Thaddeus "Phlegm" Bile is a minor character in Disney/Pixar's 2001 animated film, Monsters, Inc. He is a trainee scarer and later a laugh floor jokester for Monsters, Inc.
Background[]
Personality[]
Thaddeus Bile, or Phlegm to his friends, is a rather inept individual. While he takes his job seriously, he is not very good at it. Everyone is apparently forgiving of his shortcomings and is aware of his lack of ability to scare. He seems more inclined to be funny than scary. This is made apparent when the company switches from scream power to laugh power as he is shown to be much more accepting of this. He is very eager to be friendly with children, especially infants who are more prone to laugh at his jokes, or rather pratfalls.
Physical appearance[]
Bile is, large, tubby and blue. He has stumpy feet with black toes and four purple, spindly, tentacle arms with four fingers on each of them and suction cups underneath. He has a tail which has a small mace-like ball at the end of it and has several soft spikes on his head that are capable of becoming sharp, though he rarely shows this. He has a mouth and two eyes and eyebrows, but lacks a nose.
Role in the film[]
When first shown at the very beginning of the film, Bile struggled with his test simulations, leaving a door open and utterly screwing up on his attempt to frighten the mechanical child. He tripped over things such as a soccer ball and a skateboard before landing painfully on a pile of jacks on his backside. He was accident-prone and a bit of a coward.
He is seen sitting in front of the Sushi Chef at Harryhausen's on the night Mike Wazowski takes his girlfriend Celia Mae to the restaurant for her birthday dinner.
Right before Sulley's scare demo, Bile screwed up on yet another attempt to frighten the mechanical boy, instead of lulling him to sleep, much to Mr. Waternoose's frustration. Bile claims he was going for a "snake/ninja approach, with a little hissing."
He is later seen near the entrance to the factory amongst the other monsters watching Mr. Waternoose get arrested by the CDA.
During the event of Monsters At Work, he becomes a Jokester and is very adept at his new job. His signature way of making children laugh is tripping on sharp objects and screaming in pain.
At the end of the film, he was shown returning to Laugh Floor F from a child's room after successfully making that child laugh, presumably by performing the accident he got in the simulation at the beginning of the movie as he was seen with jacks on his bottom.
He also appeared in Mike Wazowski's company play "Put That Thing Back Where It Came From or So Help Me", portraying the Sushi Chef during the restaurant scene, as well as singing with the rest of the cast at the play's finale.
Monsters, Inc. (video game)
In the Playstation 2 game of Monsters Inc. At the start of level 1, Sulley is introduced to Thaddeus Bile by Mr. Waternoose, Thaddeus Bile wants to show off his scare but realizes he forgot his manual and left it at Mr. Waternoose's office. Sulley decides to sneak around the factory and gets the manual but then Thaddeus realizes he forgot his key card, Sulley decides to sneak into Mr. Waternoose's office and successfully retrieves Thaddeus key card, but then it is time for him to go home.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- In the CD Read Along version, if it's played on the computer, there is a very very rare snapshot in which Bile was originally going to roar at the robot child. This was likely early work-in-progress footage because in the final version, Bile simply bared his claws before the robot screamed.
- In the Playstation 2 game Monsters, Inc. (video game), Thaddeus Bile makes a cameo on Level 1 and sends Sulley on a fetch quest to retrieve his manual then his key card.
- His name, "Phlegm" Bile, are two different fluids that form in the throat and digestive tract. Bile is a bitter fluid that helps with digestion and Phlegm is thick substance that is composed mucus.
- In the Monsters at Work episode, The Damaged Room, shows that his mucuses is acidic, thus revealing his name sake.