Official Synopsis
Ever since college-bound Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) was a little monster, he has dreamed of becoming a Scarer — and he knows better than anyone that the best Scarers come from Monsters University (MU). But during his first semester at MU, Mike’s plans are derailed when he crosses paths with hotshot James. P. Sullivan, “Sulley” (John Goodman), a natural-born Scarer. The pair’s out-of-control competitive spirit gets them both kicked out of the University’s elite Scare Program. With their dreams temporarily dashed, they realize they will have to work together, along with an odd bunch of misfit monsters, if they ever hope to make things right.
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I was very unsure of how this movie would go when it was first announced. Pixar had just tanked with Cars 2 and it just didn’t seem in their nature to keep making sequels for films that felt a bit concluded with the original movies. I didn’t put much faith in this one. How in the world could you top or at least equal one of the most coveted films in Pixar history? In my opinion, Monsters, Inc. was at least second or third place in Pixar’s all-time best film list. Why would you even want to push the envelope and possibly ruin a great first film? There were a lot of reasons NOT to do the film and just a few to go ahead with it.
Thankfully, Pixar doesn’t listen to critics and taps into their creativity instead to prove that they weren’t simply making another sequel to a hit film. Rather they were bringing an entirely new fresh take to a franchise that deserved a bit more storytelling.
Monsters University pleasantly surprised me, as Pixar decided to take a less emotional route this time with the characters, meaning no ‘Boo’ included. They took the basic formula from Revenge of the Nerds/Animal House (minus the risky material), manipulated it and applied it directly to Monsters University’s story. So, you have Scarer-aspiring underdogs attending a university they’ve always wanted to be at, struggling to survive and make a place for themselves. Along the way, they go head-to-head with the jock-head fraternity brothers on campus and end up betting all or nothing that they will win out. To keep the film going, Pixar put in a very clever set of Scarer games that guaranteed wonderful moments of humor and sincerity (sorta like this, but without the curse words — btw, that is John Goodman to the far right on the stage).
Pixar also did something that didn’t seem like a strategy from afar, and that is they made Mike the central character for this film. If you recall, Sulley was the central character in the first film, as he was the one connecting emotionally with Boo. Now Mike is the main character in Monsters University and his character is surprisingly strong thanks to the story structure that was built for him. Mike is the character that is driven to get out from under the underdog cloak that everyone casts on him. He is a relatable character to his audience and innocent enough to cheer for without much judgment from the audience. His drive and humor really do help magnify the situations presented, which makes his centrality a bit more sensible. I didn’t think he could carry a film by himself, but he does…of course, he does have help through Sulley and all the cast of wacky monster characters around them, but nonetheless he is the central character. It was a great choice by Pixar and it pays off thanks to a strong story.
Mike and story aside, I’m glad to see that Billy Crystal and John Goodman came back to reprise their roles as our two main monsters. Both seemed very much into the movie and both did a fantastic job with bringing the same level of love and humor to their respective roles. Also returning to the series was Steve Buscemi as the scummy salamander Randy (you get a nice origin story with him). New folks that headed up some new roles included Helen Mirren as Dean Hardscrabble, a winged centipede-type creature and Nathan Fillion as the jerk-jock Johnny. Other cast members included with this one were Alfred Molina, Charlie Day, Dave Foley, Sean Hayes, Joel Murray and Peter Sohn. There was a lot of talent in this film.
All of this made Monsters University fresh, fun and exciting to watch. This was the perfect way for a sequel (or prequel, if you will) to be made. Instead of going with the formula from the previous film, Pixar completely turned the characters and stories into something new to the overall franchise. This is why Monsters University works so well and this is a great reason why you should not miss it, if you haven’t seen it already.
As for the Blu-ray portion of the release, it’s perfect. Pixar has done a fantastic job with making flawless Blu-rays of its movies and Monsters University is no exception to that rule. It’s an extremely visually vibrant film that has a heavy amount of red, blue, yellow and green in it. All of the colors are magnified thanks to the HD upgrade and look absolutely superb on Blu-ray. There are no graininess, artifact or color banding issues with this release. No problems at all with compression or conversion. Simply put, it’s a perfect looking Blu-ray that belongs nicely beside all the other Pixar films that came before it.
As for the audio, you get it in 7.1 Dolby TrueHD and the aspect ratio of the film comes at you in 1.78:1.
Before we move on to special features, I have to give some kudos the animators at Pixar. They tend to up the ante with each release of their films and this time around they did a superb job on putting in finer details for their animation. The skin texture and tones have been dramatically improved from the last time we’ve seen Monsters onscreen. You get better shadows, shading and details in the environments. It’s common sense that when technology improves, so will everything else, but I just wanted to make sure that you noticed these things when you watch the film. It’s truly impressive as Pixar continues to set new standards for animated films.
Finally, here are the features you’ll be looking at with this release:
– The Blue Umbrella (short)
– Scare Tactics
– Audio Commentary
– Paths to Pixar: MU Edition
– Campus Life
– Furry Monsters
– Story School
– Deleted Scenes
– Monthropology
– Scare Games
– Set Flythroughs
– Art Gallery
– Welcome to MU
– Music Appreciation
– Promo Picks
– DVD/Digital Copy
There’s a lot here that compliment, extend and entertain well after the movie has finished. The audio commentary is brilliant, as is the short included. Everything else is darn good and just really does help extend the life of the Blu-ray.