Something evil this way comes

Rating: Null/10 (17 September 2010)

"James, this company has been in my family for three generations. I would do anything to keep it from going under!" - Henry J. Waternoose ("Monster's Inc")
One of Pixar's best films, "Monster's Inc" plays like a buddy comedy in which a hairy blue monster (John Goodman) and a one eyed testicle (Billy Crystal) struggle to protect a human child from corporate bad guys.
The film is super cute and supremely precious, but never dips into the kind of annoying mawkishness that plagues Pixar's later films ("Up" and "Wall-E"). This is primarily thanks to the vocal talents of John Goodman and Billy Crystal, two seasoned comedians who not only lend the film real warmth, but are able to capture the kind of edgy, rapid-fire banter that Hawks and Wilder were known for. Unique in the Pixar canon, this is thus a dialogue driven film, relying on sharp exchanges, a screwball plot and lots of buddy interactions.
Like most Pixar films, this is also a hypocritical message movie. Here we have a "big corporation" (Monsters Inc - they're literally comprised of "corporate monsters") who not only specialise in "exploiting" humans, but refuse to adopt better, more efficient and "environmentally friendly" practises. Thankfully such preaching is handled with subtlety (unlike "Wall-E"), though the film does end with an annoying cliché: the kind hearted and fatherly company boss is revealed to be a devious bad guy, the film reducing ideology, systems and power structures to the morality of an evil figurehead. The belief that replacing a monster's head will cause its body to magically transform - indeed, the belief that the head is itself somehow separate from the body - is a fantasy common in cinema.
Visually, the film looks great. This was Pixar's big attempt to successfully render fur, wind and hair, a hurdle they had to get out of the way before conquering water, fire, metal and surface reflections with their later films. It's staggering to see how far computer animation has come in such a short space of time. This film's textures, resolutions and animations look positively archaic when compared to Pixar's later efforts.
Incidentally, "Monsters Inc" is part of a longstanding battle between Pixar and DreamWorks Pictures (founded by Spielberg, Katzenberg and Geffen in the mid 90s). With the surprise success of Pixar's "Toy Story", DreamWorks set about discovering Pixar's next project. When their spies learnt of "A Bugs Life", DreamWorks therefore rushed out the similarly themed "Antz" in an attempt to steal some profits.
Next from Dreamworks came "The Prince of Egypt" and "The Road to El Dorado", two animated films designed to rip off Disney's "Hercules" and "Mulan". Dreamworks' "Shrek", a monster flick designed to cash in on Pixar's "Monster's Inc", came next, followed by "Sinbad", a knock off of Disney's "Atlantis: The Lost Empire".
The battle continued with "Shark Tale", Dreamworks' copy of "Finding Nemo", "Megamind" which copies "The Incredibles", and "Flushed Away", which mimics "Ratatouille". No surprise too that the hero of DreamWorks' "How to Train Your Dragon" is called HiccUP, and that the film was the studio's response to Pixar's "Up". And so on and on it goes, corporate warfare and artistry dancing their intimate ballet.
The point is, "Shrek", which was released the same year as "Monster's Inc", used a tale of monsters to poke fun at Disney, Pixar and Disney fairy tales, whilst "Monster's Inc" celebrates the portals, multidimensional windows and doorways of business magnate Steve Jobs' "Apple Computers" (Jobs was chief executive of Pixar). What's interesting, though, is that "DreamWorks" is now turning the brand awareness generated by its crappy early animations into giant "cash cow sequels" ("Shrek 2 and 3", "Kung Fu Panda 2", "Madagascar 2 and 3", "How to Train your Dragon 2" etc), whilst Pixar, now fully absorbed by the Disney Machine, has sold out and become a monster of its own, milking their early projects with the planned releases of "Cars 2", "Monsters Inc 2" etc etc.
8.5/10 – The takeover has already started. Pixar is turning into the very monster it rallies against in this film. Today it exemplifies what Robert Pfaller calls "interpassivity", performing our indictments for us whilst allowing us to consume with impunity.
Worth three viewings.