Monsters, Inc.
Monsters, Inc. is a 2001 animated movie made by Disney and Pixar Animation Studios. It stars the voices of John Goodman (James P. "Sully" Sullivan), Billy Crystal (Michael "Mike" Wazowski), Mary Gibbs (Boo), Steve Buscemi (Randall Boggs), James Coburn (Henry Waternoose III), Jennifer Tilly (Celia Mae, Mike's Gilrfriend), Bob Peterson (Roz, the secretary), John Ratzenberger (Yeti), Frank Oz (Fungus, Randall's Accomplice), Dan Gerson (Needleman and Smitty, the teenage monsters), Steve Susskind and Bonnie Hunt.
The movie 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, David Silverman and Lee Unkrich.
It premiered on November 2, 2001 with the best opening ticket sales ever for an animated film and the 6th best of all time.
A manga version of Monsters, Inc. was made and distributed in the Kodansha magazine in Japan; the manga is published in English by TokyoPop.
Plot
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
Monsters, Inc. is about a power company using children's screams to generate energy, which is used to power all of their society. There are many doors to children's rooms from their closets. The monsters come out of the closets and make the children scream, generating energy for the monster world. The monsters think that if they are touched by a child then it is poisonous, so they have many safety precautions to prevent human contamination.
The top scarer at Monsters, Inc. is James P. Sullivan, or "Sulley" (John Goodman), a blue-furred giant who's partnered with the green, one-eyed Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal). When a little human girl enters the monster world by accident, it's up to Sulley and Mike to bring her back home before the authorities find out. Along the way, they discover a plan to solve their world's energy crisis that's far more insidious than merely scaring children in their bedrooms.
Trivia
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.
The scene where Sully fears Boo has been thrown in a garbage compressor is inspired by the 1952 Chuck Jones cartoon Feed the Kitty.
Some of the "sets" in this film were used in the animated feature Toy Story.
