The 'Monsters' at Pixar Scare Up a Laugh!

Rating: 9/10 (14 December 2015)

In the extra-dimensional city of Monstropolis, the power grid runs on the screams of human children, caused and captured by the (otherwise perfectly friendly) monsters who creep through their closets every night. The motto at Monsters Inc. is simple and endearing –"We scare because we care". Sulley (perfectly voiced by John Goodman) is a large monster who is able to scare children by walking into their bedroom late at night and exposing his vicious teeth and frightening scream. The perfect comic foil to Sulley, Mike (Billy Crystal, spot-on) is the guy who keeps his pal in tip top scaring shape - ordering up the closet doors that the monsters go through to frighten children, whose screams are bottled and converted to the energy that keeps the monsters' world, and Monsters, Inc., going.
As the story in 'Monsters Inc.' continues, a tiny tot nicknamed Boo refuses to be scared and sneaks through the portal into the world of the monsters. Ironically, the burbling, giggling, "Kitty" shrieking tyke scares the dickens out of monsters, as much as our amiable monsters scare little kids. It is now left up to expert "scarer" Sully and his one-eyed pal Mike to put Boo back where she belongs and restore order to the universe before the Child Detection Agency can get wind of their mistake.
Like every Pixar film, 'Monsters Inc.' is crammed with intricate and subtle details, but the tortuous storyline is laid out so flawlessly that even broods have no problem keeping up. The admirable oddness of its plot — affable creatures harvest children's screams via an inter-dimensional network of cupboards — may now be softened by familiarity, yet it remains as fresh as ever. Laughs are earned throughout this heart-warming story that never engages in the potty humor that so often undercuts these films - the interplay between Sully and Mike results in jokes which feel wholly unexpected and off-the-cuff. But it's in the visuals that 'Monsters Inc.' really comes to life, from the decor each child has on his closet door to the vast variations of monsters on the job on the "scare floor" – blobs, giant spiders, lizards, snakes and goblins right up to the dizzying finale, set in a seemingly infinite warehouse of doors, each of which opens on a different bedroom in a different part of the world.
Successfully combining intimacy with a sprawling alt-universe world, marrying a gentle character comedy to a slam-bang chase finish - this is exactly what Pixar is so celebrated for. While successfully marrying all of this to jaw-dropping technology, the monsters at Pixar scare up a laugh!