Monsters, Inc. (abbreviated as MI) is the titular energy-producing factory in the 2001Disney•Pixaranimated film of the same name. The company is the only place which supplies all the energy for the city of Monstropolis. Its logo is a bold, blue M with an eye on it, otherwise known as the "M Eyeball".
To create energy, Monsters, Inc. primarily used children's screams. However, it was later discovered that laughter produces ten times more powerful energy than screams; as a result, the company now uses children's laughter to create energy for Monstropolis.
"One of the most pivotal scenes in the film is when the Oozma Kappas (OK) take a field trip, and sneak onto the premises of Monsters, Inc. Peering in through a window, they catch a glimpse of a scare floor where all of their heroes are performing actual scares. "Whether they realize it or not," says Director Dan Scanlon, "it's the first time [Mike and Sulley] start to see that they both want the same thing.""
Monsters, Inc. is an energy company that was founded in 1810 as Amalgamated Monsters Ltd. before taking on its current name in 1895.[1] Its main duty is to provide all citizens in Monstropolis with energy in the form of captured screams collected from children. They accomplish this by crossing into the human world through door technology, portals connected to closets of children's bedrooms, and scaring them to the best of their ability. The screams are then collected in special canisters for use as energy.
The factory is an immense facility equipped to fulfill the needs of its employees. Scaring takes places in chambers called "Scare Floors", where the monsters cross over into the human world with the doors. Each scarer has an assistant to help coordinate the energy collection. Any door belonging to a child who has no fear of monsters is promptly destroyed in the Door Shredder, as their screams cannot be collected and are therefore obsolete.
After Randall and Mr. Waternoose are defeated, Sulley became the CEO of Monsters, Inc., and created the Laugh Floors and even bigger canisters for more energy from human kids' laughter due to laughter became ten times more powerful than screams. Initially, the implementation of laugh as alternative energy went into difficulty due to the lack of manpower to generate enough energy needed by the city since only a few scarers could easily transit to become Jokesters like Mike, Tylor or Bile. Almost all former scarers either have to be retrained to be Jokesters in course taught by Mike or quit their jobs as they unable to cope with the change in the industry.
Furthermore, making children laugh is far trickier than scaring them due to the difficulty in the art of comedy, resulting in a lot of Jokesters unable to reach energy quotas. As the result, power outstate became common and the Monstropolis Energy Regulatory Commission threatened to shut down Monsters Inc. twice and give the energy contract to Fear Co. It's also worth noting that most monsters outside Monsters, Inc. employees looked down on laugh power due to its novelty, thus making it massively unpopular energy source for the time being until Johnny's crimes of sabotaging Monsters, Inc.'s factory and slandering their credibility are exposed to the public.
In the epilogue of the original Monsters Inc. and the second season finale of Monsters at Work, the company has prospered as a leading energy provider for the Monstropolis and all former scarers have been successfully trained to become full-fledged Jokesters.
Places of interest[]
Lobby: This is the lobby located in front of the factory, which depicts various clocks depicting various time zones around the world placed over a mural depicting a world map. On one wall is a "Scarer of the Month" gallery, which for some reason always only showed Sulley (and occasionally Mike). Celia, the factory's receptionist and Mike's girlfriend, works in this area.
Scare/Laugh Floor D: Seen at the very beginning of Monsters University, this is the scare floor Ms. Graves' class visited on their field trip to the Monsters, Inc. factory. It is also where scarers like Frightening Frank McCay, Earl "The Terror" Thompson (the latter who actually works on Scare Floor F in Monsters University), and Hank "The Tank" Knapp work at. During the field trip, Mike Wazowski sneaks into the scare floor without permission, which is often considered to be very dangerous to monsters, resulting in Frank giving Mike his hat and inspiring him to go and attend Monsters University.
Scare/Laugh Floor F: This is where Sulley, Mike, Randall, the other scarers, and their assistants work. It is a large room where various children's closet doors are brought in from the Door Vault by an overhead conveyor belt and are brought down by lifts on the ground. Then, the scarers enter the doors and try their best to scare as many children as possible to collect more screams. Its supervisor is Jerry. At the end of the film, Sulley after becoming the new CEO converts this into "laugh floors" to reflect the company's new goal of making children laugh. In Monsters University, it is shown that Earl "The Terror" Thompson, Carla "Killer Claws" Benitez, and "Screaming" Bob Gunderson once worked at this Scare Floor before either retiring, being reassigned to another Scare Floor, or possibly laid off since neither of them were seen in the original film.
Roz's Office: This is where Roz works. Her office counter can be separated from the rest of the factory via a retractable shutter.
Men's Locker Room: This is where all of the male employees go to use the restroom and store their belongings.
Simulation Room: This room, featuring a simulated child's bedroom and an animatronic boy dummy, is often used to introduce newcomers to working at the factory. The room is supervised by Flint. At the end of the film, Sulley and Mike both go to this room to trap Waternoose and expose his evil plans, leading Waternoose to be arrested by the CDA.
Hallways: These are just hallways located throughout the factory.
Trash Compactor: This is a trash compactor located in the basement which destroys all waste material left in the factory. The compactor scene is a parody of the Looney Tunes short Feed the Kitty, in which Sulley exhibits the same reactions as Marc Anthony did with Pussyfoot, when Sulley thinks Boo has been crushed in the trash compactor.
Boiler Room: This hidden room, accessed only behind several pipes in a certain part of the factory, is where Waternoose and Randall secretly built the Scream Extractor to help with their evil plans.
Door Vault: The largest room in the factory. The doors are stored in the vault when not in use and are brought to and from Scare Floors by an automated system of overhead conveyor belts in a manner similar to roller coaster tracks. According to the audio commentary for Monsters, Inc., Pete Docter stated that there are about 36 million doors stored in the vault.
Mail Room: The mailing room is where Mike and Sulley started working at this factory when they were both first hired at Monsters, Inc. after being expelled from Monsters University; but through hard work in the mail room, they were promoted to scorers. According to his backstory, Yeti the Abominable Snowman used to work here as Mike and Sulley's mailing assistant but was unfortunately banished to the Himalayas for accidentally reading Waternoose's plan of scream extractor.
Scream/Laugh Can Storage Room: Where the Scream/Laugh Cans are stored; seen only as a photograph in the epilogue of Monsters University.
Cafeteria: Where the Monsters, Inc. employees go to eat; seen only as a photograph in the epilogue of Monsters University.
MIFT Quarters/Basement: Where the Monsters, Inc. Facilities Team is located; seen only as a photograph in the epilogue of Monsters University.
Codes[]
216: Code for when the chance of a power blackout.
418: Code for a damaged child's room. A scare/laugh floor is closed down and all personnel are evacuated until the room is repaired. If repairs are not made, the door in question will have to be put through the shredder.
503: Code for empty canister.
1303: Code for leaky canister.
1320: Code for when a monster gets trapped in a child's room.
2319: Code for when a human child comes in contact in anyway with a monster, regarding a touch or a possession, most notably a white sock. Decontamination is carried out by the CDA, who dispose of the child's possession and have the monster go through extreme decontamination.
Because children have become desensitized to horror through the rise of violent media and find monsters less scary, the company had fallen on hard times, and screams are becoming increasingly difficult to obtain in large amounts. At the risk of an energy crisis, the company's CEO Henry J. Waternoose seeks out new, borderline-criminal means by which to obtain screams, including the kidnapping of children from the human world. His scheme is exposed by Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan, who bring Waternoose to justice. The company is temporarily closed down following the arrest of its CEO. However, after Sulley discovers that laughter produces more power than screams, the company reopens under Sulley's new management. Following this, the employees make children laugh now, though it is shown in Monsters, Inc. Scream Team Training that screams is still additionally used.
In the prequel, Monsters, Inc. appears three times. The first time is in a flashback of Mike's kindergarten field trip to the factory when Mike sneaks off into a child's bedroom used by Frank McCay, resulting in him being persuaded by McCay to attend Monsters University; the second time during Oozma Kappa's "field trip" by Mike to help inspire the team, and the third time is when Mike and Sulley are hired in the company's mail room after their expulsion from Monsters University; through their effort and hard work, the duo get promoted through different jobs before finally becoming scarers.
At least one fatal casualty is confirmed in the company, as one of the past technicians was mauled to death by a dog during a clean-up in the Human World.
Gallery[]
The simulator
Main reception
Scare/Laugh floor
Door station
Door vault
References[]
↑Papademetriou, Lisa. Monsters, Inc.: Employee Handbook. Random House, 2001.
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