MONSTERS UNDER MY BED (Monsters Inc. (DVD))

Member Name: marandina

Product:	Monsters Inc. (DVD)
Date:	23/02/02 (444 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Brilliant childrens movie suitable for all

Disadvantages: None

Can you believe it? There I am standing in the queue for my seat tickets at my local UGC and there are a couple of strange looking fellas in front of me. One of 'ems a large, furry guy with broad shoulders and blue fur. The other is a small, green round chap with one large eye. They're both carrying plastic tubes in their hands.

So I buy my tickets and shuffle through the theatre doors to take my seat. The kids are tugging at my shirt wanting to know who the strange duo are. "I dunno." I tell 'em. All around me are excited children rustling sweet wrappers and giggling in anticipation.

I take my seat and, guess what? I'm sitting right next to the strange looking fellas! I glance down and notice that every time the kiddies laugh their plastic tubes light up. Just a little for now but they do light up nevertheless.

A hush comes over the cinema as the lights go down and the movie comes on. Hey, this isn't Monsters Inc. It?s a short animation called "The Birds". This gets things off to a great start. It's an inspired piece of choreographed comedy involving a row of baby birds and their mother. The audience is in stitches at their antics and I'm wondering if this is a sign of things to come. The strange chappies next to me laugh too as their plastic tubes flicker into life at intermittent intervals.

Aha, at last! The main feature: Monsters Inc. cert U (running time 88 mins). For the last 10 people in the country that don't know the story yet it's as follows: (all 10 of you are in a pool hall in Swansea I hear).

The cast:

Directed by Pete Docter, Lee Unkrich, and David Silverman
With the voices of John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Mary Gibbs, Steve Buscemi, James Coburn, Jennifer Tilly

The main characters are Sully (Goodman) and Mike (Crystal). They are employed at Monsters Inc, which provides the power for Monstropolis (a sort of New York for monsters). T
he source of power for the city is derived from monsters that operate on a production line at Monsters. Inc. Their job is to enter children's bedrooms through their closets and scare the inhabitants. By scaring them they are able to capture the screams in their plastic tubes and turn it into power for the city (a kind of electricity derived from shrieks). A charming but simple premise so far. However, like all good plots there is a villain. In our case it's Randall (Steve Buscemi) who is a purple monster with the power to turn invisible. This creature has his own dastardly plan, which I won't reveal to you for fear of spoiling the story.

As you'd expect from a Pixar production, the computer-animated effects are better than ever. Just take a look at Sully's fur to see what I mean. Lifelike isn't the word as computer generated effects are moved on to another level. You'd also expect a fair amount of comedy with both sight gags and witty one-liners prevalent. Well, that's just what you get in the tradition of Toy Story and A Bug's Life.

The central plot revolves around the fallacy that coming into contact with children is toxic. The golden rule of scaring is to avoid being touched by the kids or coming into contact with any of their things. To do so results in the scaring floor being closed down and the CDA (Child Detection Agency) swinging into action. The CDA is portrayed as a cross between the FBI and the SAS as they crash through windows to extinguish any dangerous incidents. Those unfortunate enough to have been contaminated are quickly scrubbed and sterilised and have all their fur trimmed off to boot.

The catalyst for the story comes from the accidental (or is it?) release of a child into Monstropolis. This sets in sequence a comedic chain of events that forms the basis for the rest of the film. The duos reaction to the prospect of being touched by the little tike is hilarious and engaging. Billy Cry
stal gets the main supply of one-liners, which he executes in his own inimitable manner. The little girl is called Boo (Mary Gibbs) who only gets to speak in protospeak throughout (babiesh gurgles and other noises).

The owner of Monsters.Inc is Mr Waternoose (Coburn) who is a rather grandiose benefactor representing the fatherly ethos of the company. This persona is to be challenged later in the story. Mr Waternoose oversees the scare training, which takes place in a simulation studio fully equipped with robot child in bed ready for scaring.

The foil for Crystal?s banter in the film is provided by Roz the rather intimidating, be-spectacled slug who deals with the paperwork. Roz is a stern faced official who collates the workers' paperwork. Her almost DSSesqe exchanges with Mike provide several belly laughs.

In essence that's the storyline. Little Boo chases the main characters around whilst being persued herself by Randall for his own sinister purposes. Humming in the background is the possibility of those wrong doing monsters being banished to the land of humans, which is what happened to the Yeti and Loch Ness monster to name but 2.

The film builds to a suitable crescendo and it's not that difficult to predict the ending but then this is Disney after all.

There were loads of great scenes that the strange looking chappies next to me approved of:

 There are the witty, rapier like conversations between Mike and Roz. Notably, the occasion where Roz slams her screen shut on his fingers after Mike has, once again, failed to produce his papers.

 There was the scaring practice session at Sully and Mike's flat with Mike egging Sully on in a series of Green Goddess type exercises of the scaring variety (The strange looking fellas enjoyed this one in particular).

 The scenes on the scaring floor are beautifully engineered and the introduction of the CDA is a stroke
of genius.

 We loved the sock scene where a sock gets attached to one of the scarers back after his latest job. All sorts of sirens go off and within seconds the CDA in their chemical protection outfits surround him. A screen is put around him and moments later he's stripped, cleaned and sheared. (This got a bit of a nervous reaction from the strange looking fellas who shifted about a bit in their seats).

 There is a door-swapping scene later in the movie similar to the airport conveyor belt scene from Toy Story 2 that is brilliantly executed.

There were so many others that my friends laughed out loud to along with the rest of the audience.

As you'd expect, no Pixar production is complete without outtakes and you're not disappointed here. You even get a musical production thrown in at the end of the outtakes.

The 88 minutes fly by and it's soon time to go. What's this? It?s a door making its way across the theatre above our heads. The strange looking fellas are opening the door and next thing they've gone through it. I could have sworn we heard laughing on the other side.

Note:
There is a wonderful web page devoted to Monsters. Inc at Disney.com. It's fully interactive with a midi file playing in the background of the music to the film. It's based around a door, which opens depending on the choice selected. You can get info on the making of the film, cast etc and even download trailers of the movie. Disney.com is one of my favourite sites anyway and this is a wonderful homage to the film. Go take a look!!

Thanks for reading and please go and see this film.

Marandina

Summary: