How do the opening ten minutes of Disney(TM)s Monsters Inc.(TM) prepare the viewer for the rest of the film

Fredric David Savell 10S 14/02/09

How do the opening ten minutes of Disney’s ‘Monsters Inc.’ prepare the viewer for the rest of the film?

Disney was originally founded in 1956, since then Disney has been making fantastic family films ever since. In the opening ten minutes of Disney’s ‘Monsters Inc.’ the creators used different techniques to prepare the viewer for the rest of the film. The first of these was the opening credits. In the opening credits Disney Pixar uses music which is fast, up beat music is generally happy and jolly music. Also the opening credits introduce the idea of doors which is a key element in the rest of the movie as this is how the monsters enter the human world. Out of these doors come monsters who show authority over each other, when the smaller monsters write the words and the bigger monsters come and eat the words. After the opening credits there is a teaser in which they explain what Monster Incorporated in the monsters world does, which is to collect energy which they use to power there city with. The target audience for this film is families with young because it is easy to follow and has very childish humour e.g. slapstick. Considering the target audience the genre is an animated comedy. All these give the viewer an idea of the rest of the film

The title and opening credits are the first themes which prepares the viewer for the rest of the film and storyline. The title is bright blue and has an eye in the middle of the O therefore being aimed at children as they will see it as more interesting to read. The music during the opening credits is jazzy and hi tempo, this means the music is a lot happier but as it is jazz it is aimed for adults as children usually have a different taste in music. The first image of the film is a door; this is an crucial part of the film as it is doors which link the monster world to the human world. Also the story is full of doors playing important roles in the whole film e.g. when Sully gets banished from the monster world he finds a door in a local village to get back and save Boo. When the monsters first appear from the doors you can tell that they’re not your average monsters and that they have human-like features when the monsters write the title and sub titles and they are also written in calligraphy which shows sophistication and class. These points all provide evidence that the target audience for this film is families with young children . The main themes of the films which are shown in the opening titles are; don’t judge a book by its cover. It show this when the title ‘Monster Inc.’ makes you think of scary monster frightening children but in the titles and start of the teaser it shows you that the monster are actually scared of the children as they believe that the children are poisonous and deadly to them which helps create some of the funniest parts of the film.

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After these titles there is a teaser which is designed to capture and hold the attention of the viewer. They do this with a very simple yet interesting effect. It starts off with a dark room, the window is open and curtains blowing (Like in a traditional horror film). Then the closet door opens and a monster walks through. the monster creeps under the bed, then he rises evil, glowing eyes, this would strike fear in most children making a tense scene. He then roars menacingly, scaring the child. But the child’s scream startles the monster causing him to jump back screaming, tripping on a ball, landing on a skateboard, falling on jacks and running round screaming, this lightens the mood and grabs your attention because you want to watch more. The room lights up and a wall rises and a robotic voice says ‘simulation terminated’. One way in which they attract the audience’s attention is the fact that the monster is scared of the human even though it was only a simulation and using a dummy. The monster had bright colours; kind eyes and awkwardness all make the monster cute. Also with these human like features the audience can relate and connect with the monster more then if they were nothing like humans. The assessors in the background look very professional, they do not know what the monster in the teaser did wrong. This makes you empathise for them as they look new to Monster Inc. and very worries. After this teaser they is a scene where Mr. Waternoose has a short speech where he explains the importance in which monster incorporated has in the monsters world; which is to produce energy from children’s screams. He then introduces the two main characters; James P. Sullivan (Sully) and Michael Wasowzki (Mike).

The introduction of some main characters in ‘Monster Inc.’ in the first ten minutes, helps prepare the viewer for the rest of the film. It does this by showing the main hero, Sully. You can instantly recognise Sully as a hero by Mr. Waternoose because he says his name proudly. Sully is a fluffy, brightly coloured monster with a lizzard like tail and a deep voice. His assistant Mike is a much more plain character; he is a pale green, pea shaped monster with one eye and inverted horns, he is a funny character the way his body is so disproportionate to his arms and legs. The other main character introduced in the first ten minutes is Mr. Waternoose. Mr. Waternoose appears from the dark shortly after the teaser it is quite obvious that he is the boss of Monsters Incorporated because he immediately starts talking about the reason the monsters need screams and because he talks as if he is a higher monster than the others monsters, which links back what I said about the opening titles. He has the body of a crap and the head of a spider, he is fearsome with dark wrinkled skin. The way he is portrayed make him appear to be older than the rest, signifying a wiser character. Simple conventions are used to emphasis roles of important characters. This includes the main character Sully who is male, bigger than most monsters we meet, with a deep voice and the fact that he is top Monsters Incorporated employee, the convention used he is that usually the hero is the best at everything. Also Mr Waternoose is a conventional villain as he appears from the dark with a potty and wrinkled face he is also the only

Monster without normal human features e.g. 2 legs. The last character convention is the damsel in distress, Boo, who is a girl who is very sweet and loveable with her hair in pig tails that requires saving from Sully.

There are a number of wider themes of the film that are first shown in the starting ten minutes. An example of this is the introduction to the lack of screams to power the monster world; it was introduced when sully and mike were on there way to work. The moral message introduced in the first ten minutes of ‘Monsters Inc.’ is don’t judge a book by its cover or in this case a DVD by its title. The message is proposed by the title being ‘Monsters Inc.’ but the film being about kind monster with human like features and emotions. The viewer expects a number of points in a classic Disney film. The first is comedy; comedy is shown a number of times in the first paragraph the first is the teaser were slapstick is used, the next funny part is just after we meet sully and Mikey when the new monsters Inc. advert where Mikey gets covered up by the company logo and says ‘the camera loves me’. This is funny because mike is missing the point that he was on the screen for no more than a second and he wasn’t the least fazed. Another point that the audience looks for in a Disney film is the hero and villain storyline and Monster Inc. is a classic example of this with sully and Mr. Waternoose. These all prepare the audience for the rest of the film by ether introducing ideas that become key features of the film or by the expectations of Disney films by the audience.

The first ten minutes of ‘Monsters Inc.’ prepares the viewer for the rest of the film. The first ten minutes are vital for any film as it is primarily the decider on whether you will watch the rest or find another for the rest of the film. It is important because it using the teaser, character introductions and introductions of key themes to prepare. The teaser introduces the idea of the monsters having human features and emotions, the title and sound track sets the basis of the target audience and the introduction of key characters tells you about the hero, sully, and the villain, Mr. Waternose.

Samuel Whitbread Community College