Monsters University (2013) review

(7/10)

This prequel to the popular Pixar favorite was actually a pretty fun ride through the origins of the popular monsters with college humor laid throughout. However, a lot of cliches and borrowed elements were used to make this movie.

PLOT:Ever since he was little, Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) has wanted to work as a scarer at Monsters, Inc., the biggest company in their world. So, he goes to the best college in their world for the job, Monsters University. While there, he meets and rooms with a younger and much friendlier Randy Bogg (Steve Buscemi) and forms a rivalry against young Jimmy Sullivan (John Goodman), the slacker with a praised family name in scaring. They enroll in scaring class but due to their weaknesses, Dean Hardscrabble (Helen Mirren) kicks them out. Mike is devastated and Sulley's mad, but then Mike gets the idea to enter the Scare Games, the college's most famous event, and prove himself to the Dean that he can be a scarer. However, Mike must deal with Sulley's attitude and turn his loser sorority, Oozma Kappa, into a winning team. It's a good plot executed very well.



VOICES:The voice acting for the most part was about as good as the first movie. Billy Crystal, John Goodman, and Steve Buscemi all played very great and still-fitting parts of Mike, Sulley, and Randall. The new voices were really good also. Helen Mirren played a great part as the strict Dean Hardscrabble. There really wasn't a bad performance in the movie. The other shiners would be Joel Murray as Don, Sean Hayes as Terri, Dave Foley as Terry, and Charlie Day as Art.

SCORE:The score in this movie is mainly made up of borrowed score from the first Monsters movie. It's still good though, with a few new and cool themes throughout done by the great Randy Newman.

ANIMATION:The animation in this movie is very colorful and pretty detailed for the most part. The animation of the various monsters was pretty cool, especially on the freaky-looking Dean Hardscrabble.



OTHER CONTENT:This movie was a pretty good addition to the Pixar canon of movies and pretty fitting prequel to the older classic, Monsters Inc. This addition added a lot of color, college humor, unique perks, and interesting points as a Pixar movie. I loved some of the dialogue and the big climax near the end; not to mention, the movie was pretty funny by itself. I also enjoyed the references the the first movie this made. However, some of the jokes and plot elements seemed a little cliched at times and it made this seem like just another animated movie at times.

OVERALL,a good Pixar movie with a good plot, good and fitting voice acting, borrowed but good score, colorful and detailed animation, some funny moments, good dialogue and a good climax, but this seems to borrow a lot of familiar cliches and plot elements from past movies.