Monsters, Inc.
01/10/2002 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
Pub: Disney/Pixar D610688 PALVHS. 88 minutes
featuring the voices of John Goodman and Billy Crystal. Check out website: www.disney.co.uk/disneyvideos
With the High Street promotion, merchandise
and other advertising, it would be impossible for you to have ignored
seeing the key monsters, Sulley and Mike, somewhere in your preambles
through your town or city shopping centres.
This is a computer-animated film depicting the lives of the creatures
of Monstropolis who need to collect the screams of human children
to power up their city.
 They
have the technology to open literal doorways into any child's bedrooms
to carry out these deeds. Sulley - the big blue one with purple
spots and a tail - has the highest score for number of screams.
The more villainous chameleon-skinned Randall wants to topple Sulley
and have this acclaim. All this is blended into another plot which
is wiser not to disclose without giving away the ending.
The added complication here is when a little girl called Boo gets
through an open doorway and isn't scared of Sulley and he can't
get her home. To the monsters, human contamination is the worse
stigmata and neither Sulley or Mike, his green-eye assistant, want
to damage their reputations.
My Mother's reaction after the first few minutes was, 'Is this
for kids? There's monsters in it' and didn't want to watch any more,
leaving it to me for a late night viewing.
In many ways, I felt the monsters were too cuddly and wholesome
than something to be scared of.
Until you look close up, I doubt if you'd spot Sulley had purple
spots, the contrast between them and his electric blue fur is hardly
sharp enough. Saying that, this is also one of the first computer-animated
films to create hair that moves like hair so things might not have
gone as expected once they got going.
There are a lot of interesting sight gags and several chases but
then the target audience is more kids than adults. If you're into
animation, then you're going to love this aspect, not to mention
the accompanying three film shorts on the video (even if it isn't
particularly apparent without reading the box that one of them is
a preview for Pixar's next film).
If you want your kids glued to the box to give you time to do other
things then this will also suit you.
Where next for Pixar to develop? I'd love to see them produce more
realistic humans to show they can do it.
GF Willmetts
|
