Monsters University (2013)

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Monsters University is a fairly made film. The story and college movie premise aren't the strongest use for it, but one thing this Movie understands is its characters. The prequel gives us a better understanding of Mike and Sulley's friendship that makes for a very entertaining repitoir between the two. (thanks to Goodman and Crystal) The film may not match up to the original but in character development it more than delivers.

The question you have to ask yourself is "did we need a prequel to 'Monsters Inc'?". In my opinion no, but here we are anyway. Detailing how Mike and Sully met at university, they participate in the "Scare Games" in order to be taken forward in the "Scare Program". Not all is plain sailing though, Mike wishes to be a "Scarer" but ultimately is too cute for the job. It's a story about proving people wrong, proving yourself right and coming to terms with the realisation that dreams may not be necessarily fulfilled. Let's start with the good. John Goodman and Billy Crystal reprise their unique voice acting roles again, they are simply irreplaceable. The animation was vibrant, colourful and included a glossy aftereffect to enhance the youth of our characters. The story was engaging, although slightly unfocused, and moves along at a consistent pace. The inclusion of past characters will put a smile on faces albeit felt occasionally forced for the sake of fan service to the original. There is one scene that blew me away and that was the conversation between Mike and Sully in the human world by the lake. Monochrome filter, moody atmosphere, tense discussion...I felt it. The overwhelming realisation that Mike isn't scary, the script could've milked that scene into melodrama but instead it was kept light yet powerful. Maybe it's just me, I like me a good dark scene in a child-friendly animation. The problem with this film lies with its characters. What made 'Monsters Inc' so captivating was the dialogue between just two characters. In this we have far too many supporting monsters thrown into the fray which blurs the focus from Mike and Sully, the latter being sidelined to a supporting role. This story is purely focused on Mike, personally I think that was the wrong decision. It should've been balanced. There really was no antagonist, any threat or danger levels were completely omitted. It's a fine prequel, just feels unnecessary.

In the prequel to Monsters Inc Mike and Sully are students at Monster University but are unlikely to graduate and both cannot stand each other. Sully is too much of a jock whose talent is one scary facial expression and a family name and Mike is not scary enough.Dean Hardscrabble (Helen Mirren) expels them from the scaring course. That is until Mike comes up with a plan to win the Greek Council Scare Games and thereby his fraternity will be accepted into the College of Scaring.The plot is a mixture of the failing student needing to pass their tests in order to graduate. Think Billy Madison, Back to school, Revenge of the Nerds and Animal House as Mike and Sully's fraternity are full of nerds and outcasts.Mike and Sully learn to value each other and recognise the importance of teamwork but the film's message is an uneasy one. Are Pixar saying talent is something you are born with and cannot be acquired?In various studies it has been show that the US Marines have consistently turned people from a lower working class background, involved in petty crime, having minor drug problems into leaders of men in the battlefield.

With some rather low expectations, I came into Monsters University and got pretty much what I expected to experience. The messages tend to fly around like a suspicious Dean Hardscrabble and, given how mixed they are, all muck up the consistency of the plot. That's without mentioning the ridiculous, juvenile jokes (which, thank goodness, aren't crude). The best thing you can say about the story, though, is that at least it answers some questions we had about the world of its sequel, such as where doors come from. The personalities of a decent amount of "introduced" characters, especially Randall, seem awkward as we have no idea how such characters changed from University to Inc. It is absolutely no surprise, given that it is Pixar, that the animation is gloriously colorful and fitting to a universe of monsters, both too-silly-to-take-seriously monsters and if-I-see-this-I-will-soil-myself monsters. I would absolutely recommend this to children up to the second grade, as I mentioned in the title, but for the rest of you, give it some thought unless you only watch movies to make the former happy.