I'm a little scary monster.... RaaaaaaaaAAGH! RAAAAAGH... oh forget it! (Monsters Inc. (DVD))

Member Name: Judgee

Product:	Monsters Inc. (DVD)
Date:	05/03/02 (110 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great choice of actors, Great for kids, Pretty good for adults

Disadvantages: Might have to watch it with your own little scary monsters!

Well what can I say, my girlfriend loves children's films and this was another that she dragged me to. To be honest, this was actually quite good. I pleaded with her to go to the later showing in the evening, but no we went on a Sunday afternoon and as soon as we sat down we were surrounded by children. Don't get me wrong, I like children, they can be very entertaining in their own way, but have you ever tried to watch a film with them? Babies were throwing up in front of me as toddlers clambered over seats and screamed at the top of their lungs "we want woody!" wrong film I know but trying to tell them that would have been a mistake I am sure. So surrounded by mayhem and a scene resembling a chimps tea party, I did my best at focusing on the film, Here's what I thought. Oh and please don't think I am having a go at children or their parents, I was in the right place at the wrong time, not them!


Cast (voices)/Characters

John Goodman - Sullivan
Billy Crystal - Mike
Steve Buscemi - Randall
James Coburn - Waternoose
Mary Gibbs - Boo
Jennifer Tilly - Celia
Bob Peterson - Roz
John Ratzenberger - Yeti


Monsters need power just like humans and Monsters incorporated provides this power. Unlike our own utilities, the monsters tap in on childrens screams in order to power their homes. Obtaining screams from children is a tough business, which requires a lot of team work and some specialist workers. Sully and Mike are two of these specialists. Sully is a big blue monster, entering childrens bedrooms through special doors, he is an expert at frightening kids and top of the league tables when it comes to results. Just as every Batman needs a Robin, every scary monster needs an engineer to open the doors and tap off the power from the children's screams. Mike is Sully's Robin and together they make a great team.

Scaring children is a dangerous business though and the Monste
rs believe that children carry lots of diseases. The golden rule when scaring is "always shut the door behind you!" One night Sully goes in to the factory to collect some paperwork for Mike. There he spots a doorway and curiosity gets the better of him. Opening the door, Sully unwittingly allows "Boo" a little girl, into the Monsters realm and shortly afterwards all hell breaks loose.

Sully needs to get Boo back into her own bedroom, but as always things just don't go to plan. Enlisting the help of Mike they desperately try to get Boo home, but there evil forces at work. In particular, Sully's main rival at the factory Randall, has his own sinister plans and these differ greatly from our two hero's objectives. I will say no more to enable people to view the film for themselves.


Well being an animated film I guess I should really start by giving my views on that. I thought it was really good. Sully is covered in blue fur and yes it looked like well, blue fur. These sort of films (Toy Story,etc) are perfect for the kind of animation/ generated graphics that are currently available today. Unfortunately some people are trying too hard to make generated characters look "lifelike?" and it really isn't possible (yet!) Monsters inc. knew what it wanted to be, a cartoon type film and it achieve this. The cut scenes and action are smooth, the shading and shadows perfect. I cannot fault it, lots of nice bright colours to keep the children happy too!


The voice over cast has some big names and they are all superb. Funny enough, the characters look like the actors. At least if you could imagine Goodman for instance as a monster, he would look like Sully, a big blue bear like creature. The same goes for all of the cast. It could just be my own imagination but this is how I perceived it and this definitely made the film more entertaining for me! Another aspect that worked well was the fact that all
the actors seemed to be playing characters similar to how you would imagine them in real life. Again going back to Goodman, tough on the outside, soft in the middle. Billy Crystal, confident on the outside yet sensitive deep down. For me the casting staff has excelled themselves when choosing the actors and I would not have changed any of their choices in this area. I must mention Steve Buscemi, excellent as always (this guy seems to be in everything at the moment) and a slick performance from the silky voiced James Coburn (voice like melted chocolate flowing from a volcano, wish he'd do more voiceovers!)


As for the humour, well I guess this is one area that will divide the audience. As you would expect, lots of slapstick visual to entertain the younger viewer. But what about the adults? Well it made me chuckle quite a lot, but no barrel laughs I'm afraid. I found a lot of the humour for me came mainly from the child character Boo. Probably because she reminded me of my nieces/nephews giggling and gurgling whilst causing damage and chaos in thier wake. So overall, if you are a lover of slap stick, then you will find it hilarious, everybody else perhaps just a lot of "cutsie" humour!


Overall I have to admit I did quite like it. This is a very well made, well thought out film. The children in the cinema around me stopped fidgeting, puking and whinging after half an hour or so. Whether this was because they were scared, entertained or just asleep I am not quite sure. The beginning of the film did seem a bit scary for the real little 'uns to me. Great animation, excellent choice of cast and well worth a look in my opinion. Not a classic and I doubt it will gain the mass following of Toy Story, but a good all round childrens film!


Oh and don't rush out as soon as the credits roll either. As seems to be the trend with these films, there are some deliberate "out takes" whilst the credits are rol
ling, which are quite fun to watch!

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