I think it’s a really good and oft used setup, to have the seemingly kind and trustworthy character (waternoose) turn out the sort of puppet master of the entire scheme.
And I really like animagusurreal’s comparison!:
“In a sense, you could say that Randall is the Darth Maul or Darth Vader of the movie, and Waternoose is the Darth Sidious (not in terms of the “evilness level”, but in terms of how the protaganists and the audience are aware of them).”
That seems about right in how the audience of this film is manipulated into thinking Randall is our main villian throughout.
Debating Randall’s own manipulation and just how much of a pawn he was can be a never ending debate! I think that because this is told almost entirely through Mike and Sulley’s eyes, we have to accept that he is a “bad guy” of sorts in this context, even if he isn’t behind the entire Scream Extractor idea.
The great thing about it being revealed that Waternoose was behind the plan, is that it surely makes Randall the more complicated character a lot of people see him as (myself included). It makes a fan look back on the entire film from an entirely new persective and gives these other characters an added depth.
Having said that, I do still like to think of Randall as a bad guy (I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed him half so much if he wasn’t), but a bad guy who just isn’t aware of it. He, rather like Waternoose, has got his own motives, and they both seem to think they’re doing these things out of their own sense of good. ie “the good of the company” and Randall’s motives appear a little more confused between seeking approval from his boss and a petty sort of “I’ll show you” attitude toward Sullivan.
I do think it is Waternoose who garners the most sympathy from the audience though. Or at least he is the character who is allowed the most sympathy by the writers. He is the one who appears to regret banishing Sulley, he is the one who often has an expression of regret throughout much of the Boo/Scream extractor sequence. Although this is later cancelled out by the “I’ll kidnap 1000 children…” line and his lashing out at Sulley. I guess this needed to be included so the audience felt it was justified whenWaternoose was captured at the end of the film.
Having said that, despite the lack of sympathy shown to Randall throughout the film (in my opinion), I think that upon future viewings, when you already are aware that Waternoose is behind it, it’s easy to pick up moments of sympathy for Randall. Waternoose’s apparent favouritism of Sulley springs to mind for me, as well as the fact that Randall appears to be running around like a lowly lackey for much of the film, getting snappier and snappier. And its only upon the second viewing can you appreciate that Randall really is just the lackey here.
I voted for the first option. Waternoose certainly knew what he was doing, and even if he did show clear hints of regret, it was more than obvious he planned to keep up the warped plan, and at the cost of various monsters too.
