Monsters, Inc. [DVD]

From the crew at Pixar (Toy story, A Bug’s life) comes “Monsters Inc.”, a story set amidst the world of monsters. The set-up is simple: at Monsters Incorporated, the staff (a delightfully bizarre looking myriad of creatures) work hard at eliciting screams from scared children, which are then bottled and used to power Monstropolis, the city where the monsters live. Sully, the top scarer at Monster’s Inc., gets into strife one night when he accidentally lets a child (a dangerous and toxic being in the monster world) over to the other side of her bedroom door. Sully and Mike (his best buddy) struggle to get Boo safely back to her bedroom, and keep her from the clutches of the CDA (Child Detection Agency). Of all the feature length films made by Pixar, this is the first to be set in a fictional world, which allows the animators a limitless palette in which to flex their imagination. The computer animation of “Monsters Inc.” is superb and the humour consistent throughout. One of the finest sequences of the film is a ride through a cavernous chamber, with Boo, Mike and Sully jumping from door to door through various countries, in search of Boo’s bedroom.