"Monsters University" earns high marks

Rating: 8/10 (6 February 2015)

If you don't have kids or your kids are no longer young children, you are spared having to sit through an endless parade of animated entertainment with varying degrees of actual entertainment value. But sometimes, there's a so-called "kids' movie" that you want to see just for yourself.
"Monsters University", is a prequel to the 2001 hit "Monsters Inc." and shows us how Mike and Sully first met and takes us down the long and winding path to them truly becoming friends. In the original, it's immediately clear how different Mike and Sully are, but meeting them as college students accentuates those differences. In this film, Mike is studious and determined, while Sully is content to rely on his natural scariness and his family legacy to get through the training to become the scarers that we know they eventually become.
Since we know how the story turns out, keeping us interested along the way is a challenge. but it's a challenge well met. As the future best friends each struggle to overcome their limitations and get through their university program, we see a fun and funny portrayal of college life, monster-style. The movie ends up becoming an animated version of "Revenge of the Nerds", but the climactic scene is especially well done. Add to all that the superior animation (which is enhanced by a pair of 3-D glasses) and the excellent voice work led by returning stars Billy Crystal and John Goodman and "Monsters University" graduates with honors. I give it an "A-".