Monsters, Inc.


Monsters, Inc. is a 2001 American animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures, and starring the voices of John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Steve Buscemi, James Coburn, Jennifer Tilly, and Mary Gibbs. Directed by Pete Docter, and written by Andrew Stanton and Daniel Gerson, the film centers on two monsters, the hairy James P. "Sulley" Sullivan and his one-eyed partner and best friend Mike Wazowski , who are employed at the titular energy-producing factory Monsters, Inc., which generates power by scaring human children. However, the monster world believes that the children are toxic, and when a little human girl, Boo, sneaks into the factory, the duo must safely return her home while evading discovery.
Docter began developing the film in 1996, following an idea conceived in 1994 when Toy Story was nearing completion, and wrote the story with Jill Culton, Jeff Pidgeon and Ralph Eggleston, while Stanton wrote the screenplay with Gerson. The characters went through many incarnations over the film's five-year production process. The technical team and animators found new ways to simulate fur and cloth realistically for the film. Randy Newman, who composed the music for Pixar's three prior films, returned to compose the score for its fourth.
Monsters, Inc. premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on October 28, 2001, and was released in theaters in the United States on November 2. Upon its release, it received critical acclaim and was a commercial success, grossing over $528 million worldwide to become the third-highest-grossing film of 2001. The film won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "If I Didn't Have You" and was nominated for the inaugural award for Best Animated Feature, as well as Best Original Score and Best Sound Editing. Monsters, Inc. saw a 3D re-release in theaters in December 2012. A prequel titled Monsters University, directed by Dan Scanlon, was released in June 2013. A sequel series titled Monsters at Work premiered on Disney+ in July 2021.

Plot

In a world inhabited by monsters, the city of Monstropolis harnesses the screams of human children for energy. At the Monsters Incorporated factory, skilled monsters employed as "scarers" enter the human world to scare children and harvest their screams through electronic portals connected to the closet doors of children's bedrooms. The work is considered dangerous, as human children are rumored to be toxic enough to kill a monster through physical contact. Monsters, Inc. CEO, Henry J. Waternoose III, is concerned about the declining energy production, as children are becoming less easily scared.
One evening after work, top scarer James P. "Sulley" Sullivan discovers that an active door has been left in the station of his rival, Randall Boggs. He inspects the door and accidentally lets a toddler girl into the factory. Frightened, Sulley unsuccessfully tries returning the girl, who escapes into Monstropolis, interrupting Sulley's best friend and assistant Mike Wazowski on a date at a sushi restaurant. Chaos erupts when other monsters see the girl; Sulley and Mike escape with her as the Child Detection Agency arrives and quarantines the restaurant. Forced to keep the girl hidden in their apartment for the night, Sulley and Mike realize that she is not toxic and her laughter can generate more energy than screams.
The next day, Sulley and Mike disguise the girl as a monster and attempt to send her home. While Mike seeks out her door, Sulley grows attached to her and nicknames her "Boo". Randall, waiting in ambush for the girl, kidnaps Mike by accident and reveals his plan to kidnap children and extract screams from them using his invention, the Scream Extractor. Sulley rescues Mike, and they search for Waternoose to alert him of Randall's plan. However, Boo inadvertently reveals herself to Waternoose, who reveals that he is working with Randall. Waternoose banishes Mike and Sulley to the Himalayas in the human world, and abducts Boo.
With help from the Abominable Snowman, Sulley finds a way back to the monster world, but Mike refuses to go with him. Sulley returns to the factory and rescues Boo from the Scream Extractor, but Randall fights him. Mike returns to reconcile with Sulley, and both search for Boo's door. Randall catches up to the trio, and Boo easily defeats him after a chase through the factory door vault. Sulley and Mike banish Randall through a door to the human world and destroy it.
Mike and Sulley locate Boo's door, but Waternoose brings it down to the scare floor, intending to have the CDA arrest Mike and Sulley. Mike distracts the CDA while Sulley and Boo lure Waternoose into a scare simulation room. Sulley tricks Waternoose into revealing his conspiracy to kidnap thousands of children. Mike records the conversation, exposing Waternoose to the CDA, who arrest him. Undercover CDA agent Roz allows Sulley to send Boo home, but has her door destroyed. Sulley retools the factory to harvest children's laughter instead of screams, as laughter is ten times more powerful. With the energy crisis solved, the factory now collects energy by making children laugh; Mike becomes the company's top comedian, and Sulley becomes the new CEO. Mike then reveals to Sulley he has rebuilt Boo's door, allowing Sulley to reunite with Boo.

Voice cast

  • John Goodman as James P. "Sulley" Sullivan, a huge, intimidating but well-meaning scarer at Monsters, Inc. At the film's beginning, he has been the "Best Scarer" at Monsters, Inc. for several months running.
  • Billy Crystal as Mike Wazowski, a short, one-eyed scarer assistant who is Sulley's best friend, roommate, and coworker. He is charming and generally the more organized of the two, but he is prone to neurotics, and his ego sometimes leads him astray.
  • Mary Gibbs as Boo, a three-year-old human girl who is unafraid of any monster except Randall, the scarer assigned to her door. She believes Sulley is a large cat and refers to him as "Kitty". The book based on the film gives Boo's "real" name as Mary Gibbs, the name of her voice actress, who is also the daughter of one of the film's story artists, Rob.
  • * Gibbs was so young during production that most of her lines were captured via real or simulated play scenarios designed to elicit the required audio reactions, rather than any traditional line work, including being followed around the Pixar office with a microphone by the crew.
  • Steve Buscemi as Randall Boggs, a snide and preening monster with a chameleon-like ability to change his skin color and blend in completely with his surroundings, who makes himself a rival to Sulley and Mike in the scream collection.
  • James Coburn as Henry J. Waternoose, the CEO of Monsters, Inc., a job passed down through his family for three generations, who is secretly in league with Randall.
  • Jennifer Tilly as Celia Mae, a receptionist for Monsters, Inc. and Mike's girlfriend.
  • Bob Peterson as Roz, the administrator for Scare Floor F, where Sulley, Mike, and Randall work. She is secretly the head of the CDA, operating undercover inside Monsters, Inc.
  • John Ratzenberger as Yeti a.k.a. The Abominable Snowman, a former Monsters, Inc. employee who was banished to the Himalayas. His appearance is based on that of the Abominable Snowman in the 1964 Rankin/Bass animated special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
  • Frank Oz as Fungus, Randall's beleaguered assistant.
  • Daniel Gerson as Needleman and Smitty, two small janitor monsters who idolize Sulley and operate the Door Shredder when required.
  • Steve Susskind as Jerry, a good friend of Waternoose who manages Scare Floor F.
  • Bonnie Hunt as Flint, a talent recruiter who trains new monsters to scare children.
  • Jeff Pidgeon as Bile, an accident-prone trainee scarer for Monsters, Inc.
  • Sam Black as George Sanderson, a scarer at Monsters, Inc. In a running gag throughout the film, he repeatedly makes contact with objects from the human world, resulting in CDA agents tackling him, shaving his entire body, and sterilizing him.

    Production

Development

The idea for Monsters, Inc., along with ideas that would eventually become A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo, and WALL-E, was conceived in a lunch in 1994 attended by John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, and Joe Ranft near the completion of Toy Story. One of the ideas that came out of the brainstorming session was a film about monsters. "When we were making Toy Story", Docter said, "everybody came up to me and said, 'Hey, I totally believed that my toys came to life when I left the room.' So when Disney asked us to do some more films, I wanted to tap into a childlike notion that was similar to that. I knew monsters were coming out of my closet when I was a kid. So I said, 'Hey, let's do a film about monsters.
Docter began work on the film that would become Monsters, Inc. in 1996, while others focused on A Bug's Life and Toy Story 2. Its code name was Hidden City, after Docter's favorite restaurant in Point Richmond. By early February 1997, Docter, together with Harley Jessup, Jill Culton, and Jeff Pidgeon, had drafted a treatment that bore some resemblance to the final film. Docter pitched the story to Disney with some initial artwork on February 4 that year. He and his story team left with some suggestions in hand and returned to pitch a refined version of the story on May 30. At this pitch meeting, longtime Disney animator Joe Grant – whose work stretched back to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – suggested the title Monsters, Inc., a play on the title of the gangster film Murder, Inc., and the name stuck. The film would be the first Pixar feature not directed by Lasseter, helmed instead by Docter, as well as Lee Unkrich and David Silverman, who served as co-directors. The early test of Monsters, Inc. was released on October 11, 1998.