Monsters' University Review

For fans left underwhelmed by 2012's Cars 2, Disney Pixar's new prequel Monsters' University needs to deliver. Our verdict on the matter...
Dealing with animated movies in 2013 is a very different situation to what it would have been just a few short years ago. In 2010, genre fans would only likely have taken notice of the superb Toy Story 3, the surprisingly decent Despicable Me and DreamWorks' visually sublime How To Train Your Dragon. Now, the playing field has increased by threefold, with new animated outings littered across the various months of the year.

With all of that in mind, Disney Pixar's Monsters' University finds itself in a substantially contrasting position to where its predecessor stood twelve years before. Indeed, when Monster's Inc. landed on our screens in 2001, Pixar were pretty much the predominant animation studio for big-screen outings, albeit until a certain DreamWorks fantasy motion picture starring Mike Myers arrived later that year. With Cars 2 having failed spectacularly to live up to sequel expectations laid down by Toy Story 3 (5/5), this reviewer is not ashamed to admit that their expectations for this prequel adventure were not high whatsoever.

At the same time, this reviewer is equally unashamed to confirm that they could not have been more incorrect in their trepidation. Out of nowhere, Pixar have bounced back with a gorgeous rendition of college life that retains virtually all of the charm of its spiritual successor. There's plenty of light-hearted comedy flowing through the veins of the piece, eclipsing most gags witnessed in raunchier and more violent gigs like The Internship and The World's End simply by catering to a wider audience who won't be so easily humoured by sex and violence-riffing laughs. It's peculiar how one of the Oozma Kappa fraternity's mothers switching on heavy metal music as her children head off on a nighttime excursion can inspire such unrestrained hilarity as it does, yet viewers of all ages and demographics are likely to find this just as entertaining as any explicit gag of recent mediocre comedy flicks, if not moreso.

Particularly, though, it's the heightened emphasis on Billy Crystal's one-eyed protagonist Mike which inspires such a sense of charm and heart in this accomplished motion picture. In Monster's Inc., Sully's second-in-command was often reduced to a role on the sidelines in favour of further emphasis on the paternal relationship forming between Sully and Boo, and as if to compensate, this time around Pixar's screenplay artists have increased the character's role dramatically. Mike serves as the viewer's conduit of empathy into a purely fantasy world, representing the little guy in every sense of the term, while equally never portrayed by Crystal in an irksomely over-sympathetic manner. John Goodman adds further layers to his portrayal of James P. Sullivan too, but this is undoubtedly Crystal's show and remains all the better for it.

Unlike so many of this Summer of Film's entries which have suffered from a reliance on nostalgia for a series' past, again Pixar have succeeded in ensuring that this instalment works on multiple levels of appeal. For those viewers uninitiated to Sully and Mike's antics in the 2001 'sequel', there's likely going to be no complaints that this chronological predecessor leaves anything to be desired in terms of accessibility. However, those viewers who are avid or even mild fans of one of Pixar's defining animations can rest assured that there are plenty of references and cameos here that will warrant a myriad of repeat viewings. Perhaps no other motion picture released in 2013 has revelled so effectively in its franchise's past as the animation studio have here, yet another cog in this glorious engine that runs virtually without fault.

It's become increasingly apparent to this reviewer that in a Summer filled with strong yet flawed blockbusters, at this stage of our review, a notable shortcoming will usually have to be addressed in order to justify an eventual 4* score. Mercifully, though, at this late stage Pixar have again begged to differ, the script's only real flaws coming in the inevitable sense of deja vu that comes with dealing with the much-vaunted college narrative. For the most part, writers Daniel Geirson, Robert L. Baird and Dan Scanlon avoid the pitfalls of narrative and comic tropes that have caused the demise of many a comedy movie, but it would have been near impossible to completely bypass a vague air of familiarity in proceedings. What's most important, of course, is that this familiarity is so often used to the advantage of the screenplay and thus the overall product.

Here, then, it's an unexpected yet immensely satisfying pleasure to recommend this inspired piece of cinema wholeheartedly. Whether or not the likes of Cars 2, Ice Age: Continental Drift and Despicable Me 2 have proved lacklustre recently in your opinion, this reviewer can virtually often a guarantee that disappointment will be the opposite of your final reaction here. Despite not necessarily manipulating and expanding its genre so much as this year's only 5* film so far, Les Miserables, did in January, Monsters' University is nevertheless one of this Summer's greatest blockbusters and an undisputed must-see for fans of Monster's Inc., Disney Pixar or indeed of the film industry as a whole.
4.5/5