'Monsters' scares up humor, higher standard in animation
By Marshall Fine
Westchester (N.Y.) Journal News
"Monsters, Inc." is, quite simply, astonishing: a computer-animated feature that is at once wonderfully funny, filled with heart and crafted with a visual brilliance that makes its predecessors look like crayon drawings.
Disney/Pixar
This is to take nothing away from such previous Disney/Pixar efforts as the "Toy Story" films or "A Bug's Life." But, like "Shrek" earlier this year, "Monsters, Inc." benefits from the quantum leaps in technology that seem to happen almost daily. They give the filmmakers the ability to literally depict anything they can imagine — and to render those images with such life-like vividness that you'd swear you were watching characters and objects in the real world.
Mike Wazowski, left, and James P. "Sully" Sullivan, whose voices are supplied by Billy Crystal and John Goodman, respectively, are armed and ready for battle against a fearsome opponent — a little girl from the real world — in "Monsters, Inc."
What elevates "Monsters, Inc." is the same thing that made "Toy Story" and "Shrek" such winners: the script, in this case written by Andrew Stanton and Daniel Gerson. It's smart and clever
"Monsters, Inc." is set in Monstropolis, an alternative universe populated with bizarre creatures whose world is powered by the screams of children in our world. Yes, these are the monsters that children think lurk under the bed or in the shadows of the closet.
In fact, closet doors are the portals to Monstropolis, where Monsters, Inc., serves as a kind of boo-powered Con Edison. We learn that, while the monsters are allowed to scare the kids, they can't touch them because any contact would be fatal — to the monsters.
| 'Monsters, Inc.' | |
| • | Rated G |
| • | Featuring the voices of Billy Crystal, John Goodman, James Coburn, Steve Buscemi, Directed by Pete Docter, Walt Disney Pictures |
| • | Opens Friday |
| • | 85 minutes |
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The top scarer at Monsters, Inc. is James P. "Sully" Sullivan (John Goodman), a mammoth, good-natured fellow with turquoise and purple fur. Together with his assistant, Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal), he's in line to win the company's award as top producer of children's screams — much to the jealous consternation of colleague Randall Boggs (Steve Buscemi), a particularly nasty chameleon.
Sully is, in fact, affable and lovable, while Mike — a one-eyed green basketball with arms and legs — is more Type A, pushing Sully to be all that he can be. They both can see their futures with the company going down the drain, however, when a little girl from the real world accidentally gets through the closet door into Monsters, Inc.
From there, the race is on to try to get this tyke back to her own world. Kids are considered poison, though this one doesn't have a negative effect on Sully and Mike.
"Monsters, Inc." envisions a wonderfully imaginative universe in which the monsters all look different but their personalities are all identifiably human: from the likable Sully to the hyper Mike to the ambitious Randall to their pompous boss, Henry J. Waternoose (James Coburn).
This will be the first year that the Academy Awards will include a category for feature-length animation. Until now, it appeared that "Shrek" had things sewn up. But "Monsters, Inc." makes it a horse race — and promises to be the movie that could give "Harry Potter" a run for the box-office crown.
