Monsters University Review

I went to Redbox seeking Wreck-it Ralph, but since it was out of stock, I settled for another family friendly film, Monsters University.  As far as settling goes, it wasn't a bad choice at all. It had all the cuteness of the original, plus the bonus points for getting to see Mike and Sully's origin story and their friendship develop. I really enjoyed the fact that while Monsters Inc. was primarily Sully's story, this prequel was mostly about Mike and his quest to become one of the revered scarers of Monsters Incorporated by getting through the Scarer's program at Monsters University.  

The film shows the two going through their freshman year together -- Sully as a lazy student getting by on his family name, and Mike who has to work three times as hard because of his small stature and generally unscary appearance. The two are enemies until they're thrown together in a scaring competition, which they must win in order to remain not only in the scaring program, but at Monsters University altogether. It's really fun to watch it all play out in a monster school setting, and probably especially so for those that grew up with Monsters Inc. and are therefore college-aged now.  This is in the same way that Toy Story 3 appealed to those that grew up with the franchise by showing Andy heading off to college. It's a really nice touch for recent Pixar films.

Another nice touch was the college website tie-in, which was released even before the movie.  It has the style of a real college website, complete with pages about admission, campus life, and academics. Here's a link to check it out for a little fun: http://monstersuniversity.com/edu/index.html

I really enjoyed this movie, and immediately went back to watch Monsters Inc. to see again what became of Mike and Sully. Overall, a really solid family film.