Thursday 3 October 2013

Analysis of opening scenes- Monsters INC

The opening scene of Monster Inc is shown after the long opening credits, which involve the use of bright coloured doors and monsters. The transition of going through the door into the darkness, highlight the many fears of what children face, but also help join the establishing shot, which begins in a child’s room. This use of the opening credits allows the audience to understand that it is more of a children’s film as the idea of monsters behind doors relates to many children fears and worries when sleeping.

The close up shot of the toys shows that the film involves children, which represents the innocence and youth of them. The camera then lowers from this close up to a high angled shot, which makes the audience look down on the child as being vulnerable, calm and attempting to sleep peacefully.

The sound track used in the background creates suspense and tension as the noises used are subtle and makes the audience relate to the film as when sleeping little noises usually would make them scared during the night. The sound track used also shows the normality of a summer’s night- but suddenly fades and falls silent, to emphasis the creaking of the cupboard door, which is now the audience’s main focus of attention. The music add to the effect of using the use of close ups  in a row as they suddenly move from one shot to another, which means the audience cannot focus on one point of the room, which increase their adrenaline when watching. The close up in this scene of the boy’s face reacting to the noise, shows the pure fear and worry developed, making the audience feel the boy’s fear too.

Having a camera shot as if the audience is looking through the child eyes darting around the room, allows them to relate to the fear the child is facing as everybody once was scared of having monsters in their room. The unstableness of the camera allows the audience to become part of the film as they feel as it is from their eyes only, increasing the tension and curiosity they have.

The close up of the eyes of the thing being under the bed, creates an enigma as we want to know what it is which develops more suspense and curiosity. This shot relates to children’s fear of something being under the bed, such as the ‘bogey man’, which makes the whole film more realistic, even though it, an animated film. The darkness of under the bed, suggests that whatever is under there is bad and you should be scared of it, as dark colours are stereotypically related to this behaviour.

The low angled shot of the child sleeping the monster increasingly growing behind him emphasises the power the monster has as he is towering over the young youth. This makes the audience want the child to wake up and run, suspense, but the child is far from doing that now. This shot also shows how vulnerable he is due to the height difference in the scene. Also having the light from the window, casts a shadow on the bed, this could suggest that the child is being engulfed in the badness of the monster behind him. Involving instrumental music as the monster engulfs the child with its shadow makes the monster seem even more powering and scary to the audience. Having the music increasing getting louder as well emphasises the hugeness of it and the force of which it has.

Having the close up of child’s reaction and then followed by a two shot view shows both reactions of the characters, which leads onto them both being scared of one another. This ends the suspense and tension of the scene, which leads us to believe that the genre of the film involves comedy. Incorporating the monster scream like a little girl could symbolise that all children’s fears are something which all of them have to face but are silly little ones and will outgrow them, which allows the audience to relate to the film.


Having the final shot being an over the shoulder shot of monsters, allows the audience to feel as they are part of the crowd of assessors for this simulation and allows them to feel as though they can judge the character on what he did. This shot also provides all the expressions of the characters, from the monster looking glum and disappointed in himself to the three monsters engaged and concentrating on the simulation.

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