10.
Monsters, Inc. (2001)
Matt ranked it at 16. Shauna ranked it at 11.
OVERALL SCORE: 13.5

Matt: Monsters, Inc is one of those movies that you can just watch constantly on repeat. Because the world is filled with monsters rather than people living day to day lives they make the mundane and ordinary situation of living entertaining.

This movie reached #16 for me because of how convincing the movie is. Starting off with the main characters, the friendship between Mike and Sully is one of the most believable love stories in a Disney movie. You can see they are best friends, and this is portrayed really well throughout the movie they fight, they laugh, they love. It's all very believable because of the little interactions which are missing from most other movies. Sully also carries this over to Boo with the parental desire to protect her and get her home. It's an angle that isn't really explored with animated movies.

One of the things I really like this movie for is the visuals. It was the first movie I remember that was so large scale. Take the door warehouse room near the end of the movie. That place is huge and for early 2000 nothing like that had been done before. You can also tell even the background characters needed a lot of design compared to other Disney movies as every monster is unique. It was unique for the time, and is easily on par with movies released to this day.

The main reason I like this movie is because it flips the idea that monsters are bad guys. With Boo entering the monster world and scaring everyone so much that the city essentially goes into lock down it's interesting to see the contrast. Also she's adorable, which is another big factor.




Shauna: I still remember when Monsters, Inc first hit cinemas. I remember seeing the trailer and thinking it was a pretty cool concept, and I remember my Dad talking about he always comes up with stories that flip the traditional tales, quoting his improv Little Red Riding Hood where the wolf was the misunderstood good guy. We saw it as soon as we could at the cinema, and I loved it. It was one of the very first DVDs we owned, and I had solidly done and seen everything on that 2-disc special edition on more than one occasion. Suffice to say, when I was younger I was a pretty massive fan.

When it came to watching all the Disney/Pixar movies, it’s the ones that I remember responding to positively to such a degree that I worried about the most. What if it didn’t hit the heights that I remember it having? What if I not only did not love it as much, but I found something that I simply could not agree with?

Fortunately for my childhood, I still found it to hold up really well. Of course, some nostalgia affected my feelings on the matter, but really it’s just an excellently put together movie. The story is solid, and the characters are believable and loveable. They managed to make a small child who doesn’t actually use any real words not the most annoying thing to exist, which is quite a feat. The villains are threatening, with well played out motivations. Although, that all being said, Randall is just a petty jerk who needs to get over himself. I love the unique and interesting designs for all the monsters too, there are no two that look the same which gives Monstropolis a varied and vibrant feel.

The laughs still get me every time, and I will always love the “Put That Thing Back Where It Came From” skit during the credits. I suppose the most important thing though, is the emotional impact it leaves, which has come to be expected from Pixar in particular. It doesn’t have a massive emotional gut punch, but I still get teary when Sully has to say goodbye, and subsequently his smiling face on the final scene before the credits… Makes me reach for the tissues every time.

So yes, a solid film that I admittedly don’t love as much as I did when I first encountered it, but it will likely stay with me as one of my all-time favourite Disney Pixar movies, and that old DVD will definitely get plenty more action in the years to come.