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.