Pixar are in a league of their own; time and again they’ve produced magically colourful, atmospheric and immersive movies that are exquisitely crafted both in terms of animation and story. Even their lesser entries like Cars make the output of other animation studios (*cough* Dreamworks Animation *cough*) look cheap and shallow. Whether it be toys, insects, cars, vermin or the Scottish they’ve managed to breathe life and magic into the mundane.
The Pixar logo on a film poster is a promise of good times and the news of a new Pixar film is always cause for excitement as we get to see what they’ll be bringing to life this time, so it was a little disappointing to hear that they would be repeating themselves with a prequel to 2001’s Monsters Inc. Putting aside the fact that the Toy Story trilogy is perhaps the most perfect trilogy in the history of not just animation but cinema, Pixar’s only other direct follow-up was Cars 2, which is easily their worst movie. It would be a real shame to see them descend into the habit of playing it safe and releasing an endless cycle of increasingly rubbish sequels to their own successes like certain other animation studios (*cough* Dreamworks again *cough*).
Fortunately it turns out that Monsters University is still top quality Pixar and feels original despite taking place in a universe they’ve visited before. This world is peopled by characters who are all sorts of monstrous in appearance but entirely human in their personalities, hopes and dreams. Most of the monsters’ dream of becoming “scarers who, by means of magic doors, visit the bedrooms of sleeping children in order to terrify them and harvest their screams, which are used as a power source, but in reality the monsters are absolutely terrified of kids, who they believe to be deadly toxic. It’s a brilliant concept that manages to simultaneously tap into kid’s worst fears and take the terror out of them and so it’s no surprise that Pixar wanted to revisit it.
But while Monsters Inc took place on the factory floor, where scarer James P. Sullivan (John Goodman) clocked in to work, ably assisted by his best friend Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) ,Monsters University takes place years before when a teenage James and Mike meet at the eponymous education establishment and become bitter rivals. The university is run by Dean Hardscrabble (Helen Mirren), who is unique among the monsters in that she’s scary all the time, not just when harvesting screams. Jim and Mike’s destructive rivalry leads to the Dean throwing them off the esteemed Scarer course and their dreams of becoming world-class scarers are destroyed. Unless of course they can work together to coach the misfits who make up the Oozma Kappa fraternity to win the university’s annual Scare Games. Will the pair find out they have more in common than they thought and become the best of friends?
Well, yes we know that they will. As with all prequels, the one thing Monsters University doesn’t really have going for it is unpredictability. If you’ve seen Monsters Inc you know exactly how this is all going to turn out and there aren’t many surprises along the way. But it’s still got characters you care about and is an absolute hoot from start to finish; the film is fit to burst with clever one-liners and visual gags. In the grand Pixar tradition most of the jokes will appeal to kids but there are plenty that will fly right over their heads but keep the adults in the audience entertained. The film probably has greater resonance in America to viewers who are familiar with the whole Fraternity House system, which seems pretty bizarre to British eyes even without the monsters. But if you’ve seen Animal House than you’ll catch a lot of the references, and you really should have seen Animal House.
Goodman and Crystal are both completely comfortable with the characters and spark off each other just as they did in the original. Although their voice performances don’t seem to making any particular effort to come across as younger (they leave that to the brilliantly subtle differences in the character design) they’re convincing as a pair of teenage monsters. One of the films only missteps is in tacking on an unnecessary back-story for the reptilian villain of the original, Randy Boggs (Steve Buscemi). He doesn’t get enough screen-time to make his sudden turn to the villainous have any kind of significance.
It’s not clear if Pixar are planning a third entry in the Monsters series (Monsters Retirement Home maybe?) or if we’ll have to wait another 12 years for it. But if they do and they manage to make it of the same quality as Monsters Inc and Monsters University then Toy Story may have a rival for greatest animated trilogy of all time.
Overall Verdict: It will probably be remembered as a minor entry in the Pixar canon but it’s still wildly fun and funny and stands up against the studio’s finest.
Reviewer: Adam Pidgeon