Monsters Inc. [2002] [DVD]

 A wonderful story. The world of the monsters runs on the power of screams that the monsters have to generate by scaring human children. They have a whole industry dedicated to extracting these blood-curdling shrieks from the poor, terrified little kids. Each child is matched with its ideal monster and their monster passes from the power factory in Monstropolis through one of thousands of bedroom closet doors - one for each child - into the child's bedroom where it carries out its job and the resulting scream is captured in a flask. The monsters have to be very careful though because they believe that children are highly toxic and can kill them with a touch. The monsters are actually tremendously alarmed at the prospect of contact with a human child. If only the children knew ....

 Excellent characters. The main ones are outstanding. The little girl, Boo is too cute to mention. Sulley (big, woolly, top scoring scarer) and Mike (small, walking eyeball and Sulley's best friend and assistant) have all the usual concerns of the average working man and they're also funny. Mike has a girl friend (she may be my favourite). She has one eye and snakes for hair. When she gets romantic with Mike, her snakes get all romantic with him too. When she gets angry with Mike, they all rattle their tails and glare and hiss. Those animators must have been inspired. What a clever idea. Randle, Boo's special monster - the one that really scares her - moves like a centipede. He's a real villain with a wicked plot go maximise scream power.

 Brilliant extras. In particular two short animated films: "For the Birds" and "Mike's New Car". I've watched them more times than I've watched the main film. Both are very funny. I've found that I can't even think about "For the Birds" without starting to laugh. There's one scene in the film where several of the small, quarrelsome birds are taking the Mickey out of the big, friendly bird - pulling faces and bristling their feathers. You'll need to see it to believe how funny this is.

I recommend this DVD. It'll be played over and over again.

However, a funny thing happened during my ongoing visual and aural animation: I actually started caring about the story, about the characters created only from photons and actors' voices--as well as from a screenplay that is completely inoffensive to little ears, yet also listenable to bigger ones. And the graphics--wow! At times I found myself forgetting that this wasn't live-action, especially during what I felt was the best scene, one that reminded me of a wicked inverted-rollercoaster ride.

Well, there you have it: a film that everyone from five and up can enjoy, for different aspects of it. Aside from the wonderful visuals, of course we also get two of the best vocal acting performances in recent memory, from Billy Crystal and John Goodman. Yes, we also get some of those patented Disney/Pixar fake 'outtakes' during the closing credits (I know they're a bit corny by now, but they're still kind of cute). With all of the extras on the DVD, I'd say it's a good buy--whether you have a kid or not. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED