Coming Out of the Closet

Rating: 8/10 (24 July 2006)

Great Pixar animated film about two monsters living in Monstropolis - a land outside human land where monsters of all sorts live. Power is generated by the screams of children from Monsters, Inc. - a factory where doors of small children are presented in assembly-line fashion for monsters to walk through and scare children. I was overwhelmed with the concept of the film for its incredible imagination, innovation, and creativity. The folks at Pixar always seem to be able to pull films like this off with ease. At the heart of this film is the friendship of one huge, all-time(almost) scare monster and his assistant - voiced by John Goodman and Billy Crystal respectively. The characters are penned to fit the voices like hands to gloves. The puns and funny wordplay, particularly by Crystal, are an added bonus and raises much of this as just being another kid's movie. It isn't. What happens? Well, a child manages to come in to the monster world and chaos and fun ensue, but also an emotional quality is created with the depth of characterization of Sully(Goodman). The additional voices by Bob Peterson, James Coburn, and oily Steve Buschemi - not to mention Pixar stalwart John Ratzenberger as the Abominable Snowman(monsters like these had been banished - love the concept again!) greatly enhance the film. But it is the magical animation which seems real more often than not that really propels the engine of this film. This is impressive entertainment from a company that knows what entertainment is all about. In one scene, if you look closely, you will see the child in her room and have a small toy of a clown fish - a couple years before Pixar released Finding Nemo. Love the clever nature of these folks. Any film that can explain to my satisfaction, covering all bases, why monsters come out of closets has to be pretty good.