Is there anyone out there in the sane world who hasn't heard of Monsters Inc.? Is there even a single soul wo hasn't been bombarded with the merchandise, the adverts, the product tie-ins and every other conceivable cash in? Yes it seems like years since Monsters Inc. was first being revealed to the public, but only now has it hit multiplexes in the UK. Now there's a problem with this and hardened cinema goers will be all too familiar with it: expectation. We've had films rammed down our throats before and the critics and the studios have insisted that the new product is the best thing ever. We're jaded and more cynical now and it was this change that made me just that little bit scared of Monsters Inc. I was all too ready to be let down by Hollywood again, but surely the nice people in movie land wouldn't lie to me...

From the same people who brought you the two Toy Story movies, Monsters Inc. is another trip into the CGi world and it's this that first strikes you. This time though Pixar have really pulled out all of the stops and the computer imagery is pretty much flawless. A new level of reality is reached and visually this puts Toy Story in the ground. Simple things such as realistic fur (the bane of computer animators) is fabulously rendered and the film looks fabulous as a result.

The underlying story in Monsters Inc. is naturally very simple, but while being of a higher standard than many films of it's ilk, it feels just that little bit sugar sweet for me. It's that little bit too cutesy pie and as such lacks that hint of danger and excitement that made us marvel at the Toy Story movies. It never feels as though anything is ever going to go wrong and we know that there will be a happy ending no matter what. Now most movies have happy endings but Monsters Inc. doesn't ever let us doubt that everything will end up rosy for a second.

Possibly it's the clash of reality of the characters and the cartoon pratfalls they have to make that jars with us but they're not as impressive as a talking cowboy and a green plastic dinosaur. Mr Potato Head and his chums had universal appeal and managed to work on many levels simultaneously, but here we don't get that. Neurotic Mike feels as though he's aimed at the high brow adult audience, Boo at the 'awwing' mummy's and daddy's, and Sully at the 5 to 10 audience. They never have that ability to transcend the viewer 'boundaries' and this adds to the lack of comfort that we as an audience feel.

While it might seem strange to find Steve 'Reservoir Dogs' Buscemi in a kidsfilm, he's yet another actor who is extremely well cast. Buscemi has the right nasally, creepy voice for the role of Randall and he's one of the bright spots. After these three though it's almost a case of business as usual. James Coburn (who I could have sworn sounded like Kelsey Grammer) puts in a solid performance but it's John Ratzenberger who grabs the old attention - mainly because he was in another certain Pixar movie...

Was this just my opinion? Well the rest of the packed cinema seemed pretty much unconvinced too and given that the average age was about 6-7 we can take it as read that kids didn't warm to that well. While not in the same league as the atrocious Cats and Dogs, Monsters Inc. isn't the riot that the critics and hype would lead us to believe (that's a shock isn't it?).