Enjoyable enough prequel thats' not ruined by it's clichés

Rating: 6/10 (11 July 2013)

Pixar's track record of sequels is undeniably superior to that of DreamWorks, Fox or any of its other competitors. Granted, this may be because Pixar hasn't made nearly as many sequels as other studios have, but that is arguably to its credit. Both of the Toy Story (1999 and 2010) sequels were more popular than their predecessors because they successfully drove the story forward with new characters, new ideas and new settings to justify its continuation. Cars 2 (2011) also presented something new with a big switch of protagonist and genre. However much this might have alienated fans of the original, at least it wasn't a re-hash, and some who were not fans of the first movie (like myself) relished the change. However, the emotional depth, conceptual maturity and memorable characters were undeniably absent.
To some extent, these are present in Monsters University, an expansion of the beloved Monstropolis universe that is very wisely a prequel, showing how some of the key characters in Monsters, Inc. (2001) got to where they were at the beginning of the original, rather than a pointless, contrived continuation of a story that was very conclusively and gratifyingly resolved in the original film (which is the type of sequel that Finding Dory seems destined to be). The only downside to this decision is that it forces the writers to exclude the adorable Boo from the picture, but you can't have everything.
As everyone knows, University shows how Mike and Sulley (who are of course voiced again by Billy Crystal and John Goodman) met at college, where Sulley was a big, confident top-dog and Mike was a small, shy, unpopular punching bag, and how they eventually became friends. However, the setup is not actually as simplistic as it might sound. Sulley is not a jock – there are indeed cookie-cutter, muscle-bound blockheads in this movie but Sulley is not one of them – he is a naturally terrifying scare student who plans to cruise through the course on instinctive ability and the reputation of his father, who we learn was also a top scarer. Mike is picked on and neglected for his size. He is a little kid with big dreams, but he is not just a male, monster version of Madeline. He is an intelligent, diligent, hard-working student who studies tirelessly and knows all the theory behind scaring, but, as he is told by his head professor, the supposedly terrifying Dean Hardscrabble (voiced with variable believability by Helen Mirren), "what you lack simply cannot be taught. You're just not scary." As a senior high school student, hopefully soon to be a university student, I can certainly relate to Mike's frustrations about Sulley's cavalier attitude and with his own unfair physical limitations. This character conflict is as meaningful and memorably mature as the environmental theme in the original movie.
That said, this prequel has no shame in using hackneyed plot points and stereotypes. When both of our main characters are in danger of being cut from the scaring program, Mike for his lack of natural ability and Sulley for his lack of effort, the film devolves into a painfully familiar underdog story in which the two must rally together a team of nerdy, hardly scary social outcasts to somehow win the annual Scare Games and prove to the Dean that they belong in the program. These supporting characters do give us some good laughs, mostly through the loveably stereotypical mother of the youngest nerd, and sometimes even by subverting a few clichés, but even though they are at least more interesting than the jocks, we've come to expect better from a company that is always praised for its ingenious creativity and originality. Fortunately, some of the in-between teams are more inventive, namely a group of light-voiced cheerleaders that can pull out red-hot, sinister, serpentine stares on cue. There are a couple of good challenges, even though they are infused with the well-meaning but ultimately cloying moral messages of individuality and teamwork saving the day. The highlight is probably a game of capture the flag in the library with a truly terrifying and well-designed monstrous, slug-like librarian. Being a mostly physical character who is used sparingly, and voiced without the rather condescending regal refinement that Mirren's voice work brings, and which ultimately makes the character, who is fairly well-written as a discerning figure of authority, much less scary than the dramatic dialogue, camera angles and soundtrack insist that she is.
The librarian scene, and the engaging earlier classroom scenes, are second only to a genuinely thrilling climax, one that actually manages to be the highpoint of the movie, that again sees Mike and Sulley trapped on the other side of a door to the deadly and dangerous human world. The movie's academic theme might not be relatable to the younger audience, but they will certainly enjoy these thrilling action sequences as much as the adults, and, if they've done the right thing and seen the first movie before going into this one, they will appreciate the generous serves of sly references to the original film. There are many of these in the end credits montage and surrounding the returning character of Randall (again voiced by Steve Buscemi, though not quite as enthusiastically as the first time round) the innocent freshman who we see slowly being developed into a vengeful villain.
It goes without saying that the animation is top-notch – Pixar films have received all manner of theme-, character- and narrative-related criticisms, but never visual ones – and there is a low-key chase scene elongated purely for the purpose of showing off the animators' technical and creative skill, but while the rest of the film's strengths are enough to make it reasonably memorable as a prequel, they hardly warrant repeat viewings, and sometimes the references and reused musical themes from the original encourage a comparison to an engrossing animated masterwork that this affable nostalgic trip just can't withstand. Still, I'd recommend it.