Screams of Laughter: Monsters Inc and the Creative Industry

TB:CR (Too Busy: Can't Read)

Lonesome Peanut · Screams of Laughter: Monsters Inc and the Creative Industry

TL:DR

    Have you ever watched a movie or TV show and felt like it had no soul? Ever played a video game that failed to stir up your imagination? Read a story or plot line that felt contrived and predictable? Have you ever halfheartedly made yourself a sandwich and wondered why it doesn't taste as good as when a parent made it for you? The key ingredient was missing. Love.

    It can be easy for us to tell if something isn't made with love. We can tell when someone hasn't really cared about the thing they were making. But when someone pours their heart and soul into something,  you can feel it! You connect with it on a level that is so much more than simply enjoying.

    There is so much to the human experience that oft times it can be difficult to express it with words. But art in its many forms, is the secret voice. It is a way to say, "I hate this" or, "I love you" without having to be so frighteningly direct. Some of what we wish to say should be kept to ourselves. But the parts that a few or many may connect to? That is what makes art for art's sake worthwhile. The art that has stood the test of time (or at least lingered beyond the mortal life of its creator), that is the art in which someone has laid it all on the line without fear of rejection (okay, there is probably at least some fear).

Make art, with heart and go watch Monsters Inc.

TS:PR (Too Short: Please Rant)

    I recently watched Monsters Inc. I haven't watched that movie for many years. But now that I have a young son, my wife and I thought it would be fitting to put on something for him. But really, something for us. We watch a lot of CoComelon, and it drives us insane. So we put on Monsters Inc, the theme music starts up, and our eight month old son is absolutely entranced by it (Randy Newman's a genius). As we were watching the film my wife just kept saying, "Man, this movie is so good." because it had been a while since she'd seen it as well. Man, this movie is so good. It is a hilarious movie. It is so tightly scripted and pretty much nothing in the movie is wasted. It's an hour and a half, and for that entire time, I was in this world. I learnt about the monsters, their world and how it works (the world is powered by the screams of frightened children).

Image via insider.com

    There's so many fun little details. I imagine these people sitting down in a writing room, fleshing this thing out. I hear them ask, "You know, if I was a monster living in a monster's world, what would my life be like every day?" (From a human's perspective). Would monsters really build houses and sit in chairs that are perfectly shaped to their bodies? I don't know. But man, what a ride. What an awesome, awesome movie! It is just as good, if not better, than how I remembered it. Great pieces of film (particularly when it comes to children's movies), I can watch years later and say, "Wow, I get that joke now." or, "Man, I had no idea that detail was there before."

Praise be, the Muffin Man.

    This film is peak Pixar. This is the time when Pixar had a near-flawless reputation (and technically still do). Pixar was creating movies with heart. You can clearly see that there was this love and dedication put into these one-of-a-kind movies. One of a kind. No sequels necessary. Toy Story being the only exception and even that was a trilogy that didn't need to happen (I haven't seen Toy Story 4). But Toy Story was the OG, that was their smash hit. That's what really put them on the map. Every time they explored the Toy Story world in a sequel you could tell that it wasn't a rushed thing. They treated those sequels with respect and they only made the sequels if they felt they had a story that could only be told through and within that world that they had created.

    Monsters Inc: amazing. Monsters University: can barely remember it. Why? Because it's just a college comedy. It's a story that's been told so many times before. There's no reason it had to be set in the Monsters Inc universe. Monsters Inc has plenty of satire and parody but that's not at the heart of the film. The real story (this is off the cuff here) is about Sully learning to be a parent, and finding out how overwhelming and terrifying that can be. I myself didn't think there could be anything scarier than a literal monster in your closet.

Image via fanpop.com

    I'm learning now as a parent that it is indeed anxiety-inducing and awesome. The priority of raising a child transcends a lot of things. It goes way beyond anything that I used to think was important. If your kid's sick: you're going to take the day off of work. If your kid has an event: that Thursday afternoon spent hanging out with friends, is now met with, "Sorry guys, not tonight. My kid's got the role of second lobster in the Nativity!" You're happy to do it, because you love your child more than anything else in the world. I'm rambling. Original point Monsters Inc: incredible. Monsters University: didn't need to happen.

Image via evoke.ie

    What happened? Where was the disconnect? What led Pixar astray? We'll get into that soon but the point that I'm making here is that Monsters Inc holds up so well because it was created with heart. I know that it made a ton of money. But I can tell or I hope, in my heart of hearts, that it was created with that feeling of 'Art for Art's sake!' This world was created and explored, because someone had a story they needed to tell. Everyone at Pixar was along for the ride! They shared that vision and wanted to bring it to life. Watch the film. If you've already seen it, watch it again. That's what I'm trying to say, (right now!) watch it again. It's incredible. You'll love it. If you don't? Let me know how you feel about it.

Image via gfycat.com

    The internet provides a great platform for public discourse. We can sound off our ideas and our opinions and get immediate feedback. We find out, "It wasn't just me that felt this way, so many other people agree." Not everyone can properly articulate why they feel the way they do about something, but they will usually come across someone who can. We are able to voice our opinions and have them heard, and know that we're not alone. So when some of us went to see Monsters University, we said to ourselves, "Man, I loved Monsters Inc. Why did they make a sequel?"

    Pixar sold out. Because any company, especially one run by creatives, can reach a point where they're just like, "I'm having to worry about all this money and having to keep this place organized. I just want to focus on creating the things that I love." So they hire other people to come in and run the company. Then somewhere along the way, all of that creativity gets sucked out. It evaporates. Because they let someone else make all the decisions. And they're not always good decisions, because they're often based on this idea of, "How much money can we make if we do this again?" Pixar is a company, and like most well-to-do companies, eventually, the heart and soul is going to get sucked out of them.

    This happens in all forms of art, whether it's novels, movies, music, TV shows, video games etc. This is what happens when creativity is turned into an industry. It is a problem that we're seeing everywhere. Look at YouTube for example. The YouTube elite, they didn't start at the top. They often started from nothing. They had a camera, an eccentric personality, and they said, "You know what, I'm willing to put myself out there and upload my face, and my videos to the world!" They would do this, hoping that the world would respond, "You know what? We like your face and your stuff. Please make more!" There's a tipping point where the success generates this pressure to create, until it's no longer art for art's sake. It's no longer just a hobby. It becomes a full-time job. What we've seen time and time again is that it can suck the life out of people. They're no longer taking the time to do the things that they enjoy, the things they like doing. It turns into, "How do I stay relevant? What do I need to produce to keep up my viewership? My ratings? What will keep the money coming in? I have to pay down my third mansion!"

Image via imgur.com

    There are those of you out there that can stay true to your values. Who see your work as a 'labour of love'. Making art for art's sake. Writing a book, because you have this idea that you've wanted to write for ages. Not in the hopes that it will be a best seller and turned into an epic Netflix mini series, but because you feel like it's an experience that only you have and that only you can share. "Delusions of grandeur!" Some may say. An element of that is necessary to give us the courage we need to put these things out there. But art at its core - what makes art art - is when it's an expression of self. It's a secret voice. It's the way we say, "I don't agree!" or, "I love this person!" or, "I have these feelings that I can't articulate in any other way!" These stories, these feelings and emotions, they can only be expressed through other mediums. People get that. It's why art exists. It's why we have galleries. It's why we have movies, books, music, video games, and all this stuff. We don't all speak the same language, but art, it crosses the divide. It is a way for us to capture our human experience and present it to others.

Image via tenor.com

    I'm not saying I'm the first or last person to figure this out, we're all going to be talking about this forever. Nothing is ever going to change. True artists are still going to create true art, with heart. Corporations will keep trying to manufacture that heart. They can't. There is no secret formula. You can't mass produce creativity. But you can imitate it. Some imitations are met with disdain. Others get a pass. Even though they may feel like a carbon copy, if there's that heart, they get a pass. It's corporations or individuals being driven by money that turns us away. We feel it and we say, "No, thank you. I don't want any of that." That's what I'm saying. These things won't change. Some folks are going to be driven by money. Nothing wrong with that. But if you're going to try and be creative for the sole purpose of making money? You'll suck the soul out of it and people will know.

Image via tumgir.com

    What about the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)? What about everything that's fueled by Disney? There's hits and there's misses. The stuff that misses? Probably driven by money. Driven by the corporate algorithm saying, "This is what's in right now." The times when the movies stand out? When the Disney/Marvel Studios/corporation, provide the money, but don't interfere creatively. They bankroll it. They get the director that they think is a good fit. Then they give them the money and say, "Do whatever you want. Follow your heart. Money's no object." The MCU stands up. Is it perfect? Of course not. It's very long form. It's 10 years of movies! It's pulled off something that has never been done before. But throughout those 10 years there were hits and misses.

    Taika Waititi's Thor: Ragnarok. Everyone* loves that movie. The other two Thor movies? Very forgettable. Maybe it was Disney or Marvel going, "Well, we need to make Thor movies because Thor is going to be an Avenger." But Ragnarok was the result of them handing over the reins to Taika and saying, "Look, man, tell us a story about Thor. And do it in your way." And you feel it. You watch all of his other movies and then you watch Ragnarok and you say, "So much of his personality is put in there." You feel it. This is a Taika Waititi movie. The good directors can do that. They look at the stories that have been told by other people and say, "How can I tell it in my way?"

Image via buzzfeed.com

    Sequels and the like are more difficult because the director has to go along with someone else's vision. It can limit them. The really good ones though, still add in that flair. Not lens flare. I'm not talking J.J. Abrams "signature" lens flare here. That's contrived. That's like saying "Jason Derulo" at the start of a song. We get it, Abrams. This is your film. We saw the Bad Robot logo in the opening credits. We get that you made this film. Stop putting lens flare in everything! It's not necessary. But I digress. You can tell (just going in circles here) when someone has made something with passion. They put part of themselves in it. In a genuine way, not a J.J. Abrams lens flare way. There's thought put into it. Read any interview with Taika on directing Ragnarok and you'll see what I mean. That's what we need. That's what's going to keep art alive.

Image via buzzfeed.com

    That passion is what keeps us going back to art galleries and looking at masterpieces. Saying to ourselves, "This is still relevant. This is still something that needs to exist today, this is something that we need to treasure and hold up." The artists behind these works have put themselves and their experience out onto the canvas. Maybe we didn't chop our ear off or struggle with addiction or whatever it was that led them to create that artwork, but we connect with things that are genuine. We see it and we feel that it's real. It's a piece of art, which you could say, is not real. We feel what's real.

René Magritte via wikipedia

    Make art, with heart. If you do that, it doesn't matter if it's successful or not. You'll never regret it. You might be a little bit embarrassed by it. You might think to yourself, "I'm definitely not that person anymore." But you'll look at it and you'll say, "I know exactly who I was and how I felt at that time. I've put that piece of myself out into the world." Don't disconnect from what you're passionate about. Don't turn it into a slog. If you have to take a step back, to take a break and reevaluate, then do that. Whatever your job is, whether you're a baker, a mechanic, a jeweler, whatever. Use your secret voice. That's your art. You can put a piece of yourself into anything. Then long after you're gone, people will find those pieces, put them back together, and open the door that connects your world with theirs.

Image via screenrant.com

    Thank you for seeing this post through to the end (or at least scrolling to the bottom of the page). If you've enjoyed this blog post (or not) let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Have I made (any) valid points? Am I being too hard on the creative industry? Can things change? Are they changing already? What's a creative work that you feel has been made with heart? If you're really (really) brave, feel free to take a look at my previous, decade old, posts. Stay tuned for future posts and see where my thoughts take me next.

- Phil (aka The Lonesome Peanut)

Original rant recorded on 12.04.2021 - Rant transcribed by https://otter.ai - Rant then refined for the sake of the reader by me.