** SPOILER REVIEW: if you haven’t watched this movie already…
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“Before they were incorporated, they had to be educated.” This being the tagline of the movie, it sets the stage of “Monsters University,” the prequel to the iconic Pixar movie “Monsters Inc.” It was released 12 years after the premiere of the original film (2001) and fun fact: MU is the very first Pixar prequel!
In the spirit of Monster Monday, this movie deserves a review, despite the fact that it’s been around for seven years.
The audience sees how Michael “Mike” Wazowski (voiced by Billy Crystal) and James P. Sullivan “Sulley” (voiced by John Goodman) met via the prestigious Scaring Program at Monsters University. Obviously, you can’t expect them to become friends immediately. Mike is a small monster who wasn’t deemed as scary since he was little. On the other hand, Sulley is carrying on a family legacy and has high expectations placed upon him.
Although I never watched the entirety of “Monsters Inc.”, I feel that this is a good backstory to the original film. Since it’s set in a university, you have to include some aspects of human college life, but mix it up a little bit to apply to monsters. There’s your typical orientation, specialized classes that apply to your major/minor, and a school song. To give it that monster flair, you have to include some type of school for all future scarers of Monstropolis, where the university’s located. To add on to that, there should be students with peculiar features - they are able to use their uniquenesses to their advantage. This is especially important for monsters that want to get into institutions like Monsters Inc. Aspects of the actual movie aside, the details put into making the campus come to life are amazing! Even if we are humans, we get to be part of the MU experience. If you ever tried to imagine yourself as a MU student when you were little, chances are you are not alone.
The first semester of Mike and Sulley’s freshman year goes by quickly. After the latter’s initiation into Roar Omega Roar (ROR), the most elite fraternity on campus, as their newest member, the viewer gets a montage. Mike answers all of the questions correctly during class, while Sulley is falling behind due to his mindset of only having a natural ability to scare. He doesn’t understand that you actually have to learn various techniques of scaring in order to succeed in different situations in a child’s bedroom. This gets him to the point where he got a C- on a test (while Mike gets an A+), and the members of ROR threaten to kick him out. During this montage, the rivalry between the two monsters only intensifies, even when working out at the fitness center.
I did like how the movie was trying to summarize everything up to the semester’s end, but personally, it was a bit shallow. More performance scenes during Scaring 101 could help enhance their rivalry. Although Randy Boggs, Mike’s former roommate, has developed antagonistically based on the original movie, we could’ve had the chance to see his progress or his eventual downfall. Either way, all of these moments lead up to the climax of the movie - finals.
This was the part I would most likely skip because I didn’t want to see the moment Dean Hardscrabble, the dean of the Scaring School, kick Mike and Sulley out of the program for causing chaos in the classroom. The immediate aftermath of the incident was rather interesting. The two monsters went from being part of a top major to canister design in a small classroom.
This minor period of apathy leads up to the second climax of the movie - the Scare Games, created by Dean Hardscrabble. I would be lying if I said that this competition between fraternities and sororities isn’t my favorite part of the movie. You keep thinking to yourself, “Who are the best scarers on campus?” The adrenaline rush when anticipating if Oozma Kappa, Mike and Sulley’s fraternity full of misfits, will continue on in the games is inevitable. The viewer may start to lose hope for them, but when they come out of each competition as a close second, it feels relieving. The monsters’ unique abilities, in addition to practice (pictured above), help save themselves from elimination. This proves that looks can be deceiving - a small or wacky monster can pull off a pretty powerful scare. With these scenes, you get a sense of how much of a bully the members of ROR are.
After the final competition of the games, there’s this one scene that leads up to the biggest scare in the movie. The two monsters end up in a real-world situation where they have to actually scare in order to return to the university. A close second to the games, this is where the real intensity for the audience happens. What I enjoyed about that scene is its unpredictability. You never know if Mike and Sulley will make it out of the camp alive. Will they end up making the children laugh or scared for life? What if they have to face major consequences from the university president once they return? Will they get killed by the rangers? With all these questions in mind, you’ll just have to watch to find out.
Overall, “Monsters University” is a great movie! I can’t give it an exact number rating, but I can guarantee that if you loved the original, you’ll love this prequel. Finally, for the first day of the first virtual spirit week of the school year, are you Team Mike or Team Sulley? To close off my first article for Wolfprints, “MU RULES!! BEAT FEAR TECH!!”
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