5/5
The best animated film of the year!
by John DiBello (Brooklyn, NY)
I was lucky enough to see an advance screening of this movie the past weekend and *highly* recommend it to everyone: kids, adults, monsters--you all have to go see this one! The newest movie from CGI geniuses Pixar, the studio that brought you the "Toy Story" movies and "A Bug's Life", is a sheer delight from beginning to end. The characters are cleverly designed and fun to watch, the animation is brisk and colorful, the dialogue funny and sparkling, the voice casting perfect, and most important of all, the story compelling and intriguing. This is a cartoon that insults no one's intelligence--it's perfect for the kids as well as adults, without condescending or sinking into juvenile humor (well, there are a few toilet jokes, but they're so lightly done as to be inoffensive to anyone).
This "E.T. in reverse" story has wonderful plot ideas--monsters in the closet scare human kids to create "scream energy" to power their city, Monsteropolis--but monsters are as afraid of kids as kids they are of monsters. When a charming and cuddly little tot nicknamed "Boo" escapes into the monster world, it's up to scaremonster Sulley and his nervous cohort Mike to save the kid, put her back where she belongs, and keep anyone else from finding out she's loose in the monster world--but Sulley's sinister co-worker Randall (a charmingly oily chameleon) has devious plans for little Boo...
There's so much detail going on that this one demands you see it multiple times (and with a plot, characters and voice acting as charming as this, you will *want* to). The voice acting is spot-on (I've always felt John Goodman was a great actor; who would have ever expected a blue and purple monster would be one of his finest roles?) and the care and attention Pixar has put into the making of this film shows: every frame sparkles with color and wit, and the last-act chase through the Monsters, Inc. factory, where Sulley, Mike, Boo and Randall leap from closet door to closet door thousands of feet above the factory floor is amazingly designed, brilliant and inspired, a breathtaking edge-of-your-seat chase that rivals the Death Star Attack in "Star Wars." Best of all, it features a sweet and emotional ending that had the cynical New York professional crowd I was seeing it with literally go "Awwwwwwwwww..." aloud. And if you have any doubt as to the sense of fun that this movie inspires, check out Sulley and Mike's Amazon.com Customer Reviews and Wish Lists! Heck, *I'd* buy Mike that copy of Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye"!
"Monsters, Inc": the best animated film of the year? Absolutely...maybe even the best *film* of the year. Certainly the most fun--and that's exactly what we need right now.
5/5
Great family movie
by
Great animation and story. I took my 3 yr old to see the movie at a preview and that's all she has talked about for the last 2 days. I think she enjoyed it as much as I did. It will be on my wish list for Christmas (and I'm 36 yrs old). You have to take your kids to see it.
5/5
Pixar has done it again!
by Michael A. Brown (Salt Lake City, UT USA)
Admittedly, I am a fan of Pixar's work. Their artists have done some incredible animated features over the years. Between the "Toy Story" movies and "A Bug's Life," they have managed in a short time to build an impressive track record. Their shorts are also among the best ever produced. So my expectations going into this movie were very high.
The story concerns the monsters in your closet. The theory being that their world runs of the energy produced by children's screams. Sulley (John Goodman) is number one at getting screams. His main rival (Steve Buschemi) will do anything to gain the top spot. Oh, and they consider the touch of a human child to be toxic.
While not as instantly relatable as "Toy Story," the movie builds on the talents of Goodman and Billy Crystal (Mike) to bring you into this make-believe world as Sulley and Mike try to get little Boo back through the closet door to the safety of her bedroom.
Disney/Pixar has presented this well on DVD. Both Widescreen and Pan & Scan versions are available on the first disc. The second disc has games, outtakes, an award winning animated short, and a fun (easy to find) Easter Egg.
All in all, if you enjoy Pixar's work, or animated features in general, this is a must have for your collection.
4/5
A beautiful, beautiful film.
by darragh o'donoghue (dublin, ireland)
Disney/Pixar have done it again. First Dreamworks gave us 'Antz', and D/P trumped it with 'A Bug's Life'. Now DW give us 'Shrek', and D/P return another film about a lovable ogre, 'Monsters, Inc.' In each case, DW offered a film that seemed funnier, fresher, sassier, more gratifyingly 'adult', but which, in the end, couldn't begin to compare with the D/P films. This is because both companies go about making animation with opposing attitudes. Although they might not say so, DW make their films for adults. 'Antz' was a transposed Woody Allen movie; 'Shrek' an 'anti'-fairy tale. They appealed to adults' cynicism and disenchantment, their weary lack of wonder. Once you start winking, there can be no wonder. Their films are 'negative' entertainments - they mock or lampoon or play with or rework existing narratives or cliches or expectations. D/P, rightly, unashamedly, brilliantly, make their films for children first. They create new worlds (or recreate old ones) rather than knocking old ones down. Their cleverness doesn't go over childrens' heads, aren't contemptouos of them. And if adults get it too, well that's nice, but not the main thing. And this is brilliant for receptive adults, because it allows them to tap that lost sense of wonder, to re-enter and re-live their childhood emotions - AS CHILDREN, not knowing adults.
'Monsters, Inc.' is not classic D/P - the script is only sporadically witty (most of the best jokes seem to have been reserved for the end-credits 'out-take' sequence) and the characterisation not always inspired (exceptions: John Goodman is an adorable gentle giant; Steve Buscemi as a slithery villain with a scary ability to go invisible, undone by the fact that he's, well, Steve Buscemi). But this doesn't matter, because the animators of 'Inc.' have created a huge, whole new magical world, with its own integrity and movement, operating to its own logic, and believable right down to the tiniest detail. It's not 'our' world or filtered with our sensibilities, although we may recognise some of it - it's a paralell universe, co-existing with ours. The philosophical implications of an industry in which mere doors in the monsters' world opens onto the bedrroms of humans' is too dizzying to contemplate, but it makes for incredible cinema. From the Osbert Lancaster-inspired opening titles on, the film glows with that colourful lumonisity other movies can't reach. The three-dimensional hair rustling Sulley's body is amazing, yes, not because it so 'lifelike', but because it gives him life. The whole concept, where young children, our surrogates on the screen, become the scary Other, the 'abnormal' or 'freakish', is inspired. The climactic third is especially good, with its banishment-in-Nepal agony, its one-eye-poppingly astounding and vertiginous action sequence, in which a factory becomes a kind of candy-coloured Orwellian nightmare, with characters pursuing each other in and out of a global travelogue labyrinth, like one of Chuck Jones' more twisted fantasies (I could also mention that 'Inc.' is the best, most knowing and subversive blue collar drama in American cinema, but that would contradict what I said earlier). And the goo-goo little baby Boo is so Adorable.
5/5
Uncertain about young children seeing this movie ? Read on.
by Elizabeth Whelchel (The Woodlands, Texas USA)
I have two children ages 4 and 3 and was concerned about them viewing a movie about monsters. The main thing you spend time telling young children is " there aren't any monsters". I worried that the film would only make things worse for them. Before the age of 6, children have a tough time distinguishing between fact and fiction. However, the film really helped them by allaying their fears and turning something scary into a best friend. The characters are well developed and really appeal to children of all ages. Even parents can sit through the film without looking at their watch every ten minutes! The ending was somewhat turbulent but concluded on a good note. My children have repeatedly asked to see the movie again and in light of how good it was the first time through I don't mind taking them. Definately worth seeing !
Checkout Now
RSS Feeds
: