Monsters Inc

Lets get the bad news out of the way first; this isn’t as good as Toy Story. But that shouldn’t put you off, after all, Toy Story (and its sequel) are truly excellent films. The good news then: This is also a quality film. As you would expect from Pixar, Monsters inc. is visually stunning. In addition the story is more than sufficient to keep everyone entertained and to allow the film’s humour to shine though.

The basic premise of the film is a good one, if rather strange. Monsters are employed to scare little children so that their screams can be caught and used to power the Monsters’ city, which is imaginatively titled ‘Monstropolis’. So all those times your parents told you to stop imagining things about Monsters, they were wrong!

Unfortunately for Mike and Sulley, the film’s two main protagonists, a little girl called Boo escapes into their world during one of their scaring missions. Suffice it to say, this is a really bad thing, as Monstropolis is at risk of contamination, and allows said fun and frolics to ensue.

The Monsters are comically highly scared of the little girl, whom I’m assured is in fact really sweet, should that interest any of the (female) audience.

The voice-overs are superb. Both John Goodman (Sulley) and Billy Crystal (Mike) fill their roles effortlessly. The characters of Mike and Sulley play off each other superbly with varying dynamics of control/panic, sensible/stupid, and so on.

While Mike and Sulley are a comedy double act to be reckoned with, it is the range of minor characters that make the film particularly engaging, of which the officious Dispatch Manager, Roz, is the most memorable.

The film also includes numerous surprises and the now inevitable, yet still mostly amusing ‘Out Takes’ at the end of the film. Fortunately, Monsters Inc provides some innovativeness to advance the idea.

So then, there is certainly enough good news for Monsters Inc to come highly recommended. It may not be right up there with the best, but it is still a worthwhile, beautifully animated and above all, humorous piece of entertainment that everyone should enjoy.