---Pixar not only has the best computer-animated movies, they have the best-written ones as well. It was funny, heartwarming, had incredible animation effects, the character designs were great, and that chase through the door storage facility was incredible. This was a far better film that piece of dreck called Shrek, and putting aside my distaste for the ghettoization of animated films to their own Academy Awared category, the fact that Shrek beat Monsters, Inc. for Best Animated Movie is just more proof that whatever wins is often a matter of hype or popularity, not the best-written movie.
---John Goodman and Billy Crytstal were perfect for these roles. I’m glad he passed on the role of Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story when it was offered to him, as he was much better suited to play Mike in this movie, and Tim Allen far better for Buzz.
---The scene with the "yahoos" being interviewed by the TV news about Boo’s appearance at the sushi restaurant was hilarious, and the reaction of the "expert" called to speak on camera had me laughing out loud.
---Now that it’s playing on Pay Per View, several things cropped up that I wanted to address. Coincidentally, this makes the second post I’ve made today on a story featuring a reference to a creator named "Baird." (Robert L. Baird contributed additional material to this screenplay, while Vanishing Point(ENT) features a character by that name that (I think) is a tip of the hat to Stuart Baird, the director of Star Trek Nemesis.)
Story by Jill Culton
Additional screenplay material by Robert L. Baird
Directed by Peter Docter and David Silverman
John Goodman James P. "Sulley" Sullivan
Billy Crystal Mike Wazowski
Mary Gibbs Boo
Steve Buscemi Randall Boggs
James Coburn Henry J. Waternoose III
Jennifer Tilly Celia Mae the Receptionist
Bob Peterson Roz the Dispatch Manager
John Ratzenberger Yeti
Frank Oz Fungus (Randall’s assistant)
Daniel R. Gerson Needleman, Smitty
Steve Susskind Floor Manager
Bonnie Hunt Flint (The attendant during the training session in the opening scene of the movie.)
Jeff Pidgeon Thaddeus "Phlegm" Bile (The monster being trained in the simulation in the opening scene.)
Sam "Penguin" Black George Sanderson (The poor schmoe who keeps getting "decontaminated" by the CDA.)
NITS:
Flint criticizes Bile in the opening scene for leaving the door to the kid’s bedroom closet open, because, as Waternoose points out, it could let the child through. Does this make sense? The kid isn’t going to run into the closet when freaked out, he’ll run toward the door to the hallway to get his parents, especially since doing so puts him farther away from the monster, and running toward the closet forces him to first just walk parallel to the monster. Moreover, how would closing the door keep the kid out? Is it locked from the other side? If so, then how would the monster get back?
Walking to work in the beginning of the movie, Mike and Sully pass a grocery store operated by a multi-limbed character that can only be called….well…stereotypically Italian. His name is Tony. He has the stereotypical putting of the "ah" sound at the end of each word. He even has a handle-bar mustache, which I guess must mean that he’s not only an Italian stereotype, but one from the early 1900’s. After tossing some free fruit to Mike and Sally, Mike says, "Badda-Bing," and Sully says, "Grazie," except that he pronounces it "GRAH’-tzee." Look, it’s not pronounced that way, okay? It’s pronounced "GRAH’-tzee-eh." Three syllables. Not two. Three. Gra. Zi. E. The way Sully (and just about every other character in TV and movies) pronounces it does sound like what the word looks like—but only if you apply English rules of pronunciation, and IT ISN’T AN ENGLISH WORD!!!!!!
(As TUE would say, sorry for ranting.)
When Sully brings Boo to the Sushi restaurant where Mike and Celia are on their date, he has her in a duffle bag. Mike, at this point, doesn’t know that a human kid is in Monstropolis. Sully tells Mike that he found Randall on the scare floor with a door. Then he says there’s more. Mike asks what it is. Sully tells him to look in the bag, but Mike says there is no bag, and when Mike does spot the bag wandering about the restaurant with a small pair of legs sticking out, his facial expression is one of horror. Why is this? He doesn’t yet know that there’s a human kid in Monstropolis. Why doesn’t he just assume that it’s a monster child?
After getting into Sully’s bed to go to sleep, Boo shows him a drawing of Randall. Sully sees it and says, "That looks like Randall. Randall’s your monster." Nice job, Einstein. Having Boo come out of the door that Randall was using when you found him on the Scare Floor after hours wasn’t enough to clue you in to that? I’ve heard people who are slow to understand something being asked if they need to have a picture drawn for them, but here, it appears that’s precisely what Sully needed!
When a human kid’s sock is found on George Sanderson’s back before the Scare Floor is shut down in the beginning of the movie, it is placed on the floor underneath a dome, and exploded, leaving just scorch marks on the floor. But when Mike and Sully return to work after the fiasco at the Sushi restaurant, they walk into the lobby, and see a CDC officer holding up the duffle bag that Sully stuffed Boo in. Why didn’t they destroy that?
Seeing Boo in a garbage barrel, Sully is interrupted from retrieving her by a pair of CDA agents who ask him for his autograph. While signing it, he sees the two janitors take the barrel away. Why doesn’t he just say, "Hey, guys, hold up a second will ya?" They’re ardent admirers of his, so they’d certainly stop for him. Sully can finish the autograph, wait for the CDA guys to leave, and snatch Boo from the barrel.
Waternoose picks Boo up after she becomes frightened of Mike during the simulation in which he roars, and doesn’t seem bothered by the idea that she’s toxic. I’m willing to speculate that he knows that the toxicity of kids is a myth, and may be keeping that a secret because maintaining a fear in the populace can sometimes be used to manipulate or control them, but if he knows this, then he allowed the CDA to shut down the Scare Floor earlier for no reason, even though he’s nuts about the power shortages!
During the chase toward the end of the film, why do some doors lead to the doors of beach huts? Are there a lot of kids living in beach huts these days?
Given how much taller Randall is than Boo, how, when Sully is hanging off the edge of the doorway during the door storage chase scene, is Boo able to leap onto the back of Randall’s head?
After returning to the Scare Floor with Boo’s costume only, Mike is confronted by Waternoose and a squad of CDA agents. He tosses a sock onto one of the agent’s EV suit. The other agents tackle the guy, rather than just peel off the sock and decontaminate it. After all, it’s not like that agent has to be decontaminated himself, right? Isn’t that the whole point of the EV suits?
Spoiler Warning: the following disclosures a surprising revelation at the end of the film.
And yet, by the time Waternoose is arrested, and Roz is revealed to be the CDA’s Number One she and the rest of her agents are standing around Boo, without freaking out and decontaminating her, or Mike and Sully, as if they’re no longer afraid of her. Why is this?
End Spoiler Warning.
Why is Fungus still working at the plant after Waternoose’s arrest, after having assisted him and Randall in the use of the Scream Extractor?
Mike uses a microphone to magnify his voice when doing his comedian bit with the kid at the end of the movie. You’d think the kid’s parents would hear him.
In the closing shot of the episode, why does Sully peer into Boo’s room and look in every direction for her but right in front of him?
