Monsters, Inc Review- By Michael Carlisle

Title: Monsters, Inc
Year: 2001
Director: Peter Docter
Country: US 
Language: English

As a child, my generation grew up on the classic hand-drawn style of animation seen in films like Disney's Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and Dreamwork's Prince of Egypt. In 1995 Disney would slowly change the game with the uniquely computer animated Toy Story, Though computer animation didn't catch on too quickly, it soon became the standard during the 21st Century. Nowadays there rarely is a mainstream film using traditional style. However this does not mean the quality of "children's films" suffered, infact in some ways it has improved.

The film is set in a city of monsters with no humans called Monstropolis, which is centered around the city's power company, Monsters, Inc. The lovable, confident, tough, furry blue behemoth-like giant monster named James P. Sullivan  (John Goodman), better known as Sulley, and his wisecracking best friend, short, green cyclops monster Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal), discover what happens when the real world interacts with theirs in the form of a 2-year-old baby girl dubbed "Boo," (Mary Gibbs) who accidentally sneaks into the monster world with Sulley one night.

All this happens because Monstropolis is in a crisis: Kids are getting too hard to scare and there's a scream shortage. Strangely this feels like a realistic scenario; with movies like Saw combined with irresponsible parents allowing them to watch Saw, children in our reality are becoming numb to horror.  Though with cuddly monsters like Sulley and Mike, its no wonder why children don't find them terrifying. However, those two characters are quite memorable and throughout the story you feel increasingly connected to them. Even though the business revolves around traumatizing children, you can't help but care that they might lose their jobs if their business goes under.

Monsters Inc can be both hilarious and heartwarming. It's very funny that the monsters, like mice, are much more scared of us than we are of them. Even the one eyed Mike, played by the brilliant Billy Crystal, can get a laugh from even the sternest of adults. My favourite character is the abominable snowman, who is the complete opposite of what his name suggests. I do critique the villain Randall, while he is a complete dink, his "evil" does not compare in anyway to the creepier Disney villains like Hades and Ursela. It's unfortunate that Dreamworks Shrek won the "Best Animated Feature" at the 2001 Oscars, considering Monsters Inc is much more than sloppy pop culture references, but overtime I hope this character driven film will recieve much higher praise.

In conclusion, while I couldn't say Monster's Inc is an important masterpiece, I will state that it's one of the most entertaining animated films of the 21st Century. It's of technical perfection and manages to entertain all the way through without being boring. It is an essential piece of the pixar theory, but it doesn't contain any strong themes or messages. Still, in the 2020's I hope to show this to my kid(s). 3.5/5