Review: Monsters University
By Christine Petralia





Image courtesy of Walt Disney Studios
July 5, 2013
What a lovely little summer Pixar film. I love how Pixar really takes the time to get sequels right. You never really hear people say…’Oh Toy Story 3…yea that sucked.’ And in true fashion Monsters University is a breath of fresh air from the blockbuster, explosive films of the summer.
In this prequel to Monsters Inc. we start off with a 6-year-old Michael "Mike" Wazowski (Billy Crystal) on a field trip to Monsters Inc. Always the outside, when he can’t witness the monsters in action, he sneaks through a human world door and witnesses the monster firsthand. He is smitten and decides at the age of six that he is going to become a scarer.
Fast forward to the college years and he heads off to Monsters University where he is paired with Randall "Randy" Boggs (Steve Buscemi) as a roommate. Though he seems nice at first, Randy’s desire to be popular puts him in with the cool kids and against Mike. As a scare major, Mike is put in classes with James “Sully” Sullivan (John Goodman), the big shot on campus because of his family name. Sully doesn’t think he needs to study or learn scare tactics as it’s in his blood to be scary. While Mike studies hard to learn everything there is about scaring, in the end, the schoolmaster decides he’s just not scary. Both are kicked out of the scare program and forced to take classes, such as how to bottle scares and make doors to the human world.
Determined to become a scarer, Mike remembers the Scare Games, an Olympic-type event where fraternities and sororities compete to be the best scarers. Mike joins Oozma Kappa, the outcast frat, in order to compete, however, with one person short, Mike reluctantly lets Sully join. He makes a bet with the headmaster, if his team wins, they are all back in the scare program, if they lose, they are kicked out of MU.
Again, throw in a little twist here and there and this is a fantastic film for adults and kids alike. Crystal and Goodman are fantastic as the Mike and Sully team. And it was really fun to see how the pair met and made it to Monsters Inc. (it’s really not what you think at all!) And I really love the scene where Mike and Sully are trapped in the human world and are forced to scare adults! Something neither of them is prepared for but manage to pull off flawlessly.
If you can bear the kids kicking your seat or crying they want to go home in the middle of the film I highly recommend it. It’s probably really awesome in 3D too.
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