Monsters Inc.
Dir: Peter Doctor, David Silverman and Lee Unkrich
Voice:
John Goodman, Billy Crystal,
Steve Buscemi, Jennifer Tilly
The previous night, I'd packed orders till 10:30pm, collapsed into bed, got up and started work again. Being able to walk out and go to a movie instead is one of the deep joys of self-employment, but could Pixar alleviate my grimly foul mood? Hell, yes! Indeed, even by the end of the now-traditional pre-feature short, all dark thoughts had been abandoned. For The Birds, is a tiny masterpiece on its own, demonstrating that much comedy is based upon realising what's going to happen, 15 seconds before the participants do. The film proper was hardly any less of a gem, pitched perfectly for both adults and children. The central concept alone is lovely: the monsters in your closet as a child are real, and rely upon your screams to power their city. The arrival of a kid in their world causes chaos and reveals a dastardly plot to extract screams by force, which our heroes, voiced by Crystal and Goodman, must combat. The script is great, the execution flawless, the imagery technically stunning - the only disappointment was the lack of out-takes at the end, though it is probably the only time I've seen an entire cinema audience sit patiently through every credit. The lack of Disneyesque song and dance number is also worth noting, and even the small child character (usually a cause of fear and loathing in G-rated movies), invoked feelings bordering on the maternal. Now that truly is monstrous...
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