Monsters, Inc.

Name: Monsters, Inc.

Directed by: Pete Docter David Silverman (co-director) Lee Unkrich (co-director)

Screenplay by: Daniel Gerson Andrew Stanton

Original Story by: Jill Culton Pete Docter Ralph Eggleston Jeff Pidgeon

Produced by: Darla K. Anderson

Executive Producers: John Lasseter Andrew Stanton

Music by: Randy Newman

Film Editing by: Robert Grahamjones Jim Stewart

Production Design by: Harley Jessup Bob Pauley

Studio: Pixar Animation Studios

Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures

Airdate: November 2, 2001

Length: 92 minutes

Budget: $115 million

Box Office: $562.8 million

Pixar Movie Number: 410

Monsters, Inc. is a 2001 American computer-animated comedy film directed by Pete Docter at his directorial debut, produced by Pixar Animation Studios, and released by Walt Disney Pictures. John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton both served as executive producers. The film was co-directed by Lee Unkrich and David Silverman and stars the voices of John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Steve Buscemi, James Coburn and Jennifer Tilly.

The film centers on two monsters employed at the titular Monsters, Inc.: top scarer James P. "Sulley" Sullivan (John Goodman) and his one-eyed partner and best friend Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal). Monsters, Inc. employees generate their city's power by targeting and scaring children, but they are themselves afraid that the children may contaminate them; when one child enters Monstropolis, Mike and Sulley must return her.

Docter began developing the film in 1996 and wrote the story with Jill Culton, Jeff Pidgeon, and Ralph Eggleston. Fellow Pixar director Andrew Stanton wrote the screenplay with screenwriter Daniel Gerson. The characters went through many incarnations over the film's five-year production process. The technical team and animators found new ways to render fur and cloth realistically for the film. Randy Newman, who composed the music for Pixar's three prior films, returned to compose its fourth.

Monsters, Inc. was praised by critics and proved to be a major box office success from its release on November 2, 2001, generating over $562 million worldwide. Monsters, Inc. saw a 3D re-release in theaters on December 19, 2012. Twelve years later, a prequel, Monsters University, directed by Dan Scanlon, was released on June 21, 2013.

Plot
The parallel city of Monstropolis is inhabited entirely by monsters, and is powered by electricity which is generated from the screams of human children. At the Monsters, Inc. factory, skilled individuals called "scarers" access the human world through closet doors in children's bedrooms, to scare the children, and harvest their screams. It is considered dangerous work, as human children are believed to be "toxic" to monsters. Energy production is falling because children are becoming more difficult to scare. The company's chairman, Henry J. Waternoose, is determined to find a solution. James P. "Sulley" Sullivan is the organization's top scarer, however, he is goaded in a fierce rivalry with a chameleon-like monster, Randall Boggs.

One day, Sulley discovers that Randall left a door activated on the scarefloor, and a small girl has entered the factory. After desperate failed attempts to put her back, Sulley takes her home. His best friend, Mike Wazowski is on a date with his girlfriend Celia, and chaos erupts when the child is discovered. Sulley and Mike escape the Child Detection Agency (CDA) and gradually discover that the little girl is actually not toxic. Sulley grows attached to her and names her "Boo". They smuggle her into the factory in an attempt to send her home. Randall discovers that Boo is there, and tries to kidnap her, but instead kidnaps Mike. Randall reveals that he has built a large machine named "The Scream Extractor" in an attempt to extract all possible screams out of captured human children to help avert the company's production problems. Randall straps Mike to the machine, but Sulley unplugs it and reports Randall to Waternoose. However, Waternoose is secretly in league with Randall, and instead exiles Mike and Sulley to the Himalayas. The two are taken in by a Yeti, who tells them about a nearby village which can enable them to return to the factory. Sulley heads out, but a frustrated Mike refuses to follow. Meanwhile, Randall straps Boo to the Scream Extractor, but Sulley saves her by destroying the machine. Waternoose sends Randall to capture Sulley. Mike returns to reconcile, but thinks Sulley is ignoring him because an invisible Randall is attacking Sulley. Sulley temporarily incapacitates Randall, and flees with Mike and Boo.

Randall pursues them as they speed through the factory, riding on the doors that are heading into a giant vault where millions of doors are stored. Boo's laughter activates the doors, which allows the pursuit to pass in and out of the human world. Randall attempts to kill Sulley, but Boo attacks him. Sulley and Mike trap Randall in the human world, at a trailer park, where two residents beat him with a shovel. Sulley and Mike find Boo's door, but Waternoose sends it back to the Scarefloor. While Mike distracts the CDA, Sulley confronts and argues with Waternoose, who reveals that he is working with Randall to kidnap kids and use the Scream Extractor to keep the company from going out of business and to stop its failing energy production. The CDA arrests him after discovering the recorded confession. The CDA's leader is revealed to be Roz, who has worked undercover for two-and-a-half years, trying to expose Waternoose's plot. Sulley and Mike say goodbye to Boo and return her to her home as Boo's door is subsequently shredded to prevent any more escapes.

With the factory shut down, Sulley comes up with a way to end the company's production problems, and is promoted as a new CEO of Monsters, Inc. The monsters now enter children's bedrooms to make them laugh as laughter is ten times more powerful than screams, averting the energy crisis. Mike takes Sulley aside, revealing he has rebuilt Boo's door, and only needs one more piece, which Sulley took as a memento. Sulley enters and happily reunites with Boo.

Plot
•	John Goodman as James P. "Sulley" Sullivan, a large, furry blue monster with horns and purple spots. Even though Sully excels at scaring children, he is kindhearted and thoughtful by nature. At the film's beginning, Sully has been the "Best Scarer" at Monsters, Inc. for several months running.

•	Billy Crystal as Michael "Mike" Wazowski, a short, round green monster with a single big eyeball and skinny limbs. Mike is Sulley's stationrunner and coach on the scare floor, and the two are close friends and roommates. Mike is charming and generally the more organized of the two, but is prone to neurotics and his ego sometimes leads him astray. He is dating Celia Mae, who calls him "Googly-Bear". He makes cameo appearances in Finding Nemo, Cars, WALL-E, and Toy Story 3.

•	Mary Gibbs as Mary "Boo", a three-year-old human girl who is unafraid of any monster except Randall, the scarer assigned to her door. She believes Sulley is a large cat and refers to him as "Kitty". The book based on the film gives Boo's "real" name as Mary Gibbs, the name of her voice actress. In the film, one of Boo's drawings is covered with the name "Mary".

•	Steve Buscemi as Randall Boggs, a purple eight-legged lizard monster with a chameleon-like ability to change skin color and blend in completely with his surroundings. He is a snide and preening character who makes himself a rival to Mike and Sulley in scream collection.

•	James Coburn as Henry J. Waternoose, an arthropodic monster with a crab-like lower body. Waternoose is the CEO of Monsters, Inc., a job passed down through his family for three generations. He acts as a mentor to Sully, holding great faith in him as a scarer.

•	Jennifer Tilly as Celia Mae, a gorgon-like monster with one eye and tentacle-like legs. Celia is the receptionist for Monsters, Inc. and Mike's girlfriend.

•	Bob Peterson as Roz, a slug-like monster with a raspy voice reminiscent of Selma Diamond's who administrates for Scarefloor F where Sully, Mike and Randall work. At the end of the movie, it is revealed that Roz is the "number 1" agent of the CDA, and has worked undercover at Monsters, Inc. for about 2 years.

•	John Ratzenberger as Yeti aka. The Abominable Snowman, a furry white monster who was banished to the Himalayas. He was inspired by the Abominable Snowman from the 1964 Rankin/Bass animated special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

•	Frank Oz as Jeff Fungus, Randall's red-skinned, three-eyed assistant. He is generally incompetent and is often bullied by Randall.

•	Dan Gerson as Smitty and Needleman, two goofy adolescent monsters with cracking voices who work as janitors and operate the Door Shredder when required. The pair of them idolize Sully, and are generally seen as a nuisance by Mike.

•	Steve Susskind as Jerry Slugworth, a red seven-fingered monster who manages Scare Floor F and is a good friend of Waternoose.

•	Bonnie Hunt as Ms. Flint, a female monster who trains new monsters to scare children.

•	Jeff Pidgeon as Thaddeus "Phlegm" Bile, a trainee scarer for Monsters, Inc.

•	Samuel Lord Black as George Sanderson, a chubby, oranged-furred monster with a sole horn on top of his head. A running gag throughout the film involves George repeatedly making contact with artifacts of human clothing (socks and the like cling to his fur via static), which prompts his scare coach to trigger "23–19" incidents with the CDA resulting in him mobbed and shaved bald.

•	Phil Proctor as Charlie, George's assistant with sea-green skin and tendrils for limbs. He is friend with George, Mike and Sully but is quick to call the CDA on his scarer at the drop of a hat.

Joe Ranft as Pete "Claws" Ward, a blue monster with razor-sharp claws and horrifying breath.

Media Release

 * Monsters, Inc. is released on video and Disney DVD in September 17, 2002.

Aspect Ratios

 * 1.85:1/1.33:1 (HD/Open Matte)

DVD Main Menu

 * Play Movie
 * Scene Index
 * Bonus Features
 * Deleted Scenes and Outtakes
 * Commentary with Pete Docter and David Silverman
 * Languages and Subtitles
 * English
 * French
 * Spanish (Latin America)
 * Portuguese (Brazil)
 * German
 * Norwegian
 * Swedish
 * Hungarian
 * Italian
 * Polish

Previews

 * Beauty and the Beast DVD Trailer (Tuesday, October 8th)
 * Lilo and Stitch DVD Teaser Trailer (Tuesday, December 3rd)
 * Inspector Gadget 2 Teaser Trailer (Spring 2003)
 * Treasure Planet Trailer (In Theaters November 27th)
 * Finding Nemo Teaser Trailer (In Theaters Summer 2003)

Quotes

 * To see the quotes page, click here: "Quotes".