Monsters, Inc. (DVD 2002)

What a treat. The Monsters and the energetic little toddler, Boo, are not just cute, they're great personalities too - and so well animated. The film's entertaining from start to finish and a couple of the extras are as good as the film, in their own short way. Some of the good things on this DVD:

A wonderful story. The world of the monsters runs on the power of screams that the monsters have to generate by scaring human children. They have a whole industry dedicated to extracting these blood-curdling shrieks from the poor, terrified little kids. Each child is matched with its ideal monster and their monster passes from the power factory in Monstropolis through one of thousands of bedroom closet doors - one for each child - into the child's bedroom where it carries out its job and the resulting scream is captured in a flask. The monsters have to be very careful though because they believe that children are highly toxic and can kill them with a touch. The monsters are actually tremendously alarmed at the prospect of contact with a human child. If only the children knew ....

Excellent characters. The main ones are outstanding. The little girl, Boo is too cute to mention. Sulley (big, woolly, top scoring scarer) and Mike (small, walking eyeball and Sulley's best friend and assistant) have all the usual concerns of the average working man and they're also funny. Mike has a girl friend (she may be my favourite). She has one eye and snakes for hair. When she gets romantic with Mike, her snakes get all romantic with him too. When she gets angry with Mike, they all rattle their tails and glare and hiss. Those animators must have been inspired. What a clever idea. Randle, Boo's special monster - the one that really scares her - moves like a centipede. He's a real villain with a wicked plot go maximise scream power.

Brilliant extras. In particular two short animated films: "For the Birds" and "Mike's New Car". I've watched them more times than I've watched the main film. Both are very funny. I've found that I can't even think about "For the Birds" without starting to laugh. There's one scene in the film where several of the small, quarrelsome birds are taking the Mickey out of the big, friendly bird - pulling faces and bristling their feathers. You'll need to see it to believe how funny this is.

I recommend this DVD. It'll be played over and over again.