Futuristic fable rings alarm bells

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">Just go for it. From under eight to over eighteens, this one is straight from your favourite childhood book. The monsters are adorable, the animation throbs with life, the colours are kaleidoscopic and the drama is hilarious. <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Monsters Inc.</span> ably follows the trend of <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Antz</span>, <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Toy Story</span>, <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">A Bug’s Life</span>: animated features with an adult appeal.<br />Everybody has had a monster in his closet.And though the monster may have grown mothballed, once the closet door was tightly shut, post childhood, memories of the nightmarish form can still be fondly resurrected. <br />And if the monster happens to be a dashing blue giant called Sulley (John Goodman) who nurtures a heart of gold despite notching up the highest score on the scream barometer, the fondness grows.<br />The setting is Monstropolis: a bustling city of monsters which draws its energy from the bottled up screams of young kids. But with kids getting more and more adult, the city’s power supply seems to be threatened as the screams are dying down. <br />A desperate CEO looks for desperate measures of survival, even if it means abducting sweet young things for a made-to-order supply of screams.<br />Ably assisted by his scream assistant, a larger-than-life walkie-talkie eye (Billy Crystal), our hero Sulley metamorphoses from closet monster to cute teddy bear. He saves the kid world from the unscrupulous designs of the monstrous monsters and changes the power grid of Monstropolis. Instead of screams, the city now draws its energy from giggles and laughs.<br />Delightful fare.</div> </div>