Pixar Review 18: Inside Out

June 17, 2015June 17, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

Feeling a little emotional guys? I am because I’m so happy at the amazing movie I just saw! I LOVED Pixar’s latest movie- Inside Out. I know it sounds like hyperbole but it may be my favorite Pixar movie. Yes, it may even be better than my beloved Up. I really believe that is true.

Inside Out is great in every way. I loved the characters, world, humor, story, everything. There is nothing I would change. If you are expecting criticism in this review you will be sorely disappointed.

I am going to do my best to keep this review spoiler free. My thought is to then go back in a couple of weeks, once most you have seen it, and post a spoiler review about the small details and goings-on of the plot.

Basically the story of Inside Out is about a girl named Riley (love that Pixar picked a girl). She is a happy 11 year old who is still a little girl and hasn’t grown out of making monkey sounds with her Dad and being goofy.

Unfortunately Riley’s parents are moving her from her hometown of Minnesota to San Francisco, California. This naturally brings up a lot of emotions for a young girl and in this movie those emotions look like…

In the world of the story our minds (not brains) are made up of a mission control of sorts that are run by our 5 emotions:

Joy voiced by Amy Poehler

Sadness voiced by Phyllis Smith

Fear voiced by Bill Hader

Anger voiced by Lewis Black

Disgust voiced by Mindy Kaling

All the voicework in Inside Out is first rate. What I found so remarkable is these characters should be very one-note. They are after all emotions. This should make things very predictable, even grating, but they aren’t at all. Sadness is an especially dynamic character and you come to realize that great relationship between joy and sadness in our lives. It’s brilliant.

The world of the mind is not only staffed by emotions but also is the receptacle for all different kinds of memories. The memories are little glass balls that glow with whatever emotion the memory entails (a happy memory being yellow for joy, fearful memory purple for fear etc). There are also memories for data, long-term, short-term, even a hilarious joke of a song that you can’t get out of your head!

There are also core memories that are the most important for forming Riley. Those core memories are then the supports for the personality islands.

Riley’s personality islands are goofball, honesty, family, friendship and hockey. (I know this sounds complex but it really isn’t).

The 5 emotions are responsible for keeping all the memories in check, the islands floating, and making sure Riley is ok. Unfortunately things go awry when the core memories are lost along with Joy and Sadness. This creates a delightful parallel story between Riley who is all the sudden without the emotions to cope with this huge change and the journey of Joy and Sadness getting home and helping Riley. Plus, Disgust, Anger and Fear have to try and manage Riley as best they can without Joy.

inside out 15 — Riley speaking before her new class

inside out 10 — Joy and Sadness lost in the department of long-term memory

inside out16 — Anger, fear and disgust trying to keep things together.

Joy and Sadness end up going through imaginationland, as well as several other parts of Riley’s psyche and subconscious that I won’t spoil. But along the way they meet an old imaginary friend of Riley’s called Bing Bong voiced by Richard Kind. This was an unexpected, unpredictable and wonderfully dynamic character.

I’ll leave the rest of the plot for you to uncover on your own. Let’s just say all the plot strands end up in an ending that is as good as the beginning of Up. For real….

I cried, it made me think about my own emotions and feelings, and it made me laugh really hard. Everything has layers in Inside Out including the jokes. For example, there may be a joke about the subconscious that may go over a kids head but anger getting red, fiery and steamed up will make them laugh- so something for everyone in nearly every scene.

One thing that Pixar does so well (and old school Disney did also) is take kids seriously and this movie does not ‘cutify’ Riley at all. She is a real person with feelings and emotions that affect her family. Seeing into her mind is the equivalent of seeing into her heart and it is a lovely place. She is creative, different, normal and vulnerable. We also get little peeks into the command centers of other characters. They aren’t that different from Riley (again that respect for kids. I love that).

And like I said the ending is perfection.

From an animation standpoint it is stunning. I loved the way the emotions were drawn so that they looked a little fuzzy at the edges, a little ephemeral. I think Riley and her parents are some of the best humans Pixar has done and the world with the memory globes is gorgeous. There are scenes where we get into dimensions where the animation is astonishing and surprising and I loved the way they did the ‘memory dump’ and the almost charcoal like globes down there.

The music by Michael Giacchino does the job but isn’t quite as good as the score for Up which is one of my favorites of all time. It didn’t make me think of my Grandpa like Up did but I am thinking about what my core memories are. We all have them.

And like I said all the voice performances are perfect. The emotions should be one note and predictable but they aren’t. Just like most emotions they are layered and complicated.

But again also very funny. I laughed my head off. I loved a scene where they found tiles of opinions and facts. They get spilled and the conductor tells them ‘they often get mixed up”. That’s the kind of humor we get all over the place (or pizza being on broccoli!).

Very rarely do I see a movie more than once in a theater. The last time I did was Perks of Being a Wallflower, which is a top 10 movie for me (I saw it 3 times in a week…). I guarantee you I will see Inside Out at least 4 times in the theater and will pre-order it on blu-ray as soon as I can. I LOVED it. I couldn’t wait to see it and now I can’t wait to see it again.

Your kids will love it. You will love it. It’s one of the greats. This will definitely be my favorite movie of the year. I can promise you that.

Overall Grade- A+

Here is my youtube review

Pixar Review 17: Lava

June 17, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

Today I got the chance to see the new Pixar movie Inside Out and I was not in the least disappointed. You’ll hear more about that in the next post. But let’s not let my enthusiasm for Inside Out allow me to forget the delightful little short they had before the feature film called Lava.

Directed by James Ford Murphy Lava is a simple short that is a love letter to Hawaii and Hawaiian music (you know I will love that!). The artwork in Lava is gorgeous. We get wide swooping shots of both the Hawaiian mountains and the beautiful ocean. We see whales jumping up out of the water and everything sounds so peaceful and serene.

As we dive in closer we see that the volcano has a face and we learn he is singing a Hawaiian song. The volcano named Uku is voiced by Kuana Torres Kahele and the song he sings is a sweet plea to the Island Gods to allow him to find the love he see’s all around him. I love Hawaiian music so that was great!

I like that the volcano looks like a jolly old soul but he kind of reminds me of Jabba from Return of the Jedi!

Luckily his song is heard by another volcano but it is buried deep in the ocean. The female volcano is named Lele and she begins singing her own song to Uku. It’s a peaceful lovely duet.

Like I said this isn’t one of their more groundbreaking shorts but I did enjoy it. Anytime I can look at Hawaii, hear Hawaii, think about Hawaii I’m a fan. It’s a sweet little love story. Can’t go wrong with that.

Overall Grade- B

Pixar Review 16: One Man Band

June 16, 2015June 16, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

This week is going to be a little strange as far as my Pixar reviews. I am going to be seeing Inside Out tomorrow along with the animated short Lava. This means I will have both of those reviews out of order (I’m not waiting to post about it! There’s no way!). So I will post about One Man Band today and then Inside Out tomorrow and maybe Lava depending on how long it takes me. Definitely by the end of Wednesday (I also have to make videos at the same time. Phew!).

I have watched Cars but am not sure when I will post about it. So just bear with me friends as we are a bit out of order this week!

One Man Band is a Pixar short with a ton of charm and some similarities and differences to the previous shorts. I must admit to be a little let down after Boundin’ had narration to get another short that feels like a silent film. It’s very similar to the rest of the Pixar shorts in that regard. It also has a similar plotline to For the Birds and Knick Knack where the cocky guy (or guys in this case) gets their just rewards in the end. So in that sense it isn’t very creative.

But in another sense it is creative. It is the only second short using human characters and the first to be set in the past (Medieval times). It also uses music the most effectively (as an actual character in the story) of any of the shorts. The music is written by Michael Giacchino who would go on to do the music for Incredibles, Ratatouille, Up, Cars 2 (and the recent Jurassic World). I think it is one of his best arrangements.

In the sound design it reminded me of Tin Toy which also features a one man band but in the form of a toy. One Man Band is about a little girl who is going to put a coin in a fountain and make a wish. She then see’s a man who has a one man band he is carrying around. This includes a tuba, piano, drum, clarinet, and more. He of course wants desperately for the girl to give him the money instead of throwing it down the fountain.

But just as he is about to get the coin we hear the sound of a violin. The little girl looks around and see’s another One Man Band guy who’s get up is more strings oriented with violins and other instruments. I’ve never seen a one man band like this before and it is very fun especially when all the violins expand and play.

This guy seems a little more cut-throat than the other one who is more good natured. I like how the guy is literally inside the mandolin (or whatever that instrument is).

The two start battling each other with music to try and win the little girl over and get her coin. This is just amazing sound work and music as it isn’t just a jumble of sounds but 2 distinct ‘bands’ battling it out. It is never in doubt what sound is coming from which man.

Naturally as is the case with most competition things get a little out of control and they end up making the little girl drop her coin and she becomes angry. It’s really cute.

Well, it turns out our little girl might not be as hard up as we thought and she has a whole bag of coins and she makes her will known throwing coins in the fountain and making the men chase the coins. It turns out she can even play the violin pretty well too.

So like I said there are some things about this short that make it very excellent- mainly the sound mixing and music. They are first rate. It also looks fine and has some of the clearest humans Pixar had done (look at the knuckles and wrinkles on the finger of the girl. She is much less pasty than other human characters Pixar had done). As most of the short is about music, it being the strength means the short is pretty good. And it is a very funny cute little story.

I guess I just wish there was dialogue or a narrator more of a story like we saw in Boundin’, but it is still an entertaining short, which will make you smile.

Overall Grade- B+

So ready to go to Inside Out! I can hardly contain my excitement!

Pixar Review 15: The Incredibles

June 10, 2015June 10, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

I’ve mentioned on this blog I have only recently gotten into the superhero movie genre. For years they were too explosion heavy and stupid without any interesting characters. With Avengers started a new trend (at least for me) of charismatic actors playing likable characters with interesting stories. Each year it seems they get stronger till last year we had 3 excellent entries with X-men Days of Future Past, Captain America: Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy. Each of these movies were puzzles with entertaining characters and good stories.

During the superhero dry spell there were 2 movies that poked through the dreck Spiderman 2 and The Incredibles. Hercules was actually Disney’s first attempt at making a comic book movie but Pixar’s The Incredibles was their first true superhero movie. But like any good genre movie The Incredibles rises above it to be great on so many levels.

I think every movie fan has certain touchpoints in movies that when they are there it is almost always a win. Some of mine are flying, the ocean, true love, musicals, work, and feeling uncomfortable in your own skin. The last two are particularly prevalent in The Incredibles but perhaps not messages people first think of. But I know for me The Incredibles is great because it is a movie about work and coming to terms with your own story. It’s also a great movie about family and the power of a strong marriage.

Like any good movie about work The Incredibles starts out showing Bob and Helen Parr’s potential to do great things- to be super. But through a brilliant opening montage we learn they must hide their abilities and attempt to live a normal life. For Helen this means be a housewife to her 3 children which she can tolerate enough. However, for Bob it means working in what I call ‘cubicle hell’ in a job selling insurance policies.

This is not who Bob is. Other people could be perfectly happy selling insurance but he is miserable because he was made for better things. I know how that feels. I’ve been in that cubicle knowing I could do more, be more, and it is the worst feeling ever. Sure bad things happen all the time but it is a different kind of awful to be stuck permanently with an unhappy mediocre life.

Bob’s boss is this tiny little shrill man which makes for the greater contrast with Bob and their interactions are very funny. He wants to do something good with his life. He wants to tell the story he’s supposed to tell. It’s the same reason I love The Little Mermaid. Ariel isn’t happy because she isn’t being the person she knows she is supposed to be. I really believe it is an important part of human existence to find out what you are supposed to give the world and then do it. And I’ve been in the Ariel/Bob spot where I knew I didn’t belong and had to make a change.

I also relate to Dash Parr, Bob and Helen’s youngest son who has the gift of being super fast. He wants to use his gift but he can’t. He is told to not express that. He makes the brilliant point “when everyone is special, nobody is”. (You all can see why I like Frozen so much right…same message of a child told to hide their gifts). I can remember as a little girl feeling like I couldn’t share my heart very well. I told my family in one argument “I’m the weird one here but at school I’m the normal one”. Just like Ariel and Dash didn’t quite belong. I think a lot of people can relate to that feeling.

But then Bob (Mr Incredible voiced by Craig T Nelson) gets the opportunity to start using his skills again. And what happens? He is happy. He gets in shape. He smiles more. He and his wife (Elastigirl voiced by Helen Hunt) don’t argue as much. He’s telling the right story so he is in a good place. He’s doing the work he was made to do. He even gets a new flashy supersuit from the hilarious fashionista Edna (director Brad Bird).

Unfortunately it isn’t as simple as he at first hopes. It turns out a young boy who was bothering him during the glory days has grown bitter and wants to enact revenge on all superheroes especially his former idol Mr Incredible. He wants to be the hero but with his own inventions not the help of super powers. He is a very chilling, scary villain, partly because he knows all the villain cliches. At one point he says ‘you got me monologuing!”

Eventually the entire family becomes involved in fighting Syndrome and it is in the last third the movie becomes more of a standard superhero movie but still entertaining. Both Violette and Dash are instrumental in saving the day and using their powers along with the Parr friend Frozone (Samuel L Jackson). I love when Helen tells the kids “Your identity is your most valuable possession”. That’s a main message of the film.

I love the sense of family and camaraderie with the Parrs and it is so fun to see each family member blossom in their own unique ways. Most Disney films are about people meeting and falling in love. Incredibles is one of the only one’s I can think of about how important marriage is. It shows a couple fighting, getting along, and working together. Violette at one point says ” Mom and Dad’s lives could be in jeopardy or worse- their marriage”. I love that!

Like in Finding Nemo there is some terrific dialogue in between the action- along with some real moments of heart. I love when Bob rants about graduation. It reminds me of when President Obama wanted to outlaw 8th grade graduation- the one item we probably agree on most!

Helen: I can’t believe you don’t want to go to your own son’s graduation!

Bob: It’s not a graduation. He is moving from the fourth grade to the fifth grade.

Helen: It’s a ceremony!

Bob: It’s psychotic! People keep coming up with new ways to celebrate mediocrity, but if someone is genuinely exceptional…

Ha! That cracks me up every time!

There’s a lot of witty dialogue like that and that keeps it from feeling too predictable or stale. Edna especially gets a lot of the great laughs.

Syndrome might be a little scary for small children (I’m so bad at gauging that). Some of the work and marriage drama might be a bit over their heads but it is surrounded by the kids who I think children will really relate too. They will enjoy the action and the story is simple enough for them to understand.

The Incredibles is a movie you can watch with your entire family because it is about a family. They are dysfunctional at times and quarrel but so does every family. In the end they all want what is best for each other . They all want their family to be safe and happy. the movie is the journey that gets them a little closer to that goal.

I love it. And like I said if you piece it apart it is one of the best movies about work I’ve seen.

Overall Grade- A+

So Incredibles 2 is the next project for Brad Bird. Are we excited? I am!

Good Dinosaur Trailer Response Video

June 4, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

I went ahead and filmed a video response to the Good Dinosaur trailer. Enjoy! Please give it a watch and a thumbs up. Thanks

Pixar Review 14: Finding Nemo

June 3, 2015June 3, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

Anyone who knows me knows I love being in the water. All summer long I am in every open water event and group I can get my hands on but most of all I live for getting to the ocean. I think about it daily. I dream about it. I LOVE the ocean. I love the waves, swimming, beach and snorkeling to see all the beautiful aquatic life.

So naturally I love Finding Nemo! Pixar really knocked it out of the park on this one.

It had been a while since I had seen it and I honestly regret not putting it on my Most Artistic Animated Films list. It’s stunning. I mean look at these images and how every inch is animated with sea life and colors.

They are so good at keeping the fishes and water moving while they are talking and having their facial characteristics look natural (unlike Dreamworks Shark Tale…). It looks like if a clown fish was going to talk that’s how their mouths would move. Nothing feels off-putting or grotesque (again unlike Shark Tale).

But all that would mean nothing if the story wasn’t great (remember It’s All About the Story). Luckily the story is even better than the visuals. This last time I really paid attention to little moments of great writing. I totally see why it was nominated for Best Original Screenplay which is a huge rarity for an animated film.

If you don’t know the story is an adventure about a widower clownfish named Marlin (Albert Brooks) who has to go on a journey to find his son Nemo who has been taken by a dentist in Sydney, Australia.

The film starts out very sad and without giving too much away Marlin promises his son that he ‘will never let anything happen to him”.

Thinking he is being loving, he is overprotective and Nemo even says that he hates his father and it’s hard to blame him with how neurotic he is.

As I said Nemo ends up getting taken and Marlin must find his son with little clues and a great big ocean to search through. In addition, the only creature to come to his aid is a memory-challenged fish named Dory (Ellen Degeneres). Dory is such a likable, genuine, sweet character. She finds when she is helping Marlin she can remember things, even hard details like addresses. The two have ups and downs but develop a lovely friendship. Dory even says to him as only a friend “when I look at you I’m home and I don’t want that to go away” which gets a tear from my eyes every time…

Meanwhile Nemo is off to the dentist office where he meets a group of aquarium fish most of whom are from pet stores.

Except Gill who is from the ocean and dreams of escaping and going back. These sections are an entirely different color palate than the ocean but it is fabulous. Gil is pretty down-trodden for a Disney film (kind of like Eeyore) but he believes in Nemo (or Sharkbait as they call him) in a way Marlin doesn’t.

Everyone in the aquarium is most afraid of becoming toilet fodder for the dentist’s niece Darla- the true villain of the film! So funny!

Marlin gets stopped on his trip several times including a hilarious segment with 3 sharks going to an AA type meeting for eating fish. “Fish are friends not food”. When you see these giant sharks it is the last thing you expect and so funny.

They also have a gorgeously animated sequence in a jellyfish colony.

Marlin is rescued from the jellys by a turtle named Crush who is also very funny. I love his line “Dude, you’ve got some serious thrill issues”. However, Crush isn’t just a throwaway comedic character. He actually teaches Marlin something about parenting and letting your little one’s make mistakes and try things on their own. Like the sharks he defies expectations.

When they actually get to Sydney the writers solve how he can possibly get to the dentists office by a bird named Nigel who knows the aquarium fish and likes to watch extractions.

He also saves them from one of the best gags in the movie- the seagulls who say exactly what most would guess a seagull would say ‘mine, mine, mine, mine’. So funny.

There are so many other great parts. Like I love Dory speaking whale and Marlin thinking she is nuts. (Despite her memory Dory is one of the smartest characters in the film).

The voice cast is as good as it gets with famous names but more importantly voices that work. Again unlike Shark Tale, these are voices that make sense for the story not just the celebrity. We get DeGeneres, Brooks, William Dafoe (Gill), Brad Garrett (Bloat), Alison Janney (Peach), Stephen Root (Bubbles), Geoffrey Rush (Nigel), the list goes on…they are all perfectly cast.

It’s exciting, sweet, touching, scary, tragic (especially beginning) and absolutely hilarious all at the same time. Mostly it’s a movie the entire family will love and it is stunningly beautiful at the same time.

And I won’t give it away but the ending is perfect. It shows all that Marlin, Nemo and Dory have learned from their journey and it makes me want to cheer. They could have just ended it with the rescue but they don’t. They take it a step further and show the real growth.

It is movies like Finding Nemo that make a Pixar ranking almost impossible. I sincerely believe they have 8 films that are close to perfect. How the heck do you rate a Wall-e vs Ratatouille vs Finding Nemo vs Toy Story movies? They are all total delights. That says something for a studio when you have 9 pictures including Monsters Inc that are so exemplary. Amazing!

I really have no criticisms of Finding Nemo. I had my computer out ready to write them. The music is away from Randy Newman to his cousin Thomas Newman (very musical family!) but it has a very different feel of the previous Pixar films.

I’ll just end with some of my other favorite lines:

“It doesn’t sound like orca. It sounds like nothing I’ve ever heard” Marlin

“Whoa Dude, Mr Turtle is my father. The name is Crush” Crush

“Hey clown boy, let the lady guess” School of fishes.

“Yes, I’m your conscience. We haven’t spoken in a while…” Marlin to Dory

“When life gets you down what do you do? Just keep swimming” Dory

“Yes I’m a natural blue” Dory

In a great Shining reference “Here’s Brucey!” Bruce the shark

“Humans think they own everything Propbably American” sharks

“Sea cucumbers- normally they don’t talk but in a joke everyone talks…” Marlin

“He’s not very funny for a clown fish” Fish parents.

That’s just a handful of the great writing. It looks fabulous. It has great characters and a good story. What more can you ask for?

Overall Grade- A+ (I told you before doing this project there would be a lot of those!).

The only content recommendation is for very small children I might just start at the first day of school as the beginning scene may be a little too upsetting for them.

Pixar Review 13: Boundin’

June 2, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

Next short to review before Finding Nemo is both big and small in the world of Pixar. It is called Boundin’ and it is big because it is the first real short (not counting Mike’s New Car) that has words or vocal performance. It is small because it is the creation of one man- Bud Luckey.

Boundin’ is written, directed, narrated by, and music written by Bud Luckey. You have to go back to the very first shorts done primarily by John Lasseter to find that kind of all-in-one creation, and I think that is kind of neat. It would be fun if Pixar did more of that with their shorts so you could get a real taste of each animators vision and style- kind of like a showcase in a gallery of animation.

I guess the next question is what Bud Luckey came up with any good? I think it is. It has the feel of one of the Melody Time skits, which you may not remember is my favorite of the package films. It particularly has a strong homage to Pecos Bill with the scenery of the Southwest.

Boundin’ is about a sheep that loves his wool coat so much it makes him dance. This is interesting because he is kind of vein but it’s in a very likable way . It’s more like self-confidence than overly prideful. He is so joyous with his dance that all the other critters around him start dancing too.

But then disaster strikes and our sheep looses his fur and with it his self-esteem. Here’s a clip (I couldn’t get the entire short this time) which will give you a feel for the show.

Just when he is feeling depressed he meets a jackalope who teaches him how to jump and that “bounding is better than dancing”. The message is “getting up when you fall down”. The sheep tries it out and is won over.

The next winter his coat has grown back and cut again but this time he has bounding and won’t get depressed any more.

This is an extremely old fashioned short and so I could see it not being everyone’s cup of tea but I like it. I think it has a really nice rather nuanced message about not just self-confidence but finding joy even when things aren’t perfect. I like that the sheep learns to be happy without his fur that he still loves when it grows back.

From an animation standpoint it looks gorgeous with beautiful dessert (and snowy) vistas.

Like I said it reminds me a lot of Pecos Bill but also the old Warner Brothers shorts that had a simple message with lovely animation and some laughs. I like that vintage quality.

The music is also very sweet and nostalgic. It feels like Roy Rogers telling a story around the campfire!

Nice job Mr Luckey. You’ve done good!

Overall Grade- A

Pixar Review 12- Mike’s New Car

June 2, 2015June 2, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

I just finished watching Finding Nemo but before I post about that I have 2 shorts to review. The first is Mike’s New Car which was made in 2002 and included in the DVD of Monsters Inc.

There’s not a ton to say about it because it is more like a deleted scene than a true animated short. Basically Mike has purchased a complicated new car. He wants to show it off to Sully and all hijinks occur.

It’s amusing and cute and if you like these characters than you will like the short.

However, even more entertaining is to listen to the audio commentary for Mike’s New Car. Instead of the normal directors or writers they have director Pete Doctor and Roger Gould’s two sons Nicholas and Liam (respectively) do it. It is the most adorable thing I’ve ever heard.

My favorite line is little Liam’s idea of what goes into making an animated film:

“”they put it on computer and then they work all together having lunch and then they come home at night and when it’s finished we can see it in the movie theater but then when its been in the movie theaters for a while it gets on a video”.

I like how the eating of lunch is an integral part to the completion of the movie.

Nicholas says “I’d like it if they could transfer the car into a boat and drive it into the water”

Liam responds as if he has made this same suggestion before “I think water is really hard to do with computer animation” (funny with Finding Nemo in production!

“And why is it really hard to do water in communication” asks Nicholas

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s just hard to get the blue on the screen?” says Liam.

I thought that was adorable.

Liam says “There’s one part I think is scary when Mike gets hurt in the engine and when gets inside the engine”

“That’s my favorite part” says Nicholas.

When they get in the car and it jumps around and the wipers go off the two boys were cracking up. It was so cute.

I think more children of directors should do an audio commentary! It was much better than the short itself.

“I think maybe when Mike’s car goes off the screen he never see’s it again and he buys a new car” says Liam.

I bet he is right.

Overall Grade- B- Audio Commentary- A+ (Great job kids although they are probably like 18 now!).

Pixar Review 11: Monsters Inc

May 28, 2015May 28, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

Ok. Do I like Monsters Inc? This should give you some idea.

Yes, I like Monsters Inc!

As the 4th feature film from Pixar and their 3rd original story Monsters Inc is a total delight. This time we get a new director with Pete Doctor with Lee Unkrich and David Silverman (of Simpsons fame) co-directing. The story is wildly creative with humor, adventure and something to appeal to the entire family.

Monsters Inc takes us to a ‘parallel city’ of Monstropolis that is full of different monsters of all shapes, sizes and varieties. In order for the city to run they rely on human screams that are collected when top monsters go into the closets of human children and scare them. So the monster really is in the closet!

Our lead characters are a Jewish eyeball Monster named Mike Wazowski voiced by Billy Crystal and his best friend James P Sullivan or Sully voiced by John Goodman. They are a great duo with Mike being the neurotic optimist and Sully being a bit lazy top dog at the plant.

When you think about the characters in the previous films and look at Monsters Inc it is remarkable. Look at the fur on Sully’s coat. It’s amazing! All the monsters are that way. They are all lush and textured.

Randall is the other top scarrer and main competition for Sully and he is a chameleon who’s leathery skin looks so real. He kind of looks like his voice actor Steve Buscemi who is very creepy (much better here than in Home on the Range!).

The plant is ran by an Octopus Monster named Henry J Watermoose voiced by James Coburn.

And Jennifer Tilly is a delight as Celia Mike’s girlfriend with the oddest hair you’ve ever seen.

I’m sure from those character descriptions you can get a little bit of a feeling for how creative Monsters Inc is. It’s also bright and colorful and Billy Crystal is hilarious as Mike.

The people in Monstropolis believe a human child is toxic and that even the touch of a clothing will require decontamination for a monster. They have an entire defense team that sanitizes and cleans anyone who has contact with a child. Well , the story starts into gear when a little girl gets let into the scare floor and ends up in the possession of Mike and Sully.

The little girl who is named Boo is super cute, so much so that she might annoy some more jaded viewers. I think she kind of needed to be that cute in order to warm over the hearts of monsters who think she’s a killing machine. Imagine if she was some bratty little girl? They would have disposed of her right away. But Sully becomes attached to her and they end up on an exciting adventure to get Boo back home.

The highlight is an amazing chase sequence in the library of doors they have both chasing Randall and trying to find Boo’s door. It is so exciting and one of Pixar’s best animated scenes. I mean look at this scene!

All the while the tension is cut by humor from Crystal who evidently loves playing the part. On the audio commentary the directors said they got both Crystal and Goodman in the same recording sessions which almost never happens in animated films and you can tell. There is a kinship and closeness the two friends. There is also a great little cameo from the Abominable Snowman voiced by Pixar favorite John Ratzenberger.

The only caveat I would say on Monsters Inc is it might be a little scary for children under 5, particularly when the monsters are scaring kids at the beginning. Randall is also a very scary villain and the fact he is hunting down a child may be too much for little ones.

That said, the relationship between Sully and Boo is just lovely and something you don’t see that often between a male character and a child. Usually such tenderness is reserved for maternal female characters.

Sully is willing to do anything to help Boo, even risking his and his friends safety because he knows he needs too. That kind of bond is rare and gives the film a heart elevating it beyond a silly kids film.

Randy Newman’s score is great especially during the door scene and I love the finale song between Mike and Sully.

I went into this rewatch wondering if Monsters Inc would hold up and it is better than I remembered it. It’s a delight. Full of humor, amazing animation, adventure and as I just said real heart. It just shows how great the Pixar movies are that it still will probably rank 9th but we’ll see. (who cares about stupid rankings anyway!).

Overall Grade- A (only because I think those 8 are just a hair better but its amazing! I also still stand by a recent debate I had with online friends that Frozen is better than Monsters Inc. It has characters I related too more, a story less predictable and gorgeous songs. Frozen A+, Monsters Inc A. That’s how I really feel!).