It turns out, according to this movie by the "Toy Story" folks at Pixar,
that monsters are more afraid of children than children are of monsters. But
monsters need to collect the screams of children to fuel their world, and
children are getting so hard to scare that the monsters are suffering from
rolling blackouts. What can they do? Top scarer John "Sully" Sullivan (voice
of John Goodman) and rival Randall Boggs (voice of Steve Buscemi) work as
hard as they can to break the scream-collection record. But when Randall
inadvertantly lets a human child into the monster world, the monsters find
out what being scared is really like.
Sully and his sidekick, Mike Wazowski (voice of Billy Crystal) are just a
couple of nice guys proud of their work trying to do their jobs (except for
filing the paperwork, which Mike never seems to get to). When Boo (voice of
Mary Gibbs) sees Sully, she runs after him, shouting "Kitty!" At first,
Sully is scared of her, but then he gets to know her and they become good
friends.
This movie is utterly delightful. It should be put in the dictionary to
illustrate the word, "adorable." It has the same delicious mixture of heart,
humor, and technical wizardry that made "A Bug's Life" and the two "Toy
Story" movies into instant classics. Like Jim Henson, who decided to make
his "Sesame Street" characters monsters so that children would never be
afraid of monsters again, the people behind this movie have created monsters
that even the shiest child will find completely unscary. In fact, kids may
decide that multiple heads, removable eyes and hair made from snakes are
kind of cute. Monstropolis and the scaring facility are brilliantly
conceived and the technology has advanced so much since the original "Toy
Story" (which centered on plastic toys because the computer imaging could
not handle other textures very well) that you will feel that you can reach
out and touch Sully's fur. There is plenty of sly humor to entertain teens
and adults, who might just find themselves caught up in the story, too.
Parents should know that there is some mild peril. A scene in which
biohazard workers in yellow jumpsuits and hoods disinfect a monster who came
in contact with a child's sock is scarier now than it would have been before
the terrorist attacks and the nightly news about anthrax. Parents should be
prepared for questions. There is a little bit of potty humor. All of the
"scarers" are male. But overall, this is just what a G movie should be and
wonderful fun for the whole family.
Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy "Elmo in Grouchland" and the
"Toy Story" movies.
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