Pixar’s Monsters, Inc. opened Nov. 2, 2001 with the biggest animated debut ever at the time. Its breakout star was 2 and a half years old, wouldn’t sit still, and got tricked into her lines with a Cookie Monster puppet.
Monsters, Inc. opened on Nov. 2, 2001, and took in $62.6 million its first weekend. That was the biggest opening for an animated movie in history at that point, beating Toy Story 2, per CBS News coverage from the following Monday.
Twenty-five years later, the movie’s best-known performance came from someone who never read a line. She couldn’t. She was 2.
Who voiced Boo in Monsters, Inc.?
Mary Gibbs, the daughter of Pixar story artist Rob Gibbs. She was about two and a half when the film was recorded, and the standard studio setup, a kid at a mic reading prompts, went nowhere.
So Pixar gave up on the booth. TIME’s “Voices of Pixar” feature put it this way: “director Pete Docter had to chase her around the studio with a mic.“
Docter later confirmed the method in a Reddit Q&A. “We had to trick her into stuff by playing games, jumping and running around, talking to puppets.“ Gibbs told Newsweek in 2021 that the puppet in question was Cookie Monster, and that the crew followed her because “they couldn’t get me to sit still.”
Every giggle and “Kitty!” in the movie is a real toddler reacting to a real Pete Docter. That’s why it works.
How many hairs does Sulley have?
2,320,413. Computer Graphics World counted, or rather Pixar did, in a 2001 feature about the film’s tech. Animators controlled about 28,000 “key hairs” and let software fill in the rest.
Pixar built a new simulation tool called Fizt just to make Sulley’s fur and Boo’s oversized T-shirt move right. Rendering the fur took about ten minutes per second of finished footage. A single sneeze was a day’s work.
Did Monsters, Inc. win an Oscar?
One. Randy Newman’s “If I Didn’t Have You” won Best Original Song at the 74th Academy Awards in March 2002, Newman’s first win after 15 nominations.
It lost Best Animated Feature to Shrek, in the first year that category existed. Pixar’s own website lists a Sound Editing win, too, but the Academy’s records don’t. The film was nominated in that category and lost to Pearl Harbor.
Was there really a lawsuit over Monsters, Inc.?
There was, and Pixar won it flat. A Wyoming writer named Lori Madrid claimed the movie copied her poem “There’s a Boy in My Closet,” and tried to block the release in court. A federal judge denied the injunction the day before the film opened.
In June 2002, Judge Clarence Brimmer threw out the whole case on summary judgment, writing that “the mere fact that a work is copyrighted does not mean that every element of the work may be protected.“ A monster in a closet, in other words, belongs to everyone.
How much money did Monsters, Inc. make?
About $290 million domestic and roughly $580 million worldwide counting a 2012 3D rerelease, per Box Office Mojo. The original run alone cleared $528 million globally.
Pete Docter directed, with Lee Unkrich and David Silverman as co-directors and Darla K. Anderson producing. Docter went on to Up, Inside Out and Soul, and now runs Pixar as chief creative officer.
What Monsters, Inc. stuff is at the Disney parks?
More every year. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! opened at Disney California Adventure in January 2006 in the old Superstar Limo building. Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor, the improv comedy show at Magic Kingdom, opened April 2, 2007 where The Timekeeper used to be.
The big one is coming. Monstropolis, a full Monsters land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, was announced at D23 in August 2024. Disney’s Aug. 2026 update named the headliner: a Door Coaster, Disney’s first suspended roller coaster, riding the factory’s door vault. The land also gets a Glob Theater, a Harryhausen’s restaurant and a Scareporium shop. Disney says parts of Monstropolis will open in 2027.
As of late September 2026, WDWNT’s construction photos show theming going up and the fountain base poured. It’s real and it’s close.
What else came out of Monsters, Inc.?
Monsters University, a prequel, opened June 21, 2013. Monsters at Work, a Disney+ series set right after the first film, premiered July 7, 2021 and wrapped with its second season in 2024.
Mary Gibbs grew up and, per Newsweek, still gets recognized by voice. People cry when they meet her. She’s the one who got chased around a studio in 1999 and ended up making adults sob in the last scene of a cartoon.
Kitty, indeed.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
D23 (Monsters, Inc. A-to-Z entry), release date and runtime
Pixar (official film page), credits
Box Office Mojo and The Numbers, opening weekend and lifetime grosses
CBS News (Nov. 2001), the record animated opening
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (74th Academy Awards), the win and the three losses
TIME (”Voices of Pixar”), the chase-with-a-mic account
Pixar Post (Dec. 2012 Reddit Q&A summary), the Pete Docter quote
Newsweek (Oct. 2021 Mary Gibbs interview), the Cookie Monster puppet and being recognized by voice
Computer Graphics World (Oct. 2001), the hair count and Fizt
Justia (Madrid v. Chronicle Books, D. Wyo. 2002), the lawsuit ruling and quote
AllEars, the Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! opening
Disney Parks Blog (Aug. 2026) and Disney Tourist Blog (Aug. 2024), the Monstropolis announcement and Door Coaster details
WDWNT (Sept. 20, 2026), construction status
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