“Since the very first bedtime, all around the world, children have known that once their mothers and fathers tuck them in and shut off the light, that there are monsters hiding in their closets, waiting to emerge. But what they don’t know is: it’s nothing personal, it’s just their job.” – From the original teaser trailer for Monsters, Inc.
From that brief voice-over comes the plot of one of Disney and Pixar’s biggest (monstrous?) hits, Monsters, Inc.. It’s only fitting that the studio who had created a believable and successful world for both toys and insects would do the same for the childhood myth: that monsters live in their closet.
However, just as the artists at Pixar did with Toy Story and A Bug’s Life, the world of Monsters, Inc. is given an efficient, believable, and yet, fantastical spin. The monsters in the film scare children in their careers and work for a large company called Monsters, inc., in the city of Monstropolis.
Monsters, Inc. was born in the mid-’90s at a brainstorming lunch with Pixar’s many creative talents. It was Pete Docter, (the film’s director), who first surfaced the idea of a “behind-the-scenes” story about monsters in kids’ closets.
At the film’s pitch meeting, long-time Disney story artist and animation legend Joe Grant attended and suggested the title, Monsters, Inc. (a play on the classic noir film, Murder, Inc.).
Monsters, Inc., would tell a much nicer tale, however, centering on two monsters, James “Sully” Sullivan (John Goodman) and Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal, who had turned down the offer to voice Buzz Lightyear and jumped at this chance).
Sully is the top “scarer” at Monsters, inc., a company that employs monsters to sneak into children’s closets each night to scare them. It’s the childrens’ screams that power Monstropolous, where all the monsters live.
One of the children, the adorable Boo, sneaks into Monstropolous. Mike and Sully find her and keep her hidden from the others, as children are considered “toxic.” The two monsters must then try to get Boo back to her room and the human world.
Through this, Mike and Sully learn that by making children laugh, instead of scream, more power is generated for Monstropolous.
In addition to Goodman and Crystal, Monsters, Inc. included Steve Buscemi, perfect as the reptilian villain, Randall, the deep timbre of James Coburn, as Mr. Waternoose, the CEO of Monsters, inc., Jennifer Tilly, as Celia Mae, the receptionist, and Mike’s girlfriend, Bob Peterson as Roz, the quietly obsessive quality control manager, Pixar stalwart John Ratzenberger as the Yeti and Frank Oz (very familiar with monsters after years with The Muppets) as Fungus, Randall’s sidekick.
The cast comes together in a film from a time that could be called “The Golden Age of Pixar,” and one that shows just how deft that studio’s storytelling touch can be.
By placing the monsters in a seemingly “everyday” world, complete with very simple, human names and working for a sizeable factory-like corporation, the creators of Monsters, inc. make the proceedings very relatable.
Additionally, there’s a strong bond between Boo, Sully, and Mike that makes the conclusion all that more emotional. It’s also, at times, hysterical, particularly a pantomime scene in which Sully believes that Boo has gotten caught up in the machinery of the factory, which has shades of Chuck Jones’ masterful Warner Bros. short Feed the Kitty (1952).
From a technical standpoint, Monsters, Inc. was another leap forward, particularly in rendering Sully’s blue fur, which took a tremendous amount of “test and adjust” for the technicians.
It’s also a dynamic, race-against-time film with one of Pixar’s most cleverly choreographed action sequences as part of its conclusion. In it, Mike, Sully, and Boo ride a giant conveyor belt of kids’ bedroom closet doors hanging high above the factory floor (how it’s still not a theme park attraction two decades later is a head-scratcher).
Released on November 2, 2001, Monsters, Inc. was, well, a monster hit for Disney and Pixar, eventually grossing over $500 million at the worldwide box office. The film received a nomination in the first year that the Academy Awards introduced the Best Animated Feature Oscar (it lost to DreamWorks’ Shrek). The film also received a nomination for Best Original Song, “If I Didn’t Have You,” by Pixar regular Randy Newman.
Monsters, Inc., and the film’s characters would continue to remain popular through the years, so much so that twelve years after its debut, Disney and Pixar released the prequel, Monsters University (2013), which looked at how Mike and Sully first met in college.
In 2001, Disney+ debuted Monsters at Work, a series that centers on the experiences of a new employee at the Monsters, Inc. factory.
It’s all a testament to the legacy of the original film. Through all of its whimsy, Monsters, Inc., like all of Pixar’s best, dares to share a relatable message: consider the power of joy and laughter.
Twenty-two years later, still a relevant thought from those great monsters who “Scare because they care.”
Michael Lyons is a freelance writer, specializing in film, television, and pop culture. He is the author of the book, Drawn to Greatness: Disney’s Animation Renaissance, which chronicles the amazing growth at the Disney animation studio in the 1990s. In addition to Animation Scoop and Cartoon Research, he has contributed to Remind Magazine, Cinefantastique, Animation World Network and Disney Magazine. He also writes a blog, Screen Saver: A Retro Review of TV Shows and Movies of Yesteryear and his interviews with a number of animation legends have been featured in several volumes of the books, Walt’s People. You can visit Michael’s web site Words From Lyons at: 
In 1999 Disney premiered a Disney Channel Live Action Movie called “Don’t Look Under The Bed”, which I enjoyed a lot more than I was expecting.
Monster Inc came across to me as an inferior retread of the idea.
Monsters University for me was an unfunny bore (even in 3D).
Yeah, I disagree about that considering that “Don’t Look Under the Bed” was based on a book and was pretty much a completely different thing in plot than “Monsters Inc”.
You got it right the first time. Monstropolis means “city of monsters”. The suffix -poulos, commonly found in Greek surnames, means “son of”.
If my father had seen “Monsters, Inc.”, which I don’t think he ever did, he would have bristled at the solecism of appending a Greek suffix to a Latin root and insisted that the city of monsters should have been called “Teratopolis” (Greek) or “Civitas Monstrorum” (Latin), either of which would have flummoxed less erudite audiences. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the scene in the Monty Python movie where the Roman centurion corrects Brian’s graffiti, but that sort of thing was just ordinary dinnertime conversation in my house.
I didn’t know that Billy Crystal had been offered the role of Buzz Lightyear. Personally I think he was all wrong for that part, but he was perfect in the role of Mike.
Pixar actually did a text animation of Buzz lip-synching to a line from one of Crystal’s films for consideration of the role (they did something similar with Woody when they thought of Tom Hanks to portray the cowboy).
“Waternoose” is an easy contender for “Most Ridiculous Names for a Villain”.
Notable also for “Put That Thing Back Where It Came From”, the Musical!
“Or so help me!”
Always loved Monsters Inc., but was really ticked that Monters University was having Mike and Sully “meet” The teaser trailer specifically mentions them in 5th grade together. Then in film the “jealous of my looks since the 4th grade” further cements this. I was steamed!!! Did Pixar FORGET?
No, they didn’t, and they have spoken about it, and attempted to make the film with the two beginning in Grammer school!
What’s interesting, Monsters U turned out to be an exceptional film, and works on nearly all levels!
So…I forgive them. Mostly.
While I actually do still like Shrek, in retrospect I’d say that Monsters, Inc. should have won the Oscar that year. The chemistry between Goodman and Crystal is a strong argument for getting the leads to record voices in the same session more often for animated features.
Two other things I want to mention related to the film:
One chapter of Kevin Murphy’s A Year at the Movies details his family’s experience smuggling their Thanksgiving dinner into the theater to eat while they watched Monsters, Inc. (no, seriously, a full Thanksgiving dinner), and the highlight of the chapter is Murphy’s son’s reaction to the opening scene of the film. It’s a great story, worth checking out the book for.
And then there’s the best intra-credits scene I’ve yet watched, one I honestly don’t expect to see surpassed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqaHBfBSSuc
Pixar’s movies always made my childhood special, but Monsters, Inc. remains my favorite of them all over 20 years after I first saw it in theaters. Mike and Sulley are such great characters thanks to the brilliant vocal performances by Billy Crystal and John Goodman respectively.