Pixar (mostly) do it again

Rating: 8/10 (11 February 2002)

There's very few movies that I'd see based solely on a name attached to it. One of these would be a film by David Fincher and another would be a film by Pixar. Pixar produced "Toy Story" and, funnily enough, "Toy Story 2". Anyone who has seen those classics will realize that that is more than enough to make you go and see "Monsters, Inc."
How does the movie live up to the legacy of Pixar? Mostly pretty damn well. Firstly it looks wonderful - animation in movies is constantly improving and here we can see how Pixar have been able to enhance details such as the fine movement of hairs on Sully's body. At the same time the movie is able to feel like an animation - it has no pretensions about trying to be real as the characters are animated with extra-large-wide eyes, disproportionate heads, etc.
The characters in here are not as good as in the "Toy Story" series. That's the film's biggest flaw. They're not as cleverly drawn or as diverse. Certainly we have no cynical Woody with whom the adults of the audience can relate to. Sully is the gentle-lovable-lug and Wazowski (Billy Crystal) is the wise-cracking-side-kick. It's an old and popular formula because it works. The villain of the piece is Randall Boggs (Steve Buscemi) and he's about as one-dimensional as they come which is no more than you'd expect for a movie aimed for the child's market. Boo - the child of the movie - is adorably cute without every being irritatingly so. You can't help but love her and she's the nicest piece of the cast. However in the end I found the cast somewhat unmemorable and the voice-over talent weren't used to their full capabilities (Buscemi could certainly let rip as a cold, calculating villain had be been able to).
However a comedy lives and dies by it's script and here "Monsters, Inc." is very good. Some comments here suggest that the humour is aimed for children and is thus a hit-and-miss affair with adults but that's a load of cobblers - I was in a packed theatre and every single person was laughing. The humour really kicks into key when Boo - the child who accidentally stumbles into the world of "Monsters, Inc." - arrives on the scene and causes havoc by merely wandering around. The concept of the movie - that their world is powered by the screams generated by the monsters that come out of the cupboard to scare children - is wonderful but the final plot resolution is painfully obvious (I know, it's a kids movie but even so...). The script is very well paced and there's plenty of diverting action. Admittedly the humour isn't as clever as "Shrek" - there's none of the sly referencing or winks to the older audience - but it's still pretty quick and the out-takes over the closing credits are fantastic.
"Shrek" is the only recently comparable piece to "Monsters, Inc." and "Shrek" slightly wins out by virtue of acknowledging it's older audience and having slightly better characterization. That aside "Monsters, Inc." is the best comedy I've seen released this year by a long shot and is well well *well* worth seeing. A very firm 8.3/10.