Sightlines · reception
How Monsters, Inc. was received
2001 · Pete Docter · Monsters, Inc. on Sightlines
The arc
A massive hit and instant crowd-pleaser in 2001, it was long filed as 'great, but second-tier Pixar' behind Toy Story and Nemo — a ranking the internet has steadily overturned, with the door-chase finale now routinely cited among the studio's greatest sequences.
What’s debated
The evergreen fight: it lost the very first Best Animated Feature Oscar to Shrek, a result film fans have spent two decades calling one of the Academy's most indefensible choices.
Its footprint
'Put that thing back where it came from or so help me' became a full-blown meme, Boo's 'Kitty!' is shorthand for instant tears, and the Mike-Wazowski-face-swap image is one of the most recycled reaction memes online.
Where it stands
Core millennial-childhood canon and a Letterboxd comfort-watch staple — the Pixar golden-age entry people rewatch as adults and rate higher than they did as kids.
Did you know? Billy Crystal turned down the role of Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story and has called it one of his biggest career regrets — so when Pixar came back offering Mike Wazowski, he said yes on the spot.