Time differences between the Monstropolis-Human world etc.

Pixar's Feature Films Monsters, Inc. / University
#1

At 9AM when we first see the monsters involved in scaring- and we’re told the “‘Eastern Seaboard’ is coming online”- considering that they are children, it’s pretty much okay to assume, that perhaps then it is 9PM on the Eastern Seaboard (East Coast USA etc.), when some kids would be in bed- perhaps not exactly that time difference- but anyhow, when it’s morning in Monstropolis, it’s going into night at the Eastern Seaboard- we know that much.

I’m just curious then… why we don’t see scarers at OTHER times very much- you know working NIGHT shifts when other doors would be filled with sleeping children too? However it does indeed happen occasionally- according from what I gather regarding the employee handbook- employees working extra hours is really encouraged, however considering that most screams would be earned in the 9-5 time in the factory, there would still be an 8 hour slot where a lot of potential children could be scared- but most wouldn’t be, at least from M.I’s factory in Monstropolis.

It’s pretty obvious the Monster world DOES NOT work on Narnia principle (or else, they wouldn’t be able to gain screams at all, due to the fact they couldn’t time it to when to scare kids), they also have 24 hour days like we do- and the same year time etc. and everything.

When we see the chase scene- we do see other countries. We see Nepal, Paris, Japan etc, which all suggests alot of doors in different time zones…

But perhaps it’s reasonable to assume that some of these doors aren’t used very much at all?

I think perhaps, that while MOST of the doors they have are those which fit the normal time slot in the work day fr them to scare kids, others are also kept which wouldn’t fit for the regular 9-5 slot for them (though not as many mind you), in the case of Scarers who are doing the extra shifts- trying to earn extra screams for the energy crisis or whatever or just generally speaking even because they want the extra hours for more cash.

Plus given the fact Monstropolis is just one city in what is probably a big world (perhaps the direct alternative universe of our own, with this city being an American alternate one given its temperate climate and similar culture not to mention well, Pixar is American just generally) however there are almost definitly OTHER scare factories out there in the monster world too- which ALSO have different time zones like our world does too, and so are able to scare children. Children in different time zones in the human world to the majority they scare in Monstropolis.

This also adds a potentially interesting premise too- it’s possible then that given time differences etc, there IS an element of limitations based upon where to build scare factories almost like with mining fossil fuels- what BEST fits the time zones of the human world, to gain the most screams. Which monster country based on their OWN time zones (if countries exist there), which would be likely to be the most wealthy city or country in the monster world? It would likely be the one who fit in the direct opposite line in human time zones with the most amount of people/most amount of closets to go through. Not ALL children have closets remember- but A LOT of Americans do (not so much here in Britain for instance, I had a wardrobe for instance and most people I know did, which could be moved unlike closets), so a monster country/city which did the 12 hour opposite time deal with the human world’s AMERICA or some very large or heavily populated country at least would probably earn more screams/be bigger/be more profitable than others.

Since Monstropolis seems to have the benefit of being compatible in terms of the Eastern Seaboard at 9AM (and thus probably dance across the entire American continent which has more closets, if they wanted during a work day), it’s reasonable to assume that M.I. is a particulary large scream factory compared to most- and that it’s a basis of a lot of their wealth- it’s also probable that this was a benefit, a chief export (energy), as because of their horrendous ‘good luck’ they could do so more than other places which, heck are more time zone compatible on a normal work day with smaller populated areas or simply human areas with less closets. This would make a potential ‘energy crisis’ more so feared in this particular city- and it probably could have resulted in them having political power.

Energy after all is incredible important here just like it is there- it seems pretty possible perhaps, on the Monster World political stage (assuming one exists which it probably does), that energy has helped Monstropolis/the country Monstropolis is in to rise to a relatively important position in diplomacy.

Which would make people who wanted to solve any energy crisis they felt they were suffering from even more desperate to do so.

Disturbing as it is- if things had got so bad, eventually Waternoose could have, if he bided his time enough or had the right moment to do so- present the scream extractor option as a ‘desperate times come for desperate measures’ type of deal, and since monsters view humans as animals in the beginning, it is also possible that variously disturbing things would have happened also (capturing stock and then eventual breeding?) at least up to a certain point.

So yeah, just a small discussion on human world- monster world things really.

#2

You’ve presented some good points there, mentalguru. The only explanation I can really think of, as you said before, is that the Monsters, Inc. in Monstropolis, for example, tends to target a certain area of the Human World with timings that correlate well with the monsters’ shifts of 9-5, Monday to Friday, and then other Scream Factories in other parts of the Monster World deal with other parts of the Human World, also dependent on the correlation between their time zones.

And yes, as you said, that would mean that there would probably be some areas of the Monster World that are much richer than others due to a higher number of accessible doors at the time- in the same way that some countries in this world have access to more oil reserves and that kind of thing and are therefore richer than others.

You’d think though, that if this was the case then some cities might want to get richer and would therefore stretch their Scaring hours and have some sort of a shift system. Perhaps that is the case in some Monster World cities which have access to some doors but not many due to their time zone, and therefore try and make up for it by Scaring at other times. But then as far as we’re aware whilst watching the film, every closet door in the Human World has one link to the Monster World, so all the rooms that we see in Monsters, Inc. can’t, in theory, be accessed to from any other part of the Monster World. And as you said, mentalguru, there are some areas of the Human World that don’t actually have that many closet doors (though I suspect the Monsters have got around this somehow- I remember in a featurette on the Monsters, Inc. DVD, we get shown images of children all over the world being scared by Monsters, even in parts of the world in which you’d generally expect them not to have closet doors, so the Monsters still manage to get to those rooms somehow.)

As for what would’ve happened in the ‘desperate times call for desperate measures’ scenario, it’s very true that something like that might have started to happen but I don’t think it would’ve taken the Monsters very long to figure out just how intelligent Human children are. After all, Sulley figured it out just by spending a bit of time with Boo, and if Humans are going to be captured and stored in the Monster World, that would give Monsters a chance to properly encounter Humans for the first time (as up until that point, Scarers only really see Humans for a second or two, not enough time to gauge their intelligence). So I wouldn’t be surprised if there was eventually an outcry against these sorts of things happening, though in the face of an economic disaster, who knows what would happen?

#3

I enjoy exploring M.I.- they give me characters to care about )(Sulley and Randall), and so I’m interested in exploring their world. So I go a bit crazy with it- but I find it incredibly interesting myself. :smiley:. M.I. is simply too interesting not to explore and debate upon really isn’t it? :smiley:

True points in the case of the ‘desperate times’- but this really also depends at what… age they take the kids in some cases in my opinion- it would be incredibly likely they ate first would steal a lot of children at a VERY young age, because it would be easier to control them, and partially because they’d have to do so quickly perhaps, as well as to build up good ‘stock’- and when they grow up… some could become feral depending on their treatment (lots of documentaries on this, be treated like an animal, and while on SOME level sometimes humanity can be retained… still very animalistic)… plus, there are many like Wazowski who at first seemed to refuse to see it (without Sulley, he wouldn’t have bothered with her at all I feel- practically a fact to me that Boo would have died if it was just Mike and not Sulley in the picture), plus I sometimes wonder about Randall too even, though I would like to think he’d have noticed too if he’d been given the time.

But what if they saw such feelings like those displayed by Sulley as merely being like our ‘anthropomorphism’ perhaps, any attributions or inferences of extreme similarities between very young human children and their own would perhaps have been ‘waved off’ as something like that by so called ‘professionals’ as being ‘stupidly sentimental’ if you get me. And perhaps even tell themselves that deep down in their own doubts in a kind of “EVERYONE smart knows they’re just animals… I’m just being stupid here.”, socially ingrained prejudices and beliefs of whole entire people are hard to crack unless the kids were taken and developed normally at an older age than Boo. Sulley’s observant but he’s also more sentimental it seems. It may be a very long time before many would take such things seriously at all the idea of humans being people. And not everyone would see humans anyway and accept the ‘professionals’ view on things.

Even then… there would be some people (Waternoose?) who possibly wouldn’t even CARE if they knew and try to hide the truth from everyone else.

But there would probably be eventually divisions in the monster world because of it. Lots of political controversy possible there! I remember reading one AU fanfic where the scream extractor was used and well known- but it didn’t delve onto the potential controversy on a political scale really at all, which was unfortunate. Plus, Randall was successful- which I don’t really see- I more see Waternoose completely overriding the guy myself.

I could see rebel groups forming, a Sulley and Mike (Randall?) in jail or on the run (with Boo?) and all sorts of crazy things in such a world where Waternoose gets his way with regards the scream extractor.

(As mentioned, I adore exploring the monster world and all its possibilities)

Granted- I feel such a thing as stealing human kids would have sparked some kind of freakish war BETWEEN the worlds- it would take a lot of time before they’d figure it out, since that would not be their first guess at all as to what would be happening- but eventually some human parents would find out probably, unless monsters were freakishly careful, and even then not getting caught even once would be unlikely- when you know monsters feel the need perhaps to renew the ‘stock’.

Parents finding that beings from another world are taking their kids? Oh boy…

Interdimensional war and monsters finding how intelligent and dangerous humans REALLY are anyone?

Heh. There are too many things that could spawn a multitude of fanfics from M.I. really- we only get small inferences into how their world works, but you can build on just one small little factoid, how just a few characters act which can infer something about that world- this is the greatest and yet most complicated thing about world building and exploration, and I adore it. :smiley:

#4

:open_mouth: Oh dear lord, this is one interesting topic although I think I got slightly confused…let’s see, as far as what time frame between the monster and human world, I do agree that the monster world is like ours with twenty four hour days and such but it’s clear that their timezone is different from the human world depending on what part of the world that we are talking about…although I agree with what’s been said so far, it’s obvious that the city of Monstropolis seems to target mainly one part of the world due to the convience of the time zone…as for the scream extractor, as much as I wouldn’t like to say this, I could see the citizens of Monstropolis going for the idea if the scream shortage had truly gotten very bad…like you said desperate times call for desperate measures and since how a monster views a human is very different from our own perception, I could see alot of the monsters going along with the idea but then what kind of chaos would that lead to? Not every person thinks the same and I am sure that there are those who given time would see humans in a different light just like Sulley did or at least like he did for Boo…it could lead to all kinds of craziness and then the whole thing of kidnapping children…surely human parents would find out and it wouldn’t take long until they found out how their children kept disappearing…oh gosh, it would be sheer madness! :open_mouth: You would have to be as mad as a hatter…rofl, I’m sorry, I couldn’t help but quote from Alice in wonderland for a minute there, yes, sheer madness indeed…

#5

Oui long posts…

There are for fact 120 Scare Floors in the Monsters Inc. factory. Each one with 13 stations, meaning up to 1.560 scarers would be scareing at one time…but that doesn’t happen, not at once.
There are indeed shifts. Lets just go basically. Lets just take 60 Scare Floors take the morning shifts (Scare Floor F happens to be one of these). Now, they would be scareing in the human world at areas that are already at night.

A simple way to think about it is that the Monster World works in reverse of day/night compared to the Human World. Essentially one could imagine Monstropolis as a New York City or such equivilant. A big bustling city with lots of potential development.
So…under that assumption…when it’s nighttime on the Eastern Seaboard…it’s daytime in Monstropolis’s city.

Now there are day shifts and night shifts of course. Night shifts, well they take care of other half the world.

And of course to maximize screams in the time, and prevent any interaction with parents and pets, Monsters have a “window of opportunity”.
Lets take Boo’s file for instance. In her file it notes that the scarer, Randall, would have a five-second window either to scare of before a reaction from the parents would predictably occur. Needless to say Randall is swift enough to do this.
Now…at the time of when Boo’s door first makes it’s appearence in film…her room is dark. Now…it’s still the afternoon, so it would make sense. Reason the Scarefloor is probably dark would probably be due to the shutters having activiated. Just figured to mention that.

#6

:confused: Okay, I’ve been meaning to ask this for the longest time but some of the information that I have read, exactly what source are we getting it from, unless it’s hidden in the movie somewhere, some of this about Randall was top scarer, the exact number of employees, I don’t see any of that in the movie…

#7

That was actually the exact number of scarers. Double that and you’d have assitants. Add 120, and you got dispatchers. And that’s just the Scare Floors, there are far more employees.
The info comes from the Essential Guide.

#8

Oh…shrugs well that figures, it’s from a book that I never even heard of…figures, the only source I have of MI is only the movie, I didn’t know that there was an essential guide of some kind out there…so that explains it…

#9

It was ok to ask. Don’t feel too distraut…

#10

I’ll be fine, now since I do know about that, I don’t feel so weird about it…thank you for clearing that up…

#11

Your welcome :slight_smile:

#12

I’m sorry Nexas- but where is your proof of multiple night shifts on M.I. at all? Sure we know that SOME doors must exists outside the 9-5 thing peobably for those monsters who might want to put in a few extra hours- but we never see any workers there SCARING at all. All we see of ‘after hours’ when Sulley is doing paperwork for Mike when he forgets or Randall when he’s trying to get Boo- surely the scare floor would be being set up by ‘other shift’ scarers at this point? Make FULL use of all the stations they have on everyu scare floor? And Sulley and Mike have their own desk no-one else uses. We HEAR nothing- it seems like the entire factory is (practically) deserted when Sulley and Randall are behind. Sulley runs into no-one.

It’s possible there are night shifts- but there is no proof of it at all, and it actually seems more likely that there aren’t in fact in terms of what we see. Perhaps they just don’t have the right amount of workers to pull off even more shifts like that- or at least not yet.

The thing is, we see all the factory all shut up- we have no proof of a ‘night shift’ thing, rather only that employees were encouraged to work extra hours if need be, which only very few probably did it seems at best

Plus, how likely is it for just ONE factory to have EVERY single closet door in the human world? Sure M.I. is big- but it’s not THAT big, even with the fact not every human child in the world has a closet. Plus- there are other areas of the monster world to think about which would have scare factories- with time zones which would be better suited really.

We just don’t see any proof at all of night shifts- and it would make Randall doing this scream extractor work at night almost seem like a moot point wouldn’t it with so many people there if there was? I bet though if there was, there would be switches- with monsters occasionally doing night shifts and day shifts doing vice-versa.

There could very well be night shifts for scarers- but we don’t really have any proof of this. We don’t hear any ‘hustle or bustle’ at all when Sulley lets Boo in from other scarers (minus Randall). We see no scaring happening when it is night in Monstropolis, and at best a thing in the employee handbook which says they encourage people working extra hours which probably means it DOES happen on some level,-m so they have at least SOME doors a scarer could use for that, but we don’t see anything on the level of the 9-5 shift at all.

It is also November I believe in the movie right- so it would be getting dark in the Northern hemisphere earlier, assuming that’s where Boo lived… but it seems likely she was American- and it would be porobably the small hours of the morning there given the possible time differences between the two… plus what time was it the CDA actually caught up?..

Do we see a clock at the chase scene, you know when Randall is after Sulley and Mike? Could anyone get that?

(Has to go to work herself now.)

#13

There IS actually proof of multiple shifts in “The Essential Guide to Monsters, Inc.”, where there is a picture of a log of different Assistants and their Scarers’ assignments, and it lists different shifts as well as different Scare Floors. That is why we didnt’ see the hustle and bustle; not all the Scare Floors are being used at the same time.

pitbulllady

#14

I see- this is what happens when your only access to canon material is the movie heh.

Still, I have to wonder about other areas in the monster world, not to mention ‘countries’ if they exist- despite everything Monstropolis has some wealthy areas it seems from what we see, it’s definitly in a ‘developed’ country if countries exist there- and it gives off a lot of alternative-universe-America vibes- so it wouldn’t really surprise me if the country Monstropolis was in was like America here in political terms- and being in a particulary good zone for time zones was perhaps a reason for its financial success- or so I thought.

Still I guess it’s possible however that they USED to do the 9-5 only thing- and that was why they chose that location for the factory- because of such convenience- then later expansion happened into other shifts as population and demand for energy grew. And they’re still at the forfront driving the monster worlds economics and being a major energy outlet- rather like America’s economic situation usually ends up affecting everyone elses in some way.

Either way- they can’t however have ALL the doors but then… perhaps a kid could have more than one monster even so.

I know I had two ‘monters’ in my imaginations growing up for instance- perhaps this is a possibility that a kids door could be accessed from different factories? Because that particular factory can’t be the only one in existence- though I’m guessing horrendously poor countries in the Monster World would perhaps rely on fossil fuels on a high level like we do in this world. M.I. can’t be the only one factory/company in existence which deals with it in the entire monster world.

Scream energy, being clean and renewable could also be more of a status symbol in energy form and a representation of wealth and technology in some ways. Only poor countries or people with no other option resort to fossil fuels there probably. Though I’m guessing in desperate times they might try and resort to that again. But that would be a short term solution if we’re talking many generations here and they might see that.

#15

Although there are…what? Over 6 billion humans in the world? With perhaps less than half of them being kids within the scareing-age?
Even with that many, scarers process…oh…well for Mike at least, he processes 30 canisters per hour and over 5000 folders (hence doors) a week. Now this is perhaps the “high” end of a work hour/week. Randall probably gets just as many done, and George probably goes less.
But still, not all are scareing at the same time, not all floors. Not just taking into account that about half the Earth is already in the morning hours and scareing then would be dangerous, but also that if a monster scares the same kid every day every week, sooner or later either the parents would be really suspecious and become a threat, or the scream might dissipate.

Since Monstropolis runs opposite to at least Eastern Standard Time, it’s a safe bet it’s in the same place geographically if the worlds are similiar.

Well scarering was much harder in the past, especially when the Door Rail System wasn’t around and doors had to be hand carried from the vault. Energy collection wouldn’t have been as fruitful as it was as we saw.

Supposedly testing different monsters is possible. Though there are many who are specifically chosen. Boo, for instance, was matched with Randall by the R&D department as he is "an exact match for everything that Boo finds scary. So it would be beneficial that he’d be the only one to scarer her to yeild the maximum scream from her. However…it’s not like ALL kids are scared of one specific monster, so it’s not farfetched at all that many have mulitple scarers. Multiple scarers can have many yeilds of scream, so it might be reasearched for a new door to determine who has the highest totals.

rubs temple M.I. IS credited to be a main, if not THE main, supplier of Monstropolis. Curious yes. They state a Scream Canister filled to the max will power a house for two days. With the above, Wazowski goes through about 30 an hour, meaning that for an hour of work, he can power a house for about two months.

Of course that’s not to say scream is dangerous. If you think about it like “Steam”…scream compacted into such a confined space, such as a canister, could have explosive reactions if damaged. In fact it was quite brave of Waternoose to open one, though that is a little safer, in front of trainees. Albiet he was probably experienced with them…

#16

I think you misunderstood me slightly- I mean to say that a monster in a completely different FACTORY or COMPANY could also have access to the same door- for instance, there may be several copies of the door to access- a kid may have more than one scarer, not just for testing.

quote=“Nexas”]rubs temple M.I. IS credited to be a main, if not THE main, supplier of Monstropolis.

…
[/quote]

Yeah- in MONSTROPOLIS. A CITY not the MONSTER WORLD. There has to be more than one factory doesn’t there in this world? For other cities/countries/etc.

There is of course the possibility only one country is ‘trusted’ on that level to have doors. Sometimes unfortunatly, different countries have different rules for lots of things- it isn’t technically fair, but if a safety issue is involved…

They might think it ‘unsafe’ to have too many factories like this- for ‘toxicity’ or ‘security issues’ (the latter being the reality).

If Monstropolis’ country of origin is the ONLY country or one of very few which produces this energy (which is I supposse possible- )- clearly they have power, lots of political power. Too much power perhaps. Controlling this power would be wanted.

You can’t get much higher in terms of importance in terms of energy in a lot of cases- it affects practically everything after all.

#17

shrugs I highly doubt that. The Door Vault is a massive structure with thousands of doors, all fitted for Monsters Inc. To trasnfer them to other factories would mean taking them down, taking them off the grid, filing the work that they are no longer at the factory, obtaining the folders with the keycards, resetting the scarer to take up the door…
As for if the same door is made twice…I doubt that. Scare Co. would have inventory of what doors have been made. If there were two of the same door, if two scarers used it at the same time for whatever amount of time…well world travel has it’s own laws. One monster might get sucked into a void and splattered to a million pieces.

shrugs Supposedly Monsters Inc. handles Monstropolis, yes. As for the world itself, yes, there should be other factories.

nods Scareing is a lucrative business. There are at least perhaps a billion kids in the world, many in the young ages when they can be scared easily. Monsters Inc. itself handles…well lets see…30 canisters an hour…about maybe an 8 hour work day…supposedly per scarer (on a high, as this is from Wazowski’s work)…on a day, a Scarer might go through about maybe 200 doors. That would be perhaps if for a full day, day night shifts. Uhh…lets see…about 1500 times 200…
rubs temple baffling considering M.I., despite being a huge collector, isn’t the only one.

It’s supposed that Scareing IS for large cities, Monstropolis being perhaps the most recognized. Perhaps other cities, esepecially their mayors, find the concept of having a collection facility in their town rather dangerous. You see the panic one human child can cause. Imagine if that was a smaller town. Anyway. The Scare Industry is the main player in Monstropolis and the monster world, but it is not always embraced.

Exactly. The headliners of the Scare Industry have had enough power that they…hm hm…well heh.