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Monsters, Inc.

© James C. Hess

Monsters.

Of course, monsters get blamed for curious and unexplained things: They cause them, they do them. They are those odds moments: The bump in the night, the shape under the sheet, the thing in the closet, the movement at the corner of your vision.

They are scary, these things--monsters. But know this: Monsters are scared of things as well: Kids.

So goes the simple premise of "Monsters, Inc.". Add to this a clever notion: The reason for why monsters are the way they are: They are on assignment. They are working. This--that odd moment--is their job.

Now. How do monsters--as in those of Monsters, Inc.--do their job? By way of a closet door.

A closet door that is not just a door to a closet. The closet door, according to "Monsters, Inc.", is the portal to Monsters, Inc.--Monstropolis, actually--through which monsters pass.

A word, now, about Monstropolis: It is powered, driven, by Scream Heat. That's right: Screams. Monsters from Monsters, Inc., jump out of closets to make kids screams. Kids scream, the monsters in question gather the screams, and return to Monstropolis, to begin again.

Here's the thing: Monstropolis is facing a crisis (who isn't, nowadays?): Kids are becoming increasingly course and jaded, and scaring them is difficult; because scaring them is hard collecting needed scares is even harder, so Monstropolis will face a rolling blackout of sorts.

So what to do? And who will rectify this situation? A big blue monster named Sully (John Goodman), who is the leading scream-producer for Monsters, Inc.

I could describe Sully but odds are good you have seen him in trailers for this delightful movie. So I won't. I will say that he isn't what he seems, and to see what he is you MUST go see "Monsters, Inc.".

As such stories go Sully has a best friend who is a goofball. All right, a green eyeball. With arms and legs. Named Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal).

Sully and Mike are opposites: Sully is brave and dedicated to his task. Mike is phobic, neurotic, frightened, lazy, and irresponsible.

Regardless these two work well together.

And Mike gets--kindasorta--the girl: Celia (Jennifer Tilly).

Now. As these stories go there are villains, and Pixar, as always, has done a perfect job with theirs: Henry J. Waternoose (James Coburn) and Randall Boggs (Steve Buscemi).

Boggs is the main threat most of the time, here: He wants to dethrone (defrock?) Sully as the champion scream collector. But as such competitions go Boggs is not the scream collector Sully is, so he schemes and plots and devines ways he thinks will allow him to beat Sully.