The film's poster
Monsters, Inc. is a 2001 computer-animated film produced by Pixar Animation Studios. It was directed by Pete Docter, co-directed by Lee Unkrich and David Silverman, and was written by Jack W. Bunting, Jill Culton, Pete Docter, Ralph Eggleston, Dan Gerson, Jeff Pidgeon, Rhett Reese, Jonathan Roberts, and Andrew Stanton. The film was released to theaters by Walt Disney Pictures in the United States on November 2, 2001, in Australia on December 26, 2001, and in the United Kingdom on February 8, 2002.
The movie was a box office success. Having been made on an estimated budget of $116,000,000, it went on to earn more than $255,000,000 in the United States and more than $560,000,000 worldwide.
Monsters, Inc. was rated G by the Motion Picture Association of America.
A prequel to the film, Monsters University, was released on June 21, 2013.
Plot[]
The film begins with a young, scared child lying in bed. Suddenly, a monster rises from under the bed. The boy looks at it and screams. As the boy screams, the monster also screams. Suddenly, an alarm goes off and a wall rises up. It is then revealed that this is not a real boy but a robot and what is going on is a scaring practice in a training room. The instructor yells at the monster for failing and tells him his biggest mistake was forgetting to close the closet door. Suddenly, the chairman monster of the company, Henry J. Waternoose enters the room. He is training the monsters to scare children because children's screams generate energy to power the city of Monstropolis. Mr. Waternoose tells the monsters that this generation of children is harder to scare than others, therefore they need good scarers, like their top scarer James P. Sullivan. He also tells them not to let the children touch them because children are toxic.
The scene shifts to two monsters, named James P. "Sulley" Sullivan, and Mike Wazowski. Mike wakes Sulley up, trains him for their job at Monsters, Inc. and tells him that he is very close to breaking the all-time scare record. The two friends walk to work and pass many different types of monsters on the way.
The two arrive at Monsters Inc. and soon encounter their enemy Randall Boggs. He is also close to breaking the scare record and is willing to do whatever he can to break it. The monsters then go to the scare floor, where closet doors arrive by a hanging conveyor belt and are placed in front of the monsters. They enter the doors which lead to children's closets. They scare the children to generate energy for Monstropolis. Sulley and Randall have a good day of scaring.
At the end of the day, Mike is ready to go on a date with his girlfriend Celia. However, the scare floor manager, named Roz, reminds Mike that he needs to file his paperwork. Mike sends Sulley to the scare floor to get his paperwork. When Sulley gets to the scare floor, he discovers that Randall is there too and is cheating by scaring children after hours. He leaves a child's door unattended. Sulley peaks inside the door and then notices that next to him is a young girl. Sulley freaks out, and runs away but the little girl follows him (thinking he is funny). Randall sends back the door, leaving the child in the monster world. Sulley finds Mike on his date to show her the girl. However, the girl runs away, and causes chaos to break out in the restaurant. At the end of the night, Sulley and Mike are stuck with the girl and the entire monster world knows there is a human child on the loose. Mike tries to think of a way to get rid of the girl but Sulley realizes that the best thing they can do is return the child to her closet door, making it as if the whole thing never happened. Mike agrees. They dress the child up as a monster, so she will not cause any more chaos.
The next day, as the day goes on, Sulley begins to become attached to the girl, who he eventually names "Boo" (due to the fact that she scares the monsters). Randall has a plan to kidnap her. However, he accidentally kidnaps Mike, and brings him to a torture machine he has built, called "the scream extractor". The machine takes screams directly from children, generating much more energy, but may kill the child in the process. Randall asks Mike where the child is. When Mike refuses to tell him, Randall decides to use the scream extractor on him. However, before it can do any damage, Sulley comes in with Boo, and saves Mike. He decides to go to Mr. Waternoose and tell him what Randall is doing. Waternoose discovers that the little monster that Sulley and Mike have been walking around with for the day is really the child. He believes Sulley about what Randall is doing, agrees to get Boo's door and bring her home. He holds Boo and brings a door in. Sulley tells Waternoose that this is not the girl's door and Waternoose responds by saying "I know. It's yours". It is then revealed that Watermoose is allied with Randall. He pushes Sulley and Mike into the door, which leads to the Himalayas.
While Sulley and Mike are stuck in the Himalayns, Mike is angry at Sulley for caring more about the child than he did for him. The two get into a physical fight, which is stopped when they meet the Abominable Snowman who invites them into his place. He tells Mike and Sulley about a village nearby, and Sulley goes down to this village to find a way back into Monsters, Inc. through a closet door. Mike remains there, too upset at Sulley to go.
Sulley gets into Monsters, Inc. and finds Boo attached to the scream extractor, with Randall and Waternoose watching. Sulley saves Boo, Randall begins attacking Sulley, Mike suddenly comes and saves Sulley, just before Randall succeeds in suffocating him.
Sulley, Mike, and Boo all go to the scream floor to get to Boo's door, while Randall is chasing them. Sulley realizes that he does not have enough time to wait for Boo's door to arrive and the three ride on the doors, as Randall chases them. They end up in a vault where millions of doors are stored. Mike gets Boo to laugh, which turns the power on, and the two enter through doors to escape from Randall. Randall eventually catches up to Sulley and Boo. He nearly pushes Sulley out the door, when Boo gets over her fear of Randall and attacks him. Sulley and Mike trap Randall in the human world using a door to a Southern trailer park, where he is mistaken for an alligator and beaten up by a pair of hillbillies.
Sulley and Mike finally find Boo's door but, before they can get Boo back inside it, Waternoose sends it back to the scare floor. Mike distracts the CDA (the Child Detection Agency) and Waternoose chases Sulley and Boo. He then finds them in what he thinks is Boo's room, and yells at Sulley to give him the child. Sulley gets Waternoose to admit his plan to kidnap the children and use the scare extractor. It is revealed that they are not in Boo's room but are in the simulation bedroom. The CDA hear Waternoose's plan, and arrest him.
Sulley and Mike bring Boo back to her room. Sulley has a tough time saying goodbye to her and he gives her a hug. Due to the CDA's request, the door is then shredded, so she can never get into the monster world again.
Sulley becomes the new president of Monsters, Inc. and, due to experience with Boo, he realizes that laughter is the best way to get energy from children, as laughter gives off ten times more energy than a scream. With this, the company's crisis is over.
The film ends with Mike showing Sulley that he has rebuilt Boo's door, Sulley enters and finds Boo there, who is happy to see him.
Voice cast[]
- John Goodman - James P. "Sulley" Sullivan
- Billy Crystal - Mike Wazowski
- Mary Gibbs - Boo
- Steve Buscemi - Randall Boggs
- James Coburn - Henry J. Waternoose, III
- Jennifer Tilly - Celia Mae
- Bob Peterson - Roz
- John Ratzenberger - Yeti
- Frank Oz - Fungus
- Bonnie Hunt - Ms. Flint
- Jeff Pidgeon - Thaddeus Bile
- Dan Gerson - Needleman and Smitty
- Sam Black - George Sanderson
External links[]
- Monsters, Inc. on the Internet Movie Database.
- Monsters, Inc. on Rotten Tomatoes.
- Monsters, Inc. on AllMovie.
- Monsters, Inc. on the Big Cartoon Database.