Welcome to Monstropolis, a world where the monsters are just regular folks like you and me. When they hide in your bed/closet/hamper and scare you, it isn't because it gives them any sort of thrill but simply because it's their job. Their world, linked to ours through closet doors, derives all its electrical power from our fear.Now meet our heroes, James P. "Sulley" Sullivan (John Goodman) and Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal). Sulley, the big blue one, is one of the best "scarers" in the city. Mike is his partner, best friend, and roommate, who spends his after hours courting the receptionist Celia.Life is great — until one of the extremely poisonous fuel sources enters their world and threatens everything. Yes, a human child! Doom-doom-doom! (Actually, she's rather adorable.) Sulley and Mike's friendship becomes increasingly strained as they try to get the little terror back to her world without getting contaminated or arrested. Along the way, they stumble upon a conspiracy that threatens to undermine their life's work — and possibly their lives.A prequel has been announced for 2013. Titled Monsters University, the new film will star Mike and Sulley in their college days. Dan Scanlon is set to direct. Rivals since elementary, Mike and Sulley end up becoming roommates and enter the Scaring program at the University. However, their bickering leads them to be kicked out of the program. In order to get back in, they must join a fraternity and enter the Scare Games. Ending up in the lamest fraternity on campus OK (Oozma Kappa), Mike and Sulley must rally a group of underdogs to succeed in the games. Metal band Mastodon will be providing a new song for the film.For information on the follow-up DVD short, Mike's New Car, see the Pixar Shorts page.
All In The Manual: Boo's full name. It's Mary Gibbs. Her first name is revealed in the film, since she signs all her sketches, but it's hard to spot.
All Myths Are True: Legendary creatures such as the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot are actually ex-citizens of Monstropolis who have been banished to the human world.
Bait-and-Switch Comment: Mike has a Running Gag where he sees some bit of publicity with his face obscured and says things like, "I don't believe it... I'm on TV!"
Bowel Breaking Bricks: After nearly being discovered by Randall in the bathroom, we see a huge splash in the stall Mike, Sulley, and Boo are hiding in. Boo sums it up best.
Mike and Sulley are arguing about Boo on Scare Floor F, when Mike realizes mid-sentence that everyone is watching. He tries to spin his line "Put that thing back where it came from or so help me...!" as practice for the company play. During the credits, the cast performs "Put That Thing Back Where It Came From Or So Help Me: The Musical."
Sulley puts the stuff from Boo's room in a locker. Guess who opens that same locker a few scenes later?
"Little Mikey", the stuffed animal that Mike doesn't want Boo touching, is described as a bear (despite having one eye, several legs/tentacles, fangs and horns).
Cheated Angle: The closet doors. When they're closed, they're always seen directly from the front. But when they're open, they're always seen from a 45 degree angle. And for some reason, they're never seen from behind!
They actually are seen from behind, mostly after Mike is sent away to the Himalayas, but there are a couple of other exceptionally brief glances.
The Chew Toy: George Sanderson, as a Running Gag, keeps getting articles of clothing caught on his fur, resulting in numerous humiliating 2319 calls. Sometimes Mike, although it's usually his own fault.
Comically Missing the Point: At one point, Sulley protests Boo being in the restroom, not because she's human, but because she's a girl in the men's bathroom.
Mike: That is the weirdest thing you have ever said.
Comic Book Adaptation: Boom! Studios did a sequel of sorts, featuring Randall's return, Waternoose's escape from prison, Sid using the closet doors to his advantage, and the subsequent team-up of the three.
Cone of Shame: Monsters who undergo decontamination by the CDA due to a 2319 call end up wearing one.
Confused Bystander Interview: After Boo's presence is discovered, "witnesses" claim to have seen her use laser vision and mind powers.
Corrupt Corporate Executive: Mr. Waternoose, who is all too keen on keeping his company from going into the red ink, even if it means breaking the law.
"James, this company has been in my family for three generations. I would do anything to keep it from going under."
"Just think about a few names, will ya? Loch Ness, Bigfoot, The Abominable Snowman. They all got one thing in common: banishment! We could be next!" Guess who Mike and Sulley meet after they get banished?
The scene where Boo's screaming causes the light to flicker while her laughter causes a power overload failure in Mike & Sulley's apartment.
An extremely subtle one, but when Mike is running away from Randall only for Randall to be shown lying in wait for Mike, Randall is camouflaged right near one of Waternoose's portraits. Randall and Waternoose were later revealed to be working together.
"One of these days...I'm going to let you teach that guy a lesson."
Fun with Flushing: Sulley gets some of Boo's toys tangled up on him when he reenters the monster world. He tries to get rid of them by flushing them down the toilet, but it gets clogged up and overflows. He then has to dump them in someone's locker, where they reappear later as a Brick Joke.
Gambit Roulette: Mike and Sully's plan to get Waternoose to confess depended greatly on random chance, for instance the fact that the agents wouldn't follow Sully after he pushed over the cans. But this is justified since they had only under a minute to think up of the plan.
Genre Busting: It's a monster movie/kid flick/invasion movie/sci-fi/family drama/comedy.
The Hero: How Mike views himself. Actually, it's Sulley, even though Mike is responsible for manning Sulley's day-to-day matters. See also The Lancer and Sidekick, both below.
Hilarious Outtakes: Several weeks into the film's original release, fake (but genuinely hilarious) Hilarious Outtakes were added to the closing credits. They're included on the DVD.
Ink Suit Actor: Despite the fact that the cast is full of adorably inhuman monsters they still manage to resemble their voice actors, especially Mike who could not be more Billy Crystal. And Randall isSteve Buscemi.
Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Waternoose did this quite a while ago when he decides that nothing would stop him from saving his company.
Karma Houdini: Despite being directly involved in all the nefarious goings-on, including attempted child-torture, Fungus keeps on working at Monsters, Inc. as if nothing happened. Granted, it's strongly implied he didn't like it at all and only did these things out of fear - he's shown to be happier with his new lot in life afterwards.
Knight Templar: Waternoose wants to save his family business and Monstropolis from collapse due to a power shortage. His "solution" drives him well over the Moral Event Horizon into would-be child slaughterer.
Lovecraft Lite: The proliferation of scales and tentacles and the interdimensional aspects. In addition, the trope is played with, in that the monsters regard the human world as a dangerous place and treat Boo like a pint-sized Eldritch Abomination.
Roz: And I don't want to see any paperwork on this.
The Men in Black: The CDA. Extra points for being a complete inversion of the Trope Namer - they're protecting unsuspecting monsters from hideous humans.
Mind Screw: The appearance of a gigantic toy Rex, eagerly asking if he got a part in the movie, in the bloopers. No, it's never explained, and yes, Mike and Sully are just as confused as the audience.
If you recall, there's a giant lizard also "walking to work" in the first bit of the movie (we only see his leg and he clucks like a chicken). It's implied that Rex was trying out to be the giant lizard, whether he got the job or not.
Mistaken for Gay: Mike and Sulley several times, but it's kept rather subtle.
Multiple Head Case: Very briefly seen, after Mike and Sulley expose Waternoose's plan to the CDA. A two-headed monster can be seen, the two heads exchanging glances with each other.
Also, Roz is seen reading a newspaper headlined "Baby born with 5 heads, parents thrilled."
My God, What Have I Done?: Sulley is deeply shaken when he sees the effect that his scaring demonstration has on Boo, and by extension the effect his scaring has on human children in general.
Sulley: Did you see the way she looked at me?
Nested Mouths: In Harryhausen's, one of the monsters has a second monster for a tongue, which eats the food.
Never Say "Die": Averted before the first scene ever ends, and directly said many, many times as an example of how dangerous children are to the monster world. But one of these qualifies as a moment of funny:
Sulley: This might sound crazy, but I don't think the kid's dangerous. Mike: (dripping with sickly-sweet sarcasm) Really?! Well, in that case, let's keep it. I always wanted a pet... that could kill me!
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Sulley attempts to tell Waternoose of what Randall tried to do, but it turns out they've been conspiring together and sends him and Mike to the Himalayas. Mike calls him out on that.
Just barely subverted in the ending: Although Sulley and Mike ultimately manage to get Boo back into her bedroom, and expose his boss, their actions also caused the company to nearly be shut down, and almost cause Monstropolis to be in a permanent blackout as a consequence. The only reason it didn't turn out that way was because it was discovered that the children's laughter had 10x the power input of scream.
Non-Mammalian Hair: Roz (AKA CDA Agent #1)is a large garden snail-like monster with a tuft of white hair on her head.
Also, some of the monsters, whether resembling either toads, slugs, or octopi, will inevitably have some form of hair on their heads.
Packed Hero: Parodied. Boo loses one of the "eyestalks" of her monster costume in a trash can. Sulley sees it and thinks she's in a pile of garbage, then watches the garbage get swept into a cart, dropped down a chute, and put through an exceedingly brutal compactor. The audience sees her walk away from the garbage can, Sulley faints at every step of the compactor.
Peek-a-Bogeyman: Sulley, upon noticing Boo make a drawing of Randall, assures her that Randall isn't coming through the closet by opening the closet door to reveal nothing in there. In the outtakes, Roz is shown to be there, and she says "Guess Who?"
Sulley: Look-lay in the bag-bay. Mike: I think you mean, "Ook-lay in the ag-bay." Sulley: What? Didn't I...? Mike: Well, you know, maybe you should just take a minute and ead-ray your ipt-scray!
Also, CDA Number One. When the matter of what to do about Boo arises, Sulley says "I just want to send her home." CDA Number One replies, "Very good."
Repeat Cut: When the door that Mike, Sulley and Boo are riding on hurtles down a steep slope. In the first shot, you see them travelling down most of slope from behind, then you see a shot of them from the front, followed by a POV shot. But judging by the first shot, it takes them a rather long time to go down the last part of the slope, meaning that the camera must have jumped back a second in time.
Mike is always being cut somehow from images and videos he appears in (in the Monsters, Inc. commercial at the beginning, the M in the company logo is hiding him) — and doesn't care.
It's more implied that he got slipped the idiot pill and didn't notice.
"I can't believe it! I'm... on the cover of a magazine!"
The original DVD has a picture of Mike and Sulley — with Mike largely obscured by the hole.
Scenery Porn: The closet door storage chamber is this in a "Holy SH**, this is awesome!!" way.
All of the doors Mike and Sully run through during the Randall chase scene. Because the filmmakers just happened to need backgrounds of Hawaii, Japan and Paris, right?
Scooby-Dooby Doors: The final Randall chase is a stunning example. Contrary to most uses of the trope though, this is entirely justified in-universe because of the nature of the doors.
Searching The Stalls: Boo and Sulley hide from Randall in a toilet stall. He punches the stalls open one by one, and Sulley flinches as every door opens. Randall actually slams open the stall Sulley is hiding in, but isn't looking at the time. Momentum closes the door before Randall sees them.
At the end, George is seen going into a door with a mallet and a watermelon, like Gallagher's comedy bits.
When asked if there are any kids in the village, the Snowman replies "Oh, sure. Tough kids, sissy kids, kids who climb on rocks..." These are the words to the Armour Hot Dogs jingle.
When Sulley is first running from Boo, she puts a hat over her head and says something that sounds suspiciously like "I Tigger".
Doesn't Randall remind you of anotherRandall from Disney? And it's not just because they have the same name; they both have a similar posture and personality.
It's not just Randall, but Roz looks and acts like Miss Finster.
The opening credits look a lot like the hand-drawn Disney movies from the 50s and 60s.
Blink and you'll miss it - when the new management of Monster Inc. starts using laughter as a power source, take a look at the giant display in the doors' room. Did you see the two silhouettes on it? You know, the taller one hitting the other with a hammer?
The Starscream: After Waternoose tells Randall to leave no witnesses, Randall replies in a manner that lets the audience know that he's planning to backstab his own boss when this is all over.
Stealth Pun: When Celia's Medusa-like hair keeps kissing Mike, she says, "Michael, you're such a charmer." A snake charmer.
Near the beginning,we see a gigantic scaly monster crossing the road. He makes the sounds of a chicken.
Stylistic Suck: Yes, Mike actually did make "Put that Thing Back Where it Came From or So Help Me" into a musical, complete with mediocre acting/choreography, clumsily-set up backgrounds, and the CDA as ushers. The audience loved it; the critics (of the Monster World) did not.
Surprisingly Happy Ending: The movie seems like it's about to have a Bittersweet Ending in the form of Sulley having to part ways with Boo, but it turns out that Mike Wazowski recreated the door that leads to her room, so Sulley can at least still visit her.
Take a Third Option: Sulley, upon gaining control of the company, had only two options of what do to with it. He could have made the workers continue scaring kids for energy, or left the company to fall, causing Monstropolis to lose all electricity. He takes a third option that he discovered upon first finding Boo (reminded by the last word of Mike's pep-talk): He opts to make children laugh instead, which produces more electricity than screams of terror did.
That Came Out Wrong: At Harryhausen's, Mike's telling Celia what he told someone else when asked who he thought he would spend with for the rest of his life. He's about to say "you", when Sullivan stumbles by outside and Mike accidentally finishes the statement with a surprised "Sulley!?".
Throw It In: All of Boo's lines, as the producers just followed a two-year-old around with a mic to capture her performance.
Treacherous Advisor: Waternoose is revealed to have been behind the conspiracy all along.
Tsundere: Celia is Type B, with "deredere" default.
Villainous Breakdown: At the film's climax, Waternoose himself throws a fit of temper tantrum, straight out yelling to Sulley that he'll kidnap a thousand children before letting his company die.
He was about to throw another one immediately, but he can't do much while the CDA escort him out for his crimes. But the second tantrum does take its toll on Sulley's emotions when Waternoose blames him entirely for the company's demise and ruining any chances Monstropolis has of recovering from the blackout.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Waternoose: "I'll kidnap a thousand children before I let this company die!"
Mike: That's not her door... Waternoose: I know, I know. (Cue Randall.) It's yours.
A minor one comes during the climax: Waternoose has Sulley beaten and he's about to grab Boo, when the child he's holding says this: "Good night, Mom".
And before that:
Waternoose: I'll kidnap a thousand children before I let this company die, and I'll silence anyone who gets in my way!
Wrong Genre Savvy: Mike, throughout the movie he always thinks he is the star and Sully is his side kick.
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