Monsters, Inc. «««
G, 92m. 2001
Featuring the voices of John Goodman (James P. "Sulley" Sullivan), Billy Crystal (Mike Wazowski,) Mary Gibbs (Boo/Mary), Steve Buscemi (Randall Boggs), James Coburn (Henry J. Waternoose III), Jennifer Tilly (Celia), Bob Peterson (Roz) John Ratzenberger (Yeti), Frank Oz (Fungus). Screenplay by Robert L. Baird, Jill Culton, Peter Docter, Ralph Eggleston, Dan Gerson, Jeff Pidgeon, Rhett Reese, Jonathan Roberts & Andrew Stanton. Directed by Peter Docter, David Silverman, Lee Unkrich.
G, 92m. 2001
Featuring the voices of John Goodman (James P. "Sulley" Sullivan), Billy Crystal (Mike Wazowski,) Mary Gibbs (Boo/Mary), Steve Buscemi (Randall Boggs), James Coburn (Henry J. Waternoose III), Jennifer Tilly (Celia), Bob Peterson (Roz) John Ratzenberger (Yeti), Frank Oz (Fungus). Screenplay by Robert L. Baird, Jill Culton, Peter Docter, Ralph Eggleston, Dan Gerson, Jeff Pidgeon, Rhett Reese, Jonathan Roberts & Andrew Stanton. Directed by Peter Docter, David Silverman, Lee Unkrich.
I am not at all surprised to learn that Pixar’s latest computer animated film Monsters, Inc. follows the same format in terms of storyline as the studio’s previous ventures which include Toy Story (1995) and A Bug’s Life (1998).
The film’s got its share of lovable characters (no matter how hideous they might be), a nasty looking villain, and takes us into a completely different world that only the digitally talented can think of.
Monsters, Inc. is a corporate world where thousands of closet doors are neatly stacked one after another on an assembly line waiting to be opened by the next creature that will take them into children’s rooms. What would a company be without a Human Resources department that houses a crabby voiced pale green fish with red lips named Roz who scolds workers for not getting their paperwork in on time?
Or a green slinky slithering one-eyed secretary like Celia (voice of Jennifer Tilly) who has the hots for Mike Wazowski (voiced by Billy Crystal), a short, walking green garrulous eyeball who doesn’t know when he (or should I say it) is being mocked.
I have often heard the saying when the cat’s away, the mice will play. The same could be said for the motley assortment of creatures at Monsters, Inc. who at night, come out of children’s dark closets to scare the little tykes.
The children’s screams are what the monsters need in order to keep their city going, much the way we need such resources as electricity, water, heat and gas.
Every morning, the best and brightest of the company proudly strut from their hangar in a scene that reminded me of the way those chosen few astronauts from the Mercury space program did in The Right Stuff (1983). Each of them carries a long cylindrical tube like those old vacuum cleaners from yesteryear where they’ll have stored a day’s (or is it a night’s work) of screams to be converted into energy.
The problem is there is a “scream shortage” according to Henry J. Waternoose (voiced by James Coburn), the Monster’s CEO who boasts several eyes and is the best dressed (picture Jabba the Hutt from Return of the Jedi (1983) in a $500 suit).
Not all the kids are afraid of the nocturnal creatures who live in their closet though. Then again, how do you expect a child to react when the monster they’re seeing is a big, blue, furry kind of gorilla named Sully (voice of John Goodman)? Sully would be a house pet if he were the size of a small dog.
Sully and Wazowski are the corporation’s top dogs who bring back the most screams. Not everyone is happy, however, about their success. Disappearing worms like Randall Boggs (voice of Steve Buscemi) would love to see the two banished to the cold, mountainous terrain of the Himalayas. A place where there is nothing but wind, ice and snow and a lonely white talking bear who looks like the abominable snowman named Yetl (voiced by “Cheers’” John Ratzenberger).
Then a kind, little girl named Boo unexpectedly steps into their world one night and things are never the same. The situation becomes a battle over what’s better; frightening little kids or making them laugh at their jokes.
Last April, I complained about how the box office hit, Spy Kids (2001), was the kind of movie only kids would enjoy. Adults like me were likely to dismiss it.
Monsters, Inc., much like Pixar’s digitally animated shorts before it, works because they appeal to both kids and adults. Kids can enjoy the camaraderie and silliness displayed by the main characters. While adults can take in all the technical wonders the special effects people created and laugh at the humorous puns and tributes to filmmakers past.
Only in a made-up world in this movie will you find a city like Monstropolis (a name similar to Superman’s Metropolis) that has a place called Harryhausen’s (named after the filmmaker, Ray Harryhausen, who created animation).
©11/21/01
The film’s got its share of lovable characters (no matter how hideous they might be), a nasty looking villain, and takes us into a completely different world that only the digitally talented can think of.
Monsters, Inc. is a corporate world where thousands of closet doors are neatly stacked one after another on an assembly line waiting to be opened by the next creature that will take them into children’s rooms. What would a company be without a Human Resources department that houses a crabby voiced pale green fish with red lips named Roz who scolds workers for not getting their paperwork in on time?
Or a green slinky slithering one-eyed secretary like Celia (voice of Jennifer Tilly) who has the hots for Mike Wazowski (voiced by Billy Crystal), a short, walking green garrulous eyeball who doesn’t know when he (or should I say it) is being mocked.
I have often heard the saying when the cat’s away, the mice will play. The same could be said for the motley assortment of creatures at Monsters, Inc. who at night, come out of children’s dark closets to scare the little tykes.
The children’s screams are what the monsters need in order to keep their city going, much the way we need such resources as electricity, water, heat and gas.
Every morning, the best and brightest of the company proudly strut from their hangar in a scene that reminded me of the way those chosen few astronauts from the Mercury space program did in The Right Stuff (1983). Each of them carries a long cylindrical tube like those old vacuum cleaners from yesteryear where they’ll have stored a day’s (or is it a night’s work) of screams to be converted into energy.
The problem is there is a “scream shortage” according to Henry J. Waternoose (voiced by James Coburn), the Monster’s CEO who boasts several eyes and is the best dressed (picture Jabba the Hutt from Return of the Jedi (1983) in a $500 suit).
Not all the kids are afraid of the nocturnal creatures who live in their closet though. Then again, how do you expect a child to react when the monster they’re seeing is a big, blue, furry kind of gorilla named Sully (voice of John Goodman)? Sully would be a house pet if he were the size of a small dog.
Sully and Wazowski are the corporation’s top dogs who bring back the most screams. Not everyone is happy, however, about their success. Disappearing worms like Randall Boggs (voice of Steve Buscemi) would love to see the two banished to the cold, mountainous terrain of the Himalayas. A place where there is nothing but wind, ice and snow and a lonely white talking bear who looks like the abominable snowman named Yetl (voiced by “Cheers’” John Ratzenberger).
Then a kind, little girl named Boo unexpectedly steps into their world one night and things are never the same. The situation becomes a battle over what’s better; frightening little kids or making them laugh at their jokes.
Last April, I complained about how the box office hit, Spy Kids (2001), was the kind of movie only kids would enjoy. Adults like me were likely to dismiss it.
Monsters, Inc., much like Pixar’s digitally animated shorts before it, works because they appeal to both kids and adults. Kids can enjoy the camaraderie and silliness displayed by the main characters. While adults can take in all the technical wonders the special effects people created and laugh at the humorous puns and tributes to filmmakers past.
Only in a made-up world in this movie will you find a city like Monstropolis (a name similar to Superman’s Metropolis) that has a place called Harryhausen’s (named after the filmmaker, Ray Harryhausen, who created animation).
©11/21/01
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