40 YEARS, 40 DISNEY MOVIES: COUNTING DOWN TO DADDY’S BIRTHDAY NIGHT 35 – MONSTERS INC.!

Welcome everyone to another COUNTING DOWN TO BEING OLD WITH MOVIES post. And this one represents the last Pixar movie on the list. From here on out, we have traditional animation only. And interestingly, of all the Pixar movies on this list, this one is actually my least favorite. Still a favorite overall, but just the lesser of all the amazing Pixar movies I had on the list. Still good – in fact, still great – but just not as great as the others.

You know…world’s tallest midget or some shizz.

So the movie was Monsters, Inc. And with that, I can hear you all collectively gasping with shock and horror that I would besmirch such a Pixar classic. But hey…you don’t like it? Write your own blog.

I’m just kidding…please don’t . I need all the readers I can get.

For this one, it was of course the four of us and we were joined by the ¾ of the Chagnons from next door (George, Stephanie and Emily….Courtney couldn’t make it.)

Nickie decorated the house while I was on my way home from work. Yeah, she’s pretty amazeface.

The food

So in the movie, they go to an Asian restaurant, right? And they eat Asian food. Therefore, we got Asian food.

Please note, I said Asian. Japanese? Chinese? Not sure – they eat sushi for sure. But they also contain Boo in what looks like a Chinese food takeout container. Therefore, we are completely in the right and not racists to have ordered Chinese food from Kowloon (crab rangoons, General Tso’s, scallion pancakes, egg rolls, dumplings, veggie lo mein, chicken fingers and rice)…

AND made candy sushi for dessert.  Fruit roll-ups, by the way? Still awesome.

Yep. Totally in the right here.

The activity

For the activity, we put on a stand-up comedy show. Me, Nickie, Myles, Owen and Emily all got up and told some jokes. Some monster-related, some knock-knock jokes. Some were actually riddles. It was like comedic anarchy up there.

Some of the gems:

“Who did Frankenstein take to the prom? His ghoul friend.” – Wayne

“Knock-Knock. Who’s there? Broken pencil. Broken pencil who? Never mind, that’s besides the point.” – Nickie

“What is adding? The sound a doorbell makes.” – Owen

“What’s a cow’s favorite song? Mooooves like Jagger.” – Emily

“How does a witch make her hair stand on end? With scare spray.” – Myles

 

Be sure to tip your waitress.

The movie

So yeah, ok….please understand. I like Monsters Inc. It’s on my top 40 Disney movies list. So I obvs like it. But in terms of Pixar movies, it falls probably somewhere in the middle. And that still puts it above some pretty good movies that didn’t make this list (Bug’s Life, Brave, Toy Story 2 even) and some pretty bad movies that didn’t make this list (ohai Cars and Cars 2). So don’t, you know, FREAK OUT just yet.

Let’s just get this out of the way right away. Pixar did this to themselves. Their movies are TOO GOOD. Movies like Toy Story 3, Up, Ratatouille and WALL-E set the bar WAY HIGH. So when you go back and watch a movie like Monsters, Inc. expecting a movie with some sort of deep emotional journey, you’re left feeling a tad unsatisfied.

There. I said it. Now let’s move onto what works here though.

You are instead left with a charming movie that does in fact have a lot going for it. Let’s start with the voice actors. John Goodman really can’t help but he awesome at like everything he does and here he infuses Sully with so much heart that you can’t help but love him. And Billy Crystal as Mike? Forget it. Steals pretty much every scene he is in. Steve Buscemi is also very good as Randall – and for the record, I can’t BELIEVE Sully is the top scarer. If Randall came into my room as a kid, I would be like “holy crudballs.” If Sully came into my room, I would have asked  if he was from Sesame Street. So.

And Boo. Aw man….Boo. So frakkin cute. It’s almost like they went to some sort of cute generator and turned it up to 11. Most cute generators go to 10. So it’s one cuter, isn’t it?

Also…did you know Boo’s real name is Mary? It’s actually Mary Gibbs. The more you know.

And the story is super imaginative here. So monsters do exist and they DO scare kids. But that’s only because they need these screams as a source of energy in their world, which is like an awesome world. They use odorant instead of deodorant. I mean, come on. Very Flinstones-esque.

For sure, at the end, I do get a “challenging the establishment” and “a life unexamined…” type of vibe for sure. But throughout the movie, for sure the relationship between Mike and Sully is what drives the story. Their friendship goes through a number of ups and downs and in the end, they are totally there for each other. I have definitely talked about friendship before in these posts and I actually probably will again before we are through, but this is true friendship. They don’t always agree. They even fight sometimes. With yellow snowballs. But if one is in need, the other will always ALWAYS be there. And in fact, while they may have differences…they make each other better people. True friendship is a gift that we should all be lucky enough to have.

I am often looking around at the people that surround me and commenting how lucky I am to have the friends I do in my life. Both the friends I have had since childhood and the newer ones I have made (and the others in between) are a huge part of my life. I consider the friends someone has a measure of who they are. And if that’s the case, I must be a pretty good guy. Because I literally have the best friends on the planet. Everyone knows that making me cry is not all THAT hard…but still, when I really sit down and think about how truly lucky I am to have the people I have in my life…the happy inside me builds up to a tear-pushing-out degree. Ugh fine…I LOVE Monsters Inc.

And with that, we have three movies left to go. Which ones could be left? Any guesses? Can’t believe the end of this little journey is almost at its end…