Excellent Pixar kids' movie

Rating: 9/10 (1 February 2013)

In the city of Monsteropolis, friends Sully and Mike work as scarers - they pop out of kids' closets at night and scare them into screaming, because Monsteropolis runs on scream energy. Trouble is, champion scarer Sully fails to scare little Boo, who then accompanies him back into Mosteropolis where, it seems, children are toxic.
If you simply restate the plot (which continues at length after the brief synopsis above), the whole thing sounds completely loopy. Yet it works perfectly. The inhabitants of Monsteropolis are a varied and pleasing bunch, Boo is delightful, the story is involved but easy to follow, and full of action, suspense and excitement. The voice talent is, as always, exemplary, with John Goodman and Billy Crystal perfectly cast as Sully and Mike. And it's very funny.
I have to say that I was disappointed with the 3D conversion. The chase in the door warehouse was, as expected, very effective, but otherwise I felt that they needn't have bothered: the 3D is barely noticeable.