Prequel not up to par to original film, but good enough

Rating: 7/10 (18 February 2014)

Monsters Inc. was a very innovative movie with a very original premise. Ah the golden days of Pixar! The story, the characters, everything was new and surprising.
Obviously with this prequel the newness is not there anymore; we already know the world of the monsters and some of the characters. The new ones don't really add anything to this universe but are just new variations on the old theme.
The story is relatively cliché, although things turn out a little differently than we would expect for Mike and Sully by the end of the movie. We all know what college/university movies are going to show us, and what's the story line in underdogs movies. But in this movie, I must say there's an undercurrent or realism that's pretty interesting, in the way the story deals with the transformation of its main protagonists.
The characters of Mike and Sully start off as big stereotypes, but they get more subtle as the story progresses. I also liked the way the character of the "mean teacher" was approached. There was a most welcome balance in the portrayal of a tough teacher that has ultimately good motives, if not a lot of compassion or flexibility.
All in all this movie is not a bad way to spend an evening, although I must say I much preferred the first one. But it's definitely not as bad as Cars 2 was.