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Fails the Bechdel test

Monsters, Inc.

2001. Directed by Pete Docter and David Silverman and Lee Unkrich, written by Pete Docter and Jill Culton and Jeff Pidgeon.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

2 / 3

Fails

  1. Yes 1. At least two women
    16 women characters. 3 of them speak.
  2. Yes 2. Who talk to each other
    Women do talk to each other.
  3. No 3. About something besides a man
    Every conversation between women that our parser found mentions a man.

Second opinion

Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.

Poster for Monsters, Inc.

The film

A city of monsters with no humans called Monstropolis centers around the city's power company, Monsters, Inc. The lovable, confident, tough, furry blue behemoth-like giant monster named James P. Sullivan (better known as Sulley) and his wisecracking best friend, short, green cyclops monster Mike Wazowski, discover what happens when the real world interacts with theirs in the form of a 3-year-old girl dubbed "Boo," who accidentally sneaks into the monster world with Sulley one night. And now it's up to Sulley and Mike to send Boo back in her door before anybody finds out, especially two evil villains such as Sulley's main rival as a scarer, chameleon-like Randall (a monster that Boo is very afraid of), who possesses the ability to change the color of his skin, and Mike and Sulley's boss Mr. Waternoose, the chairman and chief executive officer of Monsters, Inc.

Released
02 Nov 2001
Genres
Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Rated
G
IMDb
8.1 / 10
Metascore
79 / 100
Awards
Won 1 Oscar. 15 wins & 38 nominations total
Elsewhere
View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

  • Women
  • Men
  • Not in the cast list
  • Bigger name, more lines
  1. Mike 286 lines, man
  2. Sullivan 230 lines, man
  3. Randall 61 lines, man
  4. Waternoose 61 lines, man
  5. Celia 37 lines, woman
  6. Boo 17 lines, woman
  7. Fungus 17 lines, man
  8. Needleman 14 lines, man
  9. Yeti 14 lines, man
  10. Roz 13 lines, man
Full cast, 57 people
  • John Goodman as Sullivan (voice)
  • Billy Crystal as Mike (voice)
  • Mary Gibbs as Boo (voice)
  • Steve Buscemi as Randall (voice)
  • James Coburn as Waternoose (voice)
  • Jennifer Tilly as Celia (voice)
  • Bob Peterson as Roz (voice)
  • John Ratzenberger as Yeti (voice)
  • Frank Oz as Jeff Fungus (voice)
  • Daniel Gerson as Needleman / Smitty (voice)
  • Steve Susskind as Floor Manager (voice)
  • Bonnie Hunt as Flint (voice)
  • Jeff Pidgeon as Bile (voice)
  • Samuel Lord Black as George (voice)
  • Jack Angel as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Bob Bergen as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Rodger Bumpass as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Gino Conforti as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Jennifer Darling as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Patti Deutsch as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Pete Docter as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Bobby Edner as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Ashley Edner as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Katie Scarlett as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Paul Eiding as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Bill Farmer as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Keegan Farrell as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Pat Fraley as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Teresa Ganzel as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Taylor Gifaldi as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Marc John Jefferies as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Joe Lala as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Noah Luke as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Sherry Lynn as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Danny Mann as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Mona Marshall as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Mickie McGowan as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Laraine Newman as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Kay Panabaker as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Bret Parker as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Phil Proctor as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Josh Qualtieri as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Guido Quaroni as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Jan Rabson as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Lisa Raggio as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Joe Ranft as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Sophia Ranft as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Katherine Ringgold as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Bob Scott as Additional Voices (voice)
  • David Silverman as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Jim Thornton as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Lee Unkrich as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Wallace Shawn as Rex (voice) (uncredited)
  • Said Faraj as CDA (voice) (uncredited)
  • Toshi Toda as CDA (voice) (uncredited)
  • Yoshio Be as CDA (voice) (uncredited)
  • Jess Harnell as CDA (voice) (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 9% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 136

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers
ScenesWomen's linesMen's lines
1 to 378
4 to 606
7 to 906
10 to 12018
13 to 15014
16 to 1808
19 to 21637
22 to 24125
25 to 27224
28 to 30017
31 to 33327
34 to 3612
37 to 3913
40 to 421127
43 to 4528
46 to 4801
49 to 51218
52 to 54322
55 to 57131
58 to 60211
61 to 63025
64 to 66640
67 to 69029
70 to 7212
73 to 75222
76 to 78217
79 to 81028
82 to 8403
85 to 87142
88 to 90038
91 to 9306
94 to 96525
97 to 99211
100 to 102024
103 to 105011
106 to 10803
109 to 11108
112 to 114110
115 to 11707
118 to 120110
121 to 123025
124 to 126029
127 to 12959
130 to 13209
133 to 135420
136 to 13611

The evidence

  • Straight from the script
  • Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 9 are women's.

73 lines from women, 767 from men.

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit B: who's in it

16 women and 37 men in the cast. 3 women and 30 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit C: who gets heard

A woman speaks the first line. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 95 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

  • First line by a woman
  • Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 6% of the words (664), men 94% (11,178). Women have 9% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.

Exhibit D: the test the other way

Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.

Conversations between two named characters

Exhibit E: behind the camera

3 of the 12 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 22% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by
Pete Docter (man)
Written by
Andrew Stanton (man), Daniel Gerson (man)
Produced by
Darla K. Anderson (woman)
Edited by
Jim Stewart (man), Robert Grahamjones (gender not listed)
Music by
Randy Newman (man)
Production design by
Bob Pauley (man), Harley Jessup (man)
Cast by
Mary Hidalgo (woman), Ruth Lambert (woman), Matthew Jon Beck (man)

The crew, department by department

  • Visual Effects

    13 women, 54 men, 91 not listed

  • Other crew

    2 women, 22 men, 83 not listed

  • Sound

    3 women, 23 men, 11 not listed

  • Lighting

    2 women, 5 men, 28 not listed

  • Production

    9 women, 5 men, 9 not listed

  • Editing

    3 women, 7 men, 9 not listed

  • Art

    3 women, 8 men, 4 not listed

  • Directing

    1 women, 6 men, 7 not listed

  • Women
  • Men
  • Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit F: how old the stars were

Women: 24 on average. Men: 51 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Mary Gibbs 5, Jennifer Tilly 43

Men

Daniel Gerson 35, Bob Peterson 40, Steve Buscemi 43, John Goodman 49, Billy Crystal 53, John Ratzenberger 54, Frank Oz 57, James Coburn 73

Exhibit G: the money

It made 5.0 times what it cost.

Budget
$130 million
Box office
$650 million

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 136 scenes and 927 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works

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