Get Enrolled at "Monsters University"

Last night, I got the chance to check out an early screening of Disney and Pixar Animation Studios' Monsters University, the prequel to their 2001 family hit Monsters Inc, at the Los Angeles Film Festival. The story is set about ten years before the events of Monsters Inc., where in the world of monsters a one-eyed monster named Mike Wazowski (voiced by Billy Crystal) dreams of becoming a "scarer", a monster who work at Monsters Incorporated and whose job is to enter a closet door into the human world and scare children in order to get their screams as electric energy to power their world. Mike works his way through school and is finally enrolled in Monsters University, the school he spent his whole lifetime working towards attending, as he majors in scaring. But Mike soon finds rivalry in his future best friend, James P. "Sulley" Sullivan (voiced by John Goodman), who seems to find enjoy in always topping Mike and proving that he is the better monster. The two's over competitive and bitter rivalry soon cause them into trouble with the school's dean, a dragon-like bug-like monster named Ms. Hardscrabble (voiced by Helen Mirren), and eventually having them kicked out of the scaring program. Mike then suddenly finds a way to prove that he can be a good scarer by entering the school's Scare Games. Needing to join a fraternity in order to compete, he joins the least popular frat Oozma Kappa (O.K.) along with Sulley to compete and win for their entry in the scaring program. Mike and Sulley must put their rivalry aside and help Oozma Kappa win the Scare Games, and along the way become best friends.   Despite not being that much of a grand Pixar film like Toy Story, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and Up, Monsters University still manages out to be really funny and worth while watching. 



In Monsters Inc.  I never really saw Mike as a key character. Sure he did a lot to progress the story, but I still found the story to be mainly about Sulley and Boo, and Mike just played as a comic relief. This time around though the film is mainly about the relationship between Mike and Sullley and how it evolved. Mike for instance has a lot more character development than he did in Monsters Inc. You can sense how much he loves his passion for scaring and there are a bit of emotional moments where you can feel sympathetic for him. The way the film portrays Sulley is very interesting. While we see in Monsters Inc. that he is a humble and lovable beast with a warm heart, here at the beginning he is portrayed as somewhat as a lazy jock showoff. It is very interesting to see this side of the character. I will say though that my only small gripe with the character is that I think it takes a bit too long to change his attitude. But the change is rightfully placed. Plus the friendship between Mike and Sulley does become genuine. On top of that the voice acting from both Billy Crystal and John Goodman feels very passionate in a lot of scenes, and they sell. One other new character that I feel I need to point out is Ms. Hardscrabble. The minute I saw her and her appearance I said to myself "Gee, I wonder who can be the villain? This character is totally going to be the buzz kill for this movie". But it turns out she really is not a villain, just a typical strict dean. But I do wish she was more interesting than just a typical strict dean. It is sort of a shame because I think her design looks great and there could have been potential for a really strong cool character whether she was good or bad. 


The animation in this film is very bright and colorful. The colors never fail to stand out. Also there are a lot of creative ideas when it comes to designing the monsters of this world, and they successfully prove this whenever it comes time to show off their special traits. The animation is allowed to sync and flow along with these monsters. I feel that we get to see more of the creative sense of the monster world more than we did in Monsters Inc. 


The comedy in this film is really hilarious. The timing, the speed, the little in-jokes, the deliveries, the dialogue, everything about the comedy works. I found myself laughing the whole time and almost around every joke hit bullseye. It is one of the key elements of the film that works the best within it and I enjoyed a lot of the comedy the film presented. 


I would say that the story for the film would be as basic as family films go, but it has a lot of creativity to it. The scenes featuring the Scare Games and when explaining the rules of it and of each event seemed fun, entertaining, and creative. They provided a lot of fun, funny, and exciting moments to go along with them. The concept of that whole plot element seemed really fleshed out enough so the audience can enjoy the scenes featuring The Scare Games. But the biggest strength of the story is of course the relationship between Mike and Sulley. It takes a good while for them for finally getting along, and it could have happened a little sooner before the third act. But there are a couple of scenes that do completely sell their relationship and it makes the wait worth while for the audience to fully realize that the two can become best friends. When the film takes a break from its outrageous comedy, it does have good character developing as well as surprisingly well performed and written dramatic scenes. In my opinion I find this film to be a little better than Monsters Inc. I just thought that it was funnier and that the key characters were given a lot more development, and it shows that Pixar stepped up a lot of the familiar characters to the next level. It is overall fun, funny, entertaining, and a joy worth watching. 

GRADE: P+ 



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