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Review: Monsters, Inc.
Before I get to the review, I want to mention that I saw this at the crappy theater in holland. The sound system is super assy, and the screen is kinda small. I've seen many movies here, but the Holland 7 always kinda taints a movie for me just because the theater is dirty and the sights and sounds aren't to par with a state of the art theater. Also our showing was led off by the Star Wars Episode II trailer (which wasn't really very interesting) and a Pixar short. I love shorts before films. I wish that this was standard practice. All movies. At least, all comedies anyway, should start off with a short. And this one was hilarious.
Since this is a computer animated film, I'm gonna start by talking a little about the CG. I don't feel like Monsters Inc has hugely advanced the state of the art for computer animated graphics with this film. There are however exceptions: especially in James, John Goodman's character. They hair system they used on the gigantic blue-with-purple-spots monster is simply stunning. There are some scenes where I simply couldn't take my eye off of it. Also the finale which takes place in a gigantic room with a roller coaster like system of children's closet doors whizzing through the air is absolutely a site to behold.
There are other exceptins too, but really what Monsters, Inc. has done is taken the state of the art CG that pixar has perfected, and used it to tell a story. And I think that it might be awhile before a movie comes a long and is able to up the ante as much as Toy Story and Toy Story 2 did. I think this is much more akin to a Bug's Life, where they broke less new ground in the rendering techniques, and instead tried to do more with the characters.
The look of the film is simply stunning. The warm tones of past pixar movies have been chucked out the door for blues and purples and neon green. But when monsters pass into the human's world, you feel as if you might be back in Toy Story... but why would you want to when this world is so interesting? The centerpiece is the Monsters, Inc factory which has a look that is sorta like a factory with a bit of airport stirred in. But then all skewed. Thats where this movie has really taken off: previous Pixar efforts have all taken place in a relatively believable world (assuming that you believe bugs or toys can talk). They take place in a subset of our world. But MI takes place in what might be thought of as a parallel world with gateways (read:childrens closet doors) back to ours. So the artists were given a chance to truly create something unique.
Now I'm going to try to give you a brief summary of the plot without spoiling anything. The main characters are the blue and purple hairy James (John Goodman) and the little green one eyed Mike (Billy Crystal). The main enemy is a chameleon monster named Randall (Steve Buscemi). Other notable smaller parts are voiced by Frank Oz and John Ratzenberger.
Anyway, James and Mike work at Monsters, Inc. The factory is a power plant... but in Monstropolis, they don't use coal or natural gas. Rather they use the power generated by the screams of children. Using a complex system where doors open into Children's Closets, the monsters run in, get their scream, and the juice is collected. It's dangerous work because children are lethal to monsters. One touch, and a monster is dead! James is the best scarer of all time... until his rivalry with Randall goes wrong, and a little girl (nicknamed 'Boo') accidentally comes back to Monstropolis.
The bulk of the show then revolves around Mike and James dealing with this tiny (and adorable) "Monster" that they have accidentally been stuck with. While trying to get her home, protect her from the Bad Guys, and unraveling the secret plot, good times are had by all.
The voice acting is all fairly solid. And I'm not particularly fond of Billy Crystal any more. I was really worried that his baggage was going to carry over into the character and his lame humor would drag everything down. But they /almost/ never let that happen. And Goodman just has great charisma as a voice. What a lucky man. I'd kill to get to be a voice in a Disney or Pixar film, and he's already got a chance to do both! (To say nothing of practically having a guaranteed part in every Coen bros. movie. What a sweet gig!). But as you would expect, all the voice acting was top notch.
The score was excellent for the film. I'm not going to comment on the sound effects because (as I said above) I saw this film in a crappy theater so its just not fair for me to mention that the audio clipped a bit in places and the surround sound effects weren't very good. I purely blame my theater.
Worth noting is that this is the first Pixar film not directed by John Lasseter, and I think it shows. The pixar trademark of being family friendly, but just skewed enough to make it fun for adults is definitely strong here, but MI is a little edgier then its predecessors.
Pixar's deal with the devil (read:disney :) is almost at an end, and I'm really interested to see what they're going to do after they have free reign to create films on their own. But as long as they are producing films as solid is this one, I'll continue to show up to the theater on opening night. The eye candy. The humor. It's just a class act in an age where most movies have none. I still think TS2 is a better film, but you're not going to see many better all-ages movies this year. Unless of course Harry Potter is everything it could be...
Whats wrong with BC? Is it something I missed? Which is very possible since I don't pay much attention to hollywood stuff. But I have always like billy. just my $0.00002
I saw the movie and really enjoyed it. I think Disney may feel they really can't afford to take too many really big chances with Pixar movies; they are REALLY expensive to produce, and take an awfully long time to perfect.
:)
I saw a preview for some cheezy Fox CG movie coming out soon (can't remember the name) and it reminded me just of how much of a risk Disney & Pixar *do* take compared to their competitors. The CG wasn't even in the same league of the CG in MI. Kids may not notice this; Parents will.
....
I thought MI was a really topical film; did anyone else notice the Rolling Blackouts headline on the newspaper (obviously a recent addition to the film), or the parallels with Anthrax investigations (when "decontaminating" clothes & buildings from children)? I derived a really useful moral from the story--things are never really as scary or as bad as they might seem. Yeah, this sounds simplistic but it's a nice dose of comfort these days.
I waited until the 9:15 showing last night so as to avoid as many smaller kids in the theatre as possible.
First off, the Episode II trailer was more of a "teaser." I liked having the only sound be Darth's breathing, but the clips seemed so short (5 seconds or less each?) that it was difficult to get any senese of the movie. In addition, I am not sure I am glad to see that Lucas decided to put the teaser before Monsters, Inc. I think it definitely says something about E.2.'s intended audience.
Also, has anyone else noticed that we are getting more and more in front of movies these days? I went and saw K-Pax last weekend. 23 minutes of commercials and previews. Monsters was not as bad, but was still up over 17 minutes of previews. By the time the movie starts, I frequently have forgetten what I came to see.
To the movie at hand: The bedrooms seemed almost straight out of Toy Story. A great scene is when you see the "scarers" (as opposed to the paperwork monsters) coming out of the light in slow-motion. It has been done in so many fighter-pilot movies, and worked really well here.
The two janitors were highly annoying. They reminded me of characters from another movie/show that I cannot think of right now. They should have been dropped.
The CGI was great. I am glad to see that Pixar is getting better and better at human beings (by far one of the more difficult things to realistically render). Boo looked halfway decent.
For the sound: I am still waiting to see a movie that uses theatre digital surround to its full advantage well. What was interesting last night was that one of Goodman's roars was so loud that it shook the ceiling of the threatre, causing a vibration on top of the speakers.
In all, it was a good movie. Toy Story and Shrek were still better, but I think that most kids and most CGI fans should see this one in the threatre. I would give it 2.5 stars out of 5.
If only I could have talked my friend into seeing "The One" instead...
- (c) 2018 Hank Zimmerman
1. The absurdity of the children's mythology of monsters. The film turns this on its head by having the monsters believe (incorrectly) that a child's touch will kill them (You get this real early on; this is a very insignificant spoiler).
2. The evils of big business, and how obvious smart solutions are both easier and usually ignored (Take THAT, MPAA).
3. Usually, a children's movie like this has a hero who has to overcome some evil force, which the hero conquers with the help of the good guys. ...
****MINOR SPOILER WARNING****
4. The possible negative effects of fame.
I especially liked how the seemingly self-centered Mike didn't mind being obscured on TV or on the magazine; it showed his flaw was in his inferiority complex, not in his self-centeredness, and made the ending a solution to his inferiority complex.
I didn't think they did the outtake reel until the movies been out for a few weeks and then want to draw the grownups back again...or at least thats what I understood from the last few.
:-(
I never catch the big movies for the first two or three weeks anyways as I'm trying to catch the little indies that are going to be gone before the ink in the newspaper is dry
clif
I was privileged enough to get to see this film at one of the few theatres equiped with a digital projection system. All I have to say is that my jaw never came off the floor. The picture was by far the crispest, clearest picture I've ever seen. Throughout the entire movie every single strand of hair on John Goodman's character was distinct and had it's own amount of bounce. By far the most technically impressive movie I've seen. I really think that if the picture hadn't been as clear it wouldn't have been as impressive.
Wired News: Monsters, Inc. Used Monster Tools.
Great article (although a little short) on the tools used to create the movie. Modelling is done on SGI workstations, but the final rendering is done on Sun hardware. If you watch the end credits of any Pixar movie, they tell you so.
Boom! There is your movie.
If you don't mind me asking, where do you get your information? You sure make it sound easy to make a full-length CG movie.
I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
Alright, I saw this movie last night and thought it was awesome! Some people have been saying that it wasn't groundbreaking or that it wasn't up to par with Toy Story, etc. Personally, I don't really care too much about that - I went into the movie looking for a few laughs and got much more than I expected.
1) The voice acting was great. John Goodman's character (Sully) was hilarious. He had that gentle giant quality about him, due in large part to Goodman's voice presence. This is not to take anything away from Billy Crystal's and Steve Buschemi's characters, but Goodman really carried this film as far as personality.
2) The animation was good. From a strictly technical point of view, the fur/hair systems were excellent, and the rest of the CG was right up to par with what I was expecting from Pixar. While it didn't really break new ground, I don't know that it really needed to. The graphics were good enough that I really didn't notice them after the first few minutes of the movie.
3) There is some great cinematography in the movie. The door-riding roller coaster scene was absa-frickin-lutely crazy. I was actually tense watching them hang on and jump from door to door. Various other scenes in the movie make very effective, though less noticable, use of camera angles and colors and composition to give a great sense of feel to the scene.
4) As was noted in another post, the movie touched on some ethical/moral issues in a very light-hearted, kid-accessible kind of way. That was nice to see.
5) The animated short, 'For the Birds', at the beginning of the movie had me and my friends rolling. Pixar has a snippet of it up on their web site, but you really should see the whole thing. If you go see this movie, definitely get there in time for the previews. I would pay a couple bucks out of my ticket price just to see that short again. BTW, the snippet is here on the Pixar site.
Okay, this is getting rather lengthy, so let me stop while I'm ahead. Long story short, I would recommend this movie to anyone with a sense of humor, especially those with kids.
For the most part, the trailers on a movie are up to the discretion of some employee at the theater. Some movie prints come with one (or rarely two) trailers attached, which must be shown with that movie. Monsters came with the Star Wars teaser. Every other trailer spliced onto that movie came out of the theater's trailer cabinet and was selected on the basis of the tastes and sensibilities of whoever was in charge of assembling that movie for projection.
Try this sometime: go to two different screens in the same theater that are showing the same movie (just stop into a second screen for the previews after seeing the movie the first time). Most likely, the trailers will differ even within the same movie theater, unless the film person is remarkably consistent.
I'm pretty sure that was just Jessie she handed him, as well as the rubber ball that Buzz bounces off of when he proves he can fly, which was also in the Al's Toy Barn commercial in TS2, which first its start in the short Luxo Jr. (The lamps)
Didja see the Gallagher reference towards the very end? Monster with a watermellon and a Sledge-o-matic.
Leveling up builds character.
i did the opposite yesterday in boston. i had time on early friday afternoon so i saw "monsters inc." and then immediately "the one." i believe i was the only one that laughed when i heard the line "there WILL be only one" near the end of the movie as if exchanging "will" for "can" will make it not a highlander ripoff. but, regardless, anyone can tell it's a highlander ripoff by the trailers and previews.
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I'm just an ordinary man with nothing to lose.
I could swear some things flashed by quickly
during the initial factory walk-through scene
and the street store-front scene that were jokes,
or quick reference to Lucas or Disney works.
I caught the produce names, but some of the wall
posters went by so fast, that I'd have to wait for DVD stop motion.
"For the Birds" was funny...I liked the part with the larger "stork" bird hanging upside down by his toes as the 2 "instigators" were pecking at the stork's toes. The looks on the faces of 1 or 2 of the little birds that "see it coming" when/if the stork lets go of the wire.
Heh, I've seen that look before...like when Flic knocks over the offering...the eyes get real big and the "OooHhhh, Noooo" escapes.
(I found it funny because a recovery disk I used one time did its job *too* well...fdisked 2 drives in a heart beat....I said "ooohh, nooo" just like Flic did. Art imitates life, eh?)
Monsters, Inc. was a very watchable movie and I do recommend it, but it was not as funny as I thought it was going to be.
It was more of a "smirk and chuckle" than a "laugh hysterically" film.
Billy Crystal's voice was a decent choice, but a less grating voice would have been better.
Nathan Lane springs to mind (Timone, from the Lion King). BC and NL have the same vocal qualities, but Lane comes off smoother than Crystal, I think.
The rendering of the characters was excellent and I kept looking for a "beauty shot" like in Shrek (The lady dragon scenes and when Shrek is yelling at the donkey and you see the air moving over the donkey's fur... that kind of detail)
I'm fairly shure those kinds of details are there and maybe I missed them....Oh, wait, the close op of Sully on the closet door trolley (the kind like those found in a dry cleaner?) as he moves through the air. Dang, maybe I'll see it again.
Personally, I wonder what are some of the best voice and screen actors out there.
Goodman is one, Anthony Hopkins is another who should be added to some of these films as well. Hopkins voice on the tapes in "Hannibal" (and in the movie, too) carries such a presence of *evil* much in the same way Goodman's voice carries a feeling of conviviality/joviality and friendlieness.
And Frank Oz's talents did not go unnoticed...if only I could place the voices he applied to which characters. That is a tough one.
Any ideas?
Overall a good movie. I did wish there was more "scenes" like in the trailers and teasers.
A little more for the adult audience due to the "chemistry" that Goodman and Crystal have.
Watch the trailer, then the movie and the "outer Magnolia?, that's outer Mongolia...." bit.
I guess "Who's on First?" spoiled me, sight, sound and voice gags where even if you miss one or two of the pieces it is still funny, reguardless.
If it is not on fire, it is a software problem.
There have been many previous examples of CG hair in film and commercials, for photorealistic hair. Probably the best example was the remake of Mighty Joe Young, done by Dream Quest Images and ILM. Actually the guy that wrote the hair renderer for DQI, Rev Lebaredian, later made a product based on it called JIG, which has been used for many hair rendering related projects:
JIGJIG hair gallery
JIG credits
Many other FX studios have created their own propietary solutions or used the something like the Curve primitive in Photorealistic RenderMan. Many early project include a commercial with bees by PDI, the Island of Dr. Moreau by Digital Domain, Jumanji by ILM and many others. Other ones include Episode 1 which have many examples of hairy creatures. There has even been CG hair applied to real persons, like in What Lies Beneath.
Early CG hair (1995)FX for Jumanji (1996)
Articles on Might Joe Young
Hair in Mighty Joe Young
Though of course Pixar did an amazing job with Sulley's hair for this film. They actually made a presentation this past SIGGRAPH at the FX R&D course. You could probably also get some onfo by looking through archives of the RenderMan newsgroup.
The trailer where they flung the Buscemi character into near the end was the same trailer that had the Big Bug City beneath it in A Bug's Life, which is where the Pizza Planet Delivery guy from Toy Story lives (the pickup with the rocket on top is parked out side). Yes, I am a Pixar nerd.
The music is not in the piano -Clement Mok
Pixar has this thing for procedural shaders, which is what RenderMan is all about. Most non-Pixar high end CG work is done by going out and photographing textures, then mapping them onto models which are then rendered by ray-tracing or radiosity. Pixar does most, if not all, of their textures procedurally. Textures are programmed in a C-like language.
With texture maps, if you get too close, the texture has to be blown up over multiple pixels and blurred, an ugly effect very familar to gamers. Since Pixar's procedural shaders can be computed at arbitrarily close intervals, Pixar's materials remain clear in extreme close-ups. That's what gives Pixar work that hyper-clear look.
It's tough to match procedural textures to the real world (although everbody now does water procedurally), which is why RenderMan isn't used much in work that has to match live action.