Monsters INC. Film Trailer Analysis
The first shot we see on screen is not the distributor logo, which is the normal convention for a trailer, but the “Monsters INC.” company logo which gives the audience an insight in to how perhaps this movie will be set against the background of a company/institution. The logo appears against a black screen with words “Monsters INC.” underneath in bold white font similar to that of ‘Impact.’ The next shot wee see of the Disney Pictures logo, the white fairytale castle set against a light blue background with the shooting star flying over the castle. This automatically shows us who the target audience is as Disney has become ironically associated with family movies. This then teamed with the next shot being of the PIXAR logo we can automatically tell that this movie will be an animated feature as PIXAR specialise in computer generated animation.
On the first action shot of the trailer the target audience is automatically confirmed as we can see the door of what is obviously a child’s bedroom due to a circus poster and child like drawing on wall either side of the door teamed with a few toys on the floor. Also this long shot of the setting confirms that is an animated feature as the scene is obviously computer generated. Bright colours are used to create the bedroom setting which makes this aesthetically pleasing for a young audience.
The voice over uses a clear, slow, deep and soft voice which creates a sense of this being like a bedtime story which will captivate and draw in a younger audience. As the voice over begins the shot begins to zoom up on the door implying that the door will play some significance to the movie plot. On the line “and shut off the light” the scene darkens as if the lights have been switched off and for some young children darkness may be a frightening concept so the builds tension as to what will happen next. This is then further backed up when the door handle begins to shake and there is a knocking sound coming from behind the door, this is teamed with the voice over speaking “there are monsters hiding in their closets.”
This tension is then broken in a change of tone in the voice over to being more conversational and the pitch rising slightly. There is a comedy aspect to an older audience of a credit card coming through the crack in the door trying to slip the lock; this will show that the humour within this movie can be enjoyed by adults and children alike so it should be a ‘family favourite.’ Humour for the younger audience is slightly more obvious and slapstick as two brightly coloured monsters come tumbling out of the door on to the floor.
The two monsters are brightly coloured to imply to a younger audience that even though these characters are monsters they are not be feared and this is again heavily implied by the almost teddy bear like appearance of the larger monster, Sully.
There is a further mix of comedy styles through the jokes and punch lines used in the dialogue, where a younger audience will laugh at the smaller, sphere shaped monster circling around on his tip-toes with a hula-hoop asking “guess what planet I am” as this is quite visually funny. The older audience will appreciate the humour of the dialogue from Sully as he accuses Mike of getting them lost; “Remember 5th grade? While you where passing notes to Suzy Boyle the rest of us where studying geography this is not Mongolia!”
Even though they begin a slight and short lived argument the word “buddy” establishes that this pair of characters are good friends and perhaps the comedy or even heroic duo of the movie. All of the action of the trailer is based around this pair and no other characters are introduced to us implying to the audience that the main focus of the movie is these two characters and their relationship.
All of the action of this trailer happens at a long shot so we can see the setting of the child’s bedroom and the action of the characters. The action within the trailer is not taken directly from the movie so instead of giving the audience a huge insight in to the plot of the movie it firmly establishes the main characters.
The action is cut away from back to a black screen with white text saying “coming soon only to theatres” as this happens we here in the background a dog growl and the call help from Mike. The text cuts away to show Mike franticly trying to open the door and then Sully eventually pulls him through. This is a comedy moment which can be shared by both the younger and older audience. This establishes that this is a family movie which can easily be enjoyed by audiences young and old but also that as well as being of the fantasy genre this movie has an underlying comedy sub-genre.