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Tracie revisits the classic Pixar animation Monsters, Inc in today’s episode of Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit. This family film, which was released just after 9/11, offers the deeply reassuring message that laughter is much stronger than fear, and Tracie argues that our country’s collective mental health needed that pop culture lesson in late 2001.

But in addition to the lovely psychology, this classic movie also gave us gorgeous and groundbreaking digital animation, plenty of comedy, a heartwarming relationship between Sulley and Boo, and masterful storytelling. The artists and writers behind this animation clearly took their craft seriously–check out the punny names of the DVDs Boo de-alphabetizes that are only onscreen for a second–while not taking themselves too seriously.

That said, the gender dynamics don’t quite hold up to nostalgia. Not only are there a surprising dearth of women and girls in the film, but consider how different the story would be if Boo had been a boy-child. Still, there’s much to love in this delightful comedy.

Throw on your headphones and take a listen. Every time you laugh, you help power Monstropolis!

Mentioned in this episode:

Roger Ebert’s 2001 Review of Monsters, Inc

Tags:

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit, pop culture, animation, mental health, psychology, nostalgia, classic movies, film, comedy, women, storytelling, Pixar, 9/11, feminism, millennial nostalgia, movies, movie reviews, cultural commentary, analyzing film tropes, film analysis, Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Jennifer Tilly

Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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We are the sister podcasters Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our extended family as the Guy Girls.

We're hella smart and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love 80s and 90s movies and tv, science fiction, comedy, and murder mysteries, good storytelling with lots of dramatic irony, analyzing film tropes with a side of feminism, and examining the pop culture of our Gen X childhood for gender dynamics, psychology, sociology, religious allegory, and whatever else we find.

We have super-serious day jobs. For the bona fides, visit our individual websites: tracieguydecker.com and emilyguybirken.com. For our work together, visit guygirlsmedia.com

We are on socials! Find us on Facebook at fb.com/dtasspodcast and on Insta at instagram.com/guygirlsmedia. You can also email us at guygirlsmedia at gmail dot com. We would love to hear from you!