Monsters University

Having really enjoyed Monsters Inc when I was younger, I was pleasantly surprised when I heard that there was going to be a prequel released.

It was interesting to see how all the characters had met and what their friendships were like in the earlier days. The film has a good simple plot and is perfect for the whole family to enjoy as there is also some funny parts as well as heartwarming moments. It was great that Mike and Sulley (the two main characters) had the same voice-overs as the original film, this made it feel more authentic.

Overall I really enjoyed this film, but then who doesn't love a good Disney Pixar film?

8/10

When Mike Wazowski is young, he visits the Monsters University in a tour of his primary school. A senior student gives his hat to Mike and he plans to become a scary monster.

Years later, Mike joins the Monsters University and on the arrival, he receives a flier of the Scare Games that will take place soon in the campus. Mike also befriends his roommate Randall. When the lazy student James P. "Sully" Sullivan, who belongs to a family of famous "scarers", breaks in his room, they start a competition in class. Their dispute ends when they accidentally break the pride and of joy of Dean Abigail Hardscrabble, a cylinder with her greatest achievement – a powerful scream of a boy. They both are expelled from the scare classes by Hardscrambble that tells that Sully is lazy and Mike is not scary, and they become enemies.

When Mike recalls the Scare Games, he sees his only chance to return to the scare course. He makes the application to participate, but he learns that he needs a fraternity. Mike joins the Oozma Kappa that is the only fraternity available with four losers, but he is informed that the fraternity needs to have six members. Sully offers to complete the team and Mike has no other alternative but accept Sully in his team. Then he bets with Hardscrambble that if he wins the games, she will accept them in the scare classes. Soon the game begins...

"Monsters University" is a pleasant story of friendship and a prequel of "Monsters Inc.". The plot is based on the American college life and despite the lack of any identification with my country, with fraternities and silly parties of American college students, the plot is funny and entertaining. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Universidade Monstros" ("Monsters University")

Monsters University is the prequel to Monsters inc., a wildly popular animation by Pixar. It's basically a college movie set in the monster world, but with a nice deviation from the standard.

The good. Still the same incredibly interesting world with all its colors, fantastic creatures, and quirks. Interesting story, especially for the twist. Great animation, as usual. Easily enjoyable by adults. Perfect ending. Excellent voice acting.

The bad. Lots of college movie, underdogs, and jocks versus nerds clichés.

The ugly. Nothing.

The result. If you liked the first one, you'll like this one too.

The cruddy trailer hardly filled me with hope for this belated prequel to Monsters, Inc., and the relatively laugh-free first thirty minutes did little to change my mind; however, once Mike and Sully and their Oozma Kappa fraternity brothers enter the Scare Games, the film really picks up and the laughs start to come thick and fast. By the time the end credits were rolling, Monsters University had given me lots of giggles and even a few genuine belly laughs and I'd completely altered my opinion: the oft-used 'under-dogs do good' plot may not be as fresh as the original, but overall I reckon the film is well worth watching.

Some of the best moments are clever one-liners and subtle fleeting visual gags which could go unseen, or over the head of younger viewers, but that gives the film repeat value; I hope to catch even more funny stuff the second time around after I proudly add the DVD to my Pixar collection.

A very respectable 8/10 (If there had been more funny moments in the first half-an-hour or so, this would have been right up there with Pixar's finest).

Monsters University: the prequel that no one asked for, but everyone will watch. It would appear that Pixar has recently run out of original ideas and has resorted to making sequels and prequels of older more successful movies (Cars 2, Planes, Monsters U and Finding Dory). That being said, the film was actually pretty decent and was rather watchable and enjoyable. The film had multiple unexpected twists, which avoided having an all too predictable ending. It also explained many of the features of its sequel, like Randall's rivalry with Mike and Sully and the Abominable Snowman.

Reviving the voice talents of Billy Crystal, John Goodman and Steve Buscemi and adding Helen Mirren and Charlie Day, amongst others, this film stayed within the universe that the original movie had created, however in comparison failed to live up to its predecessor's greatness.