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This sets in motion one of Pixar's funniest films, as Sulley and Mike try to hide Boo whilst also being deathly afraid of coming into contact with her, setting up some great sight gags of two weird-looking monsters being utterly terrified of a small girl acting adorable. There are also moments when it becomes darker and creepier than a lot of their other films, particularly once it is revealed that the head of the company (James Coburn) has constructed a machine that forcibly extracts screams from children, then comes perilously close to trying it out on Boo, to the horror of Sulley. It's a film of many tones, all of which it balances beautifully, from farce to fear, right up until the giddy adventure of its final set piece, in which Mike and Sulley are chased through dozens of doors in the gargantuan area where they are stored, diving in and out of different rooms as they try to escape Randall. It's an almost literal rollercoaster ride that pushes the basic premise of the film further than might have otherwise been thought possible.

It's the contrast with the exhilaration of the chase that makes the final moments of the film so affecting. Having thwarted the villainous plot and defeated the bad guys, Sulley is told that Boo's door will be destroyed so that they will never have to worry about her stumbling into their world again. Having grown attached to her, Sulley now has to say goodbye forever. Except that isn't quite how things turn out.

After a farewell that is all the sadder because only one of them understands that it is a farewell, Pixar does a remarkable reversal, one which somehow doesn't feel fake or forced. The film jumps forward to a point in time where Sulley has taken over the company and changed it; instead of capturing screams, the monsters now capture laughter, which is a much more powerful energy source anyway. Yet despite his success, Sulley still misses the little girl who called him Kitty. That's when Mike surprises him with Boo's reconstructed door, missing only the final piece, which Sulley keeps as a souvenir. Sulley walks through the door and, in a moment that is just heartbreaking, we see the joy slowly spread over his face as he sees Boo and hears her voice.

It's a rare example of a happy ending that actually feels earned, largely because the separation is so sad, and the reunion is not really depicted. It's underplayed just enough, and doesn't ladle on the emotion because the filmmakers trust that we will know how it'll turn out. We don't need to see it, and that's why it's great.

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