Like every other Pixar movie – especially the truly great ones – Monsters, Inc. is a movie that hits you right in the feels. There are plenty of rib-tickling moments, and just as many tear-jerking moments, as the movie humanizes a couple of monsters. Mike and Sulley achieved a palpable on-screen chemistry, despite being animated, because Billy Crystal and John Goodman unconventionally chose to record their lines together, rather than separately. Their back-and-forth is hilarious, energetic, and partly ad-libbed.
But it doesn’t detract from the complex emotions of the story, either. So, here are Monsters, Inc.’s 5 Funniest (And 5 Saddest) Moments.
Funniest: “Ooklay in the agbay.”
Before Mike and Sulley realized that children aren’t as dangerous as they’d been told, if a kid escaped into the monsters’ world, it was a pretty big deal. And that’s why Sulley was horrified to find that a little girl had made her way out of her room and latched onto his tail.
He freaked out, stowed her away in a gym bag, and rushed to the restaurant where Mike and his girlfriend were enjoying a special date. Sulley tried to speak to Mike in Pig Latin, telling him to “ooklay in the agbay,” but when Mike wasn’t getting it, he frustratedly yelled, “Look in the bag!”
Emotional: Sulley’s roar terrifies Boo
As Sulley tries to get Boo to safety, he’s stopped by Mr. Waternoose, who wants him to show the new recruits how it’s done. Sulley tries to get out of it, telling his boss that he doesn’t have time, but he keeps pushing him to show the newbies how to scare kids. Eventually, Sulley turns around and roars at a dummy kid, ratcheting up an impressive scare level.
Unfortunately, Boo is watching on a wall filled with monitors, and it terrifies her. Sulley approaches her, but she backs away. It’s heartbreaking to see Boo scared of the cuddly monster she affectionately nicknamed “Kitty.”
Funniest: “Put that thing back where it came from, or so help me!”
Out on the scare floor, Mike tries to put Boo back in her bedroom, but he gets the wrong door and Sulley becomes apprehensive about letting her go. Losing patience, Mike cries out, “Put that thing back where it came from, or so help me!” Then, the two realize that everyone on the scare floor is looking at them, so Mike pretends he’s rehearsing a musical that the company’s putting on.
Pixar really knows how to pay off a gag, and in the end credits of Monsters, Inc., we see the debut performance of Put That Thing Back Where It Came From, Or So Help Me! in front of a live audience.
Emotional: Boo checks her closet for Sulley
After Sulley leaves at the end of Monsters, Inc., Boo doesn’t really grasp what’s happening. She’s too young to understand the concept of people leaving. So, after Sulley leaves and closes her bedroom door behind him, she opens it and says, “Boo!,” excited to see the monster that went into his own closet earlier in the film to assure her there were no monsters in there.
But in her closet, all she finds is her clothes. Sulley is gone. Confused, and a little distraught, she says, “Kitty...?” It’s like Pete Docter gets some kind of sick pleasure from making people cry.
Funniest: Mike hurts himself to make Boo laugh
In the third-act climactic sequence of Monsters, Inc., as Mike, Sulley, and Boo flee from Randall, they learn a key piece of information: children’s laughter can power the monsters’ electricity even better than their screams can.
In order to power up a door and transport them out of Randall’s line of fire, Sulley tells Mike to make Boo laugh. Unfortunately for Mike, she only seems to laugh when he’s in serious pain. So, he jumps crotch-first onto a metal bar to make her laugh. At first, she’s not even looking, so he has to hurt himself again to get her to chuckle.
Emotional: Sulley says goodbye to Boo
Goodbyes are never easy, particularly in Pixar movies. From Woody saying goodbye to Buzz in Toy Story 4 to Arlo parting ways with Spot in The Good Dinosaur, Pixar really knows how to make a heartstring-tugging farewell scene. But out of all the tragic goodbyes in Pixar’s filmography, Sulley leaving Boo in Monsters, Inc. really takes the cake.
Boo is too young to really understand what’s going on, and when they get to Boo’s bedroom, she just wants to show him all her toys. John Goodman plays this scene perfectly, and it never fails to elicit tears from a heartbroken audience. “Kitty has to go.”
Funniest: 23-19
Poor George Sanderson. He’s an average, workaday joe who just wants to earn an honest living, spend his days with some decent people, and go home at the end of a hard day’s work. However, when a child’s sock ends up stuck to his back, the security team calls in a “23-19.”
The Child Detection Agency bursts in and pulls up a curtain around George so that they can shave his entire body and spray him with a chemical shower. From George’s piercing screams, this process sounds excruciating. And later in the movie, it happens again to the poor guy.
Emotional: Sulley holds onto a piece of Boo’s door
When all is said and done in Monsters, Inc., peace is restored to Monstropolis and the company changes its M.O. to be based on laughter, not fear. But part of setting the world back to normal involves sending Boo home and putting her bedroom door into a woodchipper. In order to hold onto his fond memories of Boo, Sulley holds onto a piece of her door.
In the movie’s heartfelt ending, Mike reveals that he’s been working painstakingly to rebuild Boo’s door from the pieces in the woodchipper, and he just needs the final piece to let Sulley see her again.
Funniest: Paperwork
Mike’s back-and-forth with Roz in Monsters, Inc. is hysterical, and relatable to anyone who’s ever worked under such bureaucratic conditions in a dull office job. She’s constantly harassing Mike for his paperwork, and she always brings it up at the most inopportune times.
Mike’s paperwork chases him around throughout the whole movie because Sulley was supposed to do it for him, but the arrival of Boo distracted him and he never got around to submitting it. Whenever Roz asks Mike about his paperwork, he’s pretty smooth and manages to come up with a good enough excuse, but when she’s had enough, she slams her shutter down on his fingers.
Emotional: Sulley revisits Boo
The final moments of Monsters, Inc. leave the film on a hopeful note, but that doesn’t mean anyone in the audience is left with dry eyes. Mike rebuilds Boo’s door from the scraps that the woodchipper left behind and asks Sulley for the final piece, which he had taped to his clipboard.
Sulley slides the last piece into place and the door lights up. Mike steps out of the way, allowing Sulley to open the door. He looks into the room, peers around, and when he sees Boo, he smiles. From off-screen, she says, “Kitty!” What a beautiful way to end this movie.