Monsters Inc.-Fun and Hi-Jinks on the Assembly Line
The premise of Monsters Inc. is fairly original as a secret world of monsters, emerges out of closets of children’s bedrooms worldwide and scare the crap out of them. The purpose for establishing this massive network of portals to closets is that children, when scared to death, produce energy that the Monsters use to run their society. I’m sure there is some oil parallel I could draw here, but I’ll skip it, who cares. Needless to say the issue of an energy crisis pops up, so its not too much of a stretch. Now the two “every men” or every monster working stiff heros played by John Goodman and the endlessly annoying Billy Crystal, discover that there is a sinister side to the entire enterprise.
The animation, especially as of late 2001 was great. The monsters, in general, looked much more, well realistic for lack of a better term, than the human “Boo” but this can be overlooked. The movie is a well-done, cute piece that is really a lot of fun for kids and adults. Overall, Pixar hits a real home run, but there are some real problems. Let’s call them annoyance factors.
Annoyance Factor number one: Billy Crystal has a lot of lines in the film. Enough said.
Annoyance Factor number two: Randy Newman provided some of his uniquely wonderful tunes. Gee, thanks Pixar. And they gave him a freaking Academy Award for one of his “songs.”
Annoyance Factor number three: Our lead characters Sulley (Goodman) and Mike (God help us Crystal) are pretty happy about working in a factory. Mike worries about getting raise, but that’s about it.
Annoyance Factor number four: The factory is portrayed as a pretty marvelous place full of interesting technology, etc and so fourth. Most factories are not cutting edge and fun. Most factories around the world pay squat and some even employ kids. I am looking at you Katie Lee. In fact, it would be “fun” to see how much of the Monsters Inc. merchandise tie-in stuff was actually made by kiddies who are about the age that the film targets and two, to see how happy most of those factory workers are, regardless of age. I know, it’s a kid film, relax jack-ass, relax. But that is my point, it’s a film aimed at children and we as a society, or if you are a parent, need to be careful messages get programmed.
But with the Annoyance Factors set aside, this is a great little film.
Story B+
Acting B- (Dear God, don’t they do control groups that tell them that Crystal is annoying or is it that they just don’t care and he gets a paycheck no matter what?! I am puzzled!)
Visuals A+
Originality/Innovation B+
Enjoyability Grade A-
Home Theater/HD Factor A (This is a great way to hypnotize your young children. Put this movie on in HD and watch their brains melt. I mean go ahead, hell the school system and “the dam MTV” is going to do it any old way!)
Overall Grade A-
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