Program Notes:

Monsters, Inc. (An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack) is the soundtrack to the 2001 Disney/Pixar film of the same name. The original score is composed by Randy Newman, marking his fourth collaboration with Pixar following Toy Story (1995), A Bug's Life (1998), and Toy Story 2 (1999). Along with Newman's score, the album features an original song, "If I Didn't Have You," sung by John Goodman and Billy Crystal (voices of James P. Sullivan and Mike Wazowski, respectively).[1] It was released on October 23, 2001, by Walt Disney Records.

The music received several nominations at prominent award ceremonies, including Academy, Grammy, and Annie award nominations."If I Didn't Have You" won Newman his first Academy Award for Best Original Song as well as a Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media.

Background

Monsters Inc. was Randy Newman's fourth feature film collaboration with Pixar, following Toy Story (1995), A Bug's Life (1998), and Toy Story 2 (1999). Newman worked closely with director Pete Docter and John Lasseter when crafting the film's music. Presenting Mike and Sully's characters musically, Newman used "corkier" themes as compared to those for Woody and Buzz from Toy Story. He used unusual instruments like the bass harmonica and bass accordion, as well as jazz, to represent their friendship. For the character Boo, Newman first wrote frightening music to express the way the monster world perceives her, while her other theme was played as a little girl going to sleep. The music in the "Scare Floor" sequence was meant to resemble 1940s jazz, much like the city scene in A Bug's Life. Newman drew influence from Nino Rota when writing music for the character Randall.