Monsters, Inc.

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Monsters, Inc. is a 2001 Academy Award winning film and the fourth computer animation produced by Pixar Animation Studios. The film was released to theaters by Walt Disney Pictures in the United States on November 2 2001, in Australia on December 26, 2001 and in the United Kingdom on February 8, 2002.

Bearing many similarities to the 1989 film Little Monsters, the story for Monsters, Inc. was written by Jack W. Bunting, Jill Culton, Peter Docter, Ralph Eggleston, Dan Gerson, Jeff Pidgeon, Rhett Reese, Jonathan Roberts and Andrew Stanton. It was directed by Pete Docter, Lee Unkrich, and David Silverman.

Monsters, Inc. premiered in the United States on October 28, 2001, and went into general release on November 2, 2001 with the best opening ticket sales ever for an animated film and the sixth best of all time. Rotten Tomatoes also gave the film extremely positive reviews and a fresh 95 percent.^[1]

[edit] Plot

The story is set in Monstropolis, a city inhabited by monsters, some of whom are the ones who emerge from bedroom closets to scare human children. This is used to collect the screams of kids, which power the city. The main power company in the city is called Monsters, Inc. The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer is a crab-like monster called Henry J. Waternoose (James Coburn). The top scarer at Monsters, Inc. is James P. "Sulley" Sullivan (John Goodman), a blue-furred bear- or gorilla-like giant who is partnered with the green, one-eyed Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal). The two of them are best friends and roommates. Sulley is a gentle and easy-going creature, while Mike is obsessed with his car and dreams of marrying his girlfriend, the Medusa-like Celia Mae (Jennifer Tilly.) Sulley's main rival as a scarer is the chameleon-like Randall Boggs (Steve Buscemi) who possesses the ability to change the color of his skin to match his surroundings.

As the two train and head off to work, their discussion reveals that the city is suffering a scream shortage because children have become desensitized to fear by an over-exposure to television. After they arrive at the Monsters, Inc. work floor we are shown that monsters can call up and travel through any child's door, thus being able to sneak in to bedrooms around the world and collect screams. In order to allow Mike to take out his girlfriend, Sulley agrees to stay at work late and turn in his paperwork. He finds a lone door on the work floor after hours, a violation of policy.

An investigation leads to a small human girl (Mary Gibbs) coming through. Sulley is frightened as it is believed all human children are toxic to monsters (part of the skill involved in being a good "scarer" is in avoiding being touched). After several misadventures, he attempts to take the girl to Mike, who is enjoying a romantic dinner with his girlfriend at a sushi restaurant. The girl escapes, causes the alarm to be raised, triggers the CDA (Child Detection Agency) to take action, and the two grab her and barely make it home.

The girl stays overnight and is soon named Boo (for her habit of saying "Boo!" all the time). The two come to know she is not dangerous as once thought, but they still plan to return her the next day. She is disguised as a monster and they sneak her inside. Mike wants to toss her in any old door, but Sulley wants to return her to her home. A mistake gets Mike kidnapped by Randall, who had intended to take Boo. It is learned Randall has created a machine to extract screams straight from kidnapped kids. Sulley and Mike tell everything to Waternoose. However, it turns out that Waternoose is in on Randall's scheme. Because of the decline in productivity, he fears for the company's future, and sees Randall's machine as the only way of ensuring Monsters Inc's survival. Waternoose betrays them, banishing the two to the Himalayas.

The two stay with the Abominable Snowman (John Ratzenberger) until Sulley learns of a village down below. After an argument with Mike, he sneaks back to his world that way. Mike soon follows. They confront Randall and attempt to rescue Boo. In the end Mike and Sulley send Randall to a motor home in a Louisiana swamp, where he is beaten senseless with a shovel by the family living inside (who mistake him for an alligator). Mike and Sulley destroy the door Randall went through, thus trapping him.

Mike and Sulley trick Waternoose into exposing himself to the CDA, whose true leader is Roz, the scare floor secretary. Boo is sent home and her door is put through a grinder. Sulley comes to realize that laughter is more powerful than screams and the company is redefined. Sulley becomes the new Chairman and CEO, and the monsters now enter the doors to entertain the kids as comedians, resulting in ample energy for the monster world. In secret, Mike also has Boo's door reassembled. Sulley takes one more peek inside and Boo is heard but not seen, while Sulley has a surprised and happy smile on his face.

[edit] Voice cast

[edit] Spin-offs

• A manga version of Monsters, Inc. was made by Hiromi Yamafuji and distributed in Kodansha's Comic Bon Bon magazine in Japan; the manga was published in English by TOKYOPOP until it became out of print.
• Feld Entertainment currently tours a Monsters, Inc. edition of their Disney on Ice skating tour.
• A series of video games, and a multi-platform video game were created, based on the movie.
• A short was made by Pixar in 2002 named Mike's New Car.
• In Cars, there is a part at the end when Mack is watching a few movies. One is called "Monster Trucks Inc", where Sulley, Mike, and the Abominable Snowman appear as cars.

[edit] Theme park attractions

Monsters, Inc. has inspired three attractions at Disney theme parks across the globe.

• In 2006, Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! opened at Disney's California Adventure at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. The dark ride was developed to boost the theme park's lagging attendance, and was quite successful in doing so, at least for a period of time.
• In 2007, Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor opened at the Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The show is improvisational in nature, and features the opportunity for Guests to interact with the monster comedians, and even submit jokes of their own via text message. ^[2]
• In 2009, Monsters, Inc: Ride And Go Seek will open at Tokyo Disneyland at the Tokyo Disney Resort in Chiba, Japan.

[edit] Music

For details, see Monsters, Inc. (soundtrack).

The score was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score and the song "If I Didn't Have You" won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

[edit] Awards

• Monsters, Inc. won the Academy Award for Best Song (Randy Newman for If I Didn't Have You). It was nominated for Best Animated Feature, Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing and Best Music, Original Score.
• This movie, and Shrek are the first pair of computer generated (CG) animated movies to win Academy Awards in the same year. Monsters, Inc. won for Best Song of 2001, and Shrek won for Best Animated Feature of 2001.

[edit] Attached short films

[edit] For the Birds

Main article: For the Birds

The theatrical and Video/DVD release of the film included For the Birds, a Pixar short made in 2000, a year before this film was released.

[edit] Mike's New Car

Main article: Mike's New Car

The Video release also includes an additional short called Mike's New Car, starring the characters from the film.

[edit] Trailers

One Pixar tradition is to create trailers for their films that do not contain footage from the released film. Trailers for this film include:

• Sulley and Mike stumble into the wrong bedroom.
• In a preview shown before the first Harry Potter film, Sulley is shown playing charades with Mike, but Mike is unable to guess the phrase "Harry Potter". The clip never specifically mentions Harry Potter, but the end states that Monsters, Inc. is playing right next door. Afterwards, Mike attempts to charade by waving his arms in the air to make a star shape. A bored Sulley quickly and correctly guesses Star Wars. A bewildered Mike asks how he does it.

[edit] Trivia

• During production, a sequel to Monsters, Inc. was planned in which Sulley and Mike revisit Boo when she has aged to a teenager. However, this, after a few months, was scrapped due to the fact that the original film ends so "heartfelt" with Sulley looking through Boo's door and seeing her again, that the producers did not want to continue the story and instead leave it at the happy ending.
• In the film, Randall threatens Fungus with a comment about personally putting him through the door shredder. This is a brief tribute to the film Fargo, in which Steve Buscemi's (the voice of Randall) character's corpse is put through a wood chipper.
• According to the DVD commentary, Pixar was to produce Monsters, Inc. before Toy Story.
• According to DVD commentary, Ted (the Godzilla clone) was to have a clip of the famous Godzilla roar playing. However, Toho denied use of Godzilla's roar. The sound that was used was that of a clucking chicken.
• The scene containing a distraught Sulley, passing out several times as he watches what he thinks is Boo going through the trash processor, is a homage to Chuck Jones's Feed the Kitty cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series.
• When the time comes for Sulley to take Boo back to her room, she hands him some of her toys which all represent Pixar in some way. Most notably the star ball from Luxo Jr., Nemo (from Finding Nemo, although it was released after Monsters Inc.), and a Jessie doll from Toy Story 2.
• When Randall is getting beat up in the trailer home, you can see the Pizza Planet truck from Toy Story and Toy Story 2 on the far left. This scene is also a homage to A Bug's Life, which featured the same caravan and (more or less) the same camera shot.
• In the scene where Boo is having a toilet break, you can clearly hear her sing a song in complete English and in sentences - despite the fact that throughout the film she speaks gibberish yet can say simple words like "kitty", "Boo" and even Mike's full name. The most audible line of the song that Boo sings is "Lemon lemon lime, sails away."
• The resturaunt in the movie is called "Harryhausen's" in reference to Ray Harryhausen who created clay-mation like monsters for various films such as Clash of the Titans.
• You can see Rex from Toy Story in the ending credits of the movie.
• When Boo knocks Mike's CDs, one of them reads "Crash Monster", a possible parody of "Crash Bandicoot". It contains deformed versions of Crash and Cortex on the case.
• When Sully asks the Abominable Snowman if there are kids in the village, the Snowman's comment that there are "fat kids, skinny kids, kids who climb on rocks" is a line from the Armour and Company hot dog jingle from the 1970's.

[edit] See also

• List of animated feature-length films
• List of computer-animated films

[edit] References

1. ^ Rotten Tomatoes - Monster's inc. page - 24 December 2007
2. ^ The Walt Disney Company - Press Release - 7 June 2006

Categories: English-language films | Articles with trivia sections from October 2007 | Articles lacking reliable references from May 2007 | All articles lacking sources | 2001 films | American films | Films featuring anthropomorphic characters | Best Song Academy Award winners | Computer-animated films | Monster movies | Pixar feature films | Tokyopop