Having created the first fully computer animated feature film, Toy Story, followed it up with another huge commercial success, A Bug’s Life, and stepped in to save Toy Story 2 from failure, Pixar co-founder John Lasseter needed a long and well-deserved break from directing. Thankfully in the years since Toy Story’s production a number of ideas for new films had been generated and Lasseter had seen the directing potential of several of Pixar’s staff. Monsters, Inc. then represents the first Pixar film not directed by Lasseter, as well as the first Pixar film of the new millennia. With computer power rapidly improving, the possibilities were seemingly endless, and Monsters, Inc. wanted to showcase just how imaginative the folks at Pixar can be.
James ‘Sully’ Sullivan (John Goodman), and his best friends & co-worker Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) are the top scarers at Monsters Incorporated, an energy company that produces power harvested from children’s screams. But when Sully & Mike find that a child has crossed through into the monster world, they try to return her home safely without the head of the company, Mr. Waternoose (James Coburn), and their rival Randall (Steve Buscemi) finding out.
James ‘Sully’ Sullivan (John Goodman), and his best friends & co-worker Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) are the top scarers at Monsters Incorporated, an energy company that produces power harvested from children’s screams. But when Sully & Mike find that a child has crossed through into the monster world, they try to return her home safely without the head of the company, Mr. Waternoose (James Coburn), and their rival Randall (Steve Buscemi) finding out.
Monsters, Inc. is another imaginative success from Pixar, and one with an environmentally conscious message that lands even better now than it did twenty years ago. As a child I loved Monsters, Inc. for being a fun adventure film that I found extremely funny with some really cool monster designs. Now as an adult, I appreciate Monsters, Inc. for its depiction of a toxic workplace struggling to adapt to a changing world.
The whole ‘energy crisis’ that the world of Monsters, Inc. is facing is brought on by the company resisting change, and not providing enough resources to find alternative forms of energy. Waternoose is a man who believes that the old-fashioned way is the only way, and it’s that mindset that’s driving his company into the ground.
But the film hasn’t lost that childhood magic for me. Mike & Sully have great chemistry together, and Billy Crystal is given ample opportunity to do his thing and provide some great gags.
It’s the monster designs that really win me over with Monsters, Inc. though. If anything, Sully & Mike are the most basic designs seen in the film. Waternoose is a giant spider/crab kind of thing, you’ll encounter monsters with lots of eyes, tentacles, razor sharp teeth, and all of them come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. Despite being a buddy comedy with all of the monsters looking perfectly friendly in daylight, you can easily imagine a lot of them looking terrifying in the dark. Despite saying Sully is plain in design, a lot of work went into animating his fur. It moves reasonably naturally as he does, and whilst two decades later it definitely looks primitive, in 2001 it was incredibly impressive.
The whole world of Monsters, Inc. is really interestingly designed visually, I really wish we could have seen more of it as most of the film takes place in the eponymous company building. But even then, the building is huge, there’s so many different spaces and particularly the door storage area is incredibly inventive.
Monsters, Inc. is once again another fantastic film from the folks at Pixar. It’s a hilarious buddy comedy with a real heart at the centre of it thanks to the bond formed between Sully and Boo (Mary Gibbs). I also really appreciate how environmentally conscious the film is, which for 2001 was an incredibly forward-thinking idea, and one Pixar would return to again with 2008’s Wall.E. Terrifyingly good, and not frightfully bad.
The whole ‘energy crisis’ that the world of Monsters, Inc. is facing is brought on by the company resisting change, and not providing enough resources to find alternative forms of energy. Waternoose is a man who believes that the old-fashioned way is the only way, and it’s that mindset that’s driving his company into the ground.
But the film hasn’t lost that childhood magic for me. Mike & Sully have great chemistry together, and Billy Crystal is given ample opportunity to do his thing and provide some great gags.
It’s the monster designs that really win me over with Monsters, Inc. though. If anything, Sully & Mike are the most basic designs seen in the film. Waternoose is a giant spider/crab kind of thing, you’ll encounter monsters with lots of eyes, tentacles, razor sharp teeth, and all of them come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. Despite being a buddy comedy with all of the monsters looking perfectly friendly in daylight, you can easily imagine a lot of them looking terrifying in the dark. Despite saying Sully is plain in design, a lot of work went into animating his fur. It moves reasonably naturally as he does, and whilst two decades later it definitely looks primitive, in 2001 it was incredibly impressive.
The whole world of Monsters, Inc. is really interestingly designed visually, I really wish we could have seen more of it as most of the film takes place in the eponymous company building. But even then, the building is huge, there’s so many different spaces and particularly the door storage area is incredibly inventive.
Monsters, Inc. is once again another fantastic film from the folks at Pixar. It’s a hilarious buddy comedy with a real heart at the centre of it thanks to the bond formed between Sully and Boo (Mary Gibbs). I also really appreciate how environmentally conscious the film is, which for 2001 was an incredibly forward-thinking idea, and one Pixar would return to again with 2008’s Wall.E. Terrifyingly good, and not frightfully bad.