Monsters University 2013
Monsters
University is Pixar’s take on a college movie, with Mike (Billy Crystal) and
Sulley (John Goodman) reintroduced as freshmen at MU, both with dreams of
making it as a “scarer.” For Sulley, it’s what he was born into – his dad is a
beloved, legendary figure in the scare world. For Mike, it’s been his passion
since he was little, and he’s worked and studied as hard as he can.
A
sweetly sketched prologue takes us back to Monsters Inc., the scare factory
that sends monsters into the human world to terrify small children and harness
their screams as a way of powering Monstropolis. Amongst the young monsters on
a school field trip is the friendless but always up-beat Mike Wazowski,
determined to be a scarer despite the fact his one-eyed, round and green look
is somewhat less than scary.
A
few years later and he enrolls at Monsters University and heads to the School
of Scaring class, where he has he has his first encounters with the terrifying
Dean Hardscrabble and more importantly the naturally scary Sulley (John
Goodman), a cool and confident party monster and the opposite of Mike’s
wound-up bookworm.
Naturally,
the pair find themselves thrown together, and when they are set to be thrown
out of the School of Scaring realise their only option is to join the weakest
of college fraternities, Oozma Kappa, as a way of competing in the annual Scare
Games, which offers them the only opportunity to impress Dean Hardscrabble and
get their places back on the programme.
It
comes as no surprise that their close encounter with the college outcasts leads
to the expected ‘learning to work together’ life lesson, though their battles
against other fraternities in a series of games are amongst the highlights of
the film. Refreshingly there are a few more twists along the way as well as a
beautifully staged visit to the human world, before the film settles down to
end with Mike and Sulley as the best of buddies and ready to take their chance
to work at Monsters Inc.
There’s
no shocking twist or anything of that sort. But the storyline doesn’t quite go
as you might expect. Rather than a predictable path, Pixar does throw you a
curveball, as Mike and Sulley go on an unexpected adventure that is exciting
and cool to see play out. There are some nice, solidly delivered messages here
about facing the consequences of your actions and perhaps accomplishing your
goals in a different manner than expected that are deftly included. No, this
isn’t among Pixar’s very best, but, like the fraternity our heroes join, that’s
OK. It’s a good time at the movies with funny jokes, strong sequences and
lovable characters.
For
its new feature film, "Monsters University," Pixar Animation Studios
went back to school.
Now
Playing In Theatres in 3D! in USA.
