Movie: Monsters Inc

Released in 2001, Monsters Inc was Disney Pixar's fourth feature film, following on from the highly acclaimed Toy Story 1&2 movies and A Bugs Life. It was an instant success, grossing over $500m worldwide!!

The movie is set in the fictional world of Monstropolis, where a variety of monsters work together to gather screams from human children as it is used to power the city. Scream processing factories use closet doors (used as portals) into the human world where they enter the bedrooms of children at night in order to make them scream. The screams are then collected and stored for future use. This is considered to be a dangerous task, as it is widely believed that human children are toxic to the monsters, so contact is not allowed. Monsters, Inc is the largest such processing factory in Monstropolis, and this is where we find our heroes, Mike and Sulley.

James P Sullivan (Sulley) is voiced by John Goodman and is a giant among the other monsters with blue fur, horns and purple spots. He is a kind natured monster, relaxed with an outgoing personality. However, he excels at scaring children and it the company's current top scarer aiming to beat the all-time scare record before his fiercest rival Randal does. He always does what he believes is best for the company.

Michael Wazowski (Mike) is voiced by Billy Crystal and is Sulley's best friend and work colleague at the factory. He is small, round, green and has a single big eye. He also has an outgoing personality, and a rather large ego. He continually pushes Sulley to work harder in order to beat the record.


As the movie plays out, we learn that things are not all rosy in the scaring business, as the children are becoming harder to scare with more and more "portals" being destroyed every week. Power levels are running low, and something has to be done. Mike and Sulley uncover a secret plot to literally suck the screams out from the children and so embark on a roller coaster ride of mishaps, mayhem and adventure, trying to put an end to the plot, while trying to ensure that the city does not lose it's power. And if that was not bad enough...there have been sightings of a human child running around Monstropolis!!!

I'm not sure why this film appeals to me so much, but I have to admit it is one of my favourite all time movies, and certainly in my top 3 favourite Pixar movies. Everything about it makes me happy, from the opening jazzy music, to the colours, to the amazingly funny and talented Billy Crystal with his perfectly timed one liners, e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g about it makes it a fantastic film for all ages. Perhaps what makes it such a success is the fact that Disney Pixar have created a movie that makes us connect to it. Sure it's computer animated movie set in a parallel universe where monster's live, but it is so well constructed, so well interpreted, you could almost believe it was real, and in the end, you find yourself double checking that your bedroom closet is indeed....empty!!

Be sure to watch this movie at some point in your life...I am giving it a very well deserved 9/10, the only reason I am not giving it a 10....is because it ended :D Though I am very happy to hear that they will release a prequel movie called Monsters University in 2013, same characters, same voices. Nice one Pixar :)