Monsters Inc Film Analysis

Monsters, Inc. takes place in a fictional, monster world where electricity is created by collecting the screams of human children. Mike and Sulley, two monster friends who work for a large power company, meet a human child (later named “Boo”) and spend the remainder of the film trying to get her out of their monster world and back to her human one. Although this film aims to entertain children, it also comments on the use of scare tactics in parenting, as seen in Sulley and Boo’s parent-child relationship which is put at risk when Sulley scares Boo in the second act of the film. Because Boo is too young to speak, the film links its lighting, camera angles, and framing to Boo’s emotions in order to communicate how she is feeling toward Sulley. …show more content…
In the nearly colorless bathroom at Sulley’s place of work, Boo initiates a game of hide-and-go-seek and Sulley quite happily joins in. Despite the cold feeling this cinderblock and concrete bathroom would produce in most Hollywood films, the warm, yellow lighting brings life to both the scene and the room. The high-key lighting effect from the fill and top lights serves as the visual manifestation of Boo’s delight. The few one shots of Boo are long shots; showing her full body at a slight high angle. The angle is so small, it is hardly noticeable and it shows that, in spite of her being physically smaller than Sulley, Boo does not feel like a lesser person. This is proved further by a long shot of Boo and Sulley together as well as an over the shoulder shot, which have Boo standing closest to the low angled camera; the angle, again, being so small it is hardly …show more content…
The camera sits at eye level and focuses on Boo with a long shot. As she runs through the frame and into a corner, a red light appears on one half of the frame while the other half remains blue, symbolizing that Boo now feels both fear and pain. Sulley tries to approach Boo, but attached shadows are still covering his face and hands, showing that Boo still fears him and she cannot see past the intimidating actions he took moments before. Sulley tries to reach out to Boo, but she runs away again; the audience sees only Sulley’s hand reaching into the frame and towards Boo before she runs out of sight. This time, as Boo backs away from Sulley, she walks under another blue light and stays in it. Sulley tries to follow and reach out to her again, staying mostly in the shadows. These shots are a reprise of the previous ones where Sulley scared Boo, as similar lighting, framing, and camera angles are used, only this time, Sulley is trying to calm her. Sulley realizes that he has scared Boo more badly than he meant, and he has a moment of understanding Boo’s fear as he looks at camera monitors that are covered in images of what he looked like to