Monsters, Inc

Monsters, Inc. is a 2001 computer-animated film and the fourth feature-length film produced by Pixar Animation Studios. It was directed by Pete Docter, co-directed by Lee Unkrich and David Silverman, and was written by Jack W. Bunting, Jill Culton, Pete Docter, Ralph Eggleston, Dan Gerson, Jeff Pidgeon, Rhett Reese, Jonathan Roberts and Andrew Stanton.

The film was released to theaters by Walt Disney Pictures in the United States on November 2, 2001. It was a commercial and critical success, grossing $562,816,256 worldwide. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes also reported extremely positive reviews with a fresh 96% approval rating. The film was re-released in theaters in 3D on December 19, 2012. A prequel to the film, Monsters University which highlights Mike and Sulley's first meeting during their college days was released on June 21, 2013 and is also Pixar's first prequel.

Plot
The movie starts out as we see a young kid laying in bed, frightened while looking at his closet door. Next thing you know, a monster is standing beside him. The boy sits up and the scared monster screams, trips and falls. Suddenly, alarms go off, lights come on, and we discover that it is a scaring practice going on in the training room of Monster, Inc, the power company of Monstropolis. The head of the power company is Mr .Waternoose (James Coburn). He is training new monsters to scare kids. It seems that Monstropolis gets all it's power from screams, and he has a whole squad of monsters whose job it is to scare kids at night and collect their screams.

It's a very complicated system they have for collecting the screams. They have a warehouse full of closet doors, and they call up a particular door for whichever room they want. The door is sent by a hanging conveyor belt and placed in front of the Monster on the "scare floor." When the door is opened, the monster is in another room in another part of the world. If for any reason there is a problem with that particular room, the door is shredded.

One other thing... Monsters are actually more scared of the human kids than the kids are of them. If any part of the human world enters the monster world, the CDA (Child Detection Agency) comes in and decontaminates the place and monster bringing it in.

The top scarer is James P. "Sulley" Sullivan (John Goodman). He is the best in the business. With the help of his assistant Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal), they are about to break the record for most screams collected. In 2nd place on the list is Randall Boggs (Steve Buscemi). He will stop at nothing to be in first place. One night, Mike is in a hurry to get out since he has a date with his girlfriendCelia Mae (Jennifer Tilly). He forgets to finish his paperwork, so Sulley says he'll go back in to get it. Sulley goes back to the scare floor and it is deserted, except for one door, which is still on the floor.

Sulley is curious, so he peeks inside the door. Inside is a cute little girl who isn't scared at all of Sulley and in fact, thinks he's cute. Sulley is terrified of her and runs out the door, back to the scare floor. He hears a thumping sound and realizes that the girl, playing with his tail. He shakes her off and runs into the bathroom. When he looks into the mirror, he discovers that the girl is on his back.

Sulley wants to take the girl back to her door, but when he goes back to the scare floor, Randall and his assistant are looking in the door and are upset that the girl isn't there. They send the door back to the door warehouse. Sulley places the girl in a suitcase and heads out to the restaurant to find Mike. He interrupts Mike and Celia's dinner and shows Mike what he has in the suitcase. The girl gets out of the suitcase, and the whole restaurant is in panic. The CDA arrive, and the patrons are screaming and running, terribly afraid of the girl.

Sulley scoops her up and he, the girl (whom he names Boo) and Mike run to their apartment. They try to hide her as the helicopters are searching outside, but whenever she cries, the lights come on. Funny thing though, when she laughs, the lights come on super bright. In fact, she laughs so hard once that she blows the fuse to the building. The next day they put a monster costume on Boo and bring her to the factory. Their goal is to find her door and bring her back without anyone noticing. Unfortunately, Randall and his assistant are there also, and they too are looking for Boo. It made the news about Boo and the restaurant, and they are sure it is their fault.

Eventually, Randall convinces Mike that if they bring the girl back to the scream floor, the door will be there waiting for them. Mike tells Sulley this and right before they enter, Sulley figures out that Randall would never help them so it must be a trap of some kind. Mike thinks he's crazy and runs in and starts jumping on Boo's bed. Suddenly, a box comes down and traps Mike inside. Sulley hides as Randall and his assistant take the box to another room in the warehouse.

In the basement, Randall reveals to Mike that he has built a torture machine ("Scream Extractor") to extract children's screams from their lungs (which would make the company's current tactics redundant). Randall straps Mike to the chair for experimentation and starts it up to try not to let him talk, but Sulley stops Randall for using the Scream Extractor on Mike and unplugs the machine. He then takes Mike and, along with Boo, runs to find Mr. Waternoose. Waternoose is proud of the two of them for discovering Randall's evil plan. The most important thing is however, getting the girl back home. They head to the scare floor and Waternoose calls up Boo's closet door.

Sulley and Mike say that it's the wrong door. Waternoose says he knows... it's not the door for her, it's the door for them and with that he pushes the two through a door that leads them to the snowy peaks of the Himalayas. They have been banished from Monstropolis. Sulley gets the idea that if they go to the closest town, all they have to do is to find any kid's closet and return to Monstropolis.

Sure enough, we cut back to the scare floor and out of a door comes Sulley and Mike. They rush to the secret room and there, trapped in a chair is Boo, about to have her screams sucked out. Sulley destroys the machine, takes Boo and rushes her to the scream floor to find her door. Randall is right on their heels as one of the best chase sequences in a long time takes place. They race from door to door, trying to find a shortcut to Boo's door in the warehouse. Each time they go through a door, they are in another part of the world.

They finally trap Randall in a door that leads to a trailer in the Bayou. The kid in the trailer calls out to his mother that another alligator has come inside and the boy then clubs the "gator". Waternoose chases Sulley and Boo through a door that they think is Boo's. Waternoose reveals to Sulley that it is actually his plan to kidnap the children. It is the only way the factory can be saved. Suddenly, an alarm sounds and all the lights come on. They aren't in Boo's room after all. They are actually in the training room from the beginning of the film and Waternoose has just confessed in front of everybody.

They are all shocked, and the CDA come and arrest Waternoose after hearing his confession. The actual head of the company was Monsters Inc's dispatcher Roz, who has been undercover for over two years trying to expose Waternoose's plot. She congratulates Sulley and gets the key to bring Boo's door down.

Sulley, who has grown quite fond of Boo, tucks her in her own bed, plays with a few of her toys with her and then goes back to his own world, shutting the door behind him to never see Boo anymore. The door is shredded. The next day, the workers are now leaving the factory for the last time. It is being shut down because kids just can't be scared anymore. Sulley suddenly has an idea and races back inside with a plan to end the company's energy crisis.

The next scene is Mike entering a kid's closet door. He sits down in front of the kid and starts doing a standup routine as a comedian. The kid starts laughing at Mike after he swallowed his microphone and then burps loudly. Finally, the power generated is enormous. It turns out that a child's laugh has ten times the power of a scream. The factory is saved. Sulley is still sad though, as he still misses Boo. Mike then tells Sulley that he has a surprise.

In the testing room, it is revealed the Mike had successfully re-pieced Boo's door together. All it needs is one more piece. Sulley lifts some papers on his clipboard, and pulls out the last piece of Boo's door, which he kept as a memento. Once Sulley places the last piece into the door, the light above the door illuminates. Sulley slowly opens the door and looks to see if Boo is around. Boo then says "Kitty" and Sulley smiles in delight for seeing Boo once more.

Voice Cast

 * John Goodman as James P. "Sulley" Sullivan, a large, furry blue monster with purple spots and the protagonist of the film. At the start of the film, is Monsters, Inc.'s top scarer. After Waternoose's plan is revealed, Sulley becomes the CEO of the company, overseeing the collection of laughter from children.
 * Billy Crystal as Mike Wazowski, a green monster and Sulley's sidekick, who is mostly an eyeball with hands and feet. Mike is Sulley's best friend and runs his station on the scare floor. After Sulley takes over, Mike becomes one of the monsters that helps extract laughs from children, using his stand up comedy.
 * Mary Gibbs as "Boo", a two year old human girl that is inadvertently brought back to the monster world by Sulley. She appears unafraid of any of the strange monsters (except for Randall, who it turns out was the monster that would occupy her closet the most out of all the Monsters, Inc. monsters), and tries to explore the world on her own. In a book based on the film, it is revealed that Boo's real name is Mary Gibbs (the same name of her voice actress).
 * Steve Buscemi as Randall Boggs, an anthropomorphic chameleon-like monster and the primary antagonist of the film. Randall has the ability to change the color of his skin to camouflage himself. He is a direct rival to Sulley, attempting to earn the most Scares during shifts, and is in on Waternoose's plan to kidnap children from the human world.
 * James Coburn as Henry J. Waternoose, III, a monster crab and, at the start of the film, CEO of Monsters, Inc. This was Coburn's last role in an animated work. He is the secondary antagonist of the film.
 * Jennifer Tilly as Celia Mae, a Medusa-like monster with snakes instead of hair, Mike's girlfriend, and receptionist for the company. She playfully refers to Mike as "Googly Bear".
 * Bob Peterson as Roz, a slug-like monster that works as a clerk for the Scare floor, but secretly is the top agent of the Child Detection Agency (CDA) who were seeking evidence for Waternoose's plan.
 * John Ratzenberger as Yeti, he was banished to the Himalayas
 * Frank Oz as Fungus, a three-eyed monster that works as Randal's assistant on the Scare floor, and while aware of the plan, is hesitant to help with its execution.
 * Bonnie Hunt as Ms. Flint, a snake-like monster that trains new monsters in scaring tactics.
 * Jeff Pidgeon as Mr. Bile, a monster, newly hired to Monsters, Inc., who tries, and fails, to impress Sulley and Mr. Waternoose with his scaring antics, but is able to use his clumsiness to extract laughs from children at the end of the film.
 * Dan Gerson as Needleman and Smitty, two monsters that work as janitors on the Scare floor
 * Sam Black as George Sanderson, a monster that runs afoul of the CDA's "code 23-19", contact with a human child, several times during the film, forcing the CDA to shave and scrub him to remove any trace of human contact.
 * Steve Susskind as Jerry Slugworth, a seven-fingered, red monster who is the Scare Floor Manager and Waternoose's good friend.
 * Phil Proctor as Charlie, George's assistant with sea-green skin, two octopus like arms, four tentacles as feet and snail-like eyes. He is friendly and admires Sulley and Mike's work, but calls out all of George's "23-19" incidents despite insisting they have a brotherly friendship.
 * Joe Ranft as Peter "Claws" Ward, a blue monster with razor-sharp claws and horrifying breath.
 * Bret 'Brook' Parker as Trailer Mom
 * Wallace Shawn as Rex (outtakes)
 * Frank Welker as James P. "Sulley" Sullivan (roars)

Additional voices

 * Jack Angel
 * Bob Bergen
 * Rodger Bumpass
 * Gino Conforti
 * Jennifer Darling
 * Patti Deutsch
 * Pete Docter
 * Bobby Edner
 * Ashley Edner
 * Paul Eiding
 * Katie Scarlett
 * Bill Farmer
 * Keegan Ferrell
 * Pat Fraley
 * Teresa Ganzel
 * Taylor Gifaldi
 * Marc John Jefferies
 * Joe Lala
 * Noah Luke
 * Sherry Lynn
 * Danny Mann
 * Mona Marshall
 * Mickie McGowan
 * Laraine Newman
 * Kay Panabaker
 * Josh Qualtieri
 * Guido Quaroni
 * Jan Rabson
 * Lisa Raggio
 * Joe Ranft
 * Sophia Ranft
 * Katherine Ringgold
 * Bob Scott
 * David Silverman
 * Jim Thornton
 * Lee Unkrich

Allusions

 * In her room, Boo hands Sulley a Jessie doll from Toy Story 2, the Luxo Ball, and a plush of Nemo from Finding Nemo. Since Finding Nemo was the Pixar film that followed Monsters, Inc., it was a sneak peek to the upcoming film.
 * Mike goes into a child's bedroom to make him laugh. Inside the bedroom, there are two vintage Disneyland attraction posters: Rocket Jets and Sailing Ship Columbia.
 * When Randall arrives in the trailer, it is the trailer from A Bug's Life, and the Pizza Planet truck from Toy Story is seen sitting next to it.
 * In the bloopers of the film, Rex from the Toy Story films makes a cameo appearance.

Trivia

 * This is the last Pixar film to have a blooper reel.  This time it includes the company play Sulley & Mike worked on.
 * The simulation control panel has the numbers 510-752-3000 on it, which is also the phone number for Pixar's Animation Studio.
 * Mike says that Sulley has been wanting his good looks since 4th grade, but they first met in college.

Cameos

 * The Pizza Planet truck is parked next to the trailer from A Bug's Life where Randall ends up at the end.
 * Roly Poly Clown appears at the end.
 * Boo has in her room a Pixar Ball, a Nemo toy and a Jessie doll.
 * Rex appears in the outtakes.
 * Randall turns the same color as Andy's bedroom paint job from Toy Story at one point.
 * The wall behind the Octopus in Harryhausen's has Marlin from Finding Nemo on it.
 * Nemo also appears on the door of the Trailer Son and Mom when Sulley throws Randall into it.
 * The toy plane from Toy Story appeared on the top left of the shelf in the little boy's bedroom at the beginning.