Pixar’s Monsters University is the prime case of how earnestness and heart can carry a film past it’s flaws. You won’t find anything particularly new in this film and if you’re looking for anything as exciting as some vintage Pixar, this probably won’t be your film. However, for those of you looking for an entertaining film that has a great sense of self, Monsters University will definitely be the film for you.
In an extended prequel to the prequel, the film opens with a young lonely Mike and his classmates traveling to Monsters, Inc. After he wanders into the door of one of the best scarers and witnesses his first scare, he’s entranced and determined to go to Monsters University. We then move to the campus, where Mike meets his future rival Randy Boggs, who is actually his first roommate, and Sully, a happy go lucky guy living off his family name. After an incident that sees them kicked out of the Scare program, the unlikely twosome (Mike and Sully) join with the hapless Oozma Kappa fraternity and enter the Scare Games to try and earn entrance back into the program.
Going the prequel route is something many established franchises do and there is admittedly something fun about returning to an established world. Monsters University manages to rake in all the nostalgia you have for Monsters, Inc. and not misshandle it. The script is very straight forward in terms of getting the characters from points A, B, and C, which makes for a fine movie, but we’ve seen the narrative before. Nostalgia gets you about halfway, but the narrative didn’t take us very far after that. However, I did like the overarching themes they managed to subtly weave in such as the worries of students regarding whether they’ll be able to live up to their lineage or their dreams.
The main issue I had is that the characterizations seemed a bit too on the nose. While it was fun to see the animated Helen Mirren character slink around, I feel that they went out of their way to make her this domineering force when she didn’t need to be. Also, though college students can often be dumb and misguided, I find it tough to believe that Mike and Sully would take so long to realize that even though they hate each other, they have strengths. The film also whiffed on the Randy Boggs plot and given how contentious that relationship gets in Monsters Inc. it’s weird they didn’t explore that more.
Technically, this isn’t as groundbreaking as say Up or Brave, but the animation here is just as beautiful. I actually think the direction and editing of the more action oriented scene was some of the best work Pixar has done. The campus chase scene and the climatic cabin scene are just wonderful and they soar off the screen in 3D. The best technical component of the film is the college band filled score composed by Randy Newman. I must admit to not being Newman’s biggest fan, but man is that score something else. He manages to capture the sounds of college so thoroughly, I felt like I was right back at Georgia Tech while watching the film.
Grade: ***/**** (B)