Monsters University

2013

Director: Dan Scanlon

Writers: Daniel Gerson, Robert L. Baird, Dan Scanlon

Ever since Pixar was taken over by Disney in 2006, something seems to have been happening with their films. Once they were making fascinatingly experimental and pretty out-there films like WALL-E and Up, but now one can't help wondering if the businessmen have started to take over. Any news now concerns sequels, with both Cars 2 and Monsters University coming out, and Finding Dory on the way. Considering just how poor Cars 2 was, having followed the already slightly disappointing Cars, it's easy to think all this is just a project to shift as much merchandise as possible. But we can't forget Pixar is no stranger to sequels, having made the brilliant Toy Story 2 and 3. So how will they fare in the world of the prequel?

Monsters University charts the story of Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) and James P. "Sully" Sullivan's (John Goodman) friendship from college up to the first film, when they're the top scarers at Monsters Inc. Mike, inspired to become a scarer after a school trip to Monsters Inc. as a cute six year old, works hard to get to university, despite not being a natural scarer. It all comes easily to Sully on the other hand, who lazily assumes he can make it without working. When an incident puts both of their places at uni at risk, they have to work together to win the prestigious Scare Games and get back on track. 

The best Pixar films create vast new worlds and within that populate it with rich lovable characters that have to complete a simple quest. From Finding Nemo’s race across the vast ocean to save a lost fish to The Incredible’s 1950’s inspired comic book adventure, they’ve shown how wonderfully it can be done. Monsters University definitely gets the first parts right. Everyone still loves Mike and Sully from their first adventure, and the campus in the film is an incredible sight, with a whole array of beautifully rendered monsters of all shapes and sizes. As you’d expect, every frame is simply gorgeous to look at.

The problem lies with the plot. What starts as a simple idea quickly multiplies into a rambling set of unoriginal set pieces, all relying too heavily on sports movie and college movie clichés. Like Homer Simpson says after watching too many of these films: “There are two kinds of college students- jocks and nerds. As a jock, it is my duty to give nerds a hard time.” Things are no different here, with Mike and Sully trapped on the side of the nerds, fighting against the world. All the action takes place on campus and, bar one scene venturing to Monsters Inc. itself, this severely restricts the film’s potential to explore exciting new settings and ideas like we know Pixar can do so well. These restrictions, and the sheer fact it’s a prequel, mean it’s not exactly hard to guess how Monsters University will progress which sometimes makes it hard to care.

But overall, does that really matter? Even substandard Pixar is so much better than the vast majority of animations out there, especially now it’s possible for any studio to create quick, cheap-looking computer generated cartoons easily. The amount of love and care that has gone into making this is as obvious as any of the other films. On top of that, it’s still a pretty funny film making good use of their tried-and-tested word play, visual humour and self-referential pastiche.

Monsters University is still a lot of fun to watch, and increasingly rarely in cartoons these days, a film that absolutely everybody can enjoy, here avoiding slipping into crude innuendo and knowingly nudge-and-wink territory designed to keep adults interested in films appealing only to kids. This doesn’t need that; Pixar still have that wonderful ability to make everyone feel like big kids again. It’s just disappointing when you think they can, and have done, so much better than this before. At the very least, it looks so much better than Planes, Disney’s new cash-cow tie-in to Cars. Plus Pixar’s next projected projects, The Good Dinosaur and Inside Out, both sound extremely promising.