One of the most impressive pieces of technology I have seen in 2001 was unveiled last Friday. Pixar's newest award-winning computer graphics (CG) animation software was on display during the 90 minutes of the new children's movie "Monsters, Inc." The CG animation in "Monster's, Inc" is nothing short of fantastic and a credit to the hard work of the hundreds of talented people at Pixar. Unfortunately, "Monsters, Inc" as a movie is less of a children's fable and more an example of why the high-tech industry has experienced the hard times of late.

First of all, let's step out of the fantasy world of Hollywood put this situation into real world perspective: Pixar was created in 1986 when Apple CEO Steve Jobs purchased "Star Wars" filmmaker George Lucas' CG animation division of Lucasfilm Limited for $10 million (US). Over the next ten years, Pixar cranked out top-notch CG animation for commercials and strikes a deal to create three CG animated movies for Walt Disney. The first of which, "Toy Story" was a huge moneymaker and the impetus for Disney to retool the original three-picture deal with Pixar to include an additional five movies (not including sequels) and all related merchandise. Pixar, like Steve Jobs' other company Apple Computers, is self-styled as a company filled with creative and innovative people that care about art rather than a bunch of stuffy corporate zombies that only care about money.

In "Monsters, Inc.," Pixar's animators bring us the story of the monster world on the other side of human children's closets. In the monster world, the engineers at Monsters Incorporated power Monstropolis from energy gathered from the screams of frightened human children. However, Monsters Incorporated has found that the jaded kids of the 21st Century are a lot tougher to scare, prompting an energy crisis and upper management to come up with a new strategy. The evil cutthroat monster employee and ruthless monster boss will kidnap human children and forcibly extract their screams through a devilish gun-like machine placed over kid's mouths.

Fortunately, a pair of good monster employees foils the evil boss' plot just in time to save an adorable human girl who was accidentally pulled into the monster world. In the process, the good monster employees discover that children's laughter creates ten times the power frightened screams produce and reinvent Monsters Incorporated into a company where every day at work is a party. Not only do the monsters have to do a tenth of the work they originally had to in the "old economy," but have made their world and the human world a better place through this innovation.

No, I'm not making this up...

Let me quickly silence the: "Oh, Scott! This is a children's movie not a morality play! Lighten up and don't read so much into this" crowd. You cannot deny the fact that fairy tales, although pure fantasy, have been told to children because of their powerful moral messages. The Three Stooges made short films with satirical condemnation of Hitler's rise to power in the mid 1930s. Can you name a children's production that doesn't have some kind of message to it? Even the so-called "mindlessly violent" cartoons like "G.I. Joe" ended every episode with some kind of message that could have been taken verbatim out of the Boy Scout manual. The makers of "Monsters, Inc" have an anti-corporate message and know how to get their message across. You're either stubbornly na•ve or full-blown stupid if you think otherwise. Honestly, wouldn't YOU make a movie or book that reflected your beliefs if given the chance?

It is easy for Pixar to criticize the evil corporate types hell-bent on money over innovation because they have money right now. How long can that last? Pixar's Chairman is Steve Jobs, whose other technology company Apple Computers suffered profitability problems this year. Although Jobs had helped turn Apple around from their dismal performance in 1999 (losing $708 million in one quarter under then-CEO Glibert Amelio) Apple still laid off hundreds of employees during this summer and their revenues are down.

Steve Jobs is the poster boy for high tech counterculture hypocrisy. He has publicly expressed his admiration for revolutionary visionaries like Bob Dylan and John Lennon who like Jobs, were millionaires that constantly complained about evil corporations. Jobs says that even though he was worth over $100 million at 25, he "never really cared about the money" to author David Kaplan. Jobs is very proud of the fact that he only takes a salary of $1 as CEO of Apple but cried that Fortune Magazine was attacking him merely by pointing out his "gift" from Apple was a $45 million Gulfstream V private jet and $872 million dollars worth of free stock options.

Apple is apparently a great place to work even after you get fired. The former Apple employees here in Austin, Texas I have spoken to have nothing but great things to say about the company and its CEO. One former employee, Suzie Xie, told me that every day at Apple was a party. "The cafeteria had a gourmet menu," Ms. Xie said. "We had made-to-order omelets, fillet mignon and other stuff for really cheap. You got to decorate your cubes however you wanted to... and we had a big party on Mardi Gras with free beads, masks, drinks and all kinds of Cajun food. It was wild! I still love Apple and miss working there."

When I asked Ms. Xie the reasons why Apple had to cut her and others' jobs, it never occurred to her that Apple's extravagant spending on employees (including their CEO's nearly $1 billion compensation package) might have contributed to the layoffs. It also won't occur to moviegoers that "Monsters, Inc" beautifully illustrates how high tech professionals think: The old corporate way of business is wrong, but the new innovations can turn everyday at work into a party and where happy thoughts power the world.

Of course, "Monsters, Inc." has been in production for a couple of years and the high-tech world has changed quite a bit since then. Will Pixar have the guts to make the sequel, where the excessive spending, outrageous executive salaries and an unrealistic business model turn thousands of the friendly innovative monsters into bitter jobless monsters? More importantly, will the parents who applaud Scout's color blindness with Tom Robinson in "To Kill A Mockingbird," be smart enough to discuss with their kids "Monsters, Inc" blatant anti-corporate propaganda with the facts about the high-tech business bust? <>

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