Monsters, Inc.

 

The city of Monstropolis  is slightly different from your average city. First of all it is powered by the screams of children and, oh yeah its entirely populated by monsters. Two best friends, Sulley (John Goodman) and Mike (Billy Crystal) work at the power plant, called Monsters Inc.  Using doors they sneak into the closets of children and scare them at night to collect their screams. Unfortunately, children are becoming harder to scare, so there is a power shortage. Also, children are toxic to monsters and if one were to get into the city there would be wide spread panic. Even with all that Sulley is still managing to get close to the all time scare record, much to the displeasure of his rival Randall (Steve Buscemi).

Sulley discovers, accidentally, that Randall has a door at his work station after work hours.  Poking his head in, Sulley accidentally lets a little girl out. Unable to get her back through her door, because Randall showed up, Sulley brings her back to his and Mike's apartment.  There we see that when she screams she causes the power to go wacky, but if she laughs it's like an EMP or something.

Anyway, they bring her to work the next day, intending to put her back in the human world. Only Mike can't get her door and Boo (Mary Gibbs) gets away from Sulley and leads him on a merry chase through the plant. Randall figures out that Mike has the kid and tells him that her door will be at his station at lunch. He has half an hour to get her there.

Mike finds Sulley and Boo and brings them to the door, only Sulley doesn't trust Randall. Insisting everything is find, Mike goes through the door and gets himself kidnapped by Randall. Following him, Sulley and Boo discover a hidden laboratory in the plant, where Randall is fine tuning  the 'Scream Extractor' to solve the power problems. After rescuing Mike, Sulley goes to the head of the company, Mr. Waternoose (James Coburn). Unfortunately  for them, he is the one behind the project and banishes them to the Nepal.

Mike is pissed that Sulley has stopped listening to him, he doesn't even have the decency to listen to Mike as Mike is yelling at him, instead Sulley jumps on a makeshift sled and heads to the closest village, hoping to find a door. He does and is just in time to save Boo. Mike follows and together the bring down Waternoose and Randall and send Boo back home. The only problem is that now there's no one to run the company. So Sulley steps in, but instead of scaring kids, the monsters now make them laugh, because laughter is much more powerful. And Sulley even gets to visit Boo whenever he wants. YAY!

I really loved this movie.  It was funny and entertaining and cute and lovable all in one.  But most importantly, it was original.  I haven't seen a movie like this before.  No one has done a film from the thing that goes bump in the night's point of view before. Well, there was that one TV show I used to watch, but this was way more entertaining.  The only problem I had with it was that Fungus (Frank Oz) was an idiot. Randall has to learn to pick his henchmen better. Though I do love the instructions he left Fungus: Don't talk to the victims of his evil plots.  I don't know why but I crack up every time I hear that. I find it hilarious that Randall actually had to underline that for Fungus. That is a sign of a lousy henchmen.  

Besides that, great movie. The best part though... For the Birds. Funniest thing EVER!

Grade: 8.5/10