Monsters Univeristy

Monsters University - Spoiler Free!

Overall rating: 4.5 stars

This year's Pixar flick is a hilarious and colourful romp with a couple of our childhood heroes, enhanced by joyful characters, traditional heart and gleeful nostalgia. It brilliantly captures the verve of the original, making it the best animation of the year so far (and looking at the rest of the main animated films slated for release this year -Turbo, Cloudy 2, Planes, Frozen - it will probably stay that way!)

The Good 

I'd like to start with the amount of grafting that goes on in the creation of a Pixar film. So many people forget how much work goes into animated films, Pixar especially. You've got to think of the story, storyboard it, pitch it, design settings and characters, animate, render, add lighting and shadows, finalise story details and ensure it hits theatres on time. The ignorance of these people irritates me, so whenever I go to watch a Pixar film, I always ensure whoever I go with pays great attention to the details. This is more evident than ever in Pixar's films, this one in particularly. There are hundreds of background characters with scales, fur, shiny skin etc. Monsters University looks as amazing as you'd expect, I even saw tiny dust particles floating in the air during one scene, testimony to how much Pixar's animation has advanced in recent years. Similarly, I love the way Pixar give such great stories to their characters, including minor characters.

  Then there's the story. It's good, if not groundbreaking. Of course we know how it will end, but director Dan Scanlon takes us there in a way which I certainly didn't expect. I enjoyed the surprising depth which came in the third act, as well as the conclusion of the story line. Plenty of humour was injected too. It's not Pixar's funniest (for me that title goes to "Up") but there's plenty of things that will make you chuckle (I still laugh most of the gags, having seen it four times now). These gags suceed mostly thanks to the great characters some of which we already know: Sulley, Mike, Randall etc. and then there are new ones, which I already feel strongly attached to: Terri, Terry, SQUISHY, Art, Don, Mrs Squibbles etc. Squishy and Art are my particular favourites, but for me the funniest gag is Art standing out in the open during Mike's hiding exercise! I still laugh at the mere thought. I cannot forget to mention Helen Mirren's excllent Dean Hardscrabble, chillingly voiced and excellently designed. Finally, Randy Newman's score is excellent as always, the new tune is memorable and creative.

The Bad

The one bad thing I could pick out was that a few of the jokes fell slightly flat. I'm not sure if this was the audience (being British I don't think all of the jokes registered with the younger, foreign audience), or just the script trying too hard. The main examples were the slow slug, funny briefly but it went on too long and Art's extra toe, which was met by blank faces all round.

To Conclude

Monsters University will charm and entertain everyone, with hilarious nods to the first film and lots of fresh new jokes. You'll enjoy the antics of Mike and Sulley, maybe not quite as much as Inc., but it's gloriously Pixar anyway.

Special mention to

Saschka Unseld's The Blue Umbrella, a cute short which debuts before MU. Whilst the story isn't anything especially new, the animation is peerless (you'll believe me when you see it), the scoring is beautiful and it is an enjoyable, touching few minutes to add anyone's day.