Here's hoping future Pixar sequels are at the very least as good as "Monsters University"

Rating: 7/10 (10 July 2013)

With last years near-unbearable Brave, the just-for-kids Cars 2 and news of the prequel to Monsters Inc. and a sequel to Finding Nemo, it seemed like Pixar had fully converted into a money printing factory. Where had the heart gone? Toy Story 3 had their best and warmest heart yet, is that the best it's gonna get? Perhaps it'll be impossible for Pixar to reach that level of emotion again given that the Toy Story franchise had 15 years of emotional investment behind it all. So much time for the idea of Andy growing up to play in our imaginations. It's hard to believe that Monsters Inc. was almost that long ago now and it probably played with our imaginations more than Toy Story did with its incredibly ambitious concept.
Actually, it's mind-boggling how the Pixar team even managed to narrow the idea down to the characters, the culture of the world and the story they ended up going with. It's impressive that the timeless team of Sulley and Mike really, really worked. But that's why the idea of Monsters University is really disappointing. The world at the end of Monsters Inc. changed forever, how can a prequel inform us any more about the characters or the world? Instead, it ends up a giant dramatic irony that the characters obsess over something the audience knows is redundant, especially that Mike wants to be something we know he won't become.
But rather than feeling like their goals are useless, it does actually end up quite entertaining to watch the characters become the ones we know and love today even if the film immediately slumps to a bar that could never touch the original. Trading Mike for Sulley as the protagonist this time around, Monsters University starts off adorably as we watch little Mike see the Scare Floor for the first time. It's wonderful as we feel the magic and wonder of seeing that concept for the first time again. It's no surprise that the film's best early merits are in the nostalgia it can easily stir.
When it finally gets into the swing of things at the University itself, it does feel quite disappointing as it gets into a by-the-numbers plot as it moves onto episodic structure of classes then crisis, then games then crisis and so on with scattered hijinks throughout. I heard the film was more funny than emotional but I found that the gags were only okay. I saw it in a theater packed with kids and the laughs were few and far between. Obviously, one of the things that played with our imagination the most as kids was creating new monsters which, obviously, Monsters University delights in doing so.Thankfully, the new characters are quite charming and although they don't necessarily have satisfying individual arcs, their use in the finals of the Scare Games was great fun.
However, with the film's easygoing nature, it really didn't prepare me for its surprise third act. When you think it's all over at the hour and a half mark, it takes a turn and then it steps into the extremes you didn't think the film was capable of where we really see Mike and Sulley become a team. With that third act, it milks the emotional investment in the characters and gives a great satisfying finale to an otherwise average film where we thought nothing could possibly happen. I guess the magic and heart wasn't lost after all, it was just buried deep in the running time and left me with a big smile on my face. Here's hoping the future Pixar sequels go the way of Monsters University at the very least.
6/10