By Guy Wheatley
The Texarkana Gazette

Monsters, Inc., like most animated movies, works with two concurrent themes.
The overt story line gives the movie its premise, and the excuse for a lot of the physical humor that keeps the action moving. It is still funny to see people, or monsters, fall down.
Pixar has again built a computer-generated world around the genius of live actors. The two main characters give us Billy Crystal (Mike) and John Goodman (Sully) at their comedic best. The visual hyperbole that the computer allows would be little more than an attractive screen saver without the personality these two bring to their characters. The comedy works from the slapstick level up to a sophisticated Dilbertesk look at the work place. Movie theaters will be filled with the delighted shrieks of children laughing at the pratfalls, and the knowing chuckles of their parents recognizing workplace conundrums.
Hidden within the humor is a cautionary tale about loosing ones moral identity to the job. We often define who we are by what we do. This person is an insurance salesman, that one is an engineer. The lovable ,and not so lovable, inhabitants of Monstropolis also strongly identify with their jobs. The less than friendly competition between Sully and one of his fellow "Scarers," lets us see how much of their self worth is derived from the job. Their dependence on the corporate identity allows them to develop a miss-placed loyalty, and ignore the repulsive aspect of scaring children for a living.
This part of the movie plods its way to a predictably simplistic ending. The redeeming quality of this film is not to be found in its attempt to tackle ethical issues. What makes this movie worth the admission price is its sweetness. There is a scene close to the end where Billy Crystal's character is trying to get some laughs. He starts out with a sophisticated stand up routine. He eventually gives up and resorts to swallowing his microphone to get laughs. Pixar would do well to follow his example.
As with earlier efforts by Pixar, the computer animation works well with non-human subjects. The animators understand mass and gravity well enough to avoid distracting flaws. So much of the movie depends on fast paced chase scenes. The characters are running through a huge factory. The cinematography effectively conveys the since of size and height necessary for the door chase scene to work. When a character peers over a precipice, the audience believes that it is a long way down.
When a human character is introduced, the effect is not seamless. The baby girl who turns the monster world upside down, looks as much like her toys as the human characters in the Toy Story movies. The audience is distracted, by trying to fit her into the proper context. The saving grace here is John Goodman's ability to convey the growing affection his character feels for her. If the little girl doesn't seem real, Sulley's growing fondness for her does.
This is a good movie that parents will enjoy as much as their children do. Best of all, there are no innuendoes that will require embarrassing explanations, and no language that parents don't want their children to hear.

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