It’s been twelve years since Monsters Inc. hit cinemas, and despite a couple of minor failings (Cars 2, I’m looking at you) animation titans Pixar have proven that they’re still entirely capable of creating funny and moving films that can be enjoyed by both adults and children.
Monsters University, a prequel to Monsters Inc., takes odd ball best friends Mike Wazowski and James ‘Sulley’ Sullivan back to their college days, showing how the pair put aside their initial dislike for each other by competing in the scare games as part of the campuses geekiest fraternity.
The plot may be a little flaky in parts; it seems a bit pointless to have the pair initially disliking each other when anyone who’s seen the first one know they’ll make up anyway, and though the challenges in the scare games will probably appeal greatly to children, they feel like they drag on a little bit, and the slapstick elements do become tiresome.
The film is at it’s best when it focuses on the friendship between Mike and Sulley, which provided the back bone for Monsters Inc. John Goodman’s gentle giant Sulley is as gruff yet kindly as ever, and Billy Crystal (who famously turned down the role of Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story, a career move he admits regretting) manages to stay firmly on the side of humorous rather than irritating as self important but also self doubting Mike, so it is nice to see how it all began.
There are also a sea of great new additions to the series, particularly Steve Buscemi as Randy, a mature student who’s part of the nerdy Oozma Kappa fraternity, and Helen Mirren as the stern and terrifying dean of the University.
Prequels are always odd, in the way that the audience always knows what’s going to happen anyway. So whenever the pair stumble into danger, the tension is diminished somewhat by the fact that we already know they survive anyway. And though it is definitely touching in parts – particularly the opening scenes focusing on Mike’s childhood, or ones where he’s trying desperately hard to become a scarer, despite not being, well, scary – it doesn’t quite match the emotional poignancy of the original; I still feel a bit weepy every time they shred that door.
That said, the films is an entertaining way to pass a couple of hours, with plenty of genuinely funny scenes and some lovely moments of friendship, and is another film that can be filed off as ‘successful’ in the Pixar canon.
Plus, it’s worth seeing alone for the obligatory Pixar short at the beginning. This one, titled ‘The Blue Umbrella’ is one of the best yet, and will leave you wondering how on earth they managed to make you care so much about the happiness of a silent lump of blue plastic and metal.
Watch the trailer: