“As promised, backtracking to do the write up I’d previously skipped. Monsters University. Pixar prequel. The first Pixar prequel. Pixar had been pretty much unstoppable for a long time until they started doing sequels. While Toy Story 3 is among their best ever, Toy Story 2 wasn’t as great and Cars 2 was relatively abysmal. And since they started venturing in that direction, some of their quality has sort of fallen off in general (I’m still not convinced Brave was worth of Best Animated last year). But a prequel is new territory.
Monsters U was fun, but it had the typical (se/pre)quel problem of not giving us a whole lot that was new and exciting. What made Monsters Inc work was that it was a new concept. Everything about the Monsters world was fascinating. This time around, we just revisited a lot of the same. Yes, there was a different spin on it as you’re seeing it from a learning perspective as opposed to a more in practice one, but it still didn’t grab me as much as it had the first time. Admittedly, it’s been a while since I’ve seen the original, so it took me a little while to catch on to some of the winks and nods to the first.
Don’t get me wrong, it was still a fun ride. While it may have been a bit repetitive, the monsters are still a fun bunch to hang out with. I am a sucker for a games type storyline, and their revenge of the nerds plot was a fun one to watch. Best new addition: adding Nathan Fillion to voice our bad boy frat boy monster. Next best was Helen Mirren as Dean Hardscrabble. Billy Crystal and John Goodman of course milking it as always, and having a blast.
Maybe I’m having trouble thinking of more to say because it’s been a while since I saw it. Or maybe it really was that wasn’t that much that was noteworthy. Again, it’s Monsters (capital M). By this point, you already know and love them or you don’t.
Monsters University – \m/ \m/ \m/ \n