MONSTERS UNIVERSITY MOVIE REVIEW

 

Monsters University is a animated children's comedy film brought to you from Pixar, who are arguably most famous for the Toy Story trilogy. This film is a prequel to the highly successful Monsters Inc.

 

For those who have seen the original film, like myself, it was a huge box office success and in my opinion one of Pixar's best animated presentations. The two main characters in that film were Mike Wazowski {voiced by Billy Crystal} and Sully {voiced by John Goodman} and I remember really enjoying the original a lot so going into this prequel I had my doubts it could live up to the previous film. The film's main plot {no major spoilers} follows Mike and Sully again, but as kids, and not instantly friends either. Mike first visits Monsters Inc., a scare company on the fictional area on Monstropolis, on a school trip as an impressionable 6 year old. after meeting some of the senior scare majors, he is instantly fascinated and strives for the next 11 years to become a student at Monsters University. Fast forward those years and Mike has made it to Monsters University as a freshman. He quickly meets his new roommate Randy Boggs, a chameleon type creature who is all brains, but has no scare factor whatsoever. Mike eagerly awaits his first day on the programme and believes with his superior knowledge he can become a scare major in no time. Upon his first day, he and his class, whilst answering scare related questions, are interrupted by a loud and terrifying roar from Sully {James P. Sullivan to be exact}. His father was a major at Monsters U so he is a legacy child, and with that his arrogance becomes clear that he doesn't need smarts to get by as he can be scary without really trying.

 

Also during the class, they are introduced to the very strict {and also strange looking} dean of the university, Abigail Hardscrabble. She informs the new students that she will only tolerate and accept the very best scares in her programme, and the weakest will be kicked out if they fail to pass the upcoming test in a week's time.

 

Mike fails as he is too busy concentrating on his knowledge of scaring instead of balancing that along with the physical side of things. Whilst Sully fails due to the opposite, he doesn't possess the knowledge of scariness to progress, Their futures at Monsters U appear over, until they discover a competition called The Scare Games, a series of challenges designed so the winners will become the top monsters in the campus and evidently will be top of Hardscrabble's class. There are a number of typical groups in this scare games, there's the :jocks:, the cheerleaders, the "emo" students ', and then there's Mike and Sully's group of nerdy misfits. Whilst they still don't get along, Mike and Sully, along with their oddball group, must win the scare games and win a place back in the university.

 

I will stop the review of the plot there as I don't want to spoil anymore of the film, never the less this film I s very entertaining! Fans of the original Monsters Inc. film will enjoy this entry to the series. Is it a children's film? Yes of course but it's not without its comedy element that will appeal to kids and adults alike. The plot goes exactly where you think it will go, however I was still interested in it and enjoyed watching it unfold. Mike and Sully aren't just the only characters you will enjoy. Their oddball group of the least scary looking monsters ever assembled each have their own moments that make you laugh, and even though Abigail Hardscrabble isn't exactly friendly, I enjoyed her part in the film and she was voiced by Helen Mirren.

 

Pixar's animations, for me, have always been stunning to look at and this film is no exception. The attention to detail is fantastic. There are a couple of references back to the original film, they felt a little forced in at times but it was nice to see these elements mentioned.

 

I found myself enjoying the film and when it seems to have a ending, it then carries on for a good half hour longer and I felt that made the film more entertaining as the ending I thought was going to happen would have been too "cute" and predictable.

 

I would recommend Monsters University to people who not only have kids, but people who just enjoy good animated films.

 

My Rating - 7/10

 

Positives - Great animations, funny, fun for people of all ages

 

Negatives - Not as good as the original, references to the original felt forced at times, story was extremely predictable.

 

Thanks for reading this review everyone it means a lot to me. Hope to have more regular additions coming soon. If you like this review feel free to share this link on any other blog page{s}, +1 this on Google plus, share it, follow me on Twitter @MARRAMD, leave a comment below, let me know what you thought of the film!

 

Question of the day - What is your favourite Pixar/Disney film? Mine is Toy Story 1 :}

 

Take care :]