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Second Opinion – Monsters University (2013)

by

Monsters University, 2013.

Directed by Dan Scanlon.
Featuring the voice talents of Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Helen Mirren, Alfred Molina, Dave Foley, Sean P. Hayes, Joel Murray, Peter Sohn, Charlie Day, Nathan Fillion, Frank Oz, and John Ratzenberger.


SYNOPSIS:
A look at the relationship between Mike and Sulley during their days at Monsters University — when they weren’t necessarily the best of friends.


2001’s Monsters Inc. is still regarded to this day as one of the best movies Pixar has ever produced, they created a captivating world with creative design, interesting monsters and an intriguing premise. The story of monsters going to work to get children’s screams to power their city (despite the fact they’re more scared of us) only to have a child walk into their world captivated audiences. The faux father/daughter dynamic between Sully and Boo (whose real name is Mary for those wondering) is beautifully told and will touch those whose hearts are not made of stone.

Although the world they created was interesting, Monsters Inc. effectively closed the door for potential sequels. Unlike The Incredibles, there were no more stories to be told in the world of Monstropolis. But with the Disney hand firmly round Pixar’s throat, another movie had to made – which brings us to the prequel movie Monsters University. But in terms of sequels, would this be Cars 2 bad, or Toy Story 2 good?

While Monsters Inc. was Sully’s story, Monsters University shifts all the focus onto Mike Wazowski (voiced again by Billy Crystal) as he goes on a journey to discover who he really is. As a child visiting Monsters Inc., he becomes obsessed with being a Scarer for the company and he finally gets his chance when enrolling at Monsters University – the place where all the top Scarers graduate. However his time there is hampered by the cocky and arrogant Sully (again voiced by John Goodman) who is quite happy to rest of the laurels of his father, himself one of the Scaring greats. 

One problem that prequel stories always have is that, no matter how well the story is told, you do know the outcome. Going into Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, you know that Anakin is going to turn his back on the Jedi and go with Darth Sidious, Obi Wan will leave for Tatooine and Padame gives birth to Luke and Leia. Because of this, a lot of tension is lost. Monsters University does suffer from the sort problems in many respects as you know where most of these characters are going to end up. The way to fight this predictability is to present an interesting tale that makes the story worthwhile in telling. And while there is a lot of fun to be had in Monsters University, I don’t think it quite makes it.
The main crux of the story is Mike and Sully working together with the underlying themes of discovering who you are (something that many people discover during their time at University). Through a fairly convoluted series of events, Mike and Sully have to team up with a group of student rejects to win the Scare Games, an annual competition to crown the top Scarers. This leads to two of the movie’s best scenes which are both visually impressive and incredibly entertaining to watch. The scene in the library in particular is absolutely fantastic.
However these scenes just aren’t really enough to give Monsters University the same sort of accolade its predecessor received. The film doesn’t take enough risks with characters or story and it just comes across as a little safe. Much like Cars 2, if you’d caught this on DVD you would probably be surprised to discover that it got a theatrical run. Nothing moves these characters forward and we know the same about them now as we did a decade ago. Even the father/son relationship between Sully and his off-screen Dad is only mentioned in passing and is never fully developed which renders it completely useless.
Furthermore the film really isn’t that funny. It does a few laughs here and there, but it’s not to the scale as previous Pixar movies, let alone Monsters Inc. which can still produce plenty of belly laughs. The idea of setting a movie in a University of monsters should have provided plenty of opportunities for big laughs, but because the movie downplays everything it tends to come across as lazy and unimaginative. 
This review may come across like a broken record and there is always the argument that you shouldn’t compare sequels or prequels to the movie’s that came before them, but Monsters University’s biggest crime is that it is nowhere near as good as Monsters Inc. The movie is fine and you’ll never be bored, but you won’t walk out the cinema with a giant grin on your face like you have done in the past.
Pixar has been on a slow decline in terms of quality with many fingers pointing the blame and the House of Mouse. Cars 2 was incredibly shambolic while Brave was met with mostly mixed reactions. Monsters University is nowhere near as bad as Cars 2 but it’s not on a par with the likes of Toy Story 2. It does feel like a Disney direct-to-DVD prequel rather than the Pixar epic we’ve come to expect from the people who brought us cinematic gold like WALL-E and Up. The film looks great and it’s bound to entertain children, but there really isn’t enough in there to make Monsters University essential viewing.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★  

  

Luke Owen is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors and the host of the Month in Review show for Flickering Myth’s Podcast Network. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.

Originally published July 12, 2013. Updated November 7, 2019.

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