Monsters, Inc.

Monsters, Inc. is the fourth feature length film from Pixar Animation Studios, and it is where I think Pixar really found their footing fully. The broad strokes of this movie are definitely more similar to what came after it than what came before it from Pixar, and it is the first Pixar film not directed by John Lasseter. At the same time though, it has everything that people love Pixar for, and does it better than most other Pixar releases do. The movie being told through the lens of a world inhabited and ran by monsters opens so many doors, and the animators capitalized on it beautifully. The animation was incredible for the time and it is just as incredible to this day. The palette of Monstropolis and the monsters themselves allow for some of Pixar's most creative animation to date, while still keeping everything feeling cozy to the viewer. The thing that I think makes Monsters, Inc. such an endearing film is that when you strip back all the layers of the story, the core of the movie is a sense of innocence, trust, and love. The sequence of the last few scenes is of course one of the most heartwarming things Pixar has done, which is where you can see it most obviously, but all throughout the main mission of the characters in the movie, outside of the clear villains, is to essentially love the people around them. It results in a feeling of warmth emanating off the movie the entire time, and makes it somehow more bittersweet and lighter feeling to watch. The voice acting is I think, up until this point in the Pixar catalogue, the best of any of the movies they had released. The non-dialogue based voice acting specifically is so natural feeling but adds some much to the plot. The story is everything I want out of a Pixar movie. It is concise, has a great message, and is enjoyable all throughout. The pacing is incredible, and leaves nothing in the movie feeling unneeded or that you are missing anything. If I had to put it into a simple phrase, Monsters, Inc. is comfort bottled up and shown to you with some of the most beautiful animation ever.