****1/2 out of 5

Rating: Null/10 (7 November 2002)

"Welcome to Monsters Incorporated where we scare because we care." Disney/Pixar have always been known as the kings of 3D animated features ever since Toy Story was released. But now after DreamWorks dropped a bomb on the head of 3D animation with Shrek, Pixar needed to release a creation upon the world to place themselves back atop the thrown that they helped to created, so now we have Monsters Inc., Pixar's newest brainchild. Our story is a very complex one. We are throw into the world of monsters where everything is fuelled by children's screams. We follow the lifestyle of Sully, the highest ranked scarrer and his partner. best friend Mike. This is where the story breaks off into two sections. On one side of the story there is Randall, a scheming lizard who wants to be the top scarrer. Then we have a little girl who accidentally gets released into the monster world. All hell breaks lose because monsters just so happen to be as scared of humans as we are of them but Sully befriends the child and even comes to love her. When making animated features story is key, you can have the best animation out there but without a good story you have nothing to work with. Here, as with Shrek, is a very creative and original story on a misunderstood stereotype. The film easily has the best animation from Pixar to date and the Voice work from Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Jennifer Tilly, James Coburn and Steve Buscemi as fabulous but what truly makes this film a winner is that the monsters are given human traits and live there lives like any other normal human being would. They are also given heart, which sets us up for a lesson, never judge someone by what they look like because deep down inside there is always something special to be found. Now you either would have to be dead of blind to not think that Shrek was hilarious in ever aspect of the word, the humour was enough to keep the kids entertained but also keep the adults just as interested. Well I will admit that Monsters Inc. is downright funny, often time hilarious, but most of the humour seem to be directed to a young age margin, making a lot of the jokes seem childish and fall flat at times. Not to mention these jokes and gags are shot at the viewer at such a fast rate that a lot of them are just misfires and take away from the comic value of the really good jokes, making this a little harder to stomach for the older audience. Still because the film has a heart of gold and some genuine hilarity it is sure to go down in time as a true classic.