Running time: 92 minutes
Starring: John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Steve Buscemi, Mary Gibbs, James Coburn, Jennifer Tilley, John Ratzenberger, Frank Oz
Rating 7 out of 10
As an adult, there's something very appealing about recapturing the innocence and wonder of your childhood, even if only fleetingly. It's one of the reasons for the Harry Potter phenomena and why Pixar's magical brand of filmmaking is so successful. Their latest example, Monsters, Inc., made in collaboration with Disney, has fewer concessions to the grown up kids in the audience, but is nevertheless a delightful and amusing treat. After being spellbound by the appearance of Toy Story, the computer graphics in Monsters, Inc. hold few surprises, although a new technique is now able to better simulate the blue fur of the film's star, the giant James P. Sullivan, better known as Sulley. The cuddly Sulley, who possesses not on only the barrelling voice of John Goodman but many of his physical characteristics, is a celebrity in Monstropolis, a city inhabited by a collection of the weirdest creatures Pixar's animators could conjure up.
To power the city, the employees at Monsters, Inc. step through the bedroom doors of children and harness their scared screams. It's Sulley's ability to capture the most screams that has earned him his lofty status as he challenges his archrival Randall Boggs (Steve Buscemi) for the coveted title of 'Scarer Of The Month'.
Despite their terrorising tactics, it turns out that the monsters are as scared of the children as the children are of them, with actual contact bringing the feared intervention of the Child Detection Agency. So when Sulley finds the little girl Boo (Mary Gibbs) is endeared to him rather than afraid, he and his one-eyed sidekick Mike (Billy Crystal) have to protect their reputations while keeping Boo hidden from the CDA.
Much of the film's humour derives from its monstrous twists on the familiar. Pedestrian signals flash 'Stalk' 'Don't Stalk', a newspaper headline reads 'Child born with five heads - parents delighted' and Mike tells his girlfriend Celia fondly of "the first time I laid eye on you", but the jokes don't flow with the same regularity we've come to expect from the likes of Toy Story and A Bug's Life. And while the monsters look amazing, their personalities are less remarkable. But that's just adult nit picking. The kid inside will love it.
Kevin Murphy
