Monsters University (2013)

Plot:

Mike, a monster in grade school has dreams of becoming a full blown scare monster and work for Monsters Inc. Unfortunately, all his friends and family tell him he is not scary at all. This does not deter him. He enrolls in Monsters University and majors in the school of scaring. During his first class, he is introduced to James Sullivan, another student who comes from a family of longtime scare monsters. The class as well as the fraternities are mesmerized with Sullivan and this only encourages Mike to outperform Sullivan. At the end of the semester exams, Sullivan and Mike get into a scare off with each other due to their rivalry and while doing so accidentally knock over Dean Hardscrabble's prized scream extractor. The Dean in retaliation kicks both Mike and Sullivan out of the program and are forced to major in extractor building. Sullivan blames Mike for getting him booted out and spends the rest of the semester glaring him down.

The next semester, Sullivan and Mike are still in the extracting program and Mike is thinking of any way to get back in the scare program and finds a flyer in his room for the annual scare games competition that puts fraternities and sororities against each other. Mike volunteers himself and the least popular fraternity to participate in the competition. Dean Hardscrabble doubts he could even win and bets Mike if he wins the competition, she would let the whole fraternity of monster rejects back in the scare program, however if Mike loses, he would leave Monsters University forever. Mike agrees and the only thing keeping him back is the fraternity is short one member to be allowed to participate. Mike in desperation looks for anybody to join the fraternity and Sullivan volunteers. The remainder of the film is centered on Mike and Sully doing all they can to get back into the scare program.

My Thoughts:

It's this movie that really made me decide to start reviewing movies when a review on the radio said that this movie lacked the human quality of Monster's Inc. in reference to the absence of of Boo from the film. But I get it. This is a prequel, Boo wouldn't be alive yet. I feel there is something in this movie for everyone with references that pokes fun at college organizations, fraternity initiations, and rivalry's that are born throughout the franchise. It also does a fantastic job explaining the tie in to how Mike and Sully eventually make it to working at Monsters Inc. and becoming best friends. The ultimate theme of the film is to never give up your dreams with the focus of that being around Mike's character. Throughout the whole film he is told to not even try and that only pushes him to work harder than the rest of his classmates. This movie has something for everyone and I feel plays true to the first film and is a perfect movie to continue the monsters franchise.

Rating:

4 Popcorns

I loved this movie. The flaw I saw from it is there were parts that felt like the film starts slowing down from the natural pace you'd expect from a Pixar film. It was around these points I found myself thinking, okay, let's move on now. Apart from that, the film does keep your attention and you find a reason to enjoy seeing these characters on the screen once again.