Monstrous Fun: MONSTERS, INC.
© Reviewed by Amy Harlib
Monsters, Inc. features a delightfully dotty premise in which the creepy-crawly, scary things that lurk in little children's closets are really blue-collar workers employed by the eponymous corporation in order to harvest the screams that power their city, Monstropolis. This urban entity exists in a parallel dimension in which the above-mentioned closets serve for entry and egress to our world. In Monstropolis's bizarre continuum, the need to generate fear comes from self-interest, for youngsters' screams provide the power source--energy that is dwindling because, nowadays, kids no longer scare so easily.
The pair of protagonists consists of big, blue-and-violet polka-dotted, horned and furry James P. Sullivan AKA Sully (John Goodman) and his best friend and partner, Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal), a beachball-sized peripatetic, big-mouthed, bile-green ocular orb sprouting spindly arms and legs. They compete neck-and-neck with scheming, chameleon-like Randall Boggs (John Buscemi) for the employee-of-the-month honors bestowed by their crab-like, octopoid CEO Henry J. Waternoose (James Coburn).
Obsessed with winning the title from our heroes, Randall attempts to put in a bit of unauthorized overtime, which leads to a concatenation of complex mishaps that enable a human child -- believed to be toxic to monsters -- to stray from her bedroom onto the factory floor. There, the gamin-like three-year-old girl (Mary Gibbs), gets discovered and temporarily adopted by Sully, whose formidably bulky exterior houses a kind-hearted soul.
When the presence of Sully's new little charge, ironically nicknamed "Boo," becomes known, general panic ensues while Sully and Mike strive to return her to her own world. They must do this and avoid attracting the attention of the CDA (Child Detection Agency), Monstropolis's yellow-suited hazmat squad, making desperate efforts that eventually uncover a sinister conspiracy deep within the innards of the corporation involving Randall and the CEO. How everything gets put to right in an alternative-energy resolution involves mad chases, thrills, chills, abundant parodies, sight gags, slapstick humor, witty dialog and surprise plot twists.
Monsters, Inc., the perfect vehicle for good-natured, clever satire in its warped and topsy-turvy version of our world, abounds in visual puns: the "grossery store"; the "stalk/don't stalk" traffic lights; and the Daily Glob newspaper with its headline: "Baby Born with Five Heads -- Parents Thrilled!"
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