SULLEY, the giant furry one, and Mike, the one-eyed green one, are already on a billboard near you on the fast track to becoming as familiar as cowboy Woody and spaceman Buzz Lightyear.

They are the heroes of the latest computer-animated adventure from the Pixar-Disney axis that so startled the world of cartoon film-making with the audacious Toy Story and its sequel.

Since then, computerised rival Shrek has rocked hard, extracting the Michael from Disney's goody-two-shoes roster, and now it is time for revenge. It cannot be mere coincidence, surely, that Sulley, or James P Sullivan to give him his full name, is a big, gruff guy with an even bigger heart beneath the scary front. Remind you of anyone?

Anyway, after Shrek, here's Shriek, because Sulley, with his shaggy blue-green coat, purple spots, devilish horns and King Kong gob, is the king of the scarers, the cream of the scream team employed by power plant Monsters, Inc.

Their duty on behalf of the underworld city of Monstropolis is to generate energy from an unusual source: the human world. Namely, the shrieks of children triggered by the likes of scare-bear Sulley (voiced by cuddly John Goodman) entering their bedrooms each night through special door vaults.

If that is frightening for the poor little dears, then it is fraught with even more terror for the monsters, who fear toxic disaster will strike if any child sets foot in Monstropolis.

Oops, Sulley boobs by letting little Boo slip into his city, and now he and his scare assistant, the fast-walking, smooth-talking eyeball on green legs, Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal, who else), must hide the girl and seek her safe passage home. Alas, Sulley's slippery, shape-shifting rival Randalf Boggs (snake-lipped Steve Buscemi) is on the case, and so is the company's corrupt chief executive (James Coburn).

As with A Bug's Life and the Toy Story chain, Monsters, Inc. has bags of fast action, visual gags and verbal jousting, plenty of noise too, with breezy humour for adults and children alike, and once more a fear of the unknown propels the movie forward.

The pastel colours, the detail in every scene, the crisp dialogue, are all a joy, and only the plotting is not on a par with the Pixar predecessors. As before, one viewing is not enough, and the movie makers like their spoof of the Apollo 13 astronauts walking to work so much, they have included it twice.

Updated: 10:10 Friday, February 08, 2002