Campus Visit

Pixar has done sequels (and even a "three-quel"), but this year was the first time they took on a prequel: Monsters University. This return to the world of the excellent Monsters, Inc. follows Mike Wazowski and Sully as they get their college education in scaring. But when I wrote about Monsters, Inc., I noted that it took the character of Boo to bring the real heart and soul to the original film. Without her, how would this prequel do?

Well... not as good. But not too bad either.

The film gets off to a bit of a slow start thanks to "prequel-itis," the filmmakers' need to try to surprise us with situations that inherently can't be surprising, given our knowledge of the prior film. In this case, the conceit is that best buddies Mike and Sully were in fact (gasp!) rivals as college freshmen. There are some good jokes here and there, but overall, the movie is short on sentiment.

But eventually, Mike and Sully have to learn to work together (as expected), and let the walls between them come down. Once that happens, the movie starts to mine interesting dramatic territory. Nature versus nurture. What can be taught versus what's innate. How a team can be greater than the sum of its parts. And the comedic characters confess some very real anxieties to each other. In short, Mike and Sully as enemies -- though a novel gimmick -- simply isn't as compelling as the stories that can be told when they're friends. We saw that in the previous Monsters movie, and the same is true here.

Billy Crystal and John Goodman return to voice their characters (along with a handful of other actors from the first movie), and are once again good. But joining the cast this time out are a number of other entertaining choices. There's Hellen Mirren, Charlie Day, Dave Foley, Sean Hayes, Alfred Molina, and (most fun, if you're like me) Nathan Fillion. It's a fun cast, supported by a number of very fun character designs by the Pixar animators.

In all, I thought this movie was about par for the course for the "new age" of Pixar films. The glory days are over, where every film the studio made was solid gold (including Monsters, Inc.). But the last few have been entertaining enough. I give Monsters University a B.