Monsters, Inc. Opens to Positive Reviews

(November 2, 2001 - by digitalmediafx.com) Critics are praising Pixar's latest animated creation, Monsters, Inc. which opened on over 3,000 screens nationally today. Analysts will be watching to see if Monsters, Inc. can top Shrek's opening weekend numbers of $42.3 million last May.

Here are select quotes from leading critics about Monsters, Inc. with most critics calling it another winner, but not as good as the two Toy Story movies.

Mark Caro of the Chicago Tribune - "...Monsters, Inc., the first Pixar Animation/Disney feature since the great Toy Story 2, is every bit as sly-witted as Shrek but not nearly so self-conscious. The pop-culture references here are neither as numerous as in Shrek nor as central to the concept. If you don't get the humor of a restaurant being called Harryhausen's, no matter; you're probably too busy chuckling at the imaginatively conceived creatures to notice..."

Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times - "...despite occasional references to drinking lattes and rolling blackouts, the dialogue here is not up to the usual Pixar standards and only sporadically appealing to adults...As a childhood entertainment it is certainly fine, but Pixar's celebrated lure for adults is largely absent."

Paul Clinton of CNN - "Monsters, Inc., the latest animated production from the folks at Disney and the Pixar Animation Studio, will be a solid hit and will surely do well on DVD and video. But on the whole, the film lacks the heart, depth, and breath of those studios' previous successes, Toy Story (1995), Toy Story 2 (1999), and A Bug's Life (1998) -- which earned a combined total of $1.2 billion dollars worldwide. While the film's sweet, simplistic storyline will hold up for young audiences, Monsters, Inc. lacks the all-important edgy layer of adult humor, so vital to Dreamworks' mega-hit Shrek..."

David Germain of the Associated Press - "...With Monsters, Inc., Pixar maintains its perfect batting average, going four-for-four with another smart, funny, adorable animated world populated by endearing characters and propelled by a premise even more clever than that of Toy Story. Pixar continues to hoist the bar higher on computer animation, crafting a dazzling universe that big-foots the images of Toy Story 2 from 1999 and even runs lengths ahead of DreamWorks' Shrek, barely half a year old..."

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