Entertaining and endearing

Rating: Null/10 (13 April 2012)

Not Pixar's strongest work - for me that's Wall-E - but still a great proof that the studio has the ability to turn the simplest of ideas upside down and give us something that we haven't seen before. Like in this case where the simple idea of monsters hiding in the closets of little children is given a completely new spin by making those monsters part of industry. They're just punch clock workers trying to earn a living. Ingenious idea, really.
And the execution supports and strengthens that idea beautifully. The whole world full of these hideously weird creatures is laid bare in front of us, but we quickly find out that they're just like us with their mundane lives, romantic relationships and bad fur days. And therein lies the strength of this movie and Pixar movies in general. The characters are immensely identifiable and sympathetic. The moment that you see any of these characters, the moment that they open their mouth and start talking, you get them. You start living their lives from their perspective. (Though I have to say that I saw the Finnish dub of this movie, in which the voice acting, while decent, wasn't anything special, so I think that the movie had already lost part of its charm at that point, because the English version is full of talented actors, so it's probably the better version of this film.)
For me the best part of this film was the relationship between Sulley (John Goodman) and Boo (Mary Gibbs). That little ninja girl is unbelievably adorable to begin with and then you add a ten feet tall blue hair monster cooing at her... It just melted my heart every time I saw it and made the ending even more precious to witness.
If there's anything wrong with this film, it's that the story isn't that strong. It's your basic someone screws up and the status quo has to be restored without that someone getting into trouble, but of course something goes wrong and hilarity ensues. Nothing special there, but it was enjoyable to watch, so I wouldn't really call it a flaw as Pixar has the talent to work with simple stories. For them it's more about the characters and the details, not the story.
So yeah, it's a good movie. Highly recommended for children and adults alike.