“I wasn’t scared, I have… allergies.”

Monsters, Inc. is set in a world called Monstropolis, full of just monsters, where two friends named Mike and Sully work for a company that scares kids in order to get energy. Energy is obtained in Monstropolis by monsters going through a door that leads them to the human world, where they then try to get their, I guess you could say, “victim” to scream as loud as possible, where each scream is measured by the amount of energy it creates. For the workers, this is all a competition, but when a human slips through one of the doors and into Monstropolis, Sully and Mike find themselves having to worry about more than just their jobs.

To put it simply, Pixar absolutely did it again when this film came out, by creating this all-new fantastic world that both kids and adults can find entertaining. I would even go as far as to say that it is one of Pixar’s most unique concepts when it comes to that, even topping Toy Story for me. It’s just one of those concepts or ideas that is brilliant but also hard to imagine someone coming up with because of its brilliance, and also just the thought of it gives you this itch that you have to scratch.

It’s additionally very similar to most of Pixar’s movies, where it has a very heartfelt story. What definitely gives it the most heart is Sully, our main character, who is just barely more of a main character than Mike, but undergoes the most change. His love and care that he has that Mike just doesn’t have and doesn’t really understand make him one of the most compelling Pixar characters out there. I also absolutely love his whole arc, which is mainly related to his relationship with Boo.

While Sully is the more compelling character in the movie, Mike is just as great. He’s one of the studio’s most memorable, mainly because of how funny he is. He has so many memorable lines and comedic bits, a lot of them having to do with him being unintentionally funny. Adding to his character, as I said just previously, he has a hard time putting himself in others’ shoes, which creates this really great and fantastic dynamic between him and Sully that lasts the entire movie.

When it comes to the overall humor and comedy of Monsters, Inc., though, I think one of the most underappreciated aspects of this film is how well it balances comedy with serious moments. It can get surprisingly dramatic for a G-rated movie, but whenever it does, you can always expect a joke of some kind to pop up and make you chuckle just a little bit. Fortunately, though, it never takes you out of the situation whatsoever, and honestly, only adds to how memorable of a movie this really is.

I also want to take a short time to talk about the music/original score. I would say that it’s easily one of Pixar’s best, which I don’t really know if that is controversial or not, but I don’t really ever hear it brought up at all when in discourse around this movie. First off, the main theme that kicks everything off is full of so much energy and fun, so much so that it has become a meme in and of itself, but it’s also just a great piece of musical work. Honestly, though, the best parts of the score are when it is used during the more emotional parts of the story, particularly the ending.

Speaking of the ending, I think that Monsters, Inc. has one of the best endings in an animated kids’ film ever. I’m not saying that it is like number one by any means, but its simplicity and just a shy amount of ambiguity make it incredibly heartfelt and sweet. It’s also an ending that makes you wonder what happens next, while at the same time not making you want to ever see a sequel because of how perfectly things wrapped up.

I honestly don’t have any complaints when it comes to this movie, really none at all. It was such a pleasant surprise to revisit this film (along with all of my other favorite childhood Pixar movies), and on my watchthrough of all of the studio’s movies (in release order), this is definitely my favorite so far, just ahead of the original Toy Story. I think it simply has the best balance of all the tones that it's going for.