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All-Reviews.com Movie/Video Review
Monsters Inc.
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  out of 4
Review by Susan Granger
3½ stars out of 4
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Why do monsters hide in children's closets at night? If you buy
into the Pixar magic, it's because they need to capture tiny tots' screams as
energy to fuel Monstropolis, a mysterious world that exists just on the other
side of the closet door. Problem is: today's kids don't scare as easily and
that's caused a power shortage. Monsters, Inc. is the an immense fright factory
- "We Scare Because We Care" - run by crab-like Henry J. Waternoose (James
Coburn). Top Scarer is huge, purple-spotted, bright-blue James "Sulley"
Sullivan (John Goodman). Sulley's best-friend is Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal),
his lime-green, one-eyed assistant who's crazy about the enchanting
serpent-haired receptionist Celia (Jennifer Tilly). But they don't realize that
Randall Boggs (Steve Buscemi), a jealous chameleon, is diabolically determined
to capture more screams than Sully - even if it means endangering Boo (Mary
Gibbs), a toddler who innocently wanders through the closet portal into
Monstropolis. Since monsters believe human children are toxic, a hazmat team
from the Child Detection Agency (CDA) is quickly summoned to decontaminate,
putting little Boo at terrible risk - a plot twist that was more amusing before
the real anthrax scare. It culminates in a chase along a mile-long conveyor belt
holding thousands of closet doors, as Sulley and Mike - with Randall in pursuit
- desperately try to return Boo, unharmed, to her nursery. The Pixar computer
animation is amazing, more than twice as complex as in "Toy Story 2," and the
vocals are superb: John Goodman radiates kindness while Steve Buscemi oozes evil
and Billy Crystal tickles the funnybone. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10,
"Monsters, Inc." is a clever, cuddly 9 - and adults will appreciate the pop
references and imaginative in-jokes.
Copyright © 2001 Susan Granger
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