A fun prequel

Rating: 8/10 (21 May 2017)

As this prequel to 'Monsters Inc.' opens Mike Wazowski, a small green monster with one giant eye, is still at elementary school; he is small and is ignored by the other monster-kids. After a school trip to Monsters Inc. he is determined to become a 'scarer'; one of the monsters who harvest scream energy by entering the human world and scaring children. To do this he studies hard to get into Monsters University. Here he crosses paths with James P. "Sully" Sullivan, a big monster from a long line of scarers the immediately don't get along. Their animosity escalates and it isn't long before they annoy the dean and are kicked off the scarer's course. Mike can only think of one way to resolve this; he will enter the 'Scare Games' this requires him to join a fraternity and be part of a team of six. He joins Oozma Kappa, the 'loser' house and even then they need one more person Sully. With his team sorted he has a bet with the dean; if Oozma Kappa wins they can join the scarer class but if they fail to come first he will be expelled. They progress surprisingly well but ultimately they will have to face the scare simulator and even though Mike knows all the theory about scaring children he just isn't naturally scary.
This is a fun prequel to 'Monsters Inc.'; if you haven't already watched that I'd recommend watching this one first so you don't know how it will ultimately end up. Even if you have seen the original film it doesn't spoil this too much I'm sure most people will guess how it ends; it is a matter of how our protagonists get to that ending. The story contains lots of fun elements and entertaining characters. The protagonists develop nicely as the film progresses; this is especially true of Sully as he progresses from being a lazy and fairly arrogant character to a likable one who has learnt many lessons during the film; not all of them in the classroom. The 'Scare Games' are rather fun and provide plenty of laughs as well as some surprises as the way Oozma Kappa progresses isn't entirely obvious the 'library test' is the most obvious example. There are some obvious morals to the film; most obviously that those who cheat are punished but that redemption can be found though hard work. As one would expect from Pixar the animation and character designs are great. The voice cast, which includes many well-known actors, does a fine job of bringing the animated monsters to life as real characters. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of other Pixar fans, young and old alike, even though it isn't quite as good as the original to my mind