Underrated among the Pixar offerings.

Rating: 9/10 (6 December 2011)

"Monsters, Inc." is among Pixar's best because it constructs a clever, convincing world from the single childhood experience of being afraid of what lies behind the closet door. Pixar opens that door and plunges the viewer into a funhouse mirror of society with puns, inside jokes and pop cultural references ("Scare Different"). Goodman, as his name implies, was an excellent job as the voice actor for the talented but naïve Sully and Buscemi oozes menace as his foil. The plot is sufficiently frightening to drive the story forward and the laughs are high-brow enough for adults and slapstick enough for the kids. In short, one of the few DVDs actually worth owning.