I guess it’s a good thing that people in Hollywood decide to take a look at things like this before making a go of it. The early version of Monsters Inc. looks like something that could be enjoyable but wasn’t quite there yet. It was missing something that was a little more crucial to its success. It wasn’t just the celebrity voices however, it was more or less the stereotypes that were thrust into the movie and used so heavily that made it was it became.
The smaller character, which is obviously the early version of Mike, is far more aggressive and much more confident than we see in the movie, whereas the bigger guy, who is a template for Sully in some ways, is much more passive and willing to back down when it comes to a confrontation. Come on now, do you ever remember Sully backing down that easily? As okay as this version might be I think it’s definitely a big plus that Monsters Inc. was given a big makeover into what it is now.
The characters are of course templates and it is a test to see how they might be used together and how successful they could be. But if these test subjects had been used instead of the actual characters that came along the movie would have been very different. The inclusion of arms on Mike was a big up, and the increase in size, the coloring, and the more animal-like features for Sully lent him a little more personable feel that kids liked and could relate to.
It’s always interesting to look at these early versions of cartoons and wonder just what might have been if these were the templates that the film had gone with instead of what came after. I get the feeling that the massive difference in appearance would have somehow ironed itself out but still wouldn’t have been quite as successful. It’s hard to tell though simply because what we have now is what we’ve grown used to and seeing these kind of clips at this time makes us glad that we were given what became so popular. It’s very easy to overlook anything that comes before if it doesn’t get pushed as the main objective.
A lot of cartoon movies have gone through this process. You see clips such as this all the time any more showing what could have been versus what is. It kind of gives you the impression that writers and animators aren’t always on the same page, otherwise those visions might have already been pushed through. When you look at a B-version of a cartoon movie and how much simpler it is than the big, grand, blockbuster movie it’s been made to copy or emulate you get an idea of just how competitive the film industry is and how easily a blockbuster effort can bury any and all initial clips that were devised to get the ball rolling.
It’s important to remember what came before so that you don’t take what you have for granted.
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