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Monsters, Inc.
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The Film:
Children always ask, "Why?" at
the oddest times, don't they? Yet they never seem to ask one simple
question; if there really were monsters in their closet, under their bed,
or lurking in the hallway, why are they there at all? What is so
special about your closet? Monsters Inc. takes this question, and
leads to an answer so hilarious and inspired, it leads to yet another
Disney/Pixar collaboration that is fun for all ages who see it. Here's
the good news for kids: most monsters are not truly evil; they are just doing their job.
In fact, they are just as scared of children as children are of them! Yet
aside from their odd looks, they are really no different
than you or me. They only scare children because their world relies on
screams as an energy supply. Specially trained "scare teams" use special doors to enter
the closet of every child's room, and get a few screams, before their world goes
dark forever. So, off they go, causing things to go bump in the
night...though it's nothing personal; it's just their job! This job is becoming harder
to do, however, because kids are becoming
harder and harder to scare. So
enters the best monster team for the job: the furry blue monster, Sully
(voiced by John Goodman), and his one-eyed partner, Mike (Billy Crystal).
The fun begins when Sully, on his way home
from "work,"
sees an unattended closet door, and upon opening it, accidentally allows a
young child to get through to monster land. This is far scarier for Sully
than it is for the young girl, because monsters have been led to believe
that all children are to be feared; otherwise, how fun would it be to
scare them? Monsters are so terrified of children, just the sight of a
sock stuck to the back of a monster, leads to him being detained and
sterilized. Of course, we all know kids are harmless, though apparently,
so are most monsters. Sully begins to slowly learn this, and takes a
liking to the little girl, who he nicknames "Boo." Sully must try to get
her back to her own closet door, and safely home, without anyone finding out. The story
gets its strength from its hilarious yet never condescending way of
telling the story. These monsters, for example, are not just Sesame Street
Muppets; many indeed look like they'd be quite scary if seen in a darkly
lit room. In fact, many look like something Tim Burton would dream up for
a sequel to Beetlejuice. Mike's girlfriend, Celia (excellently voiced by Jennifer Tilly),
is a receptionist with one eye and snakes for hair. This is actually not
half as creepy as it sounds, however, since the snakes are, well, "Disney
snakes," if you catch my meaning. The film is never scary, yet it
never condescendingly acts as though that monster in the closet was a cute
fluffy thing. Some, like the villainous Randall Boggs (Steve Buscemi),
truly are as nasty as they look. Yet without fear, Randall is powerless.
The message here seems to be, if a
child faces his or her fears, they could easily kick serious monster butt.
For any child afraid of the dark,
this is welcome news. In conclusion,
I must be honest here; upon entering the theater for this latest Disney/Pixar
collaboration, I felt mixed feelings. The premise could've easily led to
some El Cheapo overly cute farce, where
the monsters are all sweet and lovable, and the overall story is too condescending to
children's nightmares to be effective. On
the other hand, I knew that if the story was handled well, it could lead to a nice lesson for kids, that
"There's nothing to fear but fear itself." I remember a Sesame
Street book that taught that the best when I was a child, called .
Feel free to use this order link to buy it for your child; it's been a
favorite to many children for decades by now. After seeing Monsters,
Inc., I feel the same may be said of this film someday, by many
children who see it. That's a very big compliment, and Pixar deserves
every word of it. The DVD:
This is a nice two-disc offering from Disney DVD. The cutest touch: there
is a "monster world" as well as a "human world" to
explore, with alternate bonus features in each menu. What's best of all,
though, are no less than four short computer-animated clips by Pixar. This
includes the traditional computer-animated "outtakes" (often
re-released with the film during the credits, though here offered
"Full Screen" without credits!), the Academy-Award winning
short film, "For the Birds" (shown with the film in larger
theaters), and a sneak peek at Pixar's next big project for 2003, Finding
Nemo, a fish tale set in the deep blue sea. The
best of the added film shorts, however, is "Mike's New Car," a
clip originally intended exclusively for the DVD (though from what I hear,
offered on the VHS tape too!). Though clocking in at just under 4 minutes,
kids will enjoy the slapstick humor as Mike introduces Sully to his new
car, as they try to figure out what any of the 101 buttons on the
dashboard do. As a free added clip, this is a nice touch. As
for the "Humans Only" Menu, the offerings are exclusive to the
human aspect of the film, behind-the-scenes. Being on its own separate DVD
(Disc#2), they offer more information here than you can imagine. There's
even a short tour of the facilities at Pixar, showing how much fun these
guys have doing their job. A separate "Production Tour" is also
offered, showing Pixar's new production building in more detail. An
"Animation" submenu offers looks at the animation process, early
tests, the opening title animation explained, anecdotes about the
"hardest parts" of the film's animation process (specifically,
Sully's hair, given how CGi films rarely had hairy characters up to this
point), a look at the "Shots Department" (further discussing the
technology to make Sully's hair realistic), and a production demo of the
final Animation process. Can you believe with all this, we're only halfway
done with the "Humans Only" extras...with "Monsters Only" still
left to go! There are five
more "Human" submenus. "Story" includes how the script
slowly was made into the film, including "abandoned sequences,"
shown in slideshow, storyboard form. These abandoned concepts include the
original idea, that Sully and Mike weren't "best scream team"
because they were so afraid of kids; I think the idea to make all monsters
afraid of kids truly made the picture. A "Music and
Sound" submenu offers insight to sound design and editing,
particularly the song that won Randy Newman his first Oscar, "If I
Didn't Have You." "Monster Files" offers a look into what
thought processes were made in creating all the ingenious, creepy, yet
not-so-scary monsters throughout the film. "Design" shows the
little details like lighting and props that make the film even funnier,
including "Location flyarounds" so you can swoop through the
"movie sets" at will, and a "Guide to the In-Jokes" you may have missed in the
background. As if all this wasn't cool enough, a "release" menu
not only includes the obligatory trailer and promotional material, though
also a look at the movie premiere, the toys (!), and a sneak peek at the
film as seen overseas (where even the English signs within the film were
altered to the language of that country!). All this, and still only half
the extras on Disc Two! Of course,
kids will choose the "Monster's Only" menu, and Pixar knows
this; the features here are decidedly just for fun. There's Randy Newman's
music video for "If I Didn't Have You"; an on-screen storybook
called "Welcome to Monstropolis"; an array of clips ABC used to
promote the film during holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas) and sports
(baseball and football); and three interactive games: one where you must
sift clues to click on the right item in each children's room to find the
pieces to Boo's door, and two additional games made for Japanese
television (Rock, Paper Scissors, and guessing what's behind the door). Still
not done! There's a mock "playbill" from Monster Land, showing a
bio of every monster as if seen in a stage play booklet. There's a mock
"news report" from Monster Land, showing an interview of lead
scream team Mike and Sully, as done by a news reporter (another added
animation from Pixar; cool!). Best of all is the Monster
"Orientation" menu, showing a full-screen version of the
"Welcome to Monster's, Inc" commercial shown on TV sets in the
film, a rough cut of an additional "Your first day" clip cut
from the film, and a slideshow of the storyboard for the "History of
Monster World," which was apparently scrapped from the original movie
idea. There's even a slide show version of the "Monster's
Handbook" a screamer would be given during orientation day; cute
touch! Last though still amusing is a slide show of mock "collector
cards" of all the monsters, with a front and back view of each
card. All that, and two
"Easter egg" hidden videos, to boot (see sidebar at right)...?
Disney/Pixar truly went all-out with this DVD. Of course, kids were
clearly going to buy the film anyway; it was a riot, for parent and child
alike. However, it's nice to see so much effort put into the DVD version
of a film for a change. If only more film companies followed this example.
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