Monsters University (June 21, 2013)

This is a prequel to Monsters, Inc, confirmed in 2010 and released in theaters in 2013, over 10 years later. The animation quality is stellar- a visible improvement over the original. I love the collegiate world of monsters Pixar has created. I can relate to it more, being a current college student, than I did when I saw the movie in theaters when I was only in middle school. It feels like a real university that could exist in our world just with creatures that go bump in the night instead of human beings. The variety of those creatures is truly incredible from furry to scaley, to feather, and slimy and all beautifully rendered and keeping true to the style set by the first film. Instead of Sully, this film focuses on Mike Wazowski and his journey to become a scarer as well as the beginning of his friendship with Sully. They meet at college and start out as rivals before slowly becoming best friends. It is a simple story that honestly is not interesting for the majority of its runtime. The most interesting parts are the beginning where we first get the laydown of the campus and the end when Sully and Mike have to escape the human world. It does have a good message of defying preset expectations put upon you by society or family, but it goes about telling this in the most cliqued way. A better children’s college film from Disney would be An Extremely Goofy Movie. I honestly would have preferred this be a true sequel, exploring the changes brought on by the switch from scare power to laughter. Overall Monsters University is merely alright, failing to recapture the magic of the first film despite its charming collegiate setting and great animation.

Final Rating: 6/10