Monsters, Inc.

Monsters, Inc. is a 2001 American computer-animated buddy comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures.

## Plot

The city of Monstropolis in the monster world is powered by energy from the screams of human children. At the Monsters, Inc. factory, skilled monsters employed as "scarers" venture into the human world to scare children and harvest their screams, through doors that activate portals to children's bedroom closets. It is considered dangerous work, as human children are believed to be toxic. Energy production is falling because children are becoming less easily scared, and Monsters, Inc.'s chairman, Henry J. Waternoose, is determined to find a solution.

James P. "Sulley" Sullivan and his partner, Mike Wazowski, are the organization's top employees, but their chief rival, Randall Boggs, is close behind. One day, Sulley discovers that Randall has left a door activated on the scare floor and a small girl has entered the factory. After several failed attempts to put her back, Randall sends the door back into the factory's door vault and Sulley conceals her and takes her out of the factory. He interrupts Mike's date with his girlfriend, Celia, at a sushi restaurant, and chaos erupts when the child is discovered. Sulley and Mike manage to escape with the child before the Child Detection Agency (CDA) quarantines the restaurant. They soon discover that she is not toxic after all; Sulley grows attached to her and calls her "Boo", while Mike is just anxious to be rid of her.

The two smuggle her back into the factory disguised as a baby monster in an attempt to send her home. Randall discovers Boo and tries to kidnap her, but mistakenly kidnaps Mike instead. Nevertheless, he straps Mike to a large machine called "The Scream Extractor", which he intends to use to revolutionize the scaring industry and solve the monster world's energy problems by forcefully extracting screams from kidnapped human children. Before Randall can use the machine on Mike, Sulley disables the machine, frees Mike, and reports Randall to Waternoose. Waternoose initially displays anger at hearing of Randall's actions, but instead exiles Mike and Sulley to the Himalayas after revealing he is involved in Randall's plot. The two meet the Abominable Snowman, who tells them about a nearby village, which Sulley realizes he can use to return to the factory. Sulley prepares to return, but Mike refuses to go with him.

Meanwhile, Randall is preparing to use the Scream Extractor on Boo, but Sulley intervenes, destroying the machine and saving Boo. Randall and Sulley battle, and after Mike returns and helps Sulley overpower Randall, the two reconcile, take Boo, and flee.

Randall pursues them to the door vault, and a wild chase ensues among the millions of doors as they move in and out of the storage vault on rails to the factory floor. Boo's laughter causes all the doors in the vault to activate at once, allowing the monsters to freely pass in and out of the human world. Randall attempts to kill Sulley, but Boo overcomes her fear of the former and attacks him, enabling Sulley to catch him. Sulley and Mike then trap Randall in the human world, where two residents at a trailer park mistake him for an alligator and beat him with a shovel.

Sulley and Mike take Boo and her door to the training room. Waternoose follows them and demands Sulley to surrender Boo to him. Sulley inadvertently tricks Waternoose into shouting aloud his plan of abducting children; the confession is recorded by Mike on a videotape, who then plays the recording to the CDA; Waternoose is immediately arrested. Roz appears, revealing herself to be the CDA's director who has worked undercover for nearly three years to expose Waternoose and Randall's crimes. She thanks Mike and Sulley for revealing his true colors, but orders the CDA to destroy Boo's door; they do so and Sulley is left saddened by Boo's departure.

With the factory temporarily shut down, Sulley is named the new CEO of Monsters, Inc. Under his leadership, the energy crisis is solved by harvesting children's laughter instead of screams, as laughter has been found to be ten times more potent. Mike takes Sulley aside some time later, revealing he has rebuilt Boo's door. It needs one final piece, which Sulley took as a memento, in order to work. Sulley puts the door chip into place, enters, and joyfully reunites with Boo.

## Cast

* John Goodman as James P. "Sulley" Sullivan, a large, furry blue monster with horns and purple spots. Even though Sulley excels at scaring children, he is a gentle giant by nature. At the film's beginning, Sulley has been the "Best Scarer" at Monsters, Inc. for several months running.
* Billy Crystal as Michael "Mike" Wazowski, a short, round green monster with a single big eyeball and skinny limbs. Mike is Sulley's station runner and coach on the scare floor, and the two are close friends and roommates. Mike is charming and generally the more organized of the two, but is prone to neurotics and his ego sometimes leads him astray. He is dating Celia Mae, who calls him "Googly-Bear".
* Mary Gibbs as Boo, a two-year-old[4][5][6] human girl who is unafraid of any monster except Randall, the scarer assigned to her door. She believes Sulley is a large cat and refers to him as "Kitty". In the film, one of Boo's drawings is covered with the name "Mary". The book based on the film gives Boo's "real" name as Mary Gibbs, the name of her voice actress, who is also the daughter of one of the film's story artists, Rob.[7]
* Steve Buscemi as Randall Boggs, a purple, eight-legged lizard monster with a chameleon-like ability to change his skin color and blend in completely with his surroundings. He is a snide and preening character who makes himself a rival to Sulley and Mike in scream collection.
* James Coburn as Henry J. Waternoose III, an arthropodic monster with a crab-like lower body. Waternoose is the CEO of Monsters, Inc., a job passed down through his family for three generations. He acts as a mentor to Sulley, holding great faith in him as a scarer.
* Jennifer Tilly as Celia Mae, a gorgon-like monster with one eye and tentacle-like legs. Celia is the receptionist for Monsters, Inc. and Mike's girlfriend.
* Bob Peterson as Roz, a slug-like monster with a raspy voice who administrates for Scare Floor F where Sulley, Mike, and Randall work. At the end of the movie, it is revealed that Roz is "Agent Number 1" of the CDA, and has worked undercover at Monsters, Inc. for two and a half years.
* John Ratzenberger as Yeti[8] a.k.a. The Abominable Snowman,[9] a furry white monster who was banished to the Himalayas. He was inspired by the Abominable Snowman from the 1964 Rankin/Bass animated special *Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer*.[10]
* Frank Oz as Jeff Fungus, Randall's red-skinned, three-eyed, beleaguered assistant.
* Dan Gerson as Smitty and Needleman, two goofy monsters with cracking voices, who work as janitors and operate the Door Shredder when required.
* Steve Susskind as Jerry Slugworth, a red, seven-fingered monster, who manages Scare Floor F and is a good friend of Waternoose.
* Bonnie Hunt as Ms. Flint, a female monster, who trains new monsters to scare children.
* Jeff Pidgeon as Thaddeus "Phlegm" Bile, a trainee scarer for Monsters, Inc.
* Samuel Lord Black as George Sanderson, a chubby, oranged-furred monster with a sole horn on top of his head. A running gag throughout the film involves George repeatedly making contact with human artifacts (such as socks and the like which cling to his fur via static), prompting his scare coach to trigger "23–19" incidents with the CDA resulting in him mobbed, shaved bald, and sterilized. He is good friends with Pete "Claws" Ward.
* Phil Proctor as Charlie, George's assistant with sea-green skin and tendrils for limbs. He is friends with George, Mike, and Sulley, but is quick to call the CDA on his scarer at the drop of a hat.
* Joe Ranft as Pete "Claws" Ward, a blue monster with razor-sharp claws and horrifying breath.

## Critical Reception

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 96% based on 194 reviews, with an average score of 8/10. The critical consensus was, "Clever, funny, and delightful to look at, *Monsters, Inc.* delivers another resounding example of how Pixar elevated the bar for modern all-ages animation."[45] Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 78 based on 34 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[46] According to CinemaScore, audiences gave the film a rare "A+" grade[47], becoming the second Pixar film to gain an "A+" grade, after *Toy Story 2*.

## Prequel

Monsters, Inc. has spawned a prequel: Monsters University (2013).