Monsters, Inc.:
James P. Sullivan ("Sulley") and Michael Wazowski ("Mike") are monsters, best friends, housemates, and employees at Monsters, Incorporated, or "Monsters, Inc." They live in Monstropolis, a huge city that exists in an alternate monster world. At their job, they are a team of "scarers", monsters who are brave enough to use specially designed doors as a gateway to our world, and scare human children, who are considered extremely toxic, as screams power their entire world's energy. Unfortunately, there has been a recent energy crisis, as human children are becoming more desensitized to real-world and fictional violence, and becoming more mature at younger ages, they are becoming harder to frighten. But the real trouble starts when a human child, nicknamed "Boo", crosses over into the monster world, causing the entire city to go into paranoia, and the CDA ("Child Detection Agency"), a CIA-like organization, begins trying to hunt her down. Sulley and Mike must protect the little girl, hide her existence, and find a way to get her safely back home, all while avoiding suspicious co-workers, the CDA, and their seemingly friendly boss: Mr. Waternoose. This film is a classic of animation, family films, and is generally regarded as one of the best films ever made. It even holds a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a website I find a little overrated, but I agree with it on that. The voice cast are great. John Goodman and Billy Crystal voice Sulley and Mike, respectively. Sulley is considered the best "scarer" and is like an apprentice to Waternoose. He's lovable and generally kind to others. Mike is fast-talking, sometimes awkward, and has somewhat of an ego. He is outgoing, and runs Sulley's "scare station", not actually going into the human world himself. Mike has made numerous cameos in several Pixar films since. Steve Buscemi voices Randall Boggs, a reptilian monster with chameleon-like shape-shifting/camouflage abilities. He is Mike and Sulley's rival at work, and can slither and constrict his body like a snake. Mary Gibbs voices "Boo", the sweet toddler who is transferred into the monster world. She fears only a few of the monsters, and generally likes Mike and Sulley, despite them fearing her at first due to children's supposed toxicity. Jennifer Tilly voice Celia, a Medusa-like monster who is Mike's loving girlfriend. She actually doesn't do much in the movie except serve as a bit of comic relief at bits. Screen legend James Coburn (in his final voice role before his death) voices Henry J. Waternoose III, the head of Monsters, Inc. and Sulley's mentor. Sulley respects him as the head of the company and Waternoose thinks of Sulley as the "company golden boy", in a way. Bob Peterson voices Roz, a raspy-voiced, female slug monster who is the administrative clerk for Sulley and Mike's scare floor, who has a deep dislike for Mike for "not filing his paperwork". Frank Oz (known for his work with Jim Henson and George Lucas, mostly as a director of several Muppets films, and as the voice of Yoda in Star Wars) voices Randall's assistant and co-worker Jeff Fungus, who isn't really a bad guy, more like an unwilling participant in Randall's schemes. Pixar regulars John Ratzenberger and Phil Proctor appear in cameo voice roles as The Abominable Snowman and Charlie (an assistant of a "scarer" named George), respectively. Speaking of George (or "Poor George"), he is voiced by Samuel Lord Black. George is an unlucky monster with fuzzy orange hair who is constantly the subject of torment by the CDA because he needs to be constantly decontaminated, as his static fur often gets human children's clothes attached to it, exposing their "toxicity" to him. The animation is top-notch, and still holds up today, after 12 years. Even the details like Waternooses's creases in his crab legs, Randall's scales, Mike's somewhat sticky skin, and Sulley's fur texture are excellent. The music, despite being done by Randy Newman, a generally mediocre artist, is really good, especially the sad music. Every time I hear it, it makes me think of that tearjerker ending, oh it's not a sad ending, after all, it's a Disney-produced movie, but it's supposed to get you all emotional. The film is directed by Pete Docter, a big name at Pixar, who has worked on almost every movie since Toy Story, he also wrote this newest Monsters film and directed Up. He does a good job bringing the Pixar team's vision to life. The writing is also very clever, and Docter was the creative director behind the story team. Monsters, Inc. is a classic, and is beloved to this day due to it's great animation, original and unique story (a staple of Pixar films), great voice acting, witty writing, visionary direction, lovable characters, heartwarming ending, and good musical score. Nearly everything about it is perfect. 5/5 stars.
Monsters University:
In this much anticipated prequel to the beloved animated classic, Mike Wazowski, a small green monster, has wanted to be a "scarer" ever since elementary school, but no one ever believed in him and he was pushed around by many people. He is now off to college as a young adult, to Monsters University, the top "scare school" in the monster world. He initially rooms with Randall Boggs, a friendly but somewhat shy and geeky young reptile monster with shape-shifting abilities. He is then kicked out of the Scare Program, along with his rival: James P. Sullivan, or "Sulley". Sulley is a legacy child, and thinks he can just breeze his way through the school. After Sulley and Mike are both outcast and disliked by other students, they join the frat house of Oozma Kappa, full of nerds and unpopular monsters, the "underdog group". They compete in the "Annual Scare Games" against other frat and sorority houses, include Roar Omega Roar, the douchebag jocks on campus. They must win the Scare Games, or be kicked out of Monsters University. Now, the movie opens with a pleasant little short entitled "The Blue Umbrella", with beautiful animation, but that's a different story, just don't be too late. This movie was surprising. It wasn't at all bad, it obviously wasn't nearly as good as the original, but it was funny, entertaining, and kind of touching. It does the "root for the underdogs" thing really well, and I was honestly getting anxious at the climax, going "Are they gonna get though this thing?" Similar to how Cars 2 put Mater in the spotlight instead of Lighting McQueen (a pretty bad decision), this puts Mike in the spotlight instead of him playing second fiddle to Sulley (a good decision). Sulley is more of a dick in this movie (at least at first), and Mike is the underdog, instead of Sulley being the compassionate one and Mike being more skeptical and somewhat self-centered, like in the second act of the first movie. Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Bob Peterson, and John Ratzenberger reprise their roles in this film, the last two in comedic cameos that reference the ending of the first film. Interesting choice to make Randall more sympathetic, and explain why he hates Mike and Sulley. Poor George even makes a brief cameo. The underdogs characters are voiced by Joel Murray, Sean Hayes, Dave Foley, Peter Sohn, and Charlie Day (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Horrible Bosses, Pacific Rim). The stern and imposing headmistress, Dean Hardscrabble, is voiced by Helen Mirren; Professor Knight is voiced by Alfred Molina; Johnny Worthington, the arrogant asshole leader of the douchebag jocks is voiced by Nathan Fillion; Claire Wheeler and Brock Pearson, the presidents of Greek club, and the announcers of the Scare Games, are voiced by Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation, The To-Do List, Safety Not Guaranteed, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Funny People) and Tyler Labine (Reaper, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, Invasion, Animal Practice), respectively; "Frightening" Frank McKay, a scare legend, is voiced by John Krasinski (The Office, Promised Land, Leatherheads); Karen Graves, Mike's elementary school teacher, is voiced by Bonnie Hunt (Rain Man, The Green Mile, Jumanji, Cheaper by the Dozen, Jerry Maguire, A Bug's Life, Monster's Inc., Cars); Chet Alexander, a Roar Omega Roar member, is voiced by SNL cast member Bobby Moynihan; Bill Hader (SNL, South Park, Superbad, The To-Do List) voices a Slug and a Referee; Sherri Squibbles, one of the Oozma Kappa member's mother, is voiced by Julia Sweeney (SNL, Stuart Little); and finally, Beth Behrs (2 Broke Girls) voices Carrie Williams, the leader of the sorority house Python Nu Kappa, whose members are all nearly identical. The cast all do great jobs, and I was surprised to see so many big names in the cast. The typical Pixar Easter Eggs are present, including an image of the ball from the Pixar logo and the short Luxo, Jr. spray-painted on a sewer wall. In fact, the scene it appears in actually reminded me of Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, at least the look of the location reminded me of Thunderdome itself, just a little tidbit. The movie is surprisingly funny, one scene involving playing music in a car, even though brief, got me laughing. Dan Scanlon (an art director on several Pixar/Disney films and director of a Cars short) directs the movie, and pulls it off really well for his first time directing a feature. Kori Rae (a Pixar associate producer and animation manger) produced the film. I was pleasantly surprised by this prequel, and look forward to what Pixar has coming next (besides that god-awful looking Planes movie, which stars Dane Cook, which was initially intended for direct-to-video, and isn't even really Pixar). The animation looks fantastic, as usual from Pixar, and the music is pretty good, especially for Randy Newman. Monsters University may not quite capture that feeling the original had, but it comes close. It's great voice cast, great animation, touching story, and pretty good music for sure make it one of my favorites of the year so far. 4/5 stars.
(Images: Wikipedia)
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