240. Monsters, Inc.

• Year of release: 2001
• Director: Pete Docter & David Silverman & Lee Unkrich
• Genre: Animation, Comedy
• IMDB Page

Monsters, Inc is the second Pixar product I'll be reviewing. I watched this movie a few years ago, but to be honest I didn't remember much of it, which isn't really a good sign. Let's see how well it fares.

The story can be boiled down to a few lines. James Sullivan, friends call him Sulley, is a monster and an employee in a scream converting company. His job consists of scaring small children. His best friend and colleague Mike Wazowski (the eyeball) catches the energy let out by the screams and that energy is used to power the city of monsters. Lately children have grown to be more tolerant towards scary monsters and as a result the city is getting less and less power. To make things worse, a small child, nicknamed Boo, manages to enter the city of monsters and the city falls into chaos as Sully and Mike try to get Boo back to her wold.

I'm pretty sure you can figure out the rest of the story, there's no groundbreaking plot twisting happening throughout the movie. That's not to say the story isn't original, which it is. The pacing is also done well. I only have one issue and that's how fast Sully got back out of his banishment from his city. But that's a minor pacing issue and nothing bothersome.

lol

The animations are nice as well, although I find that Toy Story 2 (1999) has better textures and feels more finished concerning design. Not that any kid would care, because kids don't care about that kind of stuff, they just want to be entertained. And that's what this movie does. The movie kept me interested all the way through and it was an enjoyable watch.

Buy It

243. Toy Story 2

• Year of release: 1999
• Director: John Lasseter & Ash Brannon & Lee Unkrich
  
• Genre: Animation, Comedy
• IMDB Page

To tell the truth here, I've actually been avoiding this movie ever since it came out. I saw the promotional artwork and posters of the girl-woody and thought that this movie was just a sequel where Woody falls in love and has to rescue the girl or something lame like that. Unfortunately I wasn't that far off. It might be the high expectations and/or the nostalgia speaking but I don't feel this movie is a worthy follow-up to Toy Story 1.

The plot is almost the same from what I can recall, I know someone needed rescuing in Toy Story 1, I think it was Buzz, but now it's Woody who needs to be rescued. So, it's the same old again, but the movie still entertained while watching it. So, in short, Woody gets kidnapped by an evil collector. His toybuddies try to retrieve Woody by going all the way across the city. Woody finds three other toys who were in "Woody's Roundup", which was an old collection of Wild West toy figurines starring Woody. The collector wants to sell them to a Japanese museum and he leaves for the airport with Woody and his friends. I do not need to tell you the ending as this is a Disney movie after all.

The point of the plot is entirely MOOt, go watch Toy Story 1

The jokes and funny scenes in this movie are very entertaining and it kept a good pace. I never got bored watching it, but the nagging déja-vu feeling never went away. But, whatever, it is a sequel after all.

I'm not saying this movie is utter crap, but it doesn't really deserve a top 250 spot, especially not if Toy Story 1 is already in it.

Borrow It
(unless if you have kids, then buy it as they can watch the same crap over and over again)

247. Tonari no Totoro

• Year of release: 1988
• Director: Hayao Miyazaki
• Genre: Animation, Adventure
• Translated title: My Neighbour Totoro

Our first animated movie is one by the hands of the Japanese Master, Miyazaki. They call him the Asian Disney. Sounds promising enough to me, let's go.

A father and his two girls, Mei and Satsuki, move to the countryside to be closer to their ill mother residing in a hospital. Upon investigation by the two girls they discover the house is haunted. However, the tiny ghost are scared of into the nearby woods. A few days later Mei plays around the house and sees a tiny ghost that somewhat resembles a squirrel bred with a rabbit. The tiny ghost makes a run for it and Mei chases after it into the woods where she stumbles upon a giant, sleeping creature. She nicknames the creature Totoro. It appears that Totoro is the wood's master and has magical abilities like making trees grow and call a ghost catbus. When Satsuki and Mei learn their mother has apparently regressed, Mei disappears. Satsuki and the entire village start a search, but alas, the small girl is nowhere to be found. But with the help of Totoro Satsuki finds her little sister and sees that her mom only had a cold.

"Well, this is awkward..."

The drawing and animation style are beautiful and they really bring the characters to life. Especially Mei has a good design and animation to it. Her playfulness and rather active play style are captured perfectly. Also, the catbus. It's a bus and a cat. Awesome.

The story is simple, but touching. The emotional scenes have really touched me and I was rooting that they would find little Mei. The simplicity of the story was all this movie needed. And the only mystery is left up to the viewer to decide: Does Totoro only exist in the girls' imagination or does he really exist? Doesn't matter, the story is good.

That's all there is to say. It's a good movie.

Buy It