Monsters, Inc.

See also: Monsters, Inc. (company)

"We Scare Because We Care"

—Tagline

Monsters, Inc. is Pixar's fourth feature film.

A prequel to the film has been announced, Monsters University, which is currently scheduled for release on June 21, 2013.

Plot

Monsters, Inc. is set in Monstropolis, a city inhabited by monsters, some of whom are those who emerge from bedroom closets to scare human children. This is used to collect the screams of kids, which power the city. The main power company in the city is called Monsters, Inc. The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer is a crab-like monster, Henry J. Waternoose III. The top scarer at Monsters, Inc. is James P. Sullivan, aka "Sulley", a blue-furred giant who is partnered with the green, one-eyed Mike Wazowski.

The two of them are best friends and roommates. Sulley is a gentle and easy-going creature, while Mike is obsessed with his car and dreams of marrying his girlfriend, the Medusa-like Celia Mae. Sulley's main rival as a scarer is the chameleon-like Randall Boggs who possesses the ability to change the color of his skin to match his surroundings.

As the two train and head off to work, their discussion reveals that the city is suffering a scream shortage because children have become desensitized to fear by an over-exposure to television. After they arrive at the Monsters, Inc. work floor we are shown that monsters can call up and travel through any child's door, thus being able to sneak in to bedrooms around the world and collect screams. In order to allow Mike to take out his girlfriend, Sulley agrees to stay at work late and turn in his paperwork. He finds a lone door on the work floor after hours, a violation of policy.

An investigation leads to a small human girl coming through into the monster world. Sulley is frightened, as it is believed all human children are toxic to monsters). After several misadventures, he attempts to take the girl to Mike, who is enjoying a romantic dinner with his girlfriend at Harryhausen's. The girl escapes and is seen, causing mass panic and alerting the Child Detection Agency (CDA). The two grab her and barely make it home.

The girl stays overnight and is soon named Boo (for her habit of saying "Boo!" all the time). The two come to know she is not dangerous as once thought, but they still plan to return her the next day. She is disguised as a monster and they sneak her inside Monsters, Inc. Mike wants to toss her in any old door, but Sulley wants to return her to her home. A mistake gets Mike kidnapped by Randall, who had intended to take Boo. Randall has created a machine to extract screams straight from kidnapped kids. Sulley and Mike tell everything to Waternoose. However, it turns out that Waternoose is in on Randall's scheme. Because of the decline in productivity, he fears for the company's future, and sees Randall's machine as the only way of ensuring Monsters Inc's survival. Waternoose betrays them, banishing the two to the Himalayas.

The two stay with the Yeti until Sulley learns of a village down below. After an argument with Mike, he sneaks back to the monster world that way. Mike soon follows. They confront Randall and attempt to rescue Boo. In the end Mike and Sulley send Randall to a motor home in a Louisiana swamp, where he is beaten senseless with a shovel by the family living inside (who mistake him for an alligator). Mike and Sulley destroy the door Randall went through, thus trapping him.

Mike and Sulley trick Waternoose into exposing himself to the CDA, whose true leader is Roz, the scare floor secretary. Boo is sent home and her door is put through a grinder. Sulley comes to realize that laughter is more powerful than screams and the company is redefined. Sulley becomes the new Chairman and CEO, and the monsters now enter the doors to entertain the kids as comedians, resulting in ample energy for the monster world. In secret, Mike also has Boo's door reassembled. Sulley takes one more peek inside and Boo is heard but not seen, while Sulley has a surprised and happy smile on his face.

Voice cast

John Goodman: James P. "Sulley" Sullivan
Billy Crystal: Michael "Mike" Wazowski
Mary Gibbs: Boo
Jennifer Tilly: Celia Mae
Steve Buscemi: Randall Boggs
James Coburn: Henry J. Waternoose III
Bob Peterson: Roz
John Ratzenberger: Yeti
Bonnie Hunt: Flint
Jeff Pidgeon: Bile
Frank Oz: Fungus
Dan Gerson: Needleman and Smitty
Steve Susskind: Jerry

Production

The idea for Monsters, Inc. started with a lunch in 1994. At this lunch was John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton and Joe Ranft. One of the ideas that came out of the brainstorming session was a movie about monsters. Docter started working on the script in 1996 and with Harley Jessup, Jill Culton and Jeff Pidgeon completed a draft treatment in February, 1997. The initial story did not have the character of Mike Wazowski. He wasn't added until a story review meeting between Pixar and Disney in April of 1998. The movie went into production in 2000.^[1]

The release of Monsters, Inc. was almost delayed by a lawsuit brought by Lori Madrid against Pixar, Disney and Chronicle Books. The suit alleged the defendants had stolen her story There's a Boy in My Closet, which she had mailed out in October 1999 to a number of publishers, including Chronicle Books. The plaintiffs had requested a temporary injunction against the release of the film. Judge Clarence Brimmer, Jr. had a hearing on the injunction on November 1, 2001, the day before the movie was to be released. He judged against the injunction, and the entire suit was thrown out on June, 26, 2002.^[1]

Reception

The film was given a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes.Com, saying it's not as sophisticated as the Toy Story series but a fun film for children of all ages.

Awards

Monsters, Inc. won the Academy Award for Best Song (Randy Newman for "If I Didn't Have You"). The film was nominated for Best Animated Feature, Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing and Best Music, Original Score.
Monsters, Inc. and Shrek are the first pair of CG animated movies to win Academy Awards in the same year (Monsters, Inc. for Best Song of 2001, and Shrek for Best Animated Feature of 2001).

Attached short films

For the Birds

The theatrical and video/DVD release of the film included For the Birds, a Pixar short made in 2000, a year before this film was released.

Mike's New Car

The video/DVD release also includes Mike's New Car, a short starring Mike and Sulley.

Prequel

Pixar confirmed a prequel to the film, set for release on June 21, 2013.

Spin-offs

A manga version of Monsters, Inc. was produced by Hiromi Yamafuji and distributed in Kodansha's Comic Bon Bon magazine in Japan; the manga is published in English by TOKYOPOP.
Feld Entertainment currently tours a Monsters, Inc. edition of their Disney on Ice skating tour.
A series of video games, and a multi-platform video game were created, based on the movie.
A short was made by Pixar in 2002, Mike's New Car.
In Cars, one of the films that Mack watches at the end is called "Monster Trucks Inc."
A four issue sequel comic book miniseries, Monsters Inc: Laugh Factory, published by Boom! Studios

Theme park attractions

Monsters, Inc. has inspired three attractions at Walt Disney theme parks.

In 2006, "Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!" opened at Disney's California Adventure at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. The dark ride was developed to boost the theme park's lagging attendance, and was quite successful in doing so, at least for a period of time.
In 2007, "Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor" opened at the Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The show is improvisational in nature, and features the opportunity for guests to interact with the monster comedians, and even submit jokes of their own via text message. ^[2]
In 2009, "Monsters, Inc: Ride And Go Seek" opened at Tokyo Disneyland at the Tokyo Disney Resort in Chiba, Japan. Following the format of the California dark ride, "Ride and Go Seek" is an extended version with enhanced effects.

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Trailers

One Pixar tradition is to create trailers for their films that do not contain footage from the released film. Trailers for this film include:

Sulley and Mike stumble into the wrong bedroom.
In a preview shown before the first Harry Potter film, Sulley is shown playing charades with Mike, but Mike is unable to guess the phrase "Harry Potter". The clip never specifically mentions Harry Potter, but the end states that Monsters, Inc. is playing right next door. Afterwords, Mike attempts to charade but a bored Sulley quickly and correctly guesses Star Wars. A bewildered Mike asks how he does it.

Bloopers

A series of Bloopers of the making of the Movie appeared in the credits, they were as follows:thumb|300px|right|Video of Bloopers

As Sulley is backing away from Boo, he fallls over backwards with the arm chair, they both laugh.
The Monsters are entering the scare floor, Sulley trips and falls in slow motion which in turn causes the other Monsters to fall.
Boo keeps missing Sulley throwing cereal in her mouth, the final throw makes her fall over backwards. She and the crew laugh hysterically.
Sulley opens the toilet stall and Roz suddenly appears making him jump. Everyone laughs.
Smitty accidently calls Sulley "Sollivan". Needleman says he's an idiot and that he's ruined their chance of working in Hollywood.
While the CDA workers are landing through the roof, one lands hard on the glass window.
The CDA shave and wash George. When they're finished, the curtain comes down with Roz in his place who then says "Ta Da", causing everyone to burst out laughing.
Mike accidently says "Go throw up." Everyone laughs, but Mike can't see his mistake.
When Sulley is saying Good Morning to Ted, a familar roar is heard and it's Rex trying out for the role. He asks anxiously how it went, asks if he can do it again and promises to be taller.
As they run through the corridor, Sulley slips on the floor and crashes into some off-screen props. He can be heard saying "Ow" weakly. The others laugh and Mike asks for more wax on the floor.
Sulley says: Lookly in the Bag Bay" and Mike says that he meant "Oklay in the Ag Bay2 and tells him that he should take a minute to "Edray his Ipscray."
Sulley opens the door of the closet and Roz appears in the doorway. Everyone laughs.
Fungus pulls down the differant wallpaper that Randall blends into, suddenly he blends in with an artistic portrait. Fungus and everyone else laughs. Randall see the joke and says he looks good.
Needleman and Fungus are shredding the door, when the shredder goes out of control going all over the set and finally hitting the camera.
When Mike and Sulley are telling their co-workers about their musical play, Mike sings: "Get the thing away from me you guys. Put that thing back where it came from, or I'll poke myself in the Eye." while Sulley does some hilarious dancing.
Sulley introduces the play and Mike with the rest of cast acts it out. The play finally ends with Mike thanking the audience who has his mother amongst them who whistles in admiration.