here's an energy crisis in Monstropolis. The city is having rolling blackouts, and the only way to combat the problem is to scare little kids, whose screams provide power to the city.
Giant, furry James P. Sullivan (Goodman) and green, one-eyed Mike Wazowski (Crystal) work at Monsters, Inc., the biggest scream factory in the monster world. On the "scream floor," magical doors lead monsters into darkened children's bedrooms, the better to elicit cries of fright. Sullivan—Sulley to all his friends—is the number-one "scarer" in the company; Mike is his dutiful assistant and best friend. Sulley is very good at his job, but like every other monster in Monstropolis, he is actually terrified of little kids—they're supposed to be toxic to nonhumans.
Ever the dutiful worker, however, Sulley bites his lip and does his job, determined to scare as many kids as he can to break the coveted scream record. Sulley's archrival for the record is the purple chameleon Randall Boggs (Buscemi). Randall isn't happy about Sulley's continual success and is determined to do anything he can to beat him—even cheat.
One night after closing, Sulley finds a lone door in its docking bay. It accidentally opens, releasing a little girl (Gibbs) into the monster world. Panicked, Sulley tries to hide the girl from the Child Detection Agency—the hazmat monster squad—and from his boss (James Coburn), at least until he and Mike can figure out a way to get the girl—nicknamed Boo—back to her rightful universe.
But Sulley develops an attachment to the little girl and decides that—even if it means losing his job and his place in Monstropolis society—he will protect Boo from anything and everything that is a threat. That includes Randall, who has his own evil plan.
A lifelike bug-eyed monster's life
It's impossible to believe that Pixar, the company behind Monsters, Inc., could top itself after previous hits such as Toy Story and A Bug's Life, but it has. In their best animated feature yet, executive producer John Lasseter and director Docter have created two monsters that aren't in the least bit scary—more like fuzzy stuffed animals children will want to cuddle up and sleep with. (Good thing, too, because Disney already has plenty of Sulley and Mike stuffed animals filling their store shelves, just waiting to be bought.)
Crystal's Mike is definitely the comic relief in this feature, but Goodman's Sulley exhibits a wide range of genuine feelings for Boo. In the beginning, he's so sweet and caring it's easy to see why she isn't the least bit scared of him. Later, Sulley accidentally frightens Boo so badly she won't come near him and cries whenever he gets too close. The hurt and anguish that cross Sulley's face in this scene are so real, so human, it's easy to forget this is a cartoon.
With every new Pixar film, the animation improves by leaps and bounds. The characters are ever more lifelike, whether in their facial expressions or their body coverings. Sulley's blue-and-purple fur coat looks so real one can almost feel its soft strands against one's face. When Sulley gets trapped in a blizzard, snow sticks to the fur as it would to a human's hair, and the wind ripples Sulley's coat like a summer breeze in a grassy meadow.
Animation isn't this film's only impressive accomplishment. Lasseter and Docter appear to have been psychic when they built the story on a plot point that echoes today's current events, though the film was conceived more than five years ago: The story revolves around an energy crisis, complete with rolling blackouts. That electric jolt of reality grounds an otherwise delightfully fanciful story.
