Pixar have, so far, never put a step wrong with each feature film and each short animation they create. They created the landmark Toy Story and even persuaded Disney to put Toy Story 2 to the big screen instead of straight to video as most of their sequels end up. Monsters Inc. is their new feature length film and, once again, is a mixture of laughs, drama and stunning animation.

Monsters. Inc follows the story of two best buddies Mike (Billy Crystal) and Sulley (John Goodman). They live in a parallel world called Mostropolis where the inhabitants are, quite unsurprisingly given the name, monsters. They live out their lives in exactly the same way as humans do, they go to work, they eat and sleep and they probably have sex as well but this is a Universal rated film so unless with have Monsters XXX we won’t delve too much into that aspect. The city is powered by the Monsters. Inc factory run by Waternose (James Coburn), which has been providing the city with enough electricity to run efficiently…well at least it used to. The source of the factories energy comes from the children’s screams when a monster comes through their closet door (so Americanised) screams are bottled up and used to power up the city. However thanks to media influences kids are getting a lot harder to scare and energy levels are getting ever lower and so it is up to the monsters to keep trying to get scarier or live in constant black out.

That is the gist of the main story in Monsters. Inc. While the film does have its focus centred on Mike, Sulley and their escapades with Boo the energy plot is still given screen time, especially towards the end, there is also a little romantic-comedy subplot of Mike and Celia (Jennifer Tilly).

There is one main difference to Monsters, Inc than other Pixar films, John Lasseter has neither directed or wrote this film but has stayed behind and produced the film. His absence can be felt and, unfortunately, without him Monsters, Inc stumbles where Toy Story 1 & 2 excelled. It is common knowledge that Pixar, as well as animating cracking films can also write superbly as well. There are many in jokes in Toy Story 1 and especially 2 to keep the adults interested and the actual dialogue in the film is also a bar above other kids movies. However Monsters, Inc fails to be quite as sophisticated when it comes to the script as animation. This cannot solely be because of Lassester’s absence there is only so much one person can do. The main reason is because of the characters. Monsters, Inc biggest disadvantage is having a two-year-old girl as a main character. Because of this there is hardly going to be some mind-blowing conversations to be had and while dialogue between Mike and Sully is often witty and funny there is little of it as soon as Boo arrives. While the Toy Story films brought the script along with the story Monsters, Inc falls into slapstick humour instead of speech and a great deal of the film is spent carting Boo along the factory and trying not to be seen. While this is still fun to watch (and the animation is enough to keep you interested anyway) you cant help but think that this isn’t as funny as it really ought to be especially since the heavy referential Shrek has come along. Mind you I doubt Pixar could really take a stab at Disney quite yet.

Another staple to Pixar films is the climatic ending. Toy Story had the lorry chase, Toy Story 2 the aeroplane and Monsters, Inc has the doors. It really is an awesome sight to behold as Mike and Sully go through door to door and end up in different worlds while trying to rescue Boo. Defianatly one of the best animations in sheer size to be seen the only bad thing about it is that it wont look as nearly as good on a little screen. The ending itself is OK. I must admit that I felt it was a bit too slushy and too kid friendly but, hey, I’m not a kid so what do I know.

So, while Monsters, Inc, is defiantly not a Toy Story 2 beater it’s still a better film than most out at the moment. While it won’t offer adults as much enjoyment as the other films there is still reason enough to go and it still won’t be the kids that will get something from it.