Monster's Inc

Monster's Inc was another Pixar movie that followed the same rules that Andrew Stanton outlined for Toy Story. Although you could think of Mr. Waternoose as a villain in that he was definitely "the bad guy," his motivations weren't as simple as "I am selfish and evil!" At the beginning, the film drops subtle hints that there are rolling blackouts, and he feels it is his duty to solve that problem as head of the power company. Ultimately, his willingness to kidnap a thousand children is made unnecessary by Sullivan's discovery that children's laughter is ten times more powerful than their screams.

Sullivan, the furry, blue main character has changes in motivation throughout the film. At the beginning, he cares most about being the top-dog scarer. Once Boo shows up, he wants to get her back to her home more out of self-preservation for himself and Mike than compassion, but eventually she grows on him and he genuinely wants to get her home home safely. His core motivation would probably be to take care of his friends.

Monsters Inc. does a great job cultivating wonder by portraying its world as markedly different but also similar to our own. The diversity of different monsters of all sizes with different abilities is fascinating. Despite their unique ecosystem, the monsters still have the same sorts of routines we have in the real world. They drive cars, go to work, make reservations at restaurants, have romances, and even fall asleep watching TV. The best parallel and a central theme of the movie is that the monsters are just as terrified of human children as children are of monsters. It tells small children they don't need to be afraid of monsters while giving older viewers a chance to reflect on ideas like prejudice and fearing things we don't understand.

The characters being likable and relatable are what make me care during the movie. Like many of us, the monsters just want to go to work, get paid, have a nice dinner with the missus and otherwise maintain the status quo. Mike and Sullivan are snarky with each other but one can tell they care about each other too. I also think we can all relate to suddenly feeling overwhelmed and just wanting things to go back to normal, but also putting that desire aside to fight for the ones we care about.