Monsters, Inc.: Golden Nica / Computer Animation / Visual Effects

Monsters, Inc.

Pete Docter, David Silverman, Lee Unkrich, Andrew Stanton

After completing his assignment as supervising animator on the landmark 1995 computer animated film, Toy Story, Pete Docter began exploring several ideas for a film of his own. One of the ideas that intrigued him was a story about monsters and things that go bump in the night.

Docter's initial concept for the film went through many changes during the development process, but the notion of monsters living in their own world remained an appealing and workable one. Early versions of the story focused on a 32-year-old man who had monsters show up that only he could see. It dealt with confronting childhood fears that had never been conquered and which were cropping up once again to cause anxiety. As the story continued to develop and take on new twists and turns, the central adult figure was changed to a child of varying ages (8 - 12) and gender. Ultimately, the story team decided that a young innocent girl named Boo would be the best counterpart for a furry 8-foot co-star.

The character of Sulley also went through some major changes along the way. He evolved from a janitor to an uncoordinated, down-on-his-luck loser to the superstar Scarer that he ended up being. At one time, the character even wore glasses and had tentacles.

'People generally think of monsters as really scary, snarly, slobbery beasts,' observes Docter. 'But in our film, they're just normal everyday 'Joes.' They clock in; they clock out. They talk about donuts and union dues. They worry about things like having straight teeth. Scaring kids is just their job.

'One of our biggest challenges was to come up with a good reason as to why monsters scare kids. For a while, we played with the idea that it was like a Broadway show and monsters entertained each other by scaring kids. That evolved into the whole business idea, which seemed pretty ripe for humor.'

Working from Docter's original idea, Andrew Stanton, who had written the three previous Pixar features and who served as executive producer on this film, set to work on creating a screenplay that would capture the concept's spirit and imagination. Once Stanton had established the foundation for the film through his severe screenplay drafts, he turned his attention to his next project (Finding Nemo, due for release in 2003). Dan Gerson stepped in to write subsequent versions of the Monsters, Inc. screenplay and to further define the plot, characters, and dialogue. At the same time, story supervisor Bob Peterson and his team were helping to visualize the script with drawings, gags, and lots of inventive ideas. Co-director David Silverman came on board in 1998 to lend his expertise to the story process and focus on strengthening the relationships between the main characters. Another key contributor was co-director Lee Unkrich, whose live-action background proved priceless.

According to Stanton, 'The first and last thing that John Lasseter asks with regard to the story is 'do I care, do I care, do I care?' It's always hear first and head second. And Boo is the real key to this whole film. Pete was really strong on this point. He has a natural instinct for tapping into the innocence of little kids and has always been a magnet for them. Our own kids would see him and just want to play with him.




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