Monsters, Inc.

An animated film set in a city of monsters. The city runs on the screams of children. There is a factory; monsters go through wardrobe doors into children's bedrooms, frighten them, and store the scream. The work has one rule: children are considered toxic. Touching one means disaster. Sulley is the best scarer. He works with his partner Mike and is chasing a record. One night a door is left open and a small girl comes through. From there the film is a job of concealment. Hiding the child from the factory, moving her around the city, and finding her door to send her back. What the narrative is interested in is not fear but a lie: the film shows that the whole system the company built rests on one, and that the energy crisis was manufactured. Sulley's relationship with the girl is the heart of it, and the last scene closes on a single word. The chase through the door warehouse is the most technically ambitious section. Sulley's fur was the hardest part of the production. The character carries millions of separate hairs and the movement of each is calculated; a simulation at that scale had not been done before. The small girl's voice came from a child actor. She was too young to learn lines, so she was recorded while playing and her speech was taken from that. The film won an Academy Award for Best Song. John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Steve Buscemi and James Coburn are among the voices. Pete Docter directed. Who it is for: any age; the film is short and fast. Who it is not for: very small children; the opening scene is frightening on purpose.