Do you want to know how big of a Star Wars nerd I am?  The only reason I bought a ticket for Monsters, Inc. (2001) when it came out in theaters was because I knew there would be a preview for Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002).  If memory serves correctly, I walked out of the cinema and saw something else as soon as the trailer for Monsters, Inc. was viewed.  I think I might have seen it since then, but nothing about it sticks out in my mind.  For me, it is another of your garden variety Disney films, nothing special.  If you have seen one, you have seen them all.  One of the nice things about many of these, however, is that it is short.  I noticed its brevity scrolling through the animated selections on Disney+ and was sold.

The majority of the notes I took for Monsters, Inc. came in the first fifteen minutes.  It is a simple enough concept to understand, though I was still left with many questions.  These are probably the result of my hyper-analytical mind, so I will sprinkle these in where pertinent.  At any rate, there are two worlds: ours and the monsters.  They are roughly the same in how they operate save for one key feature: the monster one is powered by the screams of little children.  The title creatures sneak into the room of young ones at night through the closet door, which acts as an inter-dimensional gateway. That is way more technical sounding than what this film deserves, but I cannot think of another way of describing this feature.  All of this is explained as part of a demonstration for trainees of the eponymous company, headed by Henry J. Waternoose (voiced by James Coburn).  The scary beings go through the doorway, disturb the slumbering kid, produce a scream, and this affectation fills a cannister, which is like a battery for the monster world.  Where this particular trainee fails is in leaving the door open behind him.  This could lead to a human crossing the threshold into their realm.  The monsters believe that humans are deadly to come into contact with, and all their items are treated as radioactive material.  The company employee that Henry wants all the new recruits to look up to is James P. “Sulley” Sullivan (voiced by John Goodman), a giant, blue-furred beast.  He is their top scare “earner,” and he lives with his best friend and co-worker, Mike Wazowski (voiced by Billy Crystal), a walking, green eyeball.  Together, they are going for the all-time record of cannisters filled.  They have a challenger, however: the slithery, chameleon-like, Randall Boggs (voiced by Steve Buscemi).  Randall presses our two protagonists for the title that day at work, but Sulley happens upon a slumber-party and is back in front.  On their way out at the end of their shift, Mike is accosted by their persistent slug of a boss, Roz (voiced by Bob Peterson).  Before Mike can go out on a date with his crush, Celia Mae (voiced by Jennifer Tilly), with her hair made of snakes, Roz informs Mike that he has unfinished paperwork.  Being the pal that he is, Sulley tells Mike he will take care of the unfinished business.  Re-entering the factory floor, Sulley notices Randall there, too.  The purple lizard is apparently trying to get ahead on the competition by doing some unauthorized work.  Sulley checks inside the room beyond the door, and this is when he has an encounter with the little girl he eventually names Boo (voiced by Mary Gibbs).  She sees the Sulley as a big fluffy kitty and is delighted by him.  She also manages to enter the monster’s world after the door to her room is taken away.  For Sulley, this could spell disaster as the commonly held belief is that humans mean contamination.  Not knowing what else to do, he manages to get Boo into a duffle bag, and takes her to Mike’s date, interrupting it.  Unfortunately, she manages to get out.  The restaurant full of monsters spots her and they all go crazy.  In the ensuing chaos, Mike and Sulley escape with Boo and back to their apartment.  The obvious move is to try to bring Boo back to the factory and return her to her room.  This is made tricky by the fact that they do not know the door through which she came.  Further, it involves sneaking her past a bunch of other monsters in the day time.  There is another discovery they make about Boo.  While her terror has an effect on the power around them, her laughter causes a surge that wipes out the power to the entire city.  Finally, her innocence lowers Sulley’s guard, and he comes to care a great deal for the little kid.  Thus, the next day, after devising a passable costume for her, they take Boo back to the factory with the intention of sending her home.  Everything goes to plan, the end.  Just kidding!  Nothing goes to plan!  In the process of them fumbling through their company’s environs, a few revelations are made.  The first is that Randall has a secret lair where he is planning to use Boo to extract all the screams from her without the need of sneaking into her room.  The second should probably not be a surprise to anyone: Henry is in on the plan.  There are a few chase scenes, an encounter with The Abominable Snowman (voiced by John Ratzenberger), and a trick pulled on Henry before it all comes to a conclusion.  Roz ends up being the one to help spring the trap for Henry, being in charge of what passes for security in the monster’s world.  This should mean the end of the monster’s world until Sulley realizes they can do better by making children laugh.  And though Sulley had been told that he would never again see Boo, the final shot is of Mike piecing together her shredded door so that Sulley could have one last peak her.

The entire time I watched Monsters, Inc., the thought consistently on my brain was the worry Boo must have been causing her parents.  It is probably foolish to try to figure out the physics of such a movie, but does time work differently in the monster’s world?  I ask because I would be worried sick if my toddler went missing for over twenty-four hours.  What is less foolish is the transformation that the monsters undergo.  It may be obvious to say, but it bears repeating in this context, that Jesus did not win disciples by scaring them.  At the same time, He did not mislead them as to the potential dangers of what it would mean for them to follow Him.  The saving grace in all of it was, and remains, God’s love.  Like laughter in the monsters’ world, love is a far more powerful emotion than anything else we can experience.  It is what causes us to sacrifice as we do for God.  It is also what motivates Sulley when he gets separated from Boo to go down to a trash compactor, sled down a Himalayan mountain at night, and jump across chasms onto moving doors.  Fear gets people to do the bear minimum.  The film sort of makes the point early on that with the scares, with their world is barely getting by with their meager power.  I am not sure I see this, but it is claimed.  With love, and laughter, they thrive.  We do the same thing when we look at God in this way.

With my recent viewing of Monsters, Inc., you can put another Disney film in the category of movies I will likely never watch again unless forced to do so.  Like most others of its ilk, it is not for me.  Still, I am sure kids will like it.  In the end, there is an audience for this, and I find no real reason why they should be denied it.