Movie Smarts

Monsters, Inc. Quiz: Put Your Memory on the Clock

You have seen the movie. Now see how much of it you can bring back.

Published 2026-10-24 Updated 2026-10-24 15 questions

Monsters, Inc. (2001). Watch the trailer.

Monsters, Inc.: A Very Bad Day to Bring a Kid to Work

Two friends have their daily routine down to an art until a tiny visitor creates an enormous problem. Hiding the newcomer is difficult, getting her home is worse, and their workplace has secrets neither expected. The pair must decide which rules deserve to be followed and which ones were wrong all along. For a story full of strange faces, the friendship feels wonderfully familiar.

Clock in. Your memory has fifteen little jobs to do.

1. What is the monsters' city called?
- Fright Falls
- Monstropolis
- Monsterville
- Scare City
Monstropolis runs on scream power and is in the middle of an energy crisis, because children have become harder to frighten and the lights keep going out. It was Pete Docter's first film as director, with Lee Unkrich and David Silverman co-directing.
2. What do the monsters initially collect to generate power?
- Bad dreams
- Moonlight
- Children's screams
- Lightning
Screams are bottled in canisters on the scare floor, where the top performers are tracked on a leaderboard like salesmen. The monsters also believe children are toxic, so a single sock on a scarer's back brings in a decontamination squad.
3. What is the nickname of the big blue, furry monster?
- Sullivan Jr.
- Sullybones
- Sulley
- Sullyman
James P. Sullivan is the company's record-holding scarer, and his coat of millions of individually moving hairs was the technical showpiece of the film. Pixar had to invent new simulation software to keep the fur from passing through his own body.
4. Who voices Sulley?
- John Goodman
- Brian Dennehy
- James Gandolfini
- Craig T. Nelson
Goodman and Billy Crystal recorded their scenes together in the same room, which animation studios rarely allow, and the overlapping banter comes from that. Craig T. Nelson is Pixar's other big dad, Mr. Incredible, three years later.
5. What is Sulley's one-eyed best friend called?
- Mickey Wasabi
- Mike Wazowski
- Marty Kowalski
- Max Wisniewski
Mike is Sulley's scare assistant and roommate, and the running gag is that he keeps getting covered up, by the company logo in the commercial and by a mailing label on the magazine cover. His girlfriend Celia, the receptionist, has snakes for hair.
6. Who voices Mike?
- Billy Crystal
- Martin Short
- Rick Moranis
- Nathan Lane
Crystal had turned down the part of Buzz Lightyear and has called it the biggest mistake of his career, so he said yes to Pixar the second time without hesitating. He and Goodman returned for the prequel, Monsters University, a dozen years later.
7. What nickname does Sulley give the little girl?
- Pip
- Bean
- Dot
- Boo
Her real name, Mary, is on one of her drawings, and she was voiced by Mary Gibbs, the toddler daughter of a Pixar story artist. She was too young to sit through a recording session, so the crew followed her around the studio with a microphone.
8. What does Boo call Sulley?
- Teddy
- Fluffy
- Kitty
- Bluey
Kitty and Mike Wazowski are about the only words she manages, and the second one makes Mike's day. The final shot of the film is Sulley opening the rebuilt door and hearing the first word again from the other side.
9. Which rival scarer can blend into his surroundings?
- Waternoose
- Randall
- George
- Fungus
Randall Boggs is an eight-legged lizard who turns invisible, and he is building the Scream Extractor to force screams out of kidnapped children. Fungus is his put-upon assistant, George is the scarer who gets the sock, and Waternoose owns the company.
10. Who voices Randall?
- William H. Macy
- Tim Roth
- John Turturro
- Steve Buscemi
Buscemi, then best known for Reservoir Dogs and Fargo, gives Randall a nasal whine that makes the sneering easy. Randall ends up banished through a door into a trailer in the human world, where a woman mistakes him for a gator and sets about him with a shovel.
11. What objects act as portals into children's rooms?
- Bed frames
- Windows
- Mirrors
- Closet doors
Each child has a door stored in a vault the size of a city, and the doors ride overhead rails to the scare floor on demand. A door is shredded once its child stops being scared, which is what happens to Boo's before Sulley pieces it back together.
12. What is the emergency code shouted when a sock is found on George?
- 9110
- 2210
- 2319
- 3001
A 2319 means human contact, and it summons the Child Detection Agency in yellow hazmat suits to shave George and scrub him down. The agency's leader, Number One, turns out at the end to be someone the scare floor sees every day.
13. Who is the company's boss?
- Jeff Fungus
- Henry J. Waternoose
- Randall Boggs
- George Sanderson
Waternoose, a crab-like monster with five eyes, is voiced by James Coburn, and he is backing Randall's kidnapping scheme to save the family firm. Mike and Sulley trick him into confessing in the scare simulator with the cameras running.
14. Which administrator keeps reminding Mike about his paperwork?
- Roz
- Rita
- Celia
- Doris
Roz is a slug with a gravelly voice supplied by Bob Peterson, a Pixar story artist who went on to co-direct Up. Her nagging about Mike's unfiled paperwork turns out to be a cover, since she has been running the Child Detection Agency undercover all along.
15. What eventually proves more powerful than screams?
- Singing
- Snoring
- Whistling
- Laughter
Boo's giggle overloads the power grid, and laughter proves many times more potent than a scream. By the end Sulley is running the company, Mike is the star of the new laugh floor, and the closing outtakes show him staging a musical about the whole affair.

All the answers

1. What is the monsters' city called?

Monstropolis

Monstropolis runs on scream power and is in the middle of an energy crisis, because children have become harder to frighten and the lights keep going out. It was Pete Docter's first film as director, with Lee Unkrich and David Silverman co-directing.
2. What do the monsters initially collect to generate power?

Children's screams

Screams are bottled in canisters on the scare floor, where the top performers are tracked on a leaderboard like salesmen. The monsters also believe children are toxic, so a single sock on a scarer's back brings in a decontamination squad.
3. What is the nickname of the big blue, furry monster?

Sulley

James P. Sullivan is the company's record-holding scarer, and his coat of millions of individually moving hairs was the technical showpiece of the film. Pixar had to invent new simulation software to keep the fur from passing through his own body.
4. Who voices Sulley?

John Goodman

Goodman and Billy Crystal recorded their scenes together in the same room, which animation studios rarely allow, and the overlapping banter comes from that. Craig T. Nelson is Pixar's other big dad, Mr. Incredible, three years later.
5. What is Sulley's one-eyed best friend called?

Mike Wazowski

Mike is Sulley's scare assistant and roommate, and the running gag is that he keeps getting covered up, by the company logo in the commercial and by a mailing label on the magazine cover. His girlfriend Celia, the receptionist, has snakes for hair.
6. Who voices Mike?

Billy Crystal

Crystal had turned down the part of Buzz Lightyear and has called it the biggest mistake of his career, so he said yes to Pixar the second time without hesitating. He and Goodman returned for the prequel, Monsters University, a dozen years later.
7. What nickname does Sulley give the little girl?

Boo

Her real name, Mary, is on one of her drawings, and she was voiced by Mary Gibbs, the toddler daughter of a Pixar story artist. She was too young to sit through a recording session, so the crew followed her around the studio with a microphone.
8. What does Boo call Sulley?

Kitty

Kitty and Mike Wazowski are about the only words she manages, and the second one makes Mike's day. The final shot of the film is Sulley opening the rebuilt door and hearing the first word again from the other side.
9. Which rival scarer can blend into his surroundings?

Randall

Randall Boggs is an eight-legged lizard who turns invisible, and he is building the Scream Extractor to force screams out of kidnapped children. Fungus is his put-upon assistant, George is the scarer who gets the sock, and Waternoose owns the company.
10. Who voices Randall?

Steve Buscemi

Buscemi, then best known for Reservoir Dogs and Fargo, gives Randall a nasal whine that makes the sneering easy. Randall ends up banished through a door into a trailer in the human world, where a woman mistakes him for a gator and sets about him with a shovel.
11. What objects act as portals into children's rooms?

Closet doors

Each child has a door stored in a vault the size of a city, and the doors ride overhead rails to the scare floor on demand. A door is shredded once its child stops being scared, which is what happens to Boo's before Sulley pieces it back together.
12. What is the emergency code shouted when a sock is found on George?

2319

A 2319 means human contact, and it summons the Child Detection Agency in yellow hazmat suits to shave George and scrub him down. The agency's leader, Number One, turns out at the end to be someone the scare floor sees every day.
13. Who is the company's boss?

Henry J. Waternoose

Waternoose, a crab-like monster with five eyes, is voiced by James Coburn, and he is backing Randall's kidnapping scheme to save the family firm. Mike and Sulley trick him into confessing in the scare simulator with the cameras running.
14. Which administrator keeps reminding Mike about his paperwork?

Roz

Roz is a slug with a gravelly voice supplied by Bob Peterson, a Pixar story artist who went on to co-direct Up. Her nagging about Mike's unfiled paperwork turns out to be a cover, since she has been running the Child Detection Agency undercover all along.
15. What eventually proves more powerful than screams?

Laughter

Boo's giggle overloads the power grid, and laughter proves many times more potent than a scream. By the end Sulley is running the company, Mike is the star of the new laugh floor, and the closing outtakes show him staging a musical about the whole affair.