Sullying a great movie with an unnecessary prequel

Rating: 3/10 (14 July 2016)

I really loved Monsters Inc., it had great characters, tons of laughs for both kids and adults with a lot of heart and a great score. Growing up it still stuck with me. When I saw Monsters University I felt betrayed by Pixar with a prequel that did nothing but ruin characters that I loved, introducing new, boring characters that were basically all the same, including the worst villain ever crafted by Pixar, a cheap marching band soundtrack, and barely any laughs or heart that made me love Monsters Inc.
I felt the movie was unnecessary because it was telling the story of how Mike and Sully became friends, a story I didn't really need. John Goodman and Billy Crystal's chemistry in the first movie was enough for me to believe that they were friends since the fourth grade. I didn't need a university movie, which showed an very inaccurate university. But then again how accurate can you show a university while maintaining a G rating?
This movie ruined characters I loved, one of things I loved about Sully is despite his rugged exterior he still had a heart and cared for Boo, in this movie he is turned into a stereotypical dumb jock character. What I loved about Mike was his quirkiness and his ability to make me laugh, in this movie he is a selfish, egotistical maniac. I wouldn't have minded if these characters turned into the characters we loved by the end of the movie, but they didn't. Also Randall who was slimy and charismatic, was turned into a weakling who's self-conscious and his transition to evil was so forced, that I struggled to believe that they were the same character. They got rid of characters like Boo, Celia, Mr. Waternoose and Fungus, and introduced characters like Squishy, Art, Terry and Terri, who for the most part I didn't hate but were kind of uninteresting, but Johnny Worthington and his fraternity were so one-dimensional, and the Dean was the worst villain ever crafted by Pixar. Long story short, Mike and Sully accidentally knocked over her scream can, which is why she hates them. It was her own fault, that can wasn't nailed down or protected in any way, it just sat on a pedestal. Someone would have knocked it over eventually.
Now it does have its merits, the three scenes where Mike and Sully bonded, that was the closest I came to liking this movie, it had heart and reminded me of the Sully and Mike I used to love. I did laugh at Roz's cameo in the movie. It doesn't teach kids bad lessons, unless saying you can still achieve your dreams without going to college is a bad lesson. The background animation is great for the most part, even though the character animation looked better 12 years prior. And I did like the end credits which showed each respective monster as a scare card.
In conclusion, it's not a movie that made me want to hate Pixar, but I would rather watch Cars 2 over this, because while I don't like Cars 2, it didn't disrespect the characters, it had some cool action scenes and while the villains clichés, they had real motivation. Cars 2 added something, to the Cars universe, Monsters University added nothing.