Monstres, Inc.

Sully and Mike (voiced by John Goodman and Billy Crystal) are employees at Monsters Inc., a scream-fueled plant that provides power to Monsteropolis. Screams are generated by 'scarers' (and Sully is the best), who enter children's bedrooms via the closet and are harvested by their partners (in Sully's case, his best friend Mike). Extreme care must be taken, as children are highly toxic to monsters, so when one is accidently transported to the factory, pandemonium ensues. The film is the fourth of Pixar's full length animated features and like most of the studio's work, is excellent. The story is fun with a clever 'twist' to the ending, the animators manage to inject a tremendous amount of character and personality into the CGI characters, and the choice of voice talent is perfect (I especially liked Steve Buscemi as the chameleonic villain Randall). CGI technology has advanced considerably since the film was released but the imagery still holds up and the vast 'closet door' storage facility is great. Typical of the studio, there are a lot of amusing details in the background that are worth watching for. Good, timeless fun for all ages.

While monsters in the closet may seem to be a scary reality for some children, `Monsters, Inc.' makes it light hearted by showing them it's all in a night's work. The characters are as charming as the cast that speaks for them.

It's a learning experience children get to see how an industry works. Monsters, Inc. is an in-genius corporation that has scientifically learned how to channel children's screams into energy that is used for electrical power. It has monster employees, an assembly line of doors (which give monsters access to children's bedrooms), a top-flight training program and some of the top Monsters in the scaring business.

There's a colorful Metropolis, filled with houses, buildings, businesses, cars and everything that makes a city run smoothly along with a population of colorful creatures. One of the colorful groups of creatures is the yellow swat team. Their job is to protect the Metropolis of Monsters, Inc. from human contamination.

But what happens when a human child mysteriously gets through the bedroom door and terrorizes the city with screams and boo's. It's wondrous and funny. In the mist of all this is industrial crime, brought on by greed. But, the story ends on a very happy note.

John Goodman is the voice of `Sulley' a colorful large blue-green ape like monster who's the star Monsters, Inc. employee. He's some type of monster, cut, cuddly, and he has a conscience that leads him to feelings of regret about scarring children. He becomes attached to Boo (voice of Mary Gibbs) a cute, little big-eyed girl who is mysteriously brought to Monsters, Inc. and in his quest to return her home becomes very attached to her.

Sulley's best friend is Mike (voice of Billy Crystal) who's a funny looking green ball with stick legs and one huge eye. His comedy is seen through out the movie. Mike is Sulley's driving force, acting as his agent. Mike's job is to make sure Sulley remains the top Monsters, Inc. employee. But when it comes to laughter Mike proves he's on top.

Mike's girl friend Celia (voice of Jennifer Tilley) is the stylish employee who has Mike's best interest at heart. Her job is to keep him out of trouble.

I give Monsters, Inc. a ten. It is an animated movie that can be enjoyed by the whole family. It makes for great family fun.

"Monsters Inc" came out on DVD this week, and now I have my own copy!! It is not very useful to try to evaluate this one against others since such an evaluation is so subjective. But I put it in the same superb category that such animated films as "Toy Story", "A Bug's Life", "Shrek", and "Disney's Tarzan" are in.

First, the quality of the animation and the picture quality. Unbelievably good. I can categorically say it is the best picture quality I have seen on DVD, and the movement and facial expressions of the animated characters makes it almost feel like they are real.

Second, the story. How inventive! The only thing separating the monster world from the real world are the doors. The company, Monsters Inc, must have millions of them in inventory, computerized for quick call-up to send in a monster to get screams and charge up their energy cells.

The main characters are voiced by John Goodman (big, blue, hairy "kitty" with purple spots) and Billy Crystal (short, green, one-eyed monster) and their acting add so much. Plus the great music provided by Randy Newman. Overall an hour and a half of pure edge of your seat entertainment. And that doesn't even include the 3+ hours of extras on the second disk.

You can select either standard or widescreen format, and I watched mine widescreen on a 16:9 HDTV with 5-channel surround system with powered subwoofer. Almost like being in a theater!!

This is a very entertaining animated film. I've seen it twice and enjoyed even more the second time. Billy Crystal said he enjoyed making this film as much as any film he's ever done, so that's a good testimony that you'll get some laughs and enjoy this movie as an adult, too.

Kids will love it, I am sure. The "monsters" in here are funny-looking and almost lovable, nothing that would scare your kids (or you). Crystal has a bunch of funny lines but overall I found this to be as much if not more of a human interest story than a comedy.

There is a lot of sentimentality to it, even overdone a bit at the end, but that's okay. There is absolutely nothing offensive in here, either. The colors look spectacular, too.

You may admire the hair detail on Sully the Yeti's arm, but you will be amazed at the warmth of characterization in `Monsters, Inc.,' surpassing even the great `Shrek' earlier this year. Goodman and Crystal are a comedic team reminiscent of the zaniest Martin and Lewis days. Crystal's Borscht-belt routines brought smiles even to this jaded and admittedly tough-on-comedy critic. I thought Eddie Murphy's donkey in `Shrek' was smart and funny; Crystal's one-eyed monster is even better with its wry and annoying wit.

Cleaning the environment of child contamination is a hilarious conceit that turns around the usual fears children have of monsters in closets. It is also a chilling parallel to the challenge of removing anthrax from today's letters. Generally, the allegorical underpinnings of animation are natural for the medium, powerful like the images of the novel `Animal Farm' for political and sociological levels of meaning. For example, the endless-door motif in this film is an ingenious metaphor for the scary and glorious possibilities the present and future hold for kids.

Even before you see this feature, Pixar offers the short feature `For the Birds' -- a brilliant takeoff on Hitchcock's memorable film besides being a great commentary on diversity. The expressions around the animated eyes, as the little birds deal with the big bird interloper, are more expressive than those of most contemporary film actors, with the exception of Brando, Pacino, Depp, and Streep.

The short trailer for `Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones' may precede the showing as it did ours for an added delight.

`Monsters, Inc.' is the best animated feature this year and one of the greatest of all time.