Monsters, Inc. Review
by Jon Popick (jpopick AT sick-boy DOT com)October 30th, 2001
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While it doesn't quite achieve the heights of either Toy Story film, Pixar's Monsters, Inc. is still one of the better family films you'll see all year and has a mortal lock on landing a nomination in the Oscars' first-ever feature-length animation category. It will no doubt get great reviews and pack theatres over the Thanksgiving holiday, and once business starts to taper off, the Mouse House will probably add outtakes to the closing credits to boost what I'm sure will already be a stellar box office take.
What is it about films like Monsters, Shrek, Chicken Run and Pixar's previous films, Toy Story and A Bug's Life? Why are these films so much better than traditional animated features like Pokémon, Recess: School's Out or Rugrats in Paris? Why are they received with open arms by both critics and audiences, when other kiddie pics like See Spot Run, 102 Dalmatians and Disney's The Kid land like a Star Jones-saddled see-saw?
I'll tell you why. For starters, you don't have to put up with big stars like Glenn Close trying to ham it up but succeeding only in embarrassing themselves for 90 minutes. Do you think a live-action film with John Goodman, Billy Crystal and Steve Buscemi would top the $100 million mark? How about the $10 million mark? But use their voices and some CGI animation and people will be lined up around the block to see it. Beyond that, I can't think of a reason why the alt-animation features are so much more enjoyable. Instead, I'll just sit back and hope they keep making them.
Monsters is about an alternate universe populated by the things that go bump in the night. The monsters aren't a bad bunch (they're actually scared of children), but they do need to capture the screams of children in order to provide power for their city (named Monstropolis, natch). Monsters, Inc. is sort of like your local power company - they employ a bunch of scary-looking monsters that enter the rooms of unsuspecting kids through magical closet doors, get their screams and move on to the next portal (they should just strap 'em down in front of a giant screen that shows Atlantis on an endless loop). They need to do it quickly and efficiently because an increase in the amount of jaded non-screamers is on the rise, leaving Monstropolis in the midst of an energy crisis complete with rolling blackouts (remember when those were all America had to worry about?).
Sully (Goodman, One Night at McCool's) is the company's top scream-getter, as well as their Scarer of the Month for 11 periods running. He's on pace to break the industry's scream record but finds himself challenged by a moustache-twirling chameleon named Randall (Buscemi, Ghost World). Their heated rivalry leads to an incident in which a little girl accidentally enters Monstropolis through the portal. This, of course, is quite the bad thing for Sully and his sidekick, Mike (Crystal, America's Sweethearts), especially when you consider the overreacting CDA (Child Detection Agency) treats a child's sock like a suspicious, powdery letter (the parallels to the anthrax scare will make you wince).
After initially being terrified of the girl, who would have been the cutest thing to hit the screen in a while if it weren't for Amélie's Audrey Tautou, Sully grows to love her while trying to keep her presence hidden from everyone else until he finds a way to get her home. There's some edge-of-your-seat chases and close calls, but for the most part, the story is a bit more routine than we're used to seeing from the Pixar people. There aren't quite as many pop-culture references as Shrek, but there's enough here to keep parents interested (some may still enjoy it more than their kids).
The animation, while still spectacular, has become routine, which is a shame. Also detracting from the visual side of things is the lack of detail given to most of the film's monsters. Yeah, Sully's incredibly detailed fur looks really great, but most of the other characters are simple amorphous globs of animation (literally, in some cases). And, for once, Randy Newman's (Meet the Parents) score is quiet and unobtrusive.
1:30 (including a short called For the Birds) - G
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