BELL MANOR PARK
saturday, August 17, 2024

monsters, inc.

With the short films The Casebook of Nips and Porkington, Meltdown, and Shaman

At the “Monsters, Incorporated” factory, professional monsters employed as "scarers" venture into the human world to scare children and harvest their screams. Sulley and his best friend Mike  (voiced by Billy Crystal and John Goodman, respectively) embark on a hilarious escapade when one of the children, Boo, ventures into the Monsters world, where no human has ever gone before. The 2001 Pixar classic is beloved by children and adults alike as its nostalgic spirit still captivates audiences. This screening will leave you with a feeling of joy and an important message about compassion, friendship, and the importance of co-workers you can tolerate (or even really, really like). 

Melody Wang’s animated short film The Case of Nips and Porkington follows feline policeman Constable Nips and his porcine partner Chief Inspector Porkington. This two-dimensional dynamic duo jumps between the pages of a newspaper in order to investigate crimes ripped from the (literal) headlines. Wang's use of captivating visuals and wordless storytelling earned the Best Animated Student Film at TIFF’s Canada’s Top Ten festival in 2016.

In the animated short Meltdown, by Carrie Mombourquette, a polar bear must try his luck finding a job in the big city when the last of his Arctic ice environment disappears. It’s hard for him to fit into the human world, leading inevitably to comedic misunderstandings. Mombourquette not only pokes fun at the all-too-familiar humiliations of job-hunting but also uses humour to confront the reality of climate change. 

Rounding out this programme of animated creatures with unexpected vocations, Shaman tells the tale of a ferocious polar bear turned to stone by an Inuk shaman. The story is based on emerging filmmaker Echo Henoche's favourite legend, as told to her by her grandfather (esteemed Inuk artist Gilbert Hay) in her home community of Nain, Nunatsiavut, on the North Coast of Labrador. Henoche’s unique style of hand-drawn and painted images brings the mythological North to life in vivid colour.