Day Four: Favorite Pixar Character

LDS missionaries are not allowed to go see movies. We had other responsibilities to attend to, but I have to admit it was very difficult to know that the theater in the next town over had an extended showing of a movie animated not by hand, but by computer. Being the all around animation nut I am, it took everything I had to stick to the straight and narrow through the winter of 1995, and into the following spring of 1996. Every time we drove past the theater showing an extended run of Toy Story, I just kept chanting to myself, "I'll be home in four months, and I can see what it's all about then." It was a long four months (but the best two years of my life - up to that point).

Yes, I eventually made it home from the mission field, and I did get to see Toy Story, albeit on video tape. Two years later, I waited patiently in line at the SCERA theater in Orem, Utah to see Pixar's newest offering, a bug's life. It couldn't be as good as Toy Story was, could it? I was proven wrong - a bug's life reached the mark set by Toy Story, and the start of Pixar in jokes, such as the Pizza Planet truck and the use of John Ratzenberger, started to become familiar points to watch for.

Toy Story 2 set the bar even higher and became one of the rare sequels that outdoes the original. Then came Monsters Inc.


James P. Sullivan, Monster's Inc. top scarer. Behind the fangs and fur, this monster was a regular joe, just trying to do his job to the best of his ability.

THEN SOMETHING GOES HORRIBLY WRONG!!!!!


His world is changed by a little girl. He learns that children aren't dangerous, and by the end of his first day with "Boo," she's got him twisted around her little finger. I didn't think much of it at the time.

And then my world was changed by a little girl. My daughter was born about four years after Monster's Inc. was released, and I suddenly realized why Sully was so protective of Boo. I also came to learn for myself the great feeling that accompanies the final frame of the film.