Pixar prequel follows Mike and Sulley to college
A good time and a good lesson are found in Pixar’s latest production, “Monsters University,” featuring familiar favorites Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) and James P. Sullivan, (John Goodman) but this time, they are not at all the best of friends. Not at first, at least.
The story opens with adorable baby Mike on a field trip to Monsters, Inc. Being the little guy, he has a hard time seeing what’s going on around him, and an even harder time from his unfriendly classmates that laugh at him for being so tiny. However, this does not deter him from dreaming of being a top “scarer” when he grows up.
Fast forward several years, and you find him hopping off the bus for his first day at Monsters University. He is a scare student, hoping to be trained as one of the few elite to help power the city of Monstropolis. His roommate, Randy, voiced by Steve Buscemi, (aka Randall of “Monsters, Inc.” infamy) is also a scare student.
Mike soon finds out that becoming a scarer will be tons of work, and everyone around him is still doubtful of his success because he is a tiny walking eyeball. Sulley comes into the story confident about becoming a scarer, riding on the coattails of his famous father’s successes and goofing off in hopes of joining the scariest fraternity on campus
Mike and Sulley are at odds with each other from the beginning, but a stroke of misfortune finds them either working together or getting kicked out of college. In a competition to prove themselves part of the scariest fraternity on campus the two combine with a nerdy and unlikely group to form a team of scary monsters. Even as they work together they have their issues, as Mike is the brains and Sulley is pure brawn, with both thinking that they know exactly what to do to win.
And of course, since it is a Pixar movie, Mike and Sulley achieve their goal. Not without some hard-fought battles and personal hurdles, though. Monsters University teaches kids about never giving up and staying positive, but also how personal limitations and bad luck can take your dreams and ambitions down a notch. Maybe little kids won’t catch that last part, but for the older audiences that awaited this movie for over ten years, it gives it a little more meat but still maintains the Monstropolis we know and love. Although the monsters backdrop is recycled (and of course it is, it’s a prequel) this movie still packs a comical and lesson-driven punch.