MONSTERS, INC. (2001)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
Original review from 2001
I used to love animated films. "Fantasia" is still my favorite, mostly because of the psychedelic combination of classical music and images. Since then, I have not seen anything nearly as good. "Beauty and the Beast" and the "Toy Story" films come to mind, not to mention the vastly underrated "The Iron Giant." Lesser entries would include "Pocahontas" and "Aladdin" (lesser meaning not bad, just that they could have been better). "Monsters, Inc." is from Pixar Productions, the same folks who put out "Toy Story," and I can safely say it is as entertaining and colorful as I had imagined it.
The movie has the postmodernist feel that monsters that scare kids from inside closets are actually from a unique world known as Monstropolis. It is basically a factory line warehouse where closet doors from all around Earth are used by monsters where they have access to the kids's bedrooms and are prepared to frighten kids out of their minds. The aim is to make the kids scream, and the louder the scream, the more bonus points that a monster gets. The screams of children are used to keep Monstropolis alive, though lately these monsters have been slipping. Some scare more than others, including James P. Sullivan (voiced by John Goodman), a likable, blue-furried monster with the loudest roar. His pal is a one-eyed, green monster named Mike Wazowski (voiced by Billy Crystal), who mostly supervises Sullivan. One night, Sullivan happens upon a door where a human girl escapes from. He is scared but grows enamored of the giggling girl he names "Boo." Nice touch.
Unfortunately, human kids are a danger to monster society, and a decontamination team is always deployed to get rid of the kids or any of the kid's belongings like socks that could slip out and attach themselves to monsters. Sullivan and Wazowski try to hide the child from their peers, especially an evil, slithering creature named Randall Boggs (voiced by Steve Buscemi) who makes expert use of his camouflage abilities. Randall is jealous of Sullivan, who always scores highest on the monster scream-o-meter, and concocts a plot to kidnap the little girl.
It is questionable how this factory even exists in the first place, and where do those doors come from really? Where is Monstropolis in relation to Earth itself and how did the monsters acquire these doors? But those are logical questions that have no place in a film designed squarely to please the kids, complete with in-jokes and humorous asides to please the adults. And how is the animation? As superb as one can imagine and as detailed as anything I have ever seen before. But like the flat "Dinosaur" from a year ago, the movie lags a bit and lacks the creative sense of magic and fun of "Toy Story." It is not as playful as it should be, perhaps a bit too contained for its own good and doesn't have much narrative thrust - it depends more on witticisms and eye-popping special effects than any real plot.
In terms of animation, I wanted the film to break free of characters standing in rooms or hallways. Animation often works best when it is roaming free of space and time. Only at the very end do we get that sense of playfulness when Sullivan and Wazowski try to rescue the child while hanging onto the closet doors, which are all connected to steel beams.
"Monsters, Inc." is delightful for three-quarters of the way through of its 98-minute running time. It is fun, funny, fast-paced for the most part, and charming. Before the film started, they showed a preview of a Peter Pan sequel featuring the old Disney animated style that was always wondrous and magical to me. I suppose I just miss the old style.
