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Animated feature from the folks behind "Toy
Story" about an alternate world where mostly benign monsters reside. These are the
monsters who scare, but do not harm, little kids. The monster world is turned upside down
when a little girl is inadvertently transported there. The monsters are terrified of a
child's touch since they think it is poisonous, while unscrupulous monsters plot to
control the power supply (made up of children's screams) in the Monster world. With the
voices of Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Mary Gibbs, James Coburn and Steve Buscemi. [1:32]
SEX/NUDITY 1 - A male and female monster flirt and kiss briefly. A monster
kisses another monster a couple of times. There are a few romantic references made by one
monster about an evening he has planned for his monster girlfriend.
VIOLENCE/GORE 4 - The monsters that we see throughout the film are varied in
shape, size and creepiness: some monsters have many eyes, some one eye, some have many
legs, one has crab legs, one slithers and can become invisible, one is furry with horns
and claws, one has snakes in her hair, some fly, some are huge and some are tiny. A girl
is strapped into a chair and a "scream extraction" machine approaches her face
while she screams and wriggles. A boy is shown falling asleep in a darkened room, the
closet door creaks and opens and the boy imagines that a shirt is a monster; then a pair
of large eyes open under his bed and a big-toothed monster comes out causing the boy to
scream, which then causes the monster to scream and fall back onto on the floor; small
metal toys (jacks) get stuck on his bottom (this takes place during a practice session,
and the boy is a robot). A monster is beaten up by another monster, hit with a tank,
slammed into a wall and held by the throat while he's struggling for air. A monster does a
really big, scary growl for a demonstration and frightens a girl who runs away in tears
(we see images of his face later, with teeth and claws bared). A decontamination team is
deployed to locate and capture a girl, and they are seen again trying to clean up the
scare factory. A monster has a human sock stuck to his back: he's tackled by a
decontamination team, the sock is removed, placed in a containment dome and incinerated;
the monster is then shaved and we see him with bandages and some scratches. A
decontamination team jumps on and tackles another monster, and another, and another. A
monster slams a monster against a wall, yells at him and bends his arms (we hear a
cracking noise). A monster releases a door that two monsters and a girl are clinging to;
it falls a great distance and crashes to the ground. Three monsters and a girl ride on a
fast moving conveyor belt high over the ground, roller coaster-style -- there are a couple
of near falls. A girl hits a monster with a bat and a monster hits a monster with a
shovel. A monster goes looking for a girl in a bathroom and slams open the stall doors. A
monster and a girl enter a dark hallway that leads to a secret room where a bad monster
has a scream extraction machine. Two monsters are shoved through a door (they are being
banished) where they meet the abominable snowman (he initially appears as a dark shadowy
figure). A monster thinks a girl has been smashed in a compactor and he faints from
despair. Monsters prepare to go scaring; they put on their sharp teeth, test their claws,
growl, put on more eyes and then go through doors, and we hear children screaming. A
monster is shown with a scream extractor machine sucking at his mouth (we see his very red
lips after the machine is stopped). A monster is trapped in a box, wheeled to a secret
room, strapped into a chair and a scream extraction machine is powered up and inches
toward his face. A monster breaks down a door to get at a monster and a girl and when he
reaches them he yells at, threatens and hits the monster. A monster scares another monster
who flips in the air and lands on the floor. A restaurant full of monsters panic when a
girl comes in. A monster is scared by a girl who comes through her closet door to the
monster's world; she clings to his back, he runs back through the door crashes into a
mobile and drags a bunch of her toys back through the door. A monster sleds down a snow
covered mountain and crashes. A monster jumps up and lands on a beam between his legs. A
monster comes back through his door screaming that he was almost touched by a child. A
monster slams a window on another monster's hands and he yells. A girl sneezes on a
monster and he sprays himself with something that makes him scream when it gets in his
eye. A little boy monster bites another monster's hand. A monster flies into a garbage
can, a pile of books dump into his mouth and something lands on his head. A monster yells
at another monster, grabs onto his tail and drags on the floor behind him. A monster
tackles another monster and yells at him. A monster yells at another monster and we see
she has bruises and bandages on her face. A monster practices growling, a monster sneezes
and sets his newspaper on fire (he blows fire), a slime monster slips through a grate in
the street, a slug-like monster leaves a trail of slime. There's a conversation about a
girl being a killing machine. A monster throws snow balls at another monster (in two
scenes), a monster punches a wall in frustration and a shard of ice falls to the ground. A
monster holds on to his car door handle and another monster pulls on his legs. During the
opening credits we see sketches of monsters with large jaws and teeth and long arms
with claws hiding in and popping out of closets. A monster takes a girl to the bathroom
where she uses the toilet while he waits outside the door.
PROFANITY 1 - Some insults. [profanity glossary]
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Competition, greed, kidnapping, conspiracy, strange
worlds.
MESSAGE - Laughs are much more powerful than screams.
(Note: There's a short which precedes the movie entitled "For the Birds":
a flock of birds gather on a power line and a larger bird tries to join them; the small
birds peck at each other and there's some teasing back and forth between the smaller birds
and the large bird (in chirps). The large bird ends up dangling from the wire and when it
lets go the smaller birds are catapulted through the air leaving their feathers behind. We
see them featherless when they hit the ground.)
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