Leaping from closets across the country, MONSTERS INC. hit the theaters running in 2001. It opened to positive reviews and tremendous audience approval. Co-produced by Pixar and Disney, the film went on to gross more than $524 million — rivaling only “The Lion King” in terms of overall box office gross. It also went on to win an Oscar for Best Original Song.

Monsters, Inc. is the main power supplier to Monsteropolis, a city reminiscent of New York in the 1930s. The monsters employed at Monsters, Inc. clock in every day to power the city with the screams of human children. Do you recall those dreaded nights when you could have sworn something was moving in the closet? Well, little did you know your screams would be powering a city of monsters. If you had reached out to fight them off you would have found out these monsters are convinced one touch from a human is considered toxic. If they should ever touch a human, or any of their belongings, they have to endure a rigorous sanitation process that leaves them hairless.

As the cookie crumbles, the star employee at Monster Inc., Sulley (voiced by John Goodman), accidentally brings a human child back to Monsteropolis. Sulley, in a frightful panic, hides her with the help of his good buddy, Mike (voiced by Billy Crystal). They soon discover humans are not toxic after all — in fact, making them laugh generates more power than a scream ever could. Sulley and Mike hatch a plan to disguise Boo as a monster to get her back home. The insidious monster Randall Boggs (voiced by Steve Buscemi) has devised a power extractor that can double the scream-based fuel systems.

Sulley sneaks Boo to the CEO of Monsters Inc., but is sidetracked with having to train a batch of new recruits some basic scare tactics. Seeing his fearsome antics, Boo blows her cover by crying out. Sulley soon discovers the CEO, working along with Randall, is behind the new scream extractor but not before Boo is taken from him. He and Mike are quickly exiled to the Himalayas, where they begin to search frantically for the portal that will get them back to Monsteropolis in time to save Boo. Can they get to her in time? What will happen to the children of the world if the scream extractor actually works?

This fluid film was the end-product of the hard work of the digital masters at Pixar. A great example of their meticulous work is Sulley’s luxurious fur coat. The programmers rendered over two million individual hairs to give him a completely lifelike look and feel. Pixar invented a proprietary program called RenderMan DSO (Dynamic Shared Object) that effectively distributed the hair on any given character and added depth to the renderings. The end effect is a stunning film that doesn’t disappoint.