Monstres & Cie

While monsters in the closet may seem to be a scary reality for some children, `Monsters, Inc.' makes it light hearted by showing them it's all in a night's work. The characters are as charming as the cast that speaks for them.

It's a learning experience children get to see how an industry works. Monsters, Inc. is an in-genius corporation that has scientifically learned how to channel children's screams into energy that is used for electrical power. It has monster employees, an assembly line of doors (which give monsters access to children's bedrooms), a top-flight training program and some of the top Monsters in the scaring business.

There's a colorful Metropolis, filled with houses, buildings, businesses, cars and everything that makes a city run smoothly along with a population of colorful creatures. One of the colorful groups of creatures is the yellow swat team. Their job is to protect the Metropolis of Monsters, Inc. from human contamination.

But what happens when a human child mysteriously gets through the bedroom door and terrorizes the city with screams and boo's. It's wondrous and funny. In the mist of all this is industrial crime, brought on by greed. But, the story ends on a very happy note.

John Goodman is the voice of `Sulley' a colorful large blue-green ape like monster who's the star Monsters, Inc. employee. He's some type of monster, cut, cuddly, and he has a conscience that leads him to feelings of regret about scarring children. He becomes attached to Boo (voice of Mary Gibbs) a cute, little big-eyed girl who is mysteriously brought to Monsters, Inc. and in his quest to return her home becomes very attached to her.

Sulley's best friend is Mike (voice of Billy Crystal) who's a funny looking green ball with stick legs and one huge eye. His comedy is seen through out the movie. Mike is Sulley's driving force, acting as his agent. Mike's job is to make sure Sulley remains the top Monsters, Inc. employee. But when it comes to laughter Mike proves he's on top.

Mike's girl friend Celia (voice of Jennifer Tilley) is the stylish employee who has Mike's best interest at heart. Her job is to keep him out of trouble.

I give Monsters, Inc. a ten. It is an animated movie that can be enjoyed by the whole family. It makes for great family fun.

"Monsters Inc" came out on DVD this week, and now I have my own copy!! It is not very useful to try to evaluate this one against others since such an evaluation is so subjective. But I put it in the same superb category that such animated films as "Toy Story", "A Bug's Life", "Shrek", and "Disney's Tarzan" are in.

First, the quality of the animation and the picture quality. Unbelievably good. I can categorically say it is the best picture quality I have seen on DVD, and the movement and facial expressions of the animated characters makes it almost feel like they are real.

Second, the story. How inventive! The only thing separating the monster world from the real world are the doors. The company, Monsters Inc, must have millions of them in inventory, computerized for quick call-up to send in a monster to get screams and charge up their energy cells.

The main characters are voiced by John Goodman (big, blue, hairy "kitty" with purple spots) and Billy Crystal (short, green, one-eyed monster) and their acting add so much. Plus the great music provided by Randy Newman. Overall an hour and a half of pure edge of your seat entertainment. And that doesn't even include the 3+ hours of extras on the second disk.

You can select either standard or widescreen format, and I watched mine widescreen on a 16:9 HDTV with 5-channel surround system with powered subwoofer. Almost like being in a theater!!

MONSTERS, INC. (2001) **** (Voices of: Billy Crystal, John Goodman, James Coburn, Jennifer Tilly, Steve Buscemi, Mary Gibbs, Bonnie Hunt, Bob Peterson, John Ratzenberger, Frank Oz, Steve Susskind, Jeff Pidgeon, Sam "Penguin" Black, Daniel R. Gerson. (Dir: Peter Docter/Co-directors: David Silverman, Lee Unkrich)

There's something undeniably magical about a Disney movie that brings out your inner child and the streak continues to manifest itself in the latest with its fine track record with upstarts Pixar (the "Toy Story " films) in delighting children of all ages in one of the year's funniest (and most fun) films.

The childhood phenomena of imagining monsters lurking in one's bedroom closet or under the bed is in actuality a reality that exists solely for the world of the monsters to use all the energy extracted from a child's screams as their natural resource to power their communities and subsist in their parallel universe. Specifically Scream Heat ("We Scare Because We Care"), the corporate entity that harnesses the youngsters' reactions to its hard-working crew of creatures including our heroes James P. "Sulley" Sullivan (marvelously voiced by Goodman) and his best buddy Mike Wazowski (ditto Crystal). Sulley is a bear-like, blue and purple hairy and horned monster and Mike is a cyclopean lime green M&M clone. The two couldn't be more different yet both share their passion for their vocation and the only thing getting in their way is their rival colleague Randall Boggs (Buscemi, at his oiliest menacing), a reptilian nasty who wants to beat Sulley for the all-time factory record of most points racked up in a single day on the job … at any cost. Watching the proceedings is Sulley's father-figure boss Henry J. Waternoose (Coburn) – a cross between a crab and Edward G. Robinson – whose main priority is avoiding any "rolling blackouts" (in one of the film's subtle jabs at the current climate in our nation). Mike is in love with cutie pie receptionist Celia (Tilly) who also sports one eye and is afoot taller than him, with a hairdo sporting a Medusa twist (snakes sit atop her head) who wants something from him besides excuses to their frequently put-upon dates together. One day after work Sulley accidentally lets into their world a tiny 4 year old girl – a big no-no – legend has it that one touch is toxic and fatal! – which causes mass havoc wreaked upon the populace as the authorities attempt to corral the tyke while decontaminating the infected workshop's workers (a running gag has the SWAT like DEA agents popping in at a moment's notice whenever a sign of human contact – i.e. a small cotton white sock attached to an unsuspecting monster – makes its ugly presence known!) Mike is in a panicky sweat that they will lose their jobs and tells Sulley he can't hide Boo (the nickname the big guy dubs the adorable tot) and they must return her to her bedroom. Easier said than done when Randall gets wind of the partners abetting the unsuspecting crime and he too has his plans to use Boo for his own selfish endeavors…at any cost! The film is a laugh a minute romp and an incredible mix of state-of-the-art computer generated dynamics that truly enhance the candy-colored world of Mike & Sulley with its picture perfect depictions of moveable hair (see how Sulley's locks sway to and fro so naturally! A first for CGI imagery!) and expressiveness given to the one-eyed Mike who works his brow into a real sweat. Never before has voice talent been so perfectly matched and acted to a t than in the comic team of Crystal and Goodman with their characteristics smartly enhanced into their characters with Crystal's liberal use of his "SNL" Willy the Masochist ("Oh I hate when that happens!") and Goodman's burly, awshucks demeanor fits his soft-hearted meanie like a golden glove. Sulley is the true star of the show with his emotional overload not unlike a kid learning to make a new life transition as he discovers there's more to his existence than meets the eye (same for Mike; pun intended). When he realizes that Boo (by the way, nice job by the producers to use real-life 4 year old Gibbs, in easily the cutest turn by a child performer ever without making an audience gag) is not threatened by his hulking presence. The laughs are largely thanks to Crystal's myopic M&M who is always one-step behind his behemoth buddy and slow on the uptake as the plot proceeds with his sly one-liners, sudden bursts of unrestrained anger and confusion, and slapstick antics leads the film into uncharted territories of hysterical laughter and a great breakneck roller-coaster ride with Mike & Sulley attempting to find Boo's bedroom door with Randall in hot pursuit gives the film a giddy headrush of adrenaline. The film is witty, bright, upbeat and has its shares of incisiveness (I loved the use of HarryHausen's as a local chic eatery that all the monsters are dying to get into; in case of those who don't know Harryhausen, Ray Harryhausen, is the premier stop-motion animator pioneer who gave life to scores of sci-fi creatures including the fabled "Sinbad" flicks of the 1960s and 1970s among others) that will undoubtedly have its constituents clamoring for a sequel pronto. Arguably one of the best films and funniest of the year; I loved it and so will you (and your kids if you have any; if not all the more to see it again) An instant classic.

You may admire the hair detail on Sully the Yeti's arm, but you will be amazed at the warmth of characterization in `Monsters, Inc.,' surpassing even the great `Shrek' earlier this year. Goodman and Crystal are a comedic team reminiscent of the zaniest Martin and Lewis days. Crystal's Borscht-belt routines brought smiles even to this jaded and admittedly tough-on-comedy critic. I thought Eddie Murphy's donkey in `Shrek' was smart and funny; Crystal's one-eyed monster is even better with its wry and annoying wit.

Cleaning the environment of child contamination is a hilarious conceit that turns around the usual fears children have of monsters in closets. It is also a chilling parallel to the challenge of removing anthrax from today's letters. Generally, the allegorical underpinnings of animation are natural for the medium, powerful like the images of the novel `Animal Farm' for political and sociological levels of meaning. For example, the endless-door motif in this film is an ingenious metaphor for the scary and glorious possibilities the present and future hold for kids.

Even before you see this feature, Pixar offers the short feature `For the Birds' -- a brilliant takeoff on Hitchcock's memorable film besides being a great commentary on diversity. The expressions around the animated eyes, as the little birds deal with the big bird interloper, are more expressive than those of most contemporary film actors, with the exception of Brando, Pacino, Depp, and Streep.

The short trailer for `Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones' may precede the showing as it did ours for an added delight.

`Monsters, Inc.' is the best animated feature this year and one of the greatest of all time.

The best way to describe this movie in one word is; fun! "Monsters, Inc." is a movie you can easily fall in love with. It has some great fun character, some awesome moments and some well placed comical moments. "Monsters, Inc." is entertainment at its bests.

The voice cast is amazing. John Goodman and Billy Crystal form a great leading duo. Steve Buscemi is a great villain and James Coburn has a great voice that fits his character perfectly. John Ratzenberger as always is very entertaining this time in a role as banished Yeti.

The story itself is pretty simple but thats what makes it easy to follow and so much fun to watch. The movie not only knows how to entertaining but also knows how and when to emote. The combination of fun and emotional things is perfectly balanced and placed within the movie.

There is some great dialog but the true power of "Monsters, Inc." are the wonderful characters. Not is there only a wild variety of strange and weird characters but also some characters that are good for some serious laughs and Boo is simply adorable and a pretty fair representation of a kid in real life. Well done Pixar!

Pure entertainment for the entire family!

10/10

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