouldn’t get it since you’re not Aggies.
Monsters Inc. gets a four out of five.
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