Pixar's critter masterpiece!

There are a lot of words one could use to describe Monsters, Inc.. Words such as beautiful, funny, and smart come to mind. But there is one word that best describes the film: perfect. Unlike the majority of the films I have seen this year, when I was watching Monsters I never had a single complaint. I never thought to myself, "why are they doing that?" Or, "this pacing is a bit odd." Instead, I was totally captivated from start to finish.

The film has one of the most original plots of the year: Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) and James P. Sullivan (John Goodman) are monsters as you might have guessed. Wazowski is a goofy little loser who supplies the majority of the comedy in the film. He's a small green eyeball who always seems to be in Sulley's shadow. Thankfully, Wazowski has no complaints. He's got a lovely girl friend who has snakes for hair, and his best buddy in the world is James P. Sullivan. Sullivan is a big monster whose covered in bright blue fur. Voiced by John Goodman, Sullivan is the heart and soul of Monsters. He's also somewhat of a celebrity with the monster community, because he has collected the most scares from children. You see, the city that Wazowski and Sullivan live in thrives off of the screams of children. It's the main source of their power. The monsters have doors that they use to get into children's closets, once there they make the kid scream, collect it, and they go on their way.

Well one night, Sullivan goes through a door, and brings a kid out with him. This of course is a huge accident, in fact monsters are scared to death of children. The mere thought of a human child coming into their world could be disastrous. I really don't need to explain much more, since the film is just a joy to watch it play out.

Monsters is gorgeous to look at. Pixar has always been brilliant when it comes to animation, just look at Toy Story, Toy Story 2, and A Bugs Life. But there's something that struck a cord in me with Monsters, it's so bright and colorful. The character of Sullivan must be some sort of landmark achievement in animation. Take a look at his hair, I have never seen computer generated hair look so life-like.

Another character worth mentioning is a certain villain named Randall (Steve Buscemi). He's a snake like centipede creature, who has the ability to make himself invisible. As far as animated films go, actually as far as films in general go, he's particularly nasty, and makes for one of the best villains I have seen in a Disney film.

So the animation is top-notch, and the characters are interesting, but that doesn't always make for a great film, see Final Fantasy to prove that. What makes Monster not just entertaining animation, but a damn fine film, is that it has heart. As a drama, Monsters is more emotional than the majority of the flesh and blood dramas we've seen all year. It's also an excellent comedy.

It's my guess that Monsters, Inc. will be the family film of the year. Is it better then Shrek? Yup. Is it better then almost everything you've seen this year? Yup. And if that's not enough to get you to want to see it, how about the fact that it shows a teaser for EPISODE 2? A must see.