Ooh, the sweetest thing

Rating: 9/10 (7 September 2002)

Quentin Tarantino once claimed (In a deleted scene from "Pulp Fiction") that there were only two kinds of people in the world; Elvis people and Beatles people. You could love both, but eventually you had to make a decision. Now there appears to be a new societal division forming- between "Shrek" people and "Monsters Inc." people. Now I love "Shrek;" it had moments of real wit and its target (the Disney empire) was long overdue for a thrashing. But ultimately I was left cold by it. The reason? It was afraid to be a fairy tale. It is true that young people nowadays would not respond well to fairy tales; Disney has transformed fairy tales into something toxic and false, so new ways of telling them have to be invented. "Shrek" told a basic fairy tale story, but peppered it with post-modern references and nudge-nudge jokes to make it clear to is jaded and cynical young audience that it didn't REALLY believe in any of it, it was just having fun. That is, I think, the easy way out.
"Monsters Inc." (Which is officially a Disney film but is actually made by the far more innovative studio Pixar) chooses a harder route; to tell a fairy tale straight, but in a way modern audiences will appreciate. In this, they succeeded masterfully.
The plot of "Monsters Inc." is well known by now. In the city of Monstropolis, which is pretty much like any city you know except that it is populated by monsters of all shapes and sizes, children's screams are the only source of power. To obtain them, the power company Monsters Inc sends professional scarers through a network of trans-dimensional doors into children's closets around the world. The rules of the job are strict; no children or even children's clothing must come into contact with a monster, for there is nothing more dangerous than the touch of a human child. The company's top scarer is "Sulley" Sullivan (John Goodman), who with his partner Mike (Billy Crystal) is in a contest with the number 2 scarer, the evil chameleon Randall Boggs (Buschemi, playing it smooth instead of whiny for a change) to break the all time scream record. However, Randall is actually engaged in a shady plan that involves one of his assigned kids. When that plan backfires and the kid ends up in Monstropolis, Sulley is left alone to deal with her, and with the utter chaos that ensues.

There is so much to love in this film, but I must draw attention to the relationship between Sulley and the child, who he nicknames "Boo." Somehow, and truly I am at a loss to explain it, the scriptwriters, animators and actors pulled off the amazing feat of making the relationship touching without being nauseatingly sweet. Boo is the most adorable little kid in animaiton history, and I think the reason for this is that she was actually voiced by a real three-year old, and not by some affected adult (After all, what do adults really know about what it is like to be three?). The scriptwriters got her to say some incredibly funny things, but her innocence makes them funnier, since she is not trying to be self-aware. John Goodman is wonderful at conveying Sulley's gradually mounting affection for the little tyke, making it more humourous and moving by spicing it with some understandable aggrivation.
I loved the reference to Tex Avery's legendary animated short "Feed the Kitty," (Which must have heavily influenced the filmmakers; Boo also calls Sulley "kitty"), and this film has plenty more to entertain- particularly some wonderfully designed snow sequences and a virtiguous closet door chase that is one of the best ever. "Monsters Inc" is a film I will watch again, and from me, that is high praise.