Unkrich explains that because the film is about monsters it starts out dark and creepy. That is what most people will expect. Then the mood changes and people will discover it is a raucous comedy. There are scary parts "as most people enjoy being a little scared, but this is a family film and we don't want to turn anybody off with it." All Pixar films have dark moments and this film follows in that tradition.

"Much of my time was spent in the editing room with Jim Stewart and the other editors," says Unkrich. "We spent a lot of time hashing things out and restructuring the movie to get the rhythm of performances working nicely." He spent time working with layout supervisor Ewan Johnson and his team designing the shots of the film. Also, "as story problems would come up I'd jump in to help."

The other co-director was David Silverman, one of the original directors of The Simpsons. Silverman worked on the story and wrote a lot gags. He helped develop the personalities of the characters and added a great deal to the film's humor. He helped make the characters entertaining and believable and added a delightful sense of irreverence to the script. Unkrich believes that Silverman's great sense of humor indeed helped to make Monsters, Inc. a very funny film. Now Silverman has moved back to Los Angeles to direct The Simpsons first feature.

Silverman will be missed for many reasons including his musical abilities. He was in the company Dixieland band. Other regulars are senior animator Bud Luckey, Pete Docter and the lead character designer Ricky Nierva.

Mike and Sully prepare to battle a fearsome opponent: a two year-old human girl named Boo.

What's New In Computer Animation At Pixar?
Since Toy Story was completed there has been a trend toward greater visual complexity in each of their films. Tom Porter, supervising technical director on Monsters, Inc. -- and winner of two Oscars -- says Toy Story was made with 1/50th the computing power available today.

When Porter joined the Monsters, Inc. team he began by making a list of the technology they had to develop to get the film completed. One of the big problems was making hair move realistically. Sulley, a star of the film, is an 8 foot tall horned monster with a 700 pound body covered in blue-green hair. Having animators animate his hair by hand would have been an impossible task. Developing hair simulation software that can control hair movement was the answer.

They also developed simulation technology to move clothing independently of body motion. The big problem for Porter's staff the first year of pre-production was to develop these programs. "We spent a lot of time up front making sure we could get the simulation working. In the end it worked fine."

Another problem was creating the visual feel of atmosphere in large spaces. Monsters, Inc. was going to take place in an enormous factory and in vast outdoor spaces. They knew they had to suggest wind blowing, smoke, snow and other atmospheric effects. Porter said that historically computer graphics has presented a rather clean or crystal clear view of the world.

If you have seen the ads for the film on TV you may have noticed a line of monsters marching toward the camera. In that factory sequence they become easier to see and their colors become richer and brighter as they move toward the camera. This naturalistic effect suggests some of the subtle attention to detail Pixar's team has achieved.

Lighting on this film was also a lot more sophisticated then it was in Toy Story. Lighting a hard plastic surface is a lot simpler than lighting fur and clothing. Therefore, they got involved with the principles of back lighting, rim lighting and other problems that they hadn't experienced in their previous films.