Warm and fuzzy feelings of sweetness and inocence with sprinkles of laughter, sparks a world of energy!

Rating: Null/10 (11 July 2003)

Walt Disney and Pixar Productions succeeded once again with the film, Monsters Inc. (2001). What a fun movie, with emotion and lots of humor. Monsters Inc. shows that life is greatly enriched and energized with the presence of joyful children. One of the scenes that emphasizes the great energy of a happy child is when the main monsters, Sulley and Mike, bring a child, Boo, to their home in an attempt to hide her. So that she does not cry and scream zapping the energy of the city of Monstropolis, Mike makes her laugh thus creating an endless amount of energy enough to light up the entire city. Early on in this movie, children are perceived as toxic intruders in the city. The monsters work frantically to get Boo back to her own environment. However, with all the chaos that develops in trying to complete this task, one monster, Sulley, learns the joy of having a child in his life. Two scenes demonstrate the enrichment of a joyful child in one's life. The first scene is when Sulley puts Boo to bed for the first time after bringing her home; his heart begins to soften with the sweetness of Boo as she sleeps. The second scene depicting this is near the end when Sulley walks out onto the Laugh Floor with a clipboard in hand. On the clipboard taped under the paperwork is a piece from Boo's door and a picture she drew of him holding hands with her. Clearly, Sulley is energized with the love and happiness of Boo in his life. Another movie that follows the same concept of a joyful child enriching one's life is I Am Sam (2001). How ironic that the two movies came out the same year. In the movie I Am Sam, a mentally-challenged father faces many obstacles raising his daughter from birth. The ultimate challenge he encounters is fighting the legal system that believes the child should be removed from his care and placed into a foster home. Yet, because of the love she gives him and the happiness she brings to his world, he is energized to continue his battle seizing what belongs to him.
Monsters Inc. suggests this theme throughout the movie as Sulley realizes that children are an asset and must be kept safe. No longer should they be scared. A wealth of goodness is added to life when happy children are present. Both the children and monsters benefit from the affect of humor as it creates laughter and radiates positive attitudes. A motif of children's toys is in almost every scene. With the toys in sight, it reminds us not to take life so seriously, that one forgets how to laugh and have fun. At the scream plant, the atmosphere is dull, dark and competitive at the beginning of the movie. It is all work and meeting quotas with the large scream board indicating each monster's performance. Near the end of the movie, you see the plant lit up with sunshine coming in the windows, balloons all-about, banners saying `Think Funny' and the board now labeled as the laugh board reflecting the `Joke of the Day'. Because Monsters Inc. focuses on the delight of children, it encompasses several angles with the majority being at eye-level, a level of a child. Early on in the movie, you see a deep-focus shot of all of the monsters coming onto the scream floor of the plant to begin work. This shot was adopted from the movie All The Right Stuff. The shot highlights the importance of these monsters and what they are about to do.
Pete Docter has brilliantly mastered the art of computer-animation with this movie. So much detail is involved. One example is Boo's T-shirt that freely moves while her body stays in place. Her movements express her energy level through the scene with catching Cheerios in her mouth thrown to her by Sulley. Docter eases small viewers' minds as he creates a vision of monsters who really are not evil but rather just like one of themselves. They see monsters get into trouble for being bad. And yet, he portrays most monsters in a good light reinforcing that a child can bring out the best in them. So he turns closets once feared by children like himself, into a stage of entertaining monsters filled with enthusiasm. Monsters Inc. is a wonderful, whimsical film showcasing that children as well as monsters benefit from each other through laughter and a positive outlook in their lives. Warm and fuzzy feelings of sweetness and innocence with sprinkles of laughter, sparks a world of energy!