Featuring the voices of: John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Steve Buscemi, Frank Oz.
Directed by: Pete Docter

Since Toy Story proved in 1995 that a computer animated movie could be successful, we've had a flurry of such films, good and bad. This year alone, we've had 3. Final Fantasy = bad. Shrek = good. Monsters, Inc. falls in between, closer to Shrek but not as great.

Sully (Goodman) and Mike (Crystal) are two monsters in some alternate world whose job it is to scare kids. In fact, there are whole factories set up for this purpose. A highly mechanized system lowers doors in front of the dozens of the monsters. These doors lead to the closets of children, where the monster comes out, scares the child, bottles the scream and returns home to the monster world. The monster world's electricity runs on child scream, so scaring children is very important, moreso because there is a power shortage on the monsters' side of the door.

A disappearing monster named Randall (Buscemi) wants to displace Sully as the top kid scarer of all time, so he resorts to drastic measures. Through a series of amusing events, Sully inadvertently allows a little girl to come through the door and into the monsters world. Sully tries to cover up the potential scandal (human children are believed to be toxic to monsters, you know). All this leads to a Warner Bros.-esque finale, revealing a conspiracy that goes straight to the top.

The animation in Monsters, Inc. is top notch. Pixar has come a long way since Toy Story. The textures are nicer, the colours crisper. In fact, even the hairs on Sully's body moves individually. Very nice.

What's even better about the movie is the voice acting. Billy Crystal does his best Natahn Lane impression, Goodman is Goodman and, for good measure, we get Buscemi as the conniving villain, Frank Oz as his assistant and Toy Story veteran John Ratzenberger as the Abominable Snowman. Great job, all around.

So should you shell out your potentially hard-earned pay to see Monsters, Inc.? Well, it's funny, the story is good, as is the acting, but having recently re-seen Shrek, there is no comparison. Monsters, Inc. is more of a family film; it won't offend anybody. It's humour isn't as laugh-out-loud as Shrek. So, while I did enjoy this movie greatly, it didn't live up to my expectations. I was sort of unsatisfied upon leaving the theatre...but the kids will love it.

DroopyMcC
Ten

Second Opinions

ASY		Although it was missing some adult humor, Monsters Inc. is great fun for the entire family.
Jack

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