We Scare Because We Care: Monsters, Inc. 20 Years Later
In the fall of 2001, after already making their mark in both film and animation history, Pixar would premiere their fourth film, Monsters, Inc., to an eager public. But the story doesn’t stop there.
Creation
The story starts in 1994. Right when Toy Story was in production and when Pixar made their original five picture deal with Disney, the key creative team started to talk about new ideas. It was then animator Pete Docter would pitch an idea about monsters.
The reason behind this pitch was because since kids would believe that toys were alive when no one was around, kids also believed that monsters were hiding in their closets. This notion interested the Pixar team that they decided to start production two years later.
This new project would be the first Pixar film not to be directed by John Lasseter. This time he decided to let Pete Docter make his mark.
Developing the Story
As with most of the Pixar films, there were early versions of the story before the final film. After shelving the idea of a grown adult facing the monsters that scared him, the creative team decided to focus on a monster instead.
This eventually lead to the basic story of a monster letting a human kid in the monster world. Even after locking down that story, there were still changes.
In the early version, the character that would be Sully, went from being a failed scarer to working in refinery until they settled on him being the top scarer at Monsters, Inc.. The character of Boo would also see a few changes until they decided to have her be a three years old so she can be dependent on Sully. Then Mike would added to give Sully a friend to talk to.
Animation
With this film, the Pixar animators were given a new set of challenges that they couldn’t do in the last four movies. This included animating a character with fur. While other computer animated projects have tackled this before, this was more demanding.
The way it was done was that the animators would animate Sully without fur so they could focus on the personality. Then they would hand it off to the Simulators department to add fur to the character. This simulation was able to both animate the fur convincingly and not be a distraction.
It was also during production of this film that Pixar moved from Point Richmond county to their new studio in Emeryville.
Release
Monsters, Inc., was release on November 2, 2001 and would be another instant success both with critics and audiences. The film would go on to become the most successful animated film of the year and the second largest grossing animated film at that time.
At the award season, the movie would make history. Monsters, Inc. would win the Academy Award for Best Song, If I Didn’t Have You. This made it the first computer animated film to win a competitive award since.
And thus, after twenty years, Pixar’s fourth film will continue delighting audiences world wide and for years to come.