There are a couple of things that might lead a skeptical viewer or anyone over the age of 12 to suspect Monsters University is going to be stinker.
First, Pixar’s track record with sequels is hit or miss. Yes, they’re responsible for Toy Story 3, but they’re also to blame for Cars 2 — a movie that seemed to exist solely to sell tikes on toys, toothpaste, underwear and yogurt in a tube. And secondly... Wait. This is a prequel not a sequel? Yikes. Why did I agree to go see this?
Ah, yes. Because: Pixar tends to make the grade with even its more meh movies being passable efforts at the whole post-musical family-friendly animated feature craze they kicked off back in 1995. Monsters University is no exception.
Set about 10 years before the events of Monsters Inc., here we get a look at how the charismatic one-eyed monster Mike Wazowski (voiced by Billy Crystal) first got interested in the scaring business. Monsters University follows Mike’s college years and shows how he meets up with the big blue guy, James Sullivan (voiced by John Goodman) and the slithery Randall Boggs (Steve Buscemi).
In the Monsters universe, everything runs on scream energy, and the best and beastliest of creatures are trained to get the biggest screams from children to keep their world powered. The members of this scream team are idolized like sports heros or rock stars, so of course, young Mike wants in — even if he falls somewhere between Humpty Dumpty and Yoda on the scares scale.
This is well-tread territory that owes a lot to Revenge of the Nerds, Animal House, PCU and the like, but it's done in a G-rated heart-warming Pixar manner. And, like most Pixar movies, it's miles above the brain-numbing crap of other kid-friendly fare. It may not go down as cherished as Toy Story 3, but it works in a similar way — touching on those simple themes that children and adults can relate to.
--Eric Pulsifer
First, Pixar’s track record with sequels is hit or miss. Yes, they’re responsible for Toy Story 3, but they’re also to blame for Cars 2 — a movie that seemed to exist solely to sell tikes on toys, toothpaste, underwear and yogurt in a tube. And secondly... Wait. This is a prequel not a sequel? Yikes. Why did I agree to go see this?
Ah, yes. Because: Pixar tends to make the grade with even its more meh movies being passable efforts at the whole post-musical family-friendly animated feature craze they kicked off back in 1995. Monsters University is no exception.
Set about 10 years before the events of Monsters Inc., here we get a look at how the charismatic one-eyed monster Mike Wazowski (voiced by Billy Crystal) first got interested in the scaring business. Monsters University follows Mike’s college years and shows how he meets up with the big blue guy, James Sullivan (voiced by John Goodman) and the slithery Randall Boggs (Steve Buscemi).
In the Monsters universe, everything runs on scream energy, and the best and beastliest of creatures are trained to get the biggest screams from children to keep their world powered. The members of this scream team are idolized like sports heros or rock stars, so of course, young Mike wants in — even if he falls somewhere between Humpty Dumpty and Yoda on the scares scale.
This is well-tread territory that owes a lot to Revenge of the Nerds, Animal House, PCU and the like, but it's done in a G-rated heart-warming Pixar manner. And, like most Pixar movies, it's miles above the brain-numbing crap of other kid-friendly fare. It may not go down as cherished as Toy Story 3, but it works in a similar way — touching on those simple themes that children and adults can relate to.
--Eric Pulsifer
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