[MOVIE REVIEW]92 minutes of monstrous fun

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[MOVIE REVIEW]92 minutes of monstrous fun

Nail your closet doors shut, kids, "Monsters Inc." has come to Korea. Created by Pixar Animation Studios, "Monsters Inc.," one of the most anticipated movies of the year, is the studio's fourth production, after their two "Toy Story" movies and "A Bug's Life."

Monsters Inc. is the largest scream-fired power plant in the city of Monstropolis, a creep-inhabited world in another dimension whose primary fuel source is the screams collected from children in the human world. The firm's slogan is "We Scare Because We Care." The monster employees at the plant travel to children's bedrooms via their closet doors, scare the kids, collect their screams and transport the energy back to be processed in Monstropolis. That's their job.

The firm falls into crisis when kids start becoming too hard to scare and the city is threatened with blackouts.

Then James Sullivan (the voice of John Goodman), a blue-furred behemoth who is the main character of the movie, accidentally lets a little human girl named Boo through to Monstropolis. Sullivan and his one-eyed pal Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) hide the girl in their apartment and plot a way to get her back home. But the secret police of Monstropolis get wind of the intrusion, and the city officials are afraid that the human will release toxic substances into Monstropolis.

Perhaps one of the most delightful parts in the film is when Mike is on a date with a medusa at a sushi restaurant. Every time a customer enters the restaurant, the array of monstrous waiters and the Japanese octopus chef call out "Irashai!" or "Welcome!"

Pixar's new creation uncannily maintains an enchanting balance between reality and fantasy. The film is 92 minutes long, but it's so entertaining that it feels like a lot less. It is full of innocent and nonoffensive humor and amusing allegories, making just about every moment high-energy and pleasing. When the story ended and the credits started rolling, the audience seemed to groan in disappointment that the movie had to end.

Pixar lays a lot of stress on good and evil in its stories, and "Monsters Inc." is no exception. The storyline is largely a battle between a hero and a villain: the righteous Sullivan against an evil lizard named Randall, a senior executive who is out to capture Boo. The monsters, a lot like people, are generally either good- or evil-hearted, and all of them have jobs to do.



by Park Soo-mee

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