Monsters, Inc.

Director: Pete Docter

Co-directors: David Silverman & Lee Unkrich

Screenplay: Dan Gerson & Andrew Stanton

Voices: Billy Crystal (Mike Wazowski), John Goodman (James P. "Sulley" Sullivan), James Coburn (Henry J. Waternoose), Jennifer Tilly (Celia), Bonnie Hunt (Flint), Mary Gibbs (Boo), Steve Buscemi (Randall Boggs), Bob Peterson (Roz), John Ratzenberger (Abominable Snowman)

MPAA Rating: G

Year of Release: 2001

Country: U.S.

One of Gary Larson’s very first Far Side cartoons depicted two hairy, fanged monsters lying flat beneath a bed inhabited by a kid with frightened, popping eyes, with one monster saying to the other, “I’ve got it again Larry ... an eerie feeling like there’s something on top of the bed.” Like many of Larson’s greatest cartoons, this one relies on inverting ordinary conceptions of the natural order, which is why it is not surprising that he would pick the childhood fear of monsters under the bed or hiding in the dark of the closet for one of his first jokes. The presence of monsters in one’s bedroom is one of the great enduring myths of childhood (although you’re not aware of that when you are a frightened five-year-old, wondering if that gleam in the corner is moonlight or a monster’s eye), and the day you stop being afraid of the monster in the closet is one of the first signs that you’re growing up.

In Monsters, Inc., Pixar Studios’ fourth feature after Toy Story (1995), A Bug’s Life (1998), and Toy Story 2 (1999), Larson’s joke is taken to the next level, where the monsters are not only fully aware of the kid on top of the bed, but need that kid to maintain their way of life. Monsters, Inc. imagines that, beyond every kid’s closet door, is an entire parallel universe populated by monsters of all shapes and sizes who live in a thriving city called Monstropolis. While many monsters have other jobs, a sizable chunk of the population is employed by a large corporation, Monsters, Inc., which is responsible for powering the city by bottling human child screams, which fuel their society like oil does ours.

Monsters, Inc. is imagined as an enormous, modern, mechanized factory with an intricately organized system of labor. The real work is done on the “scare floors,” where the scariest monsters line up while an elaborate conveyor system brings in various closet doors that, once opened, lead into children’s bedrooms. Of course, the real joke is that the monsters are deathly afraid of the children, as it is understood in Monstropolis that human children are toxic to monsters and cannot, under any circumstances, be touched. When one poor monster accidentally gets a kid’s sock stuck to his back, the CDA (Child Detection Agency) arrives with the combined force of a SWAT team and a hazmat unit to vaporize the sock, shave the monster of all of his hair, and hose him down to ensure that he is “decontaminated.”

The movie gives us two central monsters, James P. “Sulley” Sullivan (John Goodman), who is the company’s leading scare producer, and his assistant, Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal). Sulley is a big, lumbering, and good-hearted ogre covered head to toe in fluffy blue and purple hair that is so meticulously and realistically animated that I cannot even begin to fathom how it was done. Mike, on the other hand, is a squat green blob with one big eye and long spindly arms and legs. Just as this monster odd couple is a visual contrast, so are their voices, with Goodman’s deep, affectionate baritone standing against Crystal’s exaggerated high-pitched sarcasm. It’s a match made in voice-talent heaven.

The story picks up steam when Sulley accidentally allows a precocious two-year-old girl to slip through the closet door portal and into the monster world. At first terrified that she will somehow harm him (the image of the giant Sulley running for his life from a tiny little girl happily gurgling “Kitty!” is one of the movie’s funniest moments), Sulley eventually realizes that the child, in fact, poses no danger. At that point, he becomes determined to get her back to her world without being discovered. Mike is a little harder to convince--“It’s a killing machine!” he declares at one point--but he is still willing to work with his best friend, even if they both risk exile in the human world ala the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, and the Abominable Snowman (the last of which appears near the end of the movie with the always recognizable vocal inflections of the irrepressible John Ratzenberger).

As with the earlier Pixar computer-animated movies, Monsters, Inc. strikes a near-perfect balance between absolute hilarity and effective sentimentality (one begins to wonder when, if ever, Pixar will make a bomb or even a mediocre movie). Kids will enjoy the movie’s hectic pace and wild visuals, while adults will enjoy its in-jokes, including a chic restaurant named Harryhausen's after the pioneering stop-motion animation genius.

Sulley’s growing, parent-like affection for the little girl, whom he names Boo, is surprisingly moving, especially once he has to protect her from the clutches of a slimy chameleon-like monster named Randall Boggs (Steve Buscemi), who wants Sulley’s position as lead scare producer (Randall’s eventual fate is another of the movie’s funniest gags). This also involves careful maneuvering around Henry J. Waternoose (James Coburn), the company’s crab-like CEO who bemoans the fact that kids today watch too much TV and too many scary movies and are thus jaded and harder to scare than they used to be.

Visually, Monsters, Inc. is as impressive as Pixar’s other efforts. The animators create a plausible world for the monsters to inhabit, and they animate the characters with the kind of attention to detail that makes it easy to forget that Sulley, Mike, and the others are just ones and zeroes in a computer database. The three-dimensional possibilities offered in the realm of computer animation is put to great use, especially in a whirling, roller-coaster-like action sequence near the end where we get to see the almost infinite space in which all those millions of closet doors are stored when not in use.

Yet, it is the emotional streak in the movie that truly got me (it is not surprising that the film’s director, Pete Docter, was also responsible for the beautiful mix of humor and emotion in last summer’s Up). I’ve seen hectic action sequences before, but I don't know if I’ve ever been moved by the interactions of a furry blue ogre and a little girl. There are so many reasons why it shouldn’t work, but it does beautifully, and the filmmakers find perhaps the perfect note on which to end the film, just slightly ambiguous, but delicately handled and touching in a way that few films--even the most serious human dramas--can manage.

Monsters, Inc. Blu-Ray + DVD + Digital Copy 4-Disc Set
This four-disc set contains the feature film on both Blu-Ray and DVD, as well as a second Blu-Ray disc of supplements and a fourth disc with a digital copy of the film.
Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
Blu-Ray Audio	English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround French Dolby Digital 5.1 surround Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 surround
DVD Audio	English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround French Dolby Digital 5.1 surround Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 surround
Subtitles	English, French, Spanish
Supplements	Audio commentary by director Pete Docter, co-director Lee Unkrich, writer Andrew Stanton, and executive producer John Lasseter “Filmmakers’ Round Table” featurette “Monsters, Inc. Ride and Go Seek: Building Monstropolis in Japan” featurette For the Birds short film Mike’s New Car short film “Roz’s 100 Door Challenge Game” “Pixar Studio Tour” featurette “Story Is King” featurette “Monsters Are Real” featurette “Original Treatment” featurette “Story Pitch” featurette Banished concepts Storyboard-to-film comparison Art galleries “Designing Monstropolis” featurette “Set Dressing” featurette Location Flyarounds “Cast of Characters” featurette “What Makes a Great Monster?” featurette “Animation Process” featurettes “Monster Song” featurette “Sound Design” featurette Theatrical trailer TV spots Outtakes “Monster TV Treats” “If I Didn’t Have You” music video “Ponkickies 21” featurette “On the Job With Mike & Sully” featurette “Orientation” films
Distributor	Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
SRP	$45.99
Release Date	November 10, 2009

VIDEO & AUDIO
Monsters, Inc. has never looked or sounded better than it does on this Blu-Ray disc. The image, a direct digital port presented in full 1080p high-definition, looks absolutely brilliant. Colors are beautifully rendered, detail is crisp but natural, and contrast and black levels are spot on. The image presents surfaces and textures with great verisimilitude, and the high level of information allows you to soak in the smallest of details, especially the individual waving hairs of Sulley’s fur (which, at the time, was a major technical accomplishment for a CG feature). The uncompressed DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1-channel surround soundtrack is likewise amazing, with impressive separation and directionality that immerses you completed in the film’s fantastical environs. The soundtrack is particularly engrossing during the climactic action sequence in the bedroom door storage area, which makes ample use of the surrounds to heighten the action.
SUPPLEMENTS
The majority of the supplements included in this Blu-Ray set have been ported over from the previously available DVD set, which makes sense because there is little need for improvement. The good folks at Pixar have thrown in a few new things, including a 21-minute “Filmmakers’ Round Table,” which reunites director Pete Docter, co-director Lee Unkrich, producer Darla K. Anderson, and story supervisor Bob Peterson for a discussion about the film’s origins and its production. Also new is the 8-minute featurette “Monsters, Inc. Ride and Go Seek: Building Monstropolis in Japan,” which explores the development of what looks like an amazingly fun new ride at Disneyland Tokyo. Lastly, there is “Roz’s 100 Door Challenge Game,” an in-depth trivia game. The rest of the supplements will be familiar to those who have the DVD, except for the fact that they have now been encoded in high definition. On the film itself we get an informative and enjoyable audio commentary by Docter, Unkrich, co-writer Andrew Stanton, and executive producer John Lasseter, as well as two Pixar short film, the Oscar-winning For the Birds, which played in theaters before Monsters, Inc., and the Oscar-nominated Mike’s New Car, a 2002 short featuring Mike and Sulley (both films have optional audio commentaries). The rest of the supplements are housed on a second Blu-Ray disc, and they begin appropriately enough with “Pixar Studio Tour” (4:00.), which is great for reminding you of how lousy your own work environment is. Following that are four featurettes focusing on the development of the story: “Story Is King” (2:00.), “Monsters Are Real” (1:30), “Original Treatment” (13:40), and “Story Pitch” (4:36). Next we have a section of “Banished Concepts,” which consists of five scenes that were designed, but never actually animated (we get to see them as animated storyboards). There is also a storyboard-to-film comparison of a six-minute sequence in Mike’s apartment (you can watch the storyboard, the final version, or a split-screen showing them side by side). Four extensive (and I mean extensive) art galleries give us literally hundreds of images from different stages of production organized into “Characters,” “Color Script,” “Concept Art,” and “Posters.” The majority of the other supplements deal with the design and production of the film. In “Designing Monstropolis” (3:00) we get a brief look into what it is like to create an entire world from scratch; “Set Dressing” (3:22) shows us how the various sets are filled with furniture and other objects; “Location Flyarounds” (7:25) give us 360-degree views of many of the film’s environments; “Cast of Characters” (6:00) discusses the recording of the voice actors and the importance of casting; “Sound Design” (4:16) takes us into the sound studios at Skywalker Ranch to show us how the film’s soundscape was created; and a handful of “Animation Process” featurettes take us step by step through the various stages of computer animation. Other goodies include the “Monster Song” featurette (3:17), in which Billy Crystal and John Goodman discuss their duet in the film, two theatrical trailers, some TV spots, outtakes, a handful of short bits with Mike and Sulley recorded for various TV programs (including Sunday Night Football), the“If I Didn’t Have You” music video, Mike and Sulley’s appearnce on “Ponkickies 21,” a Japanese game show, the “On the Job With Mike & Sully” featurette (2:33), and the “Orientation” films briefly glimpsed in the movie.

Thoughts? E-mail James Kendrick

Overall Rating: (3.5)