Title: Monsters Inc. Director: Peter Docter Cast: Voices of Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi Rated: G Opened: October 12, 2001 Official Site: MonstersInc.com From Pixar, the creators of "Toy Story" 1 and 2 comes the holiday seasons first big blockbuster, "Monsters, Inc." This movie is about monsters and the things they do when they come out from under kids beds or the closet. Mike and Sully, voiced by Billy Crystal and John Goodman, are a team that is on the verge of setting the all time record for scares. See, they work in the Scare Factory, their job is to go into children's bedrooms and scare them, they then are able to bottle the child screams and in turn use that energy to power Monstropolis. Steve Buscemi voices their main competition as he is out to pass Sully and set a record of his own. The story takes a turn when a child makes it to the other side, a little girl crosses over from her bedroom to the world of the monsters. The animation is even better than that of the "Toy Story" films but lacks the heart of them. In "Toy Story" as an audience we connected with Buzz and Woody, we felt like they were real people. But in "Monsters, Inc." they are just that monsters. We see them as weird fuzzy, multicolored, strangely shaped images, and that is how I felt about them. Without that connection it seems that the movie becomes a cartoon. In this past summers top grosser "Shrek" once again we connected because it dealt with issues and feelings that we as humans can relate too. In "Monsters, Inc." the writers try to help us along with what emotions we are supposed to feel but it doesn't quite work. The biggest problem I had was with the character Mike, because he was voiced by Billy Crystal and it seemed as though the whole character was just Crystal doing his shtick. It has been my experience that when I am watching an animated film I don't want to be picturing the person doing the voice, I want to be drawn into the character so I can be pulled deeper into the story. If I were to produce an animated film, Crystal would not be at the top of my list. I did take my 6 year old son to the movie and he thoroughly enjoyed it. So for who it was made for it hit the spot. There are some fun inside jokes that adults will get and the movie is not tedious in any way, it's just the fact that after being treated to such quality animated films recently, "Monsters, Inc." falls just short. My final say is, take your kids, have fun and don't expect too much. - Ted Pfeifer