James P. Sullivan

Pure Good

Adult
Teenager

Full Name

James Patrick Sullivan

Alias

Sulley
Sulley-Wulley (by Celia)
Sullster
Sul
Sullivan
Jimmy Sullivan
Mr. Sullivan
Kitty (by Boo)
Throwrug (by Mike)
Jim
James
Partner (by Brooke Ladd)

Origin

Monsters, Inc.

Powers/Skills

Superhuman strength

Speed
Durability
Roaring
Hand-to-Hand combatant
Letting out a Jumanji Lion Roar
High intelligence
Leadership

Family

Bill Sullivan (father)

Mrs. Sullivan (mother)

Allies

Mike Wazowski (best friend)
Boo
Celia Mae
Henry J. Waternoose (formerly)
Jeff Fungus
Dean Hardscrabble
Roar Omega Roar

Johnny Worthington III (sometimes)

Oozma Kappa

Don Carlton
Art
Terri and Terry Perry
Scott "Squishy" Squibbles

George Sanderson
The Adorable Snowman
Tylor Tuskmon
Other monsters
Sora
Donald Duck
Goofy

Enemies

Archenemies:
Henry J. Waternoose
Randall Boggs
Johnny Worthington III
Other enemies
Heartless
Unversed
Vanitas
Formerly:
Mike Wazowski
Jeff Fungus
Dean Hardscrabble
Boo

Goals

Help Oozma Kappa win the Scare Games (Monsters University).

Return Boo to the human world (Monsters Inc.) (all succeeded).
Supply energy to the Monster World by using the power of laughing children (ongoing).

Goodness Zone

Going after Mike in the human world when he goes there out of desperation to prove himself.
Protecting Boo from Waternoose and Randall.
Changing Monsters, Inc. and ending the cycle of monsters scaring children.
Un-banishing the Adorable Snowman after finding out the real reason why he was banished.

Type of Hero

Selfless Monster

“	Sulley: Yeah, I'm a Sullivan! I'm the Sullivan who flunked every test! The one who got kicked out of the program! The one who's so afraid to let everyone down, that I cheated! And I lied! Mike, I'll never know how you feel, but you're not the only failure here. I act scary, Mike... but most of the time... I'm terrified. Mike: ...How come you never told me that before? Sulley: Because... we weren't friends before.	„
	~ Sulley admitting all his shortcomings to Mike and that he considers himself a failure because of them.

“	I never told you about what happened with Boo. The fear in her eyes when she was scared. I... I didn't like what I saw. What I saw in me. Laugh power is the heart of the new Monsters Inc. And it's also the right thing to do.	„
	~ Sulley explains to Tylor why he has turned his back on a Scarer's life.

James Patrick Sullivan, or better known by his nickname Sulley, is one of the two main protagonists (alongside Mike Wazowski) of Pixar's Monsters, Inc. franchise.

He is blue fluffy monster boogeyman the best friend of Mike Wazowski as well as his former arch-rival, the arch-enemy of both Randall Boggs and Henry J. Waternoose III, and the new CEO of Monsters Inc., the titular company.

He is voiced by John Goodman, who also voiced Rex in We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story and Pacha in The Emperor's New Groove.

What Makes Him Pure Good?[]

In General[]

Though he had corrupting factors during his youth such as being extremely arrogant and jerkish towards Mike and initially only joining Oozma Kappa to prove himself superior and even rigged Mike's scare meter in the scare games because he didn't believe in him and was scared of his team losing, he very much acted like this because he'd been pressured by his family for the sake of their legacy. Furthermore, by the time of his adulthood, he loses all of his corrupting factors as he becomes far more nice towards other monsters (especially Mike).
- Even if he does tease Mike at times, it's mainly done in a friendly matter as opposed to making fun of him.
He is only one who doesn't show a heated rivalry to the members of FearCo members and even decided to let some of them like Skyler and Chompy join Monsters Inc. later on.
- He held no grudges against Randall and Johnny Worthington II after for what they did during their MU Days, at least prior to discovering their respective evil plots in the original movie and in season two of Monsters at Work respectively, meaning he probably forgave both of them for humiliating him and Mike.
- On the night before the final round, when Sulley speaks with Hardscrabble, hoping if OK wins and they're in the Scaring Program, there won't be any hard feelings. This implies that Sully was hoping they can let go of their grudge and move on.
While he scared children, he was only doing his job by providing his city with energy and had no intention of hurting them. This is explicitly proven when he chooses not to scare Boo when entering the closet to try and show Randall wouldn't jump from the closet, telling her he's off-duty. Even if he had not realized the true effect his line of work had, he would never have agreed with kidnapping children.
He is friendly to other monsters, including his arch-rival Randall and even Johnny Worthington III. He even showed good sportsmanship before they started to scare kids.
He is protective towards both monster and human children.
He still remains level-headed after becoming a CEO at Monsters, Inc.

Monsters University[]

Though he acted arrogant towards his teammates (especially Mike) at first, he later expressed remorse for his wrongdoings as he becomes a better teammate to them and even starts listening to Mike's advice.
He gives Mike some advice on how to become a better scarer before the scare games.
When he encounters Roar Omega Roar, who offer him a spot back in their fraternity, Sulley refuses the offer and gives them the trophy since they rightfully won it.
He takes responsibility for rigging Mike's scare meter to ensure none of his other teammates get punished, even if it means getting kicked out of Monsters University.
He goes into the human world to try and save Mike in spite of knowing the dangers he'd face.
He apologizes to Mike for lying to him and tampering with his scare meter.
He rejected Johnny's offer to return to Roar Omega Roar, showing his loyalty to the Oozma Kappa even though the Roar Omega Roar were the best.
He admits his fears of being a failure to Mike, saying that he and Mike are friends now.
He embraces the members of Oozma Kappa before leaving, happy to know they'll succeed as great scarers.
He commends Mike for all of his accomplishments, managing to turn Oozma Kappa into champions and pulling off the greatest scare in history, calling him fearless.
He apologizes to Dean Hardscrabble for nearly insulting her.
Despite their initially rivalry, he and Mike became best friends for the rest of their lives.

Monsters Inc.[]

When Mike's body is covered during the Monsters, Inc. commercial, he attempts to comfort Mike for having himself covered in the commercial, only to nod in agreement when Mike only shows excitement over having been in the commercial at all.
He gets reservations for Mike and Celia at Harryhausen's.
He covers for Mike when he forgets his paperwork so he could go on his date with Celia.
He allows Boo to sleep in his bed, then comes up with the idea of sending her back through the door she came from.
Unlike Mike, Sulley refuses to abandon Boo or just get her through another door instead of her original door, and attempts to look for her when she's lost.
He is mortified when he believes that Boo had been killed in the garbage disposal, and upon seeing she was safe, he runs up and hugs her in relief.
When he learns that Randall placed Boo's door on the scare floor as Mike revealed from his deal with Randall, he refuses to put her in there since he was well aware of Randall's true nature and plot, then tries to persuade Mike to not do so.
He saves Mike from the Scream Extractor by unplugging it and getting him out of it while Randall was distracted turning it back on, and although he simultaneously uses it on his assistant, Fungus, it was only done as a last resort as Fungus was working with Randall. Furthermore, it's unclear whether it was Sulley or Mike's idea to put Fungus in the Scream Extractor.
He feels terrible for accidentally scaring Boo and starts to realize the trauma monsters inflict upon children with scaring.
Though he nearly gets into a fight with Mike after being banished to the human world, it was only done in self-defense as Mike was the one who attacked him first.
He apologizes to Mike for getting both of them stranded in the human world.
When the Adorable Snowman tells them there's a nearby village, he travels through a snowstorm to get there so he can use a door to get back to Monsters, Inc. and save Boo.
When he came back to the monster world via one of the village doors and accidentally running into George Sanderson, he apologized to him before moving on to rescuing Boo.
He protects Boo from Randall and Waternoose and saves her from the Scream Extractor.
He thanks Mike for coming back to help save Boo.
While he does punch Randall, it was because he was trying to strangle him to death, making it purely out of self-defense.
He defeats Randall and while he does banish him to a swamp in the human world, it was completely justified due to knowing how depraved and dangerous he is. Plus, him being happy to get rid of Randall wasn't truly out of sadism at all, because it was mainly him being happy to have gotten rid of a threat.
He attempts to reason with Waternoose and convince him there's a better way to keep Monsters, Inc. operating.
He is saddened when Waternoose is arrested and also feels guilt for inadvertently making the energy crisis worse.
He gets Boo back home, embracing her and shedding a tear before saying goodbye.
He stops Randall and Waternoose from enacting their plan to kidnap children and extract their screams.
He changes Monsters, Inc. for the better by extracting laughter from children instead of screams, ending the cycle of terror and trauma inflicted upon human children all around the world when laughter is 10 times more powerful than scream.
When visiting Boo's door that was repaired by Mike, Sully shown happy of seeing Boo again.

Monsters At Work[]

Sometime before Waternoose was arrested and the company changed, Sulley was the one that recommended Tylor for the job as a scarer at Monsters, Inc. as he was impressed by his moves.
When Tylor messed things up, Sulley wasn’t mad and encouraged him that anything is possible.
He encourages Mike to start a new class within the Monsters, Inc. facility to teach monsters how to be funny and make children laugh instead of scream.
When Mike starts exhausting himself making kids laugh for 18 hours straight due to the company initially being short on other monsters who are talented enough at comedy to work as jokesters, he tries to encourage him to take a break and let the others handle it so he can get some much-needed rest.
He and Mike take care of the infant, Snore, while MIFT repairs the damage to the child's room.
- While Mike was the one who stood up to the Red Shocks super fan who insulted the infant, Sully tried to avoid a fight due to not wanting to draw any attention.
He tries to stop Mike from using bribes on the inspector after a power-outage.
He and Mike forgive the MIFT members for nearly getting Monsters Inc. shut down due to their recklessness and stupidity and don't fire any of them.
He is happy to see the Adorable Snowman again. Then, after learning from Tylor and Val Little that he had been banished for finding out about Waternoose's project with the Scream Extractor. he uses his authority as Monsters, Inc's CEO to formally un-banish him and make him the company's official snow cone vendor.
When Tylor asks him why they can’t go back to scream energy since that’s what they’re both good at, he explained to Tylor that after he saw how terrified Boo was of him when he accidentally scared her, he didn’t like what we saw both in her eyes and in himself. Therefore, even though the transition is challenging, and it means personally stepping down as the top employee since he has no talent for comedy, he’s determined to make sure Monsters, Inc. sticks to laugh power since it’s the right thing to do.
Sometime during Season 2, he and Mike hired Roger Rogers (who is really Waternoose's son) without judging him at all and even knowing that he's not like his father.
- Even when Tylor calls him out for being a horrible judge of character, he would defend Rogers against Tylor's accusations about him when he finds out the truth and accused him of being the one who was sabotaging Monsters Inc.
When he sees Johnny Worthington III with Tylor again, he tries to be friendly with him and assume he has changed for the better since their MU days instead of feeling rival hatred and wanting to humiliate him, unlike Mike.
- He even gives him a handshake upon seeing him again.
- He tries to get to Mike behave and act friendly to Johnny and prevents Mike from using their baseball game as a rematch to settle the score with him.
- While he does become heated up during the baseball match and shows a more competitive side, after the match he cools down and expresses remorse for getting so worked up.
- After they lose the baseball game, he gives Mike Stubby's baseball glove.
He and Mike develop a team-building exercise in order to get the employees to cooperate, successfully getting them to work together against the "Shrieker", which was just Sulley and Mike in a costume.
He called out Tylor for humiliating Rogers on Live TV by revealing that he is Waternoose's son, even saying that he knew about Rogers being related to Waternoose when they hired him.
Although he ends up getting mad at Tylor for "sabotaging" Monsters, Inc. along with everyone else, Sulley was upset with him rather than ganging up on him out of pettiness like Duncan. It also could've been because Duncan had more evidence than Tylor did (though Sulley couldn't have known Randall returned and framed Tylor for his actions) when he accused Roger of sabotaging Monsters, Inc. and plotting to takeover the company.
He informs Mike to sign all the paperwork to transfer power to Fear Co. in a deliberately slow manner, believing that Roz may know something they don't.
After he and Mike see the news of Tylor and Val showing everyone how effective laugh power is and the way it allows monsters to actually bond with children, he quickly forgives Tylor's past mistakes and rehires him back. He subsequently gives cards to other recruits and lets some former members of Fear Co. like Skyler and Chompy join Monsters Inc as new jokesters.
- Though he is never seen apologizing to Tylor for wrongly accusing him of sabotaging Monsters Inc. (which Randall Boggs was the true culprit of), it is likely that he did this off-screen.

Trivia[]

Originally Sulley was Near Pure Good due to being an extremely arrogant jerk in Monsters University, as he initially only joined Oozma Kappa to prove himself as superior, and even after bonding with them, he still rigged Mike’s scare meter in the Scare Games because he didn’t believe in him and was afraid of the team losing the games. It was later decided that he qualifies for Pure Good because he got rid of all of his corrupting factors in Monsters, Inc, plus he immediately felt remorse over rigging Mike's scare meter and took full responsibility for it, even if it meant getting kicked out of MU.
- As an evil and heinous opposite to him, his arch-rival Randall Boggs was originally considered Near Pure Evil but then eventually got approved as Pure Evil.
Coincidentally, he and Mike, who is Inconsistently Admirable are the bright counterparts to both Randall and Mr. Waternoose, who are Pure Evil and Inconsistently Heinous, respectively.
He and Randall are Pure Good and Pure Evil foils, counterparts and antitheses in many ways:
- Both were the highest-ranked scarers in Monsters Inc.
- Sulley has mostly blue fur with some purple fur in polka-dot form with Randall being the inverse by having mostly purple scales with a minor blue spot at the bottom of his spine.
- Both didn't start off as their pure selves they are today since Monsters University with former attitudes toward Mike that eventually changed and their status the other way around both receptively until for the rest of their lives and at their end of their college days:
  - Sulley started off as very condescending, arrogant, immature, lazy, and cocky. Positively on the bright side briefly, he is laidback and mischievous. He didn't start off good firstly toward his teammates and especially Mike. But eventually became humble & benevolent. As he gets kinder when he redeemably bonded with Mike until they both fortunately became eternal best friends for life. It is only fortunate at the scare games where he and Mike helped their team go into the scaring program themselves. He eventually was expelled from Monsters University due to poor grades with Mike, but eventually became Monster Incorporated's no.1 scarer despite that. Then sooner after the first film and alot more, he became the company chairman along with Mike after MI changed better differently of collecting laughter. Because of this long-term future, this could quite waste lifetime of Sulley & Mike because when scaring existed before it becomes no more but only fortunate in college for them both to first met & go to Monsters Inc together after being temporary No. 1 employees.
  - Randall started off as very affable, nerdy, gentle, sweet and friendly. Negatively on the dark side briefly, he is shy and timid. He is benevolent toward others and used to be Mike’s best friend as they were both nerdy college roommates. But eventually he became sadistic & vindictive. After Randall purely corrupts himself was when Mike and Sulley started getting closer into being BFFs. He unpleasantly receives his worst traumatic weakness because of that he is shy and timid: public humiliation. Thus at the final round in the scare games/olympics, Sulley wins against him and unwillingly embarrassed him as a foolish adorable figure thus makes his effort publicly into a poorly disgraceful incompetent failure & a laughing stock. He eventually stayed at Monsters University briefly (being independently alone without RORs & Mike) and graduated into subsequently became a scarer. But he was temporary for his life after the first film as he became an infamous wanted criminal for his exposed villainy plots both with Johnny and Waternoose.
- Both are aware of the true harm that children receive from monsters scaring them:
  - Sulley felt deep remorse as he saw that Boo was scarred emotionally, mentally, and psychologically when he gave a scaring demonstration to Mr. Waternoose while Randall Boggs took pure sadism in Boo being scared of the scream extractor attempting to torture her and force her screams out.
- Both attempted to change Monsters Inc. in many ways:
  - Sulley succeeded by changing the source from screams to laughs as he realizes how horrible scaring children is and changes the energy supply due to laughter being tens time more powerful than screams while Randall desired to become top scarer in an attempt to become superior over Mike and Sulley and is implied to want to eliminate scarers due to saying with the scream extractor scarers wouldn't be necessary.
- Both are partners in their alignments that fall under the "Inconsistently" moral ranking. (Sulley is partners in heroism with Mike Wazowski while Randall is partners in crime with Henry J. Waternoose III).