THEY'VE CREATED A MONSTER! THE STORY WAS EVERYTHING FOR PIXAR AND ITS NEW ANIMATED FEATURE.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Writer

Years ago, Billy Crystal turned down Pixar's request to voice Buzz Lightyear in ``Toy Story'' (``the biggest mistake I've made in my career,'' the actor-comedian says), so he jumped at the chance to be involved in Pixar's latest movie, ``Monsters, Inc.''

But what he thought he'd be doing wasn't what he ended up doing.

This was partly because John Lasseter, the man who directed the ``Toy Story'' movies and ``A Bug's Life,'' wants his company, Pixar, to start cranking out a movie every 18 months or so. But that might be a little hard, given that Pixar typically takes nearly two years just to come up with a complete story in the first place.

Lasseter calls the process ``story crisis time.'' His associate, Pete Docter, who directed Pixar's latest movie, ``Monsters, Inc.,'' is a little more blunt.

``It's nervous breakdown time,'' Docter says, laughing. ``It's the time where you question everything, including why you've chosen to put yourself through such torture.''

For ``Monsters, Inc.,'' the ``story crisis time'' came about a year after Docter had come up with the original idea for the movie. At first, Docter and his screenwriters had an idea about a 30-year-old man who had monster friends that only he could see. Then the 30-year-old man became a 6-year-old boy and then, finally, an adorable 2-year-old girl, who hitches a ride back to Monstropolis, the company town of the creatures who hide in kids' closets.

Says Docter: ``Basically, we had to go back to Billy (Crystal) and John (Goodman) and say, 'Remember that story you signed up for? Well, it's totally different now.' ''

Spotless track record

That's the way they work at Pixar Animation Studios, the Emeryville, Calif.-based company that, in the past decade, has become the most acclaimed animation factory working in film. Pixar's track record is spotless - its three movies have grossed nearly $1 billion at the box- office worldwide and have earned the kinds of plaudits usually reserved for Oscar-winning movies.

And with ``Monsters, Inc.,'' Pixar figures to continue the box-office bonanza and just maybe win an Academy Award in the process. This year marks the initiation of an Oscar category for full-length animated features; ``Monsters, Inc.'' figures to battle DreamWorks' ``Shrek'' and Richard Linklater's ``Waking Life'' for the honor.

``It would be icing on the cake,'' Lasseter says of the possible Oscar. ``What we're really hoping to do each time out is just make a movie that's timeless.''

``Monsters, Inc.'' began life when Lasseter assigned Docter the task of coming up with another original story while he worked on ``A Bug's Life.'' Docter, who worked as a supervising animator and on the storyboard team for ``Toy Story,'' says he racked his brain trying to remember the sorts of fantastical things he believed as a child.

``One of the things I loved about working on 'Toy Story' was how many friends would come up and say, 'I totally thought my toys came to life when I wasn't looking,' '' Docter says. ``So I started to think of other things along those lines. And then I recalled how when I was little that I totally believed there were monsters in my closet waiting to get me. If my closet door was just slightly open at night, I imagined that the sleeve of a shirt was actually a tentacle.''

From that memory came the genesis of ``Monsters, Inc.'' The movie is set in Monstropolis, home of the monsters that hide in kids' closets. The reason the creatures scare kids is simple: They need the energy from children's screams to power their world. And, since kids are harder to scare these days, Monstropolis is undergoing an energy crisis that has its politicians searching for solutions.

Into this world comes the aforementioned 2-year-old girl, Boo, who regards Monstropolis' main monster, Sullivan (voiced by Goodman), as little more than an overgrown kitty-cat. Sullivan and his one-eyed partner, Mike Wazowski (Crystal), must overcome their fear of children (which, initially, is greater than the kids' phobia of monsters) and return Boo to the safety of her bedroom.

The Pixar team did its usual thorough research for the movie's design, visiting zoos to glean ideas for creatures, taking factory tours to learn how to properly design the Monsters, Inc. assembly line and eating lobster and crab dinners to zero in on the suitable look for a crustacean monster.

``Believe me, we milk the research as much as we can,'' Lasseter says.

Crystal and Goodman ended up recording most of their scenes together, highly unusual given that vocal work for animated films tends to be a solitary exercise.

``I did the first two sessions alone and it was just terrible,'' Crystal says. ``Pete (Docter) kept wanting all these different line readings, but I couldn't get anything really going because there was no one to bounce ideas off. So they brought in John and we became those guys. We were really acting with each other.''

Adds Goodman: ``There were a lot of times when we'd get going, start to improv and just try to top each other. There's a scene in the locker room where we're putting on 'odorant' - not deodorant, but 'odorant' - because monsters want to smell bad. And we threw out names like 'Low Tide' and 'Wet Dog' and a few others that they decided not to use, probably because it's a G-rated movie.''

Keeping it clean

Indeed, ``Monsters, Inc.'' is, like all Pixar films, rated G. And Lasseter says, if it's up to him, the G rating will be a permanent fixture of all future Pixar movies.

``I love what we do,'' Lasseter says. ``I'm incredibly proud that all four of our films have been rated G. We didn't have to change one thing with the MPAA. But I'm also proud of the fact that these films play for adults almost better than they play for kids. Teen-agers and college students are some of our biggest fans. They go nuts for these films.

``Most of us are parents here, and it's so rare that you can take kids to movies and have everyone enjoy them. Most of the time, there's questionable language and subject matter, and I'm sitting there, thinking, 'I don't allow my kids to say these words in my house, yet here they are in a family film.' All it takes is a little creativity. Buzz Lightyear says, 'Blast!' instead of 'Damn!' You just have to be a little clever and you can achieve something that's timeless.''

Adds Crystal: ``I have to tell you, when I saw the movie and the lights went down and the Walt Disney logo came on, I got a little choked up. It's being part of a legacy. I started thinking back to 'Snow White' and 'Pinocchio' and 'Old Yeller' and 'Davy Crockett' and 'The Mickey Mouse Club.' The legacy of enjoyment and imagination - 'Fantasia.' My God, how many times as a kid and a stoned adult I saw 'Fantasia.' So to be part of that is extraordinary to me.''

As for Lasseter's hope that Pixar can be a little more productive in the future, the studio plans to release its next movie, a tropical fish father-son story called ``Finding Nemo,'' in the summer - of 2003. A couple of other projects, including one from ``Iron Giant'' director Brad Bird, are in the planning stages.

``We're getting there,'' Lasseter says. ``But I don't think anyone wants to rush things just for the sake of quantity. We never want to go out of the quality business.''

CAPTION(S):

5 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) CREATURE Comforts

What it took to build a better monster for the newest movie from Disney/Pixar

(2) no caption (Scene from ``Monsters, Inc.'')

(3) - John Goodman 

(4) - Billy Crystal

(5) no caption (Scene from ``Monsters, Inc.'')