Monsters University

In one of the few instances where I watched a movie in the same year it was released, I recently saw Monsters University. Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought it was funny, and although the second half of the storyline wasn't the most creative, it was still good.

If you haven’t seen the movie yet, I will be talking in some detail about the plot and ending later on, but for now, the premise of the movie is that Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan (Sulley) are monsters aspiring to become scarers who meet at Monsters University. The scarers go into the human world to make children scream, which powers the monster world. Of course, Mike and Sulley get into trouble at college, and have to learn to get along with each other if they want to have a shot at becoming scarers.

NOTE: The next two paragraphs contain information about specific events in the movie, so skip to the last paragraph if you don’t want any spoilers. If you do dare to read on, I’ll be writing as though you've already seen the movie.

Starting from the beginning, I liked the story explaining how Mike got to Monsters University. Orientation was amusingly accurate, including the seven hundred different groups trying to get you to join. I’m not going to comment on any of the frat parties, but then again, I’ve never actually been to one. As for the Scare Games, that’s where the storyline started becoming more standard, though it was still enjoyable to see how Mike and Sulley and their team got through the challenges.

The part of the ending that I thought could have been written better was what happened after Sulley confesses to the dean that he cheated in the Scare Games. She tells him that it’s cause for expulsion, and Mike and Sulley do end up having to leave Monsters University, but they immediately go and work in the mailroom at Monsters, Inc. They then manage to work their way up to the scare floor, which was their goal in the first place. While it’s good that they had to work to get what they wanted (imagine that), the short timeframe in the movie made it feel like there wasn’t really a consequence for Sulley cheating. Because cheating is wrong. Don’t try that at home, kids. [Though the scene in the human world right before they get expelled was well done, both animation and script-wise.]

To conclude, I would recommend the movie. I didn't even fall asleep while watching it, unlike during both Iron Man and Iron Man 2, the third Transformers, and Thor, among others. [Just so you know I don’t think all superhero/action movies are terrible, I did not fall asleep during The Avengers, which I thought was pretty good.] I once read or heard that Pixar movies grew up with their original audience, the students currently in college (people around my age). They still make what can be called kids’ movies, but they started out with Toy Story, which was about kids’ toys, when we were young. Around 2005, they released movies about growing up, like Finding Nemo and The Incredibles. And now Andy, from Toy Story, has gone off to college in Toy Story 3 and Mike and Sulley have had their own college experience in Monsters University. Pixar, if you’re reading this, if you could release a movie about getting a job next, that would be great.