About

Monsters Inc. is the name of a Pixar movie and franchise that takes place in a fictionalized world of real-life monsters living separately from humanity. The first movie, Monsters Inc. was released in 2001, with the prequel movie, Monsters University, coming out later in 2013.

Premise

Monsters Inc.

Mike (Billy Crystal) and Sully (John Goodman) are two monsters who work at a factory that produces electricity for the monster world. This energy is created by absorbing the power of human screams, which the monsters collect by going through the closet doors of human children to make them scream at night. One night, a human child named Boo goes through the doorway into the monster world and chaos ensues as the heroes Mike and Sully attempt to get her back home safely. The movie resolves with a new source of power, human laughter, being found to be 10 times more powerful than screams. This solves the energy crisis plaguing the monster world and makes it so that human kids won't be scared by monsters again.^[1]

Monsters University

Taking place before the events of Monsters Inc., this movie shows what several characters looked like during their college years from the original film. It shows how Mike and Sully met and how their bond of friendship was forged in the fires of the college scare program. Being a prequel, the point of this movie was to set up the pieces for the first film and establish more world-building. The film concludes with our heroes joining the company from the first movie.^[2]

History

Monsters Inc.

Monsters Inc. was one of the movies that were planned during a lunch between several Pixar creative directors. The idea at the time was to do something related to a childhood feeling, similar to how Toy Story was every child's fantasy of how their toys were real and would come to life when they weren't looking. It was decided that the premise would be about the monsters that kids say are in their closet, and from there, the motivation and goals dictated the rest of the plot. Monsters Inc. was eventually released in theaters on November 2nd, 2001.

Monsters University

Continuing with the theme of relatability, Monsters University was planned to both be relatable to the kids that watched Monsters Inc. and grew up to be in college, as well as show how the first movie was set up. The trailer^[3] was uploaded to YouTube on February 11th, 2013, and received 4 million views in eight years. Monsters University was released on June 21st, 2013.

Reception

Both films were box office successes when released. Monsters Inc. generated $577.4 million off its $115 million dollar budget, while University went higher with $743.6 million against its $200 million dollar budget. Online, the movies remained fan favorites, with several memes originating from the series over the years.

Related Memes

Pleased Sully

Pleased Sulley, also known as Sulley Finger Pinch, is a reaction image macro based on a scene from the American animated film Monsters University. The post expresses approval of the meme's subject (similar to Pacha Edits).

Crying Boo

Crying Boo or Scared Boo refers to a series of memes based on a reaction image of Monsters Inc. character Boo crying. First gaining spread among Spanish-speaking users on Facebook in 2017, the format regained popularity online in March 2021 with subformats in which Crying Boo drives a car and plays video games.

Mike Wazowski Explaining Things

Mike Wazowski Explaining Things refers to a still image from 2001 video game Monsters Inc.: Wreck Room Arcade in which character Mike Wazowski is shown complaining in front of characters Sulley and Roz. Online, the image has been circulated as an object-labeling meme, usually to illustrates situations in which someone is attempting to explain something.

Mike Wazowski-Sulley FaceSwap

Mike Wazowski-Sulley Face Swap refers to an image of Monsters Inc. character Mike Wazowski with the face of character Sulley photoshopped over his own. Online, the image gained popularity as a reaction and has also been used in ironic memes.

Kid Mike Wazowski

Kid Mike Wazowski refers to the young Monsters Inc green one-eyed character Mike Wazowski as portrayed in the 2013 animated movie Monsters University. In November 2019, Redditors began using an image of small Mike Wazowski smiling contently as a reaction image and then began pairing that image and with a deep fried and chaotic image of Wazowski to compare the two.

Search Interest

External References