ABSTRACT
Monsters, Inc. (2001) employs signifiers of the factory, the corporation, the city and consumerism in its representation of Monstropolis, a city populated by monsters, which exists in a parallel universe to the human world (Freeman 2005). The company invoked by the cartoon's title is in the business of scaring: ‘We scare because we care’. Monsters, Inc. takes as its premise the childhood fear that a monster might be lurking in one's bedroom closet to explore what it might mean for this fantasy to become reality. In this cartoon, monsters do not just lurk in closets they work in them, generating power for their city from the screams of frightened children. Power begets power here as the (destructive) might of the monster is transformed through the (affective) conduit of the child's terror into (productive) energy for the purposes of keeping Monstropolis in working order. James P. Sullivan (Sully), a giant blue, hairy, bear-like creature, and Mike Wazowski (Mikey), a large eye encased in a green head on legs, are the protagonists and together make up the company's top scaring team. While following their adventures in which they uncover a nasty plot literally to suck the screams out of children mechanically and make scarers redundant, we become privy to Sully and Mikey's homosocial bond, which is mediated paternally through their relationship with Boo, a human female child. While Mikey's heterosexuality is symbolised by his attraction to his snake-haired, ‘schmoopsie-poo’ Celia, Sully's hermetic lifestyle and bachelor's disinterest in dating suggest that he is a workaholic certainly but also potentially raise questions as to whether he can be read as straight. This is where Roz comes in – or out as the case might be.
