A worthy prequel to a modern classic

Rating: 7/10 (17 October 2013)

I'll be the first to admit the utter disappointment I've had in Pixar's latest works, 'Cars 2' plunging particularly low into the bowels of mediocrity (I'd even say it was plain bad) and 'Brave' being decent yet uninspired. The real "Pixar magic" were nowhere to be seen since the masterful 'Toy Story 3'. Well, I'm very pleased to say that they managed to do something fresh, something zesty, something borderline magical with this prequel to their very beloved "Monsters Inc."
Don't get me wrong, it isn't without flaws, as so many movies rarely are, and it might not be fresh in the sense of never having been done before, but the high school setting works surprisingly well with this universe. It opens up a lot of creativity when it comes to characters (most of them only appearing for seconds as a small gag). Some work, some don't, but it is quite evident that the team at Pixar had a blast coming up with every single one of them. Well-established characters from the first movie get padded out even further, and reasons for the actions in the first movie are (unnecessarily, yet cleverly) padded out as well.
The most (surprisingly) noteworthy positive is the incredible soundtrack. The lively horn-instruments delivering catchy tunes and giving that campus-feel is truly great and adds a lot to every scene it graces. Trust me when I say you will not want to leave the credits because of the soundtrack alone.
All in all I'm feeling positive about Pixar again. They're getting back on the right track, although I feel like they ought to put the sequels to rest. If you are a fan of the original Monsters Inc. I would definitely recommend this feature film.