BACKGROUND
In the early 2000s, Pixar was still the baby in the world of animation, especially when compared to the fully matured Disney Animation, who had been working on full-length animated features ever since 1937, with their first movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
And yet, Pixar was considered a prodigy, barely putting a foot wrong and consistently showcasing its talent. By the time Monsters, Inc. was released in 2001, they had only released three movies before it: Toy Story (1995), A Bug’s Life (1998), and Toy Story 2 (1999). Two were original stories and one was a sequel. It was a brilliant track record to show that Pixar was one to watch, but it wasn’t yet enough to prove that the studio was going to be one of the best in the business – although, of course, we can all say that now.
Monsters, Inc. had to prove that Pixar Animation Studios was only getting to get better and better as the years went on and the movies kept coming.
But where should their new story take us, the viewers? We’d already had a look at what our childhood toys are doing when we aren’t around, and we delved deeper into the world of insects with A Bug’s Life, so Pixar chose to do something different. They took us into the monster world, using the basic idea of children fearing those monsters under their beds or in their closets as the premise to get us there.
I’m pretty sure my family and I watched Monsters, Inc. in the cinema when it first came out. I can’t remember much about what I thought about it then, but I’m sure I probably liked it; I just don’t know how I felt about it in comparison to the other Pixar films that came before it. Monsters, Inc. was one we used to watch at the weekends on DVD, that’s what I remember the most. It was a good Sunday afternoon film, to momentarily halt the worries and disappointment about having to go to school on Monday.
I clearly did not understand the emotional depth of Monsters, Inc. when I was younger, but on re-watching Monsters, Inc. as an adult, those touching moments, like Sulley and Boo’s goodbye, are tear-jerking. The humour is also different and the detail and the impressiveness of the animation is more obvious. However, I cannot say that I love Monsters, Inc. – I can only say I like it. I think Pixar has made much better movies in the years since, and ones that I relate to more. I don’t think I ever believed in monsters as a child, or if I did, I wasn’t so emotionally scarred that I can remember it! So, Monsters, Inc. is just a good film, but not the best for me, and not one I revisit particularly often.
PLOT
Monsters, Inc. begins with an opening sequence featuring the titles and monsters hidden behind closet doors. After that, we see a boy going to sleep, but he thinks he can see a monster in his closet. Suddenly, a huge monster appears from under the bed. The boy screams – as does the monster, stumbling backwards in shock, falling into the kid’s toys.
A screen goes up, showing that this was all a simulation and the boy is actually robotic. This was a training exercise for “scarers”. The monster is quizzed on what he did wrong by Ms. Flint the recruiter. He says his big mistake must’ve been that he fell down. In reality, his mistake was leaving the door to the room open. Flint asks the monster and the others watching this simulation why this is such a problem. Mr. Waternoose, the CEO of this company, comes in and says the door being open could’ve let in a child. Mr. Waternoose reiterates that human children are toxic. This puts many monsters off wanting to go into their bedrooms, but this monster world needs the children’s screams for energy, because this company is Monsters, Inc., the energy company for all Monstropolis.
One of Monsters, Inc.’s top scarers is James P. Sullivan, also known as Sulley. On this particular day, he has been woken up by his flatmate, best friend, and assistant Mike Wazowski for a pre-work workout. They take a break to see Monsters, Inc.’s new company advert on television. It features Sulley heavily, with Mike only getting a brief shot before the company logo masks him entirely – but Mike is just excited he was on TV! The advert emphasises the importances of scarers in a time when human kids are not as easy to scare.
Mike and Sulley then head off to work, walking because Sulley reminds Mike there is a scream shortage so perhaps they shouldn’t take Mike’s new car. At the factory, we see that Sulley is very popular, that he has won Scarer of the Month nine months in a row, and he is currently in competition with another scarer, Randall, for the all-time scare record. Mike is currently dating the company receptionist Celia. He is taking her to the exclusive restaurant Harryhausen’s for her birthday tonight, and he’s very pleased with himself! In the locker room, as Mike and Sulley get ready for a hard day’s work, they are confronted by Randall who says he’s going to break the scare record before Sulley.
Mike is sent to prepare the office for Sulley’s scaring duties. But this office is actually the huge “scare floor”, where monsters scare side-by-side. Mike has a run-in with Roz, one of the secretaries here, for not getting his paperwork filed on time and he is warned not to do it again. He then preps the floor with the other scarers’ assistants, getting doors in place from the huge door vault, loading up scream canisters, grabbing scare reports, and activating the doors. Now, the scarers can arrive and prepare themselves. Randall practises blending into different backgrounds, for example; others have fake eyes and teeth. The scare floor manager announces which time zone they’ll be working on and counts down to the scare floor being online. Once online, the scarers start on their day.
Randall and Sulley both get through plenty of doors. Randall finally manages to pass Sulley on the scare record leaderboard – only for Sulley to luckily encounter a slumber party, meaning he gets extra screams for multiple kids and takes first place again! Mr. Waternoose comes over to congratulate Sulley on another great day’s work. We also see one scarer come out of his door looking distraught. The kid he was meant to scare was not scared at all. The assistant declares this door is a “dead door” and it is shredded so no other monster will encounter this child again. Another monster, George, comes out of his room with a sock on his back. His assistant declares a “23-19” which brings officials from the Child Detection Agency, the CDA, into the factory. They deal with the offending article, destroying it via a controlled explosive, and promptly shave George to ensure there are no toxins still on him. The scare floor is shut down temporarily, much to Mr. Waternoose’s annoyance.
Mr. Waternoose talks with Sulley about the future of the factory, fearing that he will be the one to see his family business go under, with new scaring recruits not being up to the job. Sulley is asked to do a demonstration for some of them sometime and he gladly says he will. At the end of the day, Mike happily goes to get Celia so they can head off for their date, but Roz comes up to him asking for paperwork. Sulley says he can do the paperwork for Mike. Sulley starts to collect the paperwork from their desk, and sees a door on the scare floor after hours. Sulley sees it is still active and checks inside for a scarer. There is no answer, but he is alerted by a strange noise, and sees a little girl playing with his tail. Sulley freaks out and tries to return the kid to her room. He falls over items in her room and quickly leaves, covered in her stuff. Sulley then hears someone coming to the door – it’s Randall – and he rushes out, to the locker room, to try and flush this stuff away. Instead, it just blocks the toilet so he bundles it all up and tosses it in someone’s open locker. Believing he is safe again, Sulley starts to head home. However, he soon learns that the girl is on his back. Sulley freaks out again and manages to trap her in a bag. He attempts to go back to her door but a confused-looking Randall ejects it, as the kid is no longer in there.
Uncertain what to do now, Sulley goes to Harryhausen’s and bothers Mike on his date. He tries to calmly ask what to do without giving anything away, but the strange behaviour soon makes Celia suspicious. Sulley tells Mike to look in the bag he brought in, but Mike doesn’t see any bag. Sulley notices the child has escaped from the bag and she runs around the restaurant. She is soon spotted and it causes a major incident in Monstropolis with the CDA being called once again. Sulley and Mike get the kid in a takeaway box and leave the restaurant just in time. They are not caught by any agents, although Celia is taken away. The restaurant is then covered with a decontamination force field. Mike and Sulley run back to their apartment.
Inside, they hear helicopters circling the city as the CDA search for the child. Mike and Sulley are terrified they are now sharing their apartment with what they’ve been led to believe is a toxic human kid. They try to keep her away from them, but it doesn’t work. She is suddenly interested in Mike’s teddy bear, Little Mikey, and Sulley attempts to give it to her, but Mike snatches it away, not wanting her to touch it. The girl starts to cry loudly, which makes the power fade in and out, alerting the helicopters to them. Mike desperately tries to shut the blind, and tells Sulley to calm her. He attempts this, but scares her when he recoils, making her cry again. Mike comes over to help, but slips and gets stuck in a bin with a speaker falling on him. This makes the girl laugh. Her laughter causes a power outage!
Mike starts to concoct a plan for how they can escape and return the kid, but nothing sounds right. Sulley tosses sugary cereal at the kid and lets her draw, while they think of something. She starts to look tired, so Mike tells Sulley to find somewhere for her to sleep. Sulley leads her to his room, setting up an area in the corner with newspaper and more cereal, but she immediately gets into the huge bed and snuggles in. Sulley can’t be bothered to argue with her and goes to leave. Sulley realises she’s worried about monsters being in her closet – which isn’t going to happen in Monstropolis – so he tries to show her it is empty. She doesn’t seem convinced though, and shows Sulley a drawing of a purple lizard. Sulley realises that drawing is of Randall, so he is her monster. Sulley decides to sit with her until she goes to sleep. Once she does, he goes back to Mike and asks what they should do. Mike says they can hardly just walk into the factory with her. That gives Sulley an idea.
The next day, disguised in some chair fabric with fake eyes on top of her head, Mike and Sulley bring the little girl to Monsters, Inc. and try to act natural, though that’s quite difficult when the factory is swarming with CDA agents searching for the kid, making their plan to just put her back in her door more difficult. They regroup in the locker room, and Mike says he’ll ask Roz for the kid’s door key, whilst Sulley waits there. He notices that the kid needs to use the bathroom so he takes her there, but she then wants to play hide and seek! Sulley plays along. Meanwhile, because Mike hasn’t filed his paperwork, Roz won’t give him the keycard, and slams her office shutter on his hands. He returns to the locker room and asks where the kid is. Sulley says he doesn’t know, but she then runs in, scared because she saw Randall. The three of them hide, as they overhear Randall and assistant Fungus talk about the kid. Randall needs to find her, so that he is not discovered as being involved.
After they’ve gone, Sulley asks Mike if he has her door key, and Mike lies, saying he has, taking a random one on their way to the scare floor. Mike tries to say goodbye and send her on her way, but Sulley says that’s not Boo’s door. This is where Mike learns Sulley has named the kid Boo, fearing this means he is growing too attached. Sulley refuses to put Boo in that door, but once they’re done arguing, the two see she has run off again. Mike says this is great because someone else can deal with her now, but Sulley goes to search for her. As they do that, Randall asks the two about what they think of this whole situation. Mike passes suspicion on to another co-worker, getting Randall away from them. But then Mike is confronted by Celia. Mike tries to quickly apologise, but Celia is furious and annoyed he doesn’t understand her fury isn’t about his choice of sushi restaurant. Randall overhears this, and looking at the newspaper front page, he sees Mike in the picture, proving Mike was involved. Mike starts to run, but Randall finds him. He tells Mike the kid’s door will be at his station at 12pm for thirty minutes. He has until then to return her.
Meanwhile, Sulley is chasing after Boo and sees her fall into the trash. He becomes distracted by two CDA agents who want his autograph. On turning back, he sees the trash has been delivered to the trash compactor. He follows it down, and sees the trash being sorted, cut up, and pressed into cubes. Sulley continuously faints as he watches the process, believing Boo is in that trash. He sees a trash cube with one of her fake eyes on it and sadly carries it away. Mike catches up to him, after seeing monster George get covered in the kids’ belongings from his locker and having “23-19” declared on him again, and asks what’s he doing with a cube of garbage. Sulley says it’s Boo and he can still hear her. They hear numerous kids’ voices, and find Boo with a group of others and a childminder. Sulley rushes up to Boo. One of these monsters calls Mike’s name, because Boo has been shouting it out, and bites Mike’s hand, causing Boo to laugh and for the lights to go out.
Mike and Sulley use the darkness to run off and get to Boo’s door on the scare floor. But when Mike mentions Randall set this up, this makes Sulley suspicious and Boo scared. Mike enters the room and jumps on her bed to prove it’s safe, but he is taken away by Randall who places him in a fake scream canister cart. Boo and Sulley follow them to a secret lair, where they see Randall and Fungus threatening Mike with their newly invented “scream extractor”, their way of revolutionising the scream industry. Mike is told to talk but he won’t say anything so the machine is turned on. Sulley manages to unplug it before it gets to Mike, so Randall goes to investigate why it isn’t working. Mike tries to reason with Fungus and get him released, but it doesn’t work. Sulley comes in and switches the two, so when Randall plugs the machine back in, Fungus has become the victim of the extractor.
Sulley decides they have to tell Mr. Waternoose what has been going on. When they find him, Sulley is thrown straight in to doing a scaring demonstration. He gives a big roar in the simulator, unaware that Boo is nearby and is terrified to see “Kitty” like this. She runs off in tears, tripping over a wire, which makes her costume fall down over her head, revealing she is the human child. Mike and Sulley explain what’s been going on. Mr. Waternoose says they’ll need to resolve all this, starting with taking care of the child. A door is called, but it is clearly not Boo’s door. Mr. Waternoose says this door is actually for them, and Randall pushes them into it. They arrive in snowy terrain, realising they’ve been banished to the human world, the Himalayas to be precise. The two fight and tumble down the mountain, coming face-to-face with another banished monster, the Abominable Snowman. The Abominable Snowman takes them to his cave and tries to feed them his famous snow cones but they are too busy arguing. The Abominable Snowman says there is a human village nearby, but that they can’t possibly get there in this snow storm. Sulley fashions a makeshift sled and goes on alone, since Mike refuses to help him. Eventually, his sled hits a rock, breaking apart. But Sulley is right by the human village. He takes a door back to the monster world, arriving back on the scare floor. Monster George is about to hear “23-19” from his assistant again as he finds another sock on him from Sulley bursting out the room, but George simply shoves the sock in the assistant’s mouth and tosses him in instead!
Sulley arrives at Randall’s secret lair just in time as Boo has been strapped to the scream extractor. Sulley breaks it and tosses the arm against the wall, trapping Fungus and Mr. Waternoose, but not Randall who jumps out of the way. He goes invisible and starts to strangle Sulley. Mike suddenly arrives with snow cones and continues his argument with Sulley. Boo tries to get Mike to notice that Sulley is in trouble, but he just thinks Sulley is close to tears. Luckily, a poorly aimed snow cone throw reveals Randall, and Sulley punches him. They run back to the scare floor, but Celia once again confronts Mike. He tells her everything but she doesn’t believe him until she sees Boo. Celia realises she’ll have to help and makes an announcement that Randall has broken the all-time scare record so he is slowed down by monsters congratulating him. The three get to the scare floor and try to call Boo’s door, but the system is too slow. They hit eject, making all the doors leave the floor and jump on one, entering the expansive door vault. Randall follows. They attempt to follow Boo’s door, but it ends up on a different track, so they start going through various doors in the factory to get closer to it, making Boo laugh to activate them. A chase ensues.
They make their way through the doors in the vault, but Randall eventually manages to take Boo from them, and removes their door from the track, letting it smash on the ground, just as Mike and Sulley get through it. They get through another door and get back to the vault, continuing to chase Randall down. Randall sees Sulley getting closer and goes inside a door with Boo. Randall knocks him down. With Sulley clinging to the edge of the door, Randall attempts to crush his hands so he’ll let go. Suddenly, Boo jumps on Randall and starts hitting him with a baseball bat, showing she isn’t scared of him anymore. Sulley gets to his feet and grabs Randall. Him and Mike then find a suitable door and throw him through it, smashing the door so he cannot return. We see that Randall has ended up in a caravan in the middle of nowhere, where the occupants beat him up with a shovel, thinking he’s a gator!
The three then find Boo’s door. Mike is told to make Boo laugh again to activate it, but when he does do something funny – and painful – she isn’t looking. The door then starts moving back to the scare floor. They hide behind it, knowing they’ll be arrested if they’re spotted. Mike pretends to have the kid, but instead spits out a sock at the agents, distracting them. Sulley grabs Boo’s door and installs it in another part of the factory. Mr. Waternoose notices the distraction and follows them, entering her room as Sulley tries to say goodbye. Sulley confronts him, saying they don’t need to be kidnapping children to keep the company going. Mr. Waternoose announces he’ll kidnap a thousand children before he lets the company die and hits Sulley, grabbing at the kid. He then realises the kid is not Boo and is the robot from the simulator. The screen comes up, showing Mike behind it, with the recording of Mr. Waternoose’s confession being played to the CDA.
Mr. Waternoose is promptly arrested and warns that the company is going under and that there will definitely be an energy crisis now. Roz is revealed to be working undercover with the CDA as their No. 1, for the last two and half years, now seeing that Mr. Waternoose was behind it all. Roz says Boo has to be sent home now, with the door shredded so she can never return. She allows Sulley and Boo to have a goodbye. In her room again, Boo excitedly shows Sulley all her toys, but Sulley lets her know he has to go now. Sadly, he leaves Boo in her room. When she opens the closet to find him, she realises it’s just a closet.
Sometime later, Monsters, Inc. is now an energy company that makes kids laugh for its power with Mike one of the top comedians and Sulley running the company. We learn that laughter is ten times more powerful than screams. Celia says a shipment of the magazine Business Shriek has just arrived with Mike and Sulley on the cover. Mike takes a look and they see the barcode is covering Mike’s face, but like with the TV advert, Mike doesn’t care. Sulley looks at his clipboard and flips to the back, showing he still has Boo’s picture of the two of them and a piece of her door. Mike says he needs to show Sulley something and takes him to a room, where we see Boo’s door has been put back together, by Mike, with his own hands. It needs the last piece to work. Sulley slides in the last piece, and the door activates. Sulley goes in, and smiles widely as he hears “Kitty” called once again.
CHARACTERS & CAST
James P. Sullivan, mostly known as Sulley, is the top scarer at Monsters, Inc. meaning he can be ferocious and menacing. With his large frame, big teeth, and loud roar, that’s not hard to believe, however, Sulley is actually just cuddly behind all that. Sulley has been told, like all monsters, that human children are toxic, making the monsters fear the children as much as the children fear them, but when he meets Boo, he learns that is not the case, and feels very protective of her, wanting to send her home, but not at any cost. He can see how scared she is of Randall and doesn’t want her to have to encounter him again. Sulley leads the new energy revolution because of his and Mike’s experience with Boo, making Monstropolis and the human world a happier place.
Sulley was voiced by John Goodman, who had previously voiced Pacha in the underrated Disney animated movie The Emperor’s New Groove (2000) just before working with Pixar here. He went on to voice “Big Daddy” La Bouff in The Princess and the Frog (2009) and Baloo in The Jungle Book 2 (2003) for Disney too. Goodman is also known for his role as Dan Conner in the television series Roseanne (1988-97, 2018) and then The Conners (2018-25), and more recently, his role as Dr. Eli Gemstone in The Righteous Gemstones (2019-25). Goodman has also had a variety of movie roles, such as his part in The Borrowers (1997), where he played Ocious P. Potter; playing Fred Flintstone in The Flintstones (1994); and his character Marshall in The Hangover Part III (2013). His more serious film credits include Argo (2012), where he played John Chambers; 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016), being cast as Howard; Patriots Day (2016), portraying Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis; and Kong: Skull Island (2017) as William Randa. Goodman also recently voiced Papa Smurf in the 2025 film Smurfs. He became a Disney Legend in 2013.
Mike Wazowski is Sulley’s assistant, so you’d think it might feel like he’s playing second fiddle to the main attraction, but that is not how Mike comes across. Mike is more confident than Sulley and more outspoken in the workplace too. He clearly sees himself as the brains behind their operation, and although that might not always be the case, Sulley is quite happy to let him think it! Their friendship is long-lasting, and even though they don’t agree over the Boo situation initially, with Mike more willing to let someone else deal with her, in the end, Mike sees that Randall and Mr. Waternoose’s plan for Monsters, Inc. is not right and that they need to expose their true intentions, also warming to Boo on that journey.
Billy Crystal was cast as Mike Wazowski, after previously turning Pixar down over their choice to have him voice Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story (1995). Big mistake, Billy. Huge. Crystal has had a varied career, beginning in comedy, with his role as Jodie Dallas in the sitcom Soap (1977-81) and becoming a cast member on Saturday Night Live (1975-present) for its 1984-85 season, which has since become known as the “All-Star Cast” season, with other big names like Martin Short, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Christopher Guest joining that season too. Crystal is also well-known for playing Harry Burns in the much-loved rom-com When Harry Met Sally (1989), opposite Meg Ryan. He is also a director, with his directorial debut being Mr. Saturday Night (1992), where he also starred as Buddy Young Jr. He later directed, and co-wrote with Alan Zweibel, the movie Here Today (2021), starring as Charlie Burnz. Crystal has also hosted the Grammys and the Academy Awards numerous times since the 1980s and became a Disney Legend in 2013. He also earnt the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Critics’ Choice Awards in their 2022 ceremony.
Boo is the little girl who wanders in from her closet into the monster world one night. Boo is having a great time in Monstropolis, not realising just how much danger she may be in, or how much danger she may be causing the other monsters; she’s just having fun running around and exploring! Boo isn’t scared of Sulley, thinking he’s just a big fluffy kitty, especially as he doesn’t roar at her. It’s only when she accidentally sees him at the scare demonstration that she actually sees what he’s capable of as a scarer, making Sulley feel incredibly guilty and horrible about how he has been making kids feel as these years he’s been working as a scarer. This makes Boo a catalyst for change in Monsters, Inc., for the good – and she made a new friend she’ll always remember on the way too.
Boo was voiced by Mary Gibbs, the daughter of Pixar director and story artist Rob Gibbs. She had previously voiced Baby Kiara in The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride (1998) for Disney, and her voice was later used for Baby Riley in Inside Out (2015), through archive recordings. Gibbs’ voice has been used in various Monsters, Inc. games and attractions too.
Randall Boggs is the main villain of Monsters, Inc. He appears to be seriously competitive and desperate to gain the all-time scare record, to beat Sulley mostly. Randall has clearly been jealous of Sulley’s success at Monsters, Inc. for years, so there is friction between the two of them, but mostly on Randall’s side because Sulley doesn’t care about fame. Randall is Boo’s monster, leading her to be part of a grand elaborate plan by Randall to revolutionise scaring to keep Monsters, Inc. afloat. It may have been considered noble to be coming up with ways of making scaring easier and quicker, if the plan to kidnap children, including adorable little Boo, wasn’t so evil and repugnant. Randall doesn’t care about what he’s doing to these children and just wants to be seen as important and valuable. It’s a good thing Randall was banished by Mike and Sulley because he’s a horrible monster.
Randall is a particularly nasty villain from Pixar, and he has absolutely nothing to make him a redeemable character whatsoever. So, it’s quite strange that Pixar chose to hire one of the nicest actors in Hollywood, Steve Buscemi, to voice him. Buscemi has quite an acting range, playing both serious, villainous roles, and just hilarious, comedic roles. His more dramatic roles include “Mr Pink” in Reservoir Dogs (1992), Carl Showalter in Fargo (1996), and Nucky Thompson in Boardwalk Empire (2010-14). In comedy, he has popped up in many of Adam Sandler’s films, such as playing Walter Lambert in Hubie Halloween (2020); Wiley in Grown Ups (2010) and its 2013 sequel; and voicing Wayne in the Hotel Transylvania film series; and was a main cast member in the anthology television series Miracle Workers (2019-23). He was recently cast as Barry Dort in Season 2 of Netflix’s The Addams Family spin-off series Wednesday (2022-present). For Disney, Buscemi also voiced the cameo role of Wesley, a black-market businessman in Home on the Range (2004).
Fungus is Randall’s scare assistant. He isn’t the most competent of assistants, but that’s mostly because he’s scared of Randall and doesn’t want to be on the receiving end of any of Randall’s criticism or anger. Fungus seems to be an unwilling participant in Randall’s scheme to “extract” screams from human children but goes along with it because he has to. Fungus is later seen to still be a worker at Monsters, Inc., as one of the new comedians.
Frank Oz was cast as Fungus. Oz is well-known for being a puppeteer in various Jim Henson productions, with some of his most famous characters being Fozzie, Miss Piggy, and Sam Eagle in The Muppets, and Bert and Cookie Monster in Sesame Street (1969-present), in the earlier years of the series. He also voiced and puppeteered Yoda in some of the Star Wars franchise, including his first appearance in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980). Oz is also a director, having co-directed The Dark Crystal (1982) with Jim Henson, going on to direct Housesitter (1992), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988) and Little Shop of Horrors (1986). He was recently named a Disney Legend, in 2024.
Henry J. Waternoose is the third generation of the Waternoose family to be running Monsters, Inc. Under his leadership, he is dealing with an energy crisis due to the fact that human children are not scared easily enough, causing the scarers to have to work harder, and for the pool of children being scared to be smaller. Mr. Waternoose is eager to keep the company afloat, and with the new scarer recruits not up to task, he is looking elsewhere for ways of doing that. So, he has turned to Randall and the “scream extractor”. Mr. Waternoose is shown to be a more sympathetic villain, because of his need to keep the company in his family, but shows a lack of common sense and a lack of a moral compass in finding ways to do this. He doesn’t seem to like Randall’s methods initially, but went Sulley threatens to make this plan public knowledge, Mr. Waternoose has no problem with kidnapping Boo if that means he could get away with it. But he doesn’t and that’s why he’s arrested.
James Coburn was the voice of Henry J. Waternoose. Earlier in his career, he was cast as Flying Officer Sedgwick in The Great Escape (1963), going on to star as Derek Flint in the spy comedy Our Man Flint (1966) and its 1967 sequel Like Flint. He also won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Affliction (1997), playing the part of Glen Whitehouse. Coburn had other roles in comedy films, like Harlan Hartley in The Nutty Professor (1996) and Mr. Crisp in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993). Coburn passed away in 2002, with his final film roles being Martin Tillman in American Gun (2002) and “Thunder Jack” in Disney’s Snow Dogs (2002).
Celia is the Monsters, Inc. receptionist. She is efficient at her job, but does appear to be a little bit ditzy, for example, giving weird nicknames to people like Sulley being “Sulley-Wulley” and seemingly being more bothered by her romance with Mike than anything else. But that’s fine, if that makes her happy! Celia does know that Mike is lying about something though, and is very forceful in demanding he tells her what it is. Mike manages to get away from her confrontation the first time, but on the second try, he opens up to her. Celia first thinks it’s a joke but on seeing Boo, she realises it was all true and she should help them get away from Randall as best she can. By the end of the film, Celia has forgiven Mike and their relationship is back on track.
Jennifer Tilly was chosen to voice Celia. Tilly has appeared in many film and television roles, and is known for her distinctive voice. For Disney, Tilly played the role of Madame Leota in The Haunted Mansion (2003) and voiced Grace in their animated movie Home on the Range (2004). Tilly is also the voice of the recurring character Bonnie Swanson in Family Guy (1999-present), and she plays the character Tiffany Valentine in the Child’s Play, i.e. Chucky, franchise, including in the recent Syfy series Chucky (2021-24). For the third season of the Paramount+ series School Spirits (2023-present), Tilly will play Dr. Deborah Hunter-Price. Tilly is also a competitive poker player.
I’d say the characters above are the main characters in the story of Monsters, Inc., however, there are a few others in the cast to mention. One of these is John Ratzenberger who voiced the banished Abominable Snowman. Ratzenberger is known for his long-running role as Cliff Clavin in the sitcom Cheers (1982-93), but has also come to be known for his many voice roles in Pixar movies. His time with Pixar began by voicing Hamm in Toy Story (1995), reprising that role for the franchise. He then voiced a character in every Pixar movie up until Onward (2020), before returning to Pixar to reprise his character of Fritz in Inside Out 2 (2024). Ratzenberger has had a mixture of cameo voice roles in Pixar’s films, as well as more prominent roles such as Mack in the Cars franchise and The Underminer in The Incredibles franchise. Regardless, it’s always fun to find Ratzenberger in the voice cast.
Then, there is Bob Peterson, who has been a Pixar employee ever since its first movie. He worked within the animation department, before continuing his work with Pixar in a story and voice acting capacity. For example, Peterson co-wrote the screenplays for Finding Nemo (2003) and Cars 3 (2017), but has also voiced other Pixar characters, including Dug in Up (2009), and Mr. Ray in Finding Nemo. Peterson also wrote, created, directed, and reprised his role of Dug, in the animated series Dug Days (2021-23).
Finally, Bonnie Hunt is just a good name to mention, for her history of voice acting for both Pixar and Disney. In Monsters, Inc. she voiced recruiter Ms. Flint, who appears in the opening sequence. Hunt had previously voiced Rosie the spider in A Bug’s Life, and went on to voice Sally in the Cars franchise, and voiced the character Dolly in the Toy Story franchise from 2010 with her first appearance being in Toy Story 3 (2010). Hunt also voiced Judy’s mother in Disney’s Zootopia (2016) and its 2025 sequel. Hunt has had numerous live-action roles too, like Sarah Whittle in Jumanji (1995), alongside Robin Williams, and Kate Baker in Cheaper by the Dozen (2003) and its 2005 sequel, starring with Steve Martin.
PRODUCTION
Monsters, Inc. was a turning point for Pixar Animation Studios for a couple of reasons. One was that this was the first Pixar movie to be released after the Pixar team had moved to their new premises in Emeryville, California in 2000. This campus gave Pixar employees a sense of community and fun with additional areas for leisure activities, an on-site restaurant and café, and a theatre used for screening in-progress movies.
The other reason Monsters, Inc. was a turning point is because it was the first Pixar movie not directed by John Lasseter. Pete Docter was instead chosen to head up the direction of Monsters, Inc., which was slightly concerning to Docter, as he had doubts about his abilities, but it was a necessary move because around this time Pixar were dedicated to making a new movie every year or so, to give others an opportunity to direct their own films[1]. It was a long process getting Monsters, Inc. made with lots of story changes and notes, and Docter said it was hard to not take the criticism personally and to just keep going, even when everything felt like it was falling apart. Pete Docter had previously worked mostly in story work for Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, and Toy Story 2 before directing Monsters, Inc. Since Monsters, Inc. he has worked on the story for WALL-E (2008), and directed the films Up, Inside Out, and Soul (2020). He is now the Chief Creative Officer at Pixar, since 2018.
Monsters, Inc. also has two co-directors, Lee Unkrich and David Silverman. Unkrich was credited as co-director on Toy Story 2 and Finding Nemo as well, before stepping up to direct his first film for Pixar, Toy Story 3 and followed that up with Coco in 2017. Unkrich is set to direct Coco 2, though a release date is not yet confirmed. Silverman is most known for his work on the hugely successful animated series The Simpsons (1989-present), going on to direct The Simpsons Movie (2007), as well as some of the more recent short specials for Disney+, such as Rogue Not Quite One (2023) and May the 12th Be with You (2024). Silverman also directed the animated movie Extinct (2021), and worked on some story sequences for DreamWorks’ The Road to El Dorado (2000).
As with many animated movies, Monsters, Inc. went through a variety of story changes during its development. The original treatment was said to follow a monster called Johnson, who dreamt of being a top scarer, but he was struggling. He was given one week by his boss to prove himself, and tasked with scaring a seven-year-old girl called Mary. Mary was constantly tormented by her older brothers, so when she heard someone in her room, believing it was one of her brothers disguised as a monster to scare her, she put a blanket over his head and started hitting him. Johnson was actually the monster scaring Mary and he made a quick getaway back to the monster world. He later discovered that Mary was still on his back as he did this, and tried to return her to her room, but found the door knob was broken and the door would need to be fixed first. Johnson took Mary home with him and tried to figure out what to do. The next day, Johnson went to work, telling Mary to stay in the apartment, but she didn’t and made a disguise so she could sneak out of the apartment and find her way home. At work, Johnson was told her door will need two days to be fixed.
Johnson then got a call from his landlady, telling him someone was in his apartment, and immediately rushed home, bumping into Mary on the way. He took her to his work and told her she can’t get home yet. Johnson said he still needs to work though, and Mary insisted she watched. When Mary saw Johnson struggling to scare children, she took over from him and did well, feeling a sense of power from it. Mary continued to scare, with Johnson getting the credit from his boss. Top scarer Ned started to feel threatened and looked for a way to put Johnson in his place. Johnson then learnt that Mary’s door had been fixed, but needing Mary to help him get the Monster of the Month award, he didn’t tell her and she continued scaring children. Over the next few days, their routine continued, but when Mary saw a little girl, she decided she just wanted to get home. Mary sat alone as Johnson celebrated winning his Monster of the Month award, and her disguise came down for just a few moments, but enough time for Ned to see that Mary was human.
Back at the apartment, Mary learnt that Johnson was keeping the fact her door was fixed from her and ran away. Johnson attempted to follow her, and his race to find her was sped up when the police department and the newsroom started reporting on a story that a human girl was running around the monster world. Johnson eventually found her. They broke into the factory’s door vault, but they were chased by Ned. When they did eventually find her door and activate it, Johnson was arrested and the door was ejected. But the door remained open with Mary inside. She made the door fall from its track, so the open door could catch Johnson, but it smashed, leaving Johnson in the human world with Mary. But he started a whole new life there, helping Mary to scare her brothers[2].
As you can see, some of this original treatment made it into the final story, but other elements did not. The main concept remained the same though; that monsters scare human children via their closet or bedroom doors, something that children have sometimes fear for years. Coincidentally, John Lasseter had a won a student award for his short film Nitemare (1980), which was also about a child discovering monsters exist. It is said to have helped inspire the overall concept of Monsters, Inc[3].
The character of Sulley, who was previously named Johnson, was not going to be a scarer in other story ideas, because it was felt that audiences could not find a monster who scares children as a likeable hero for the film, so he was supposed to be on the sidelines of Monsters, Inc., working a menial job like a janitor or assistant. This was shown in two deleted scenes, where Sulley was an assistant to the top scarer, who was an early version of Randall, and another where he worked down in the scream refinery, emptying the scream canisters. In both cases, it is clear Sulley doesn’t like his job and dreams of being a scarer. It was then decided that perhaps he could be the best scarer, like a star quarterback, and that there would be ways of making him a lovable big guy.
Mike was not in the original storyline, with the original concept focusing just on the monster and the kid, but it was felt that Sulley should have a sidekick of sorts, a best friend character, so Mike was written in. He seems to have always been an assistant to a scarer, but not initially Sulley; Mike seemed to be the assistant to the eventual Randall character. Randall was another character who went through some changes, being a top scarer put out by the Sulley character’s rise to success, and also being a kiss-up to Mr. Waternoose, seeing himself as next in line to run the company. As per the original treatment, it was also clear that Mary, the child, was going to be older, but she was deemed to be kind of unappealing due to her bossy nature and her insistence on running off all the time, so they made the character younger, to give Sulley a need to look after her in the monster world[4].
The filmmakers also had to come up with a reason why monsters would be scaring children, and why this factory of working monsters would exist. So, they came up with the idea that children’s screams would be needed as an energy source to power this whole monster city. They covered the issue of time zones too, by having the scarers take on different shifts which would oversee a specific time zone, so children all over the world are being scared by these monsters. The door vault was created to house all the doors, because there would be millions of them in the world. The logistics and the mechanics of a working day at Monsters, Inc. are made clear to the audience with the scare floor sequence, where we see Mike and Sulley, Randall and other scarers and their assistants go about a typical day. The door vault is another scene that shows how Monsters, Inc. catalogues and stores these doors. These scenes and concepts didn’t change much by the final film.
There were numerous other contributors to the story on Monsters, Inc. with one credited name being Jill Culton, who had worked as a story artist on Pixar’s previous three films, and went on to co-direct Sony Pictures Animation’s Open Season (2006) with Roger Allers, a co-director of Disney’s The Lion King (1994). She also directed the animated film Abominable (2019). Jeff Pidgeon was another name, and he has worked as a story artist on various Pixar movies, including all four Toy Story movies, WALL-E, Up, and Turning Red (2022). Ralph Eggleston worked on both Pixar and Disney films in various departments including animation and production designer, with some of his credits being Aladdin (1992), Pocahontas (1995), Finding Nemo, Ratatouille (2007), and Inside Out. He passed away in August 2022, with Elemental (2023) being dedicated to his memory. The screenplay is credited to Andrew Stanton and Dan Gerson. Stanton has been at Pixar since its first feature, and was a co-director on A Bug’s Life prior to directing Finding Nemo, its sequel Finding Dory (2016), and WALL-E, and continues to be part of the Pixar Senior Creative Team. Stanton is also writing and directing Toy Story 5 (2026). Gerson co-wrote the screenplay for Disney’s Big Hero 6 (2014), and worked on the story for Chicken Little (2005) and Meet the Robinsons (2007).
With the story set, now came time to animate. But with this story being focused around monsters, there were so many directions for character design to go. Initially, Sulley was meant to have a brown furry torso and tentacles for legs, and Mike, still a green ball with one eye, was only going to have legs and no arms. An animation test was made of these two characters having a conversation to see how they’d look on screen and how expressive they might be. It was felt that Sulley’s tentacles drew too much attention from his face, and that Mike would look better and move better with arms. Sulley was then made to be a fully furry monster, although fur was always going to be difficult to animate. Many tests on specific software were run to see how the fur was going to move as Sulley’s body moved. There was even a virtual obstacle course created for the animated character to run through so any issues could be dealt with! It was very impressive that they managed to get this fur to work, and when we see Sulley in the snow, after being banished to the Himalayas, it is even more impressive to see snowflakes in his fur. The snow itself was already going to be difficult, with over one million animated snowflakes, but to be able to put it in his fur was something the animators didn’t think they’d achieve. Sulley ended up having over two million hairs! Boo’s t-shirt was another animation challenge, as they had to ensure the cotton fabric would move realistically on screen, because fabric moves in different ways[5]. There are also monsters with very different skin textures, like some are slug-like, like Roz, and others are scaly, like Randall, or there are ones with multiple limbs and tentacles, showing not one is the same.
The creation of the setting of Monsters, Inc. was exciting to the animators, because they got to create a whole new world here, that didn’t need to be based in reality. It was decided though that this city of Monstropolis was going to be like a human city, but made for monsters. You can see doors with different heights, and chairs with holes in to make way for monster tails, for example, and the grocery store or “grossery” store has odd-looking fruits and vegetables with names like “bilge berries”. Monsters, Inc. was made to look like a regular factory, with different areas for different workers. It was decided that Monstropolis should feel relatable to us, so it is basically a human city, with some minor changes[6].
Recording the voices was slightly different to usual. The biggest challenge was trying to record lines with a two/three-year-old, which was Mary Gibbs’ age when she voiced Boo. Gibbs got the role as she was the daughter of Pixar story artist Rob Gibbs and they needed to sketch a little girl drawing, so Mary was brought in. Gibbs always had her hair in pigtails so that is why Boo has pigtails in the movie. She was later chosen to be the scratch voice for Boo, before being chosen as the final voice actor. Mostly, they chased Gibbs around with a microphone as she played around the studio, and when they needed to get her to say something specific, Docter and her parents used puppets and other methods like jiggling her around to get the right noises from her. The screams and cries were apparently real[7]!
John Goodman and Billy Crystal actually recorded some lines together, which had not happened before, like with Tim Allen and Tom Hanks recording lines for Buzz and Woody in Toy Story. This was due to scheduling conflicts, but for Monsters, Inc., they had three sessions with Goodman and Crystal, to allow the two to bounce off each other and to do some improvised scenes. One of these was the locker room scene with the “odorants”.
Late on in the animation process for Monsters, Inc., there were additional problems that were encountered. One was that the ending, of Sulley not having an on-screen reunion with Boo, which was not liked by some at the audience screening, around two-thirds of the audience. Docter knew that if they animated the reunion, then it would never be as good as what the audience were imagining, so he had to fight to keep the ending as it was, even if it was quite open-ended and didn’t allow us to see Boo again[8]. Another was that the opening of the film was simply going to start with the kid sleeping and the monster coming to scare him, but it was later felt that this didn’t see the correct tone for Monsters, Inc., potentially making viewers think it was going to be scary. To counteract this, an opening sequence was created to get the tone of the movie right. It involves multiple doors opening, to reveal either monsters, non-scary ones, or parts of the title credits, set against a jazzy, upbeat piece of music. It was also all 2D to create a good contrast between Pixar’s usual 3D animation[9].
A more serious issue was around how a section of the movie might be interpreted due to the tragedy that was the events of 9/11 in 2001. The incident happened as the filmmakers were getting ready to do sound mixing on Monsters, Inc. so it was very late into the movie-making process. Alongside struggling with motivation to focus on this film due to their feeling that what they were doing was so trivial, they knew they had only about 60 days to get Monsters, Inc. fully finished, despite their fears over the obvious shift in global politics. There was one moment in the movie that was changed due to 9/11 and that was the part where the sushi restaurant is being decontaminated by the CDA. The restaurant was meant to be blown up, I guess to resemble the CDA’s controlled explosion of a child’s sock earlier in the film, but the Pixar team said that was no longer funny, and they changed it so the restaurant is decontaminated under some sort of force field. Everyone wondered whether anyone would even go to the cinema after 9/11, but in actuality, families were glad to have something joyful to do. It was also felt that Monsters, Inc. may have gone some way in helping the kids cope with their fears, as that is a key message in Monsters, Inc[10].
Disney Legend Joe Grant, who contributed to many stories for Disney Animation, including Dumbo (1941) and Alice in Wonderland (1951), is credited with coming up with the title for this film, a play on the film title Murder, Inc. (1960). It was apparently originally just meant to be named Monsters. Grant was incredibly supportive, even in his later years, with Disney and Pixar animators. Pete Docter said he enjoyed talking over story concepts with him and taking advice from Grant over the years. Grant died in 2005[11].
As with all Pixar movies, Monsters, Inc. contains a number of references and Easter eggs. These include Boo’s name appearing to be Mary, as she signs her drawings with that name; the Hidden City Café, a real café – it has since shut down – near Pixar’s studio that made a cameo appearance in the sequence of Mike and Sulley walking to work; and a glimpse of Boo’s scare report shows that she is scared of snakes, which would explain why her monster is Randall. There is also the Luxo Jr. ball, from Pixar’s 1986 short film Luxo Jr., seen in Boo’s room when Sulley and Boo say their goodbye, and the upcoming Pixar movie reference, a Nemo toy for Finding Nemo, also in Boo’s room. You can also see that Boo has a Jessie doll; she is from Toy Story 2. The Pizza Planet truck can be found outside the trailer that Randall is banished to. This location seems to have been replicated from a scene in A Bug’s Life. The usual A113, referencing the classroom many Pixar animators studied animation in at CalArts, is obvious in Monsters, Inc. and there are only theories as to where it might be. Some say the stars in the sky during the scene of Randall’s banishment can be connected to read A113; others say it is written on a wall in the door vault, although only A13 is seen[12]. Finally, the sushi restaurant Harryhausen’s is named after Ray Harryhausen, a famous visual effects supervisor and animator known for creating monsters in movies such as Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and Clash of the Titans (1981)[13].
MUSIC
The music for Monsters, Inc. was composed by Randy Newman, who had already become a frequent collaborator at Pixar, even this early on, after writing the score for all three of Pixar’s previous films: Toy Story (1995), Toy Story 2 (1999), and A Bug’s Life (1998). Newman went on to compose the music for Cars (2006), Cars 3 (2017), Toy Story 3 (2010), and Toy Story 4 (2019). He also composed the music for Disney Animation’s The Princess and the Frog (2009). Newman became a Disney Legend in 2007. Outside of animation, Randy Newman has composed the music for movies like Marriage Story (2019); Meet the Parents (2000) and its 2004 sequel, and co-wrote the screenplay and songs, but not the musical score, for ¡Three Amigos! (1986) alongside Steve Martin and Lorne Michaels.
The only song to feature in Monsters, Inc. is the End Credits song “If I Didn’t Have You”, performed by John Goodman and Billy Crystal as Sulley and Mike. It is a song to detail their close friendship and their loyalty to each other. It seems like Goodman and Crystal recorded this song together, and the filmmakers were impressed with their singing and their ability to stay in character whilst performing – and joking about with each other, of course! The lyrics actually mention the characters dancing, but there doesn’t seem to have been any actual dancing in the recording studio[14]!
Newman was nominated in the Best Original Score category at the Academy Awards, and won the Best Original Song Oscar – his first Oscar win – for the song “If I Didn’t Have You”. At the Grammy Awards, he was nominated once again in these two similar categories, Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, and Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, winning the Grammy for Best Song. The categories for Best Original Score were both won by Howard Shore and his soundtrack for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). Despite winning the Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement for Music in an Animated Feature for both Toy Story and Toy Story 2, Newman did not win this award for Monsters, Inc. Instead, Joe Hisaishi did for Spirited Away (2002). At the World Soundtrack Awards, “If I Didn’t Have You” once again won the Best Original Song Written for a Film, and Newman was nominated for Best Original Soundtrack of the Year, and Soundtrack Composer of the Year, losing out to Howard Shore and The Lord of the Rings, and Patrick Doyle and Gosford Park (2001) respectively.
Within the score, I particularly like the “Main Theme”, which is played during the jazzy opening sequence of Monsters, Inc. It’s upbeat and sets out the tone of the movie, as Pixar wanted, to show viewers that this film might be about monsters but it’s not scary. I also like the track “The Scare Floor” when the scarers and assistants go about their day. Both of these tracks are instantly recognisable as coming from Monsters, Inc. For the more emotional moments, “Sulley Scares Boo” expresses Sulley’s guilt and upset at how he’s made Boo cry by accidentally scaring her, and “Boo’s Going Home” is another one that tugs on the heartstrings, as Sulley says goodbye. Despite the accolades that “If I Didn’t Have You” won, I actually don’t like the song much at all – but that’s just my opinion. It doesn’t look like there was any other song in the nominations I would’ve preferred to win though!
RECEPTION
Monsters, Inc. was released in theatres in the US on 2nd November 2001, having had its premiere at the Disney-owned El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on 28th October 2001. The movie was shown, as is quite customary, alongside the Pixar short film For the Birds (2000) about a large bird annoying smaller birds on a powerline. It was directed by Ralph Eggleston and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 2001, amongst others. It first premiered in June 2000 at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France.
Monsters, Inc. was also released with bloopers, which was much appreciated by Pixar fans. Although Pixar had originally planned to create some bloopers for Toy Story for its 1995 release, there had been no time to do this with their schedule, so the first Pixar bloopers appear in A Bug’s Life. Bloopers only continued in Pixar movies for their next two features, so Toy Story 2 and Monsters, Inc., meaning that Monsters, Inc. was the last time we got these types of bloopers. It would seem that it took a lot of additional effort to make them, so that is perhaps why Pixar chose to stop doing them after this. The Monsters, Inc. bloopers even include an abridged version of the company’s play Put That Thing Back Where It Came From Or So Help Me, which is mentioned by Mike during the events of the film, for the first time when Sulley refuses to put Boo through a random door. In the bloopers, there is a small cameo by Toy Story’s Rex as he auditions to be monster Ted.
Monsters, Inc. reached $100 million in ticket sales after just nine days in theatres, reaching a total of $123 million in that time. It beat Pixar’s previous release of Toy Story 2 which took 11 days to cross the $100 million marker in 1999. The movie opened in first place at the US box office, with the Jack Black romantic comedy Shallow Hal (2001) opening in second place[15]. Monsters, Inc. didn’t actually come to the UK until February 2002, where it took the No.1 spot at the UK box office in its opening week, although it also took the top spot the week before its official release due to impressive ticket sales for preview screenings, making a total of £9.2 million in the UK by its opening weekend[16].
In total, Monsters, Inc. has made just under $580 million worldwide, and was listed in third place in the Top 5 Worldwide Box Office results of 2001; it also matched this positioning in the Top 5 US Box Office results of the year. In first place was Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, followed by The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. DreamWorks’ Shrek hit the No. 4 spot, but was actually second in the US box office total takings, and Ocean’s Eleven rounded out the Top 5 worldwide.
Due to the potential for huge competition from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, given the fact the book series was already popular, Pixar chose to move the release date of Monsters, Inc. forward by two weeks to avoid direct competition with Harry Potter on their opening weekend. It seems to have served Pixar well to do this. Later, they made a trailer which joked about the competition between the two movies. In this trailer, Mike and Sulley are playing charades and Sulley is acting out Harry Potter to Mike. Sadly, Mike is so terrible at charades that he doesn’t get it for ages, and when he finally does, the trailer cuts just before he can say the full name! Allegedly, Warner Bros. executives got wind of this and demanded to know what Pixar were doing. Pixar reiterated that they were not being mean-spirited and sent the trailer to them. The executives watched it and thought it was funny[17].
In terms of audience and critic reviews, these were mostly highly positive of Monsters, Inc. Many felt it was cheerful and fun, full of the gags and references that Pixar are well-known for. The voice cast was praised and the viewers could tell that the technological advancement of the computer animation was already a huge step-up from Toy Story. The story was considered to be entertaining and relevant to both adults and children. Monsters, Inc. has since become considered a timeless classic.
But although reviews were mostly positive, Monsters, Inc. did not escape any negative critique. Some felt that Mike and Sulley were simply not as great a double act as Woody and Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story, and that the villain characters, like Randall and Mr. Waternoose, were not developed well, as we were not given their backstory and this made them slightly more two-dimensional than they should’ve been. I personally don’t agree with the comment about the villains because sometimes it’s good for villains to just be evil because they are and not have some great sad story that made them that way, but I can slightly agree with Mike and Sulley not being as good as Woody and Buzz. I think the fact Woody and Buzz had to develop a friendship throughout the course of Toy Story and had to learn to overcome major personality differences made their relationship more interesting than Mike and Sulley who have just been best friends for years. Others also said that the humour in Monsters, Inc. was not as obvious as Toy Story, and paled into comparison with DreamWorks’ Shrek. Shrek is definitely funnier than Monsters, Inc. but the humour is not as clean as you’d expect to see from Disney and Pixar, so it is quite unfair to compare the two.
During awards season, Monsters, Inc. had the honour of being nominated at the Academy Awards in the inaugural Best Animated Feature category. Sadly, Pixar lost out to DreamWorks with Shrek. They lost out again to DreamWorks when Billy Crystal was nominated for Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie at the Kids’ Choice Awards, because Eddie Murphy won for voicing Donkey in Shrek. But Pixar did win the BAFTA Children’s Award for Best Feature Film and they did win the Annie Award for Character Animation, specifically for Doug Sweetland as the directing animator on Monsters, Inc. Monsters, Inc. was also nominated in other categories at the Annie Awards, but lost Best Animated Feature and Directing to Hayao Miyazaki and Spirited Away (2001), and Character Design was awarded to DreamWorks’ Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002).
You might be wondering where the Disney animated film for 2001 was in all this, as I haven’t mentioned it in the awards or the box office results. You may even be assuming that Disney Animation didn’t release a new movie that year, because they don’t always. They did though, and it was Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001), a seriously underappreciated movie. Atlantis: The Lost Empire was released in June of that year, so was not direct competition for Pixar, as per their distribution agreement, I presume, nor was it in competition with Shrek, which was released in May 2001. It simply did not do well at the box office or with reviewers, so it missed out on many award nominations, except at the Annie Awards but it did not win.
LEGACY
Mike and Sulley have continued to be popular Pixar characters, showing up on screen and at the Disney Parks. These are some experiences that appeared shortly after Monsters, Inc.
For the DVD release of Monsters, Inc., the short Mike’s New Car was created. This short film premiered in September 2002 with the DVD and VHS release of Monsters, Inc. It sees Mike want to drive Sulley to work, but his high-tech car, a new 6-wheel drive yellow car, different to the red car we see in the film, is too much for the guys to handle! Eventually, once the wipers, radio, alarms, and seats stop acting crazy, Sulley tells Mike to get out of the car so he can drive on alone, but Mike crashes the car, and is tossed out of the car by the airbag deploying. Luckily, Sulley catches him and convinces Mike to walk with him instead. The short ends with Mike saying he misses his old car! Mike’s New Car was nominated at the Academy Awards in 2002 in the Best Animated Short Film category, and was directed by Pete Docter and Roger L. Gould, a creative officer at Pixar and now Disney.
It was later announced around 2010 or 2011 that a prequel to Monsters, Inc. was in development at Pixar, and Monsters University, detailing Mike and Sulley’s journey through college, was released in June 2013. I personally prefer Monsters University to Monsters, Inc. but I’m probably in the minority there. Monsters, Inc. was also released back to theatres in 3D and along withFor the Birds back in December 2012, following in the footsteps of the 3D release of Finding Nemo just a few months earlier.
At the Disney Parks, some experiences based on Monsters, Inc. already exist with others coming in the next few years. One current one is at Magic Kingdom Park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando. This is Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor, which opened in April 2007, taking over the space in Tomorrowland that housed the CircleVision360 attraction The Timekeeper from 1994 until its closure in 2006. Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor is an interactive show which sees characters from the film invite us humans into their world to make us laugh, so they can power their city. It’s a decent show, although it can get a bit samey if you’ve seen it lots of times. Also at Walt Disney World, but at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Sulley is a frequent character at the meet-and-greet area in Pixar Place, alongside characters like Mr. and Mrs. Incredible and Frozone from The Incredibles (2004). Most exciting of all though is that at the D23 Expo in 2024, it was announced that humans would once again be invited into the monster world, but this time into Monstropolis itself because Monstropolis is being built at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, to open sometime around 2027 or 2028.
Outside of Walt Disney World, there are only two other Monsters, Inc. attractions, and one of those is set to close very shortly. At Disneyland, specifically Disney California Adventure Park, there is Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!, a dark ride attraction going through the events of the film. The attraction opened at this park in January 2006. It replaced the infamous Superstar Limo, which took guests on a ride through Hollywood to scout out celebrities. It was universally panned, and lasted less than year, opening as an opening day attraction on 8th February 2001, and closing in January 2002. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! is set to close in early 2026 to make way for an Avatar-themed expansion in the park.
The other attraction based on Monsters, Inc. is Monsters, Inc. Ride & Go Seek! at Tokyo Disneyland, in Tomorrowland. It opened in April 2009, replacing the audio-animatronic stage show Meet the World. Monsters, Inc, Ride & Go Seek! takes place after the events of the film, with the storyline being that Sulley has brought Boo back to Monstropolis to play “Flashlight Tag” there, but Randall’s reappearance threatens to ruin the game as he tries to capture Boo again. Guests can play along here, with their ride vehicles equipped with flashlights that they can use to spot any monsters hiding around the city. The monster cast was expanded for this new game, so additional characters not seen in the movie appear here. You also get to see the all of monster Ted here, despite only his feet being featured in the film. Roz also makes an appearance at the end of the ride and can actually talk back to guests[18]. The ride exits at the Monsters, Inc. Company Store.
Monsters, Inc. characters also make an appearance in some Disney parades and nighttime shows, for example, in Paint the Night, the nighttime parade at Disneyland Park in California, Sulley and Mike have their own float. They also appear in projections in the Happily Ever After fireworks show at Magic Kingdom, the Wonderful World of Animation nighttime show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, both at Walt Disney World, and some versions of Disneyland’s World of Color nighttime show at Disney California Adventure. Although you could sometimes be lucky and meet Mike, Sulley, and even Boo, at some Disney Parks, they are becoming rarer meet-and-greet characters now, but you can still find plenty of merchandise for them, including plush toys, dolls, clothing, and pins.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Monsters, Inc. proved that even with a different director at the helm, Pixar was still able to make a hit film full of heart, energy, charm, and memorable characters.
It is clear why Monsters, Inc. has remained popular over the years since its release, with plenty of further opportunities to move the story in different directions.
Monsters, Inc. cemented Pixar’s achievement and success in both computer animation and story that would be arguably unrivalled by any other studio for many more years, even Disney, putting Pixar at the top of the animation game for quite a while.
REFERENCES
[1] Credit: Pixar, The Pixar Story (2007).
[2] Credit: Pixar, “Original Treatment”, from Monsters, Inc. (2001) 2-Movie Blu-Ray Collection (2013).
[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Meeting John Lasseter 1997’, MousePlanet.com, 21st October 2015.
[4] Credit: Marc Snetiker, ‘Monsters Inc: Pete Docter dives deep into movie’s legacy and creation, 15 years later’, EW.com, 2nd November 2016.
[5] Credit: Pixar, “Early Tests” from Monsters, Inc. (2001) 2-Movie Blu-Ray Collection (2013).
[6] Credit: Pixar, “Designing Monstropolis” from Monsters, Inc. (2001) 2-Movie Blu-Ray Collection (2013).
[7] Credit: Mary Gibbs, ‘Boo Grown Up I FAQ about Boo’, Boo Grown Up YouTube Channel, 15th July 2020.
[8] Credit: Victoria Edel, ‘Director of Monsters, Inc. Explains How the Movie’s Heartwarming Ending Almost Didn’t Happen’, People.com, 12th March 2025.
[9] Credit: Pixar, “Opening Title Animation” from Monsters, Inc. (2001) 2-Movie Blu-Ray Collection (2013).
[10] Credit: Pixar, “Filmmakers’ Round Table” from Monsters, Inc. (2001) 2-Movie Blu-Ray Collection (2013).
[11] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Animation Anecdotes #236’, CartoonResearch.com, 6th November 2015.
[12] Credit: Aleena Malik, ‘Where To Find Every A113 Easter Egg In Pixar Movies’, ScreenRant.com, 1st October 2023.
[13] Credit: Jocelyn Buhlman, ‘Celebrate a Monster of an Anniversary with 15 Things We Love About Monsters, Inc.’, D23.com, 2nd November 2016.
[14] Credit: Pixar, “Monster Song”, from Monsters, Inc. (2001) 2-Movie Blu-Ray Collection (2013).
[15] Credit: Andrew Bridges, ‘Runaway ‘Monsters, Inc.’ Tears Apart a Record for Ticket Sales’, LATimes.com, 12th November 2001.
[16] Credit: The Guardian, ‘Monsters Inc stays top of box office’, TheGuardian.com, 11th February 2002.
[17] Credit: The Guardian, ‘John Lasseter (III): Guardian interviews at the BFI London film festival 2001’, TheGuardian.com, 19th November 2001.
[18] Credit: Pixar, “Monsters, Inc. Ride And Go Seek: Building Monstropolis In Japan (2009)”, from Monsters, Inc. (2001) 2-Movie Blu-Ray Collection (2013).
The Disney Purist 