Monsters, Inc.

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Monsters, Inc.
Monsters, Inc. movie poster
Directed by	Peter Docter Lee Unkrich (co-director) David Silverman (co-director)
Produced by	Darla Anderson John Lasseter
Written by	Jill Culton Peter Docter Ralph Eggleston Jeff Pidgeon
Starring	John Goodman Billy Crystal Jennifer Tilly
Distributed by	Buena Vista Distribution
Release date(s)	November 2, 2001
Running time	92 min
Language	English
Budget	$115,000,000 (estimated)
Gross revenue	Domestic: $255,873,250 Worldwide: $525,366,597
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Monsters, Inc. is the fourth animated feature produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released to theaters by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution in the United States on November 2, 2001, and in the United Kingdom on February 8, 2002.

Bearing many similarities to the 1989 film Little Monsters, the story for Monsters, Inc. was written by Robert L. Baird, Jill Culton, Peter Docter, Ralph Eggleston, Dan Gerson, Jeff Pidgeon, Rhett Reese, Jonathan Roberts and Andrew Stanton. It was directed by Peter Docter, Lee Unkrich and David Silverman.

Monsters, Inc. premiered in the United States on October 28, 2001, and went into general release on November 2, 2001 with the best opening ticket sales ever for an animated film and the sixth best of all time.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Voice cast 3 Crew 4 Awards 5 References to other Pixar films 6 Trivia 7 Mistakes/Blips 8 Spin-offs 8.1 Theme park attractions 9 Attached short films 9.1 For the Birds 9.2 Mike's new car 10 Trailers 11 See also 12 References 13 External links

[edit] Plot

The story is set in Monstropolis, a city inhabited by "monsters" who are the ones who come out of the closet to scare 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 called Henry J. Waternoose (voiced by the late James Coburn). The top scarer at Monsters, Inc. is James P. Sullivan, aka "Sulley" (voiced by John Goodman), a blue-furred bear/gorillalike giant who is partnered with the green, one-eyed Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal). The two of them are best friends. Sulley is a gentle and easy-going creature, while Mike is obsessive and dreams of getting a raise and marrying his fiancee, the medusa-like Celia Mae (Jennifer Tilly.) Sulley's main rival as a scarer is the chameleon-like Randall Boggs (Steve Buscemi) who possesses the ability to change the color of his skin to match his surroundings.

As the two train and head off to work, it is learned the city is suffering a scream shortage, because children have become desensitised by an over-exposure to television. At the facility, it is learned the monsters can somehow connect to any child's door, thus being able to sneak in to locations around the world.

In order to help Mike out with his girlfriend, Sulley takes on one of his chores. He finds a lone door on the workfloor, a violation of policy. An investigation leads to a small girl coming through. Sulley is frightened as it is believed all children are toxic to monsters (thus the "skill" involved in being a good "scarer" is in avoiding being touched). After several misadventures, he attempts to take the girl to Mike, who is enjoying a romantic dinner with his girlfriend at a sushi restaurant. The girl escapes and the two grab her and barely make it home.

The girl stays overnight and is soon named Boo. 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. 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. It is learned 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 Randalls scheme. Because of the decline in productivity, he fears for the company's future, and sees Randalls machine as the only way of ensuring Monsters Inc's survival. The boss betrays them, banishing the two to the Himalayas.

The two stay with the Abominable Snowman until Sulley learns of a village down below. He sneaks back to his 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 up 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. The monsters now enter the doors to entertain the kids as comedians, resulting in ample energy for the monster world. In secret, Mike also reassembles Boo's door. Sulley takes one more peek inside and Boo is heard but not seen.

[edit] Voice cast

Character	Image	Voice actor
James P. "Sulley" Sullivan		John Goodman
Mike Wazowski		Billy Crystal
"Boo"		Mary Gibbs
Randall Boggs		Steve Buscemi
Henry J. Waternoose III		James Coburn
Celia Mae		Jennifer Tilly
Roz		Bob Peterson
The Abominable Snowman		John Ratzenberger
Jeff Fungus		Frank Oz
Needleman and Smitty		Dan Gerson
Jerry		Steve Susskind
Mrs. Flint		Bonnie Hunt

[edit] Crew

Crew Position
Directed by	Pete Docter
Co-Directed by	David Silverman Lee Unkrich
Produced by	Darla K. Anderson
Original Story by	Pete Docter Jill Culton Jeff Pidgeon Ralph Eggleston
Screenplay by	Andrew Stanton Daniel Gerson
Executive Producer	John Lasseter Andrew Stanton
Associate Producer	Kori Rae
Music by	Randy Newman
Story Supervisor	Bob Peterson
Supervising Technical Director	Thomas Porter
Film Editor	Jim Stewart
Production Designer	Harley Jessup Bob Pauley
Art Director	Tia W. Kratter Dominique Louis
Supervising Animator	Glenn McQueen Rich Quade
Character Designer	Ricky Vega Nierva Bud Luckey
Sound Designer	Gary Rydstrom Tom Myers
Modeling Supervisor Layout Supervisor Shading Supervisor Lighting Supervisor Set Dressing Supervisor Simulation and Effects Supervisors	Eben Ostby Ewan Johnson Rick Sayre Jean-Claude Kalache Sophie Vincelette Galyn Susman Michael Fong
Production Manager	Katherine Sarafian

[edit] Awards

• Monsters, Inc. won the Academy Award for Best Song (Randy Newman for If I Didn't Have You). It was nominated for Best Animated Feature, Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing and Best Music, Original Score.
• This movie, along with Shrek, is the first pair of CG animated movies to win an academy award of a different nomination of the same year (Monsters, Inc. for Best Song of 2001, and Shrek for Best Animated feature of 2001).

[edit] References to other Pixar films

• All of the digital displays in Monstropolis (Sulley's clock radio, scare station consoles, "Days Without An Accident" sign) are nixie tubes, a neon digital display technology from the 1960s. The five- and six-digit numbers displayed with nixie tubes near the doors are all Pixar employees' or relatives' birthdays.
• One of the backgrounds that Fungus pulls down for randall in the first scaring scene is the wallpaper for Andy's room in Toy Story .
• At the very beginning of the film, there is a shot of a shelf in the mechanical child's bedroom. On the far left is the toy aircraft that Buzz Lightyear rides on to prove to Woody that he can fly in a scene from Toy Story, this aircraft also appears in Finding Nemo.
• In Harryhausen's, the wallpaper behind the octopus chef is a Finding Nemo wallpaper, making a debut appearance before the film is released.
• When Randall is jettisoned from Monstropolis, you can briefly see Nemo from Finding Nemo mounted on the wall as a fishing trophy.
• Randall is banished to the same motor home used in A Bug's Life, and again includes the Pizza Planet truck from Toy Story.
• Near the film's ending, Boo excitedly shows Sulley her toys in her room, including Jessie from Toy Story 2, Nemo from Finding Nemo and the ball from Luxo Jr..
• Vehicular versions of Mike, Sulley and the Abominable Snowman make cameo appearances during the Cars closing credits, in a drive-in movie. Mike is an Isetta, Sulley is a monster truck and Abominable is a snowplow. Boo is not shown, but is mentioned to be the "Boomobile".
• The names on the scream-totals board (with the exceptions of those of Sulley, Randall, and Ricky Plesuski) are all Pixar employees' names.
• Lightning McQueen from Cars can be seen in Boo's room in two frames.
• Rex the plastic dinosaur from Toy Story and Toy Story 2 has a cameo appearance in the outtakes.

[edit] Trivia

• Early in pre-production, Monsters, Inc. went by the code name Hidden City. The Hidden City Cafe was a restaurant across the street from Pixar's original Point Richmond studio, and a popular hangout for Pixar staff.
• At the end of the credits, you can spot the sentence "No monsters were harmed in the making of this motion picture"
• Mary Gibbs, the three-year-old daughter of writer Rob Gibbs, provided Boo's voice. They were unable to get her to sit still in the recording studio, so instead they followed her around with a boom-mic, and things she said while playing were cut into the movie.
• The restaurant Mike visits is named after stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen and its logo and name are a play on the Fish and Chip franchise Harry Ramsdens.
• The scene where Sulley fears Boo has been thrown in a garbage compressor is inspired by the 1952 Chuck Jones cartoon Feed the Kitty.
• The garbage compressor (trash compactor) is labeled "XP-13". This is probably a reference to the low budget "chop-job" 1970 sci-fi horror film Horror of the Blood Monsters, which carried the tag line: "You'll REALLY!! scream yourself into a state of shock!". In Horror of the Blood Monsters the space ship is named the "XP-13".
• Props seen earlier in the film make up the "scream extractor".
• The Abominable Snowman is based on the character "The Bumble" from the stop-motion Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Christmas Special.
• When Mike enters the room of a child near the movie's ending, you can see early posters of Disneyland attractions and lands.
• In the scene where Boo is sitting on Sulley's bed refusing to sleep, she shows Sulley a picture of Randall. Very briefly, as she moves one of her other pictures to show Sulley the one of Randall, you can see that on one picture she has signed, "Mary," implying that Boo's real name is Mary. The reason that the picture is signed "Mary" is because it was in fact a picture that Mary Gibbs, the voice of Boo, had drawn and was put into the film.
• Some speculate that this movie was inspired from the 1994 nickelodeon animated TV series Aaahh!!! Real Monsters.
• When Sulley asked about what kids live in the village when Sulley and Mike are banished, the Abominable Snowman says "Tough kids, sissy kids, kids who climb on rocks", which is a line from the 1980s commercial for Armour Hotdogs.
• Steve Buscemi also starred in Monster House, another CGI Monster parody.
• There are a couple of easter eggs in the DVD of Monsters Inc. All of them are found in the Bonus Content DVD. One of them is found in the "Monsters Only" door. As soon as the door opens, you will see the character Celia talking on the phone. Press left on your remote and it will reveal a hidden easter egg in the eye of the Monsters Inc. Logo. It contains video clips that the actors just made without reason. Two easter eggs are found in the "Humans Only" room. Select the door labeled "Pixar", put your cursor on the Monsters, Inc. logo and press left on the remote, you will be treated to the first annual paper airplane flight contest held at Pixar Animation Studios. Another easter egg is in the production tour (Just keep pressing left at the menu with all the doors) and wait until it finishes (Or you can fast forward)and then the screen shows a number of doors that have hidden content in them, like a soundtrack for the short concept movie that you can find in the bonus features.
• This was the last film to include outtakes during the credits. As of Finding Nemo, no outtakes are being seen.

[edit] Mistakes/Blips

• Towards the end of the film, when Mike and Sulley meet the CDA "number 00001", several different CDA monsters have the same number, 00112 - the same texture had been used on several models to reduce modeling time.
• In the very first scene, in the kid's room simulator, one angle shows a floor mat with a ball and a toy train set on it. However, when the first monster falls down on the mat, the train is no longer there and in its place are the jacks he falls on. The soccer ball appears to move, too.
• In the international version of the video/DVD several instances of written English text have been replaced with universal symbols (see Alternate Versions). However on several occasions they switch back to the original appearance. For instance: The "Standby/Scare" sign in the factory, the "Contamination alert" on the video wall during the first 2319 and the joke on the video wall in the final scene.
• Sulley makes Boo giggle a few times when they play hide and seek in the restroom, but the power never spikes and no lights blow out. (According to the commentary on the DVD, the creators realized this but chose not to address it.)
• When Sulley is playing hide and seek with Boo in the men's bathroom, Sulley walks into the stall where he thinks that she is. When Sulley turns around to see her outside of the stall, we see Boo and Boo's reflection in the mirror, but not Sulley's reflection. All that the camera sees is an empty stall and toilet... minus Sulley.
• In the opening scene when the monster comes through the door, he closes the door most of the way, but when the instructor does a review of what the student did wrong, the door is left mostly open.
• The scoreboard on the video wall sometimes shows decreased values for some monsters, for instance when Waternoose talks to Jerry and just before the first 2319.
• When in the ice cave, Mike picks up the last snow cone. As he first picks it up the snow is yellow, then it goes white and then back to yellow.
• When Mike walks away after congratulating Celia (in the beginning of the film) he passes a marking in the floor. In the next shot, viewed from above, he is much nearer her than in the shot before, which can be seen by the floor markings.
• When the C.D.A are scanning Monsters, Inc., a co-scarer opens the door they don't seem to be there but are there when Mike and Sulley open the door.
• When Mike is talking to Roz about his paper work, Mike's lip crosses through the counter at one point.
• When we see Mike wake up Sulley in the beginning, we see Sulley's alarm clock on his right-hand night stand, but later when Boo jumps into Sulley's bed the alarm clock is not there.
• When Sulley goes to put Boo back in her room, the clock above the door of the scare floor clearly indicates 5:50; when he runs out of the room it indicates 6:50.
• Mostly towards the end, we learn that laughing creates much more energy than screaming does. Near the end of the movie, while Sulley, Mike, and Boo are riding the doors, Boo screams, and starts to power up the door that they are riding. When Sulley and Mike make Boo laugh very short after, it powers up every door in the large room they are in, or at least what we see of them, implying that laughter is hundreds, if not thousands of times more powerful than screaming. Yet right before the ending, after Mike gloats about how funny he is, Sulley says that laughing is only 10 times more powerful than screaming.

[edit] Spin-offs

• A manga version of Monsters, Inc. was made 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 2001 named Mike's New Car.
• In Cars, there is a part at the end when Mack is watching a few movies. One is called "Monster Trucks Inc."

[edit] Theme park attractions

Monsters, Inc. has inspired three attractions at Disney theme parks across the globe.

• 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 will open at the Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The exact logistics of the attraction are currently unknown, but it is expected that it is an interactive show based on a comedy club.^[1]
• In 2009, Monsters, Inc: Ride And Go Seek will open at Tokyo Disneyland at the Tokyo Disney Resort in Chiba, Japan. Following the format of the Californian dark ride, Ride and Go Seek will simply be an extended version with enhanced effects.

[edit] Attached short films

[edit] For the Birds

Main article: 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.

[edit] Mike's new car

Main article: Mike's New Car

The Video/DVD release also includes an additional short called Mike's New Car, starring the characters from the film.

[edit] 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.

[edit] See also

• List of animated feature-length films
• List of computer-animated films

[edit] References

1. ^ The Walt Disney Company - Press Release - 7 June 2006

[edit] External links

• Information at Pixar's site
• Monsters, Inc. at the Internet Movie Database
• Monsters, Inc. at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Monsters, Inc. at Rotten Tomatoes
• Monsters, Inc. at Metacritic
• Monsters, Inc. at Box Office Mojo