disappointed

Rating: 2/10 (19 July 2013)

Disappointment.
Let me start by saying "Monsters Inc." was one of my favourite movies when I was younger and still stands in my top three Pixar films with "The Incredibles" and "A Bug's Life" ('COUGH' Seven Samurai 'COUGH'). So I went into this film with high expectations. I don't know why. I should'v known what to expect from a university based prequel.
Where "Monsters Inc." succeeded was where most Pixar films succeed, it's originality. "Monsters Inc." is one of the most original ideas ever conceived, a story centerd around monsters in an alternate monster universe that travel through closet door portals to the human world to scare children to generate energy for their world. It doesn't get much more original then that. And the originality stopped dead there, because the last thing this prequel has is originality.
For starters there were barely any new characters... I should rephrase, no new characters worth remembering or caring about. The only main new characters added were complete stereotypical university centred characters, the geeks and the jocks, and in their most generic forms. Oh and don't forget the overly strict administrator who (Surprise, Surprise) shows caring by the end of the film having a change of heart and doesn't seem so mean after all. And of course the stereotypical dumb/naive, easily excitable mother figure.
The most promising thing about this movie was seeing the transition for Randal. When he came into the movie (not really a spoiler he's in the trailer and it's in the first ten minutes) he's nice, so I was excited to see his transition to becoming the villain we see him as in "Monsters Inc." and let me tell you (possible spoiler ahead, jump to next paragraph if you want absolutely nothing spoiled) it was vastly disappointing. It was literally two scenes: one where he just outwardly tells Mike he wants to be popular so he can't hang with him anymore. And the next is he's in the opposing team in a competition against Mike and Sully and loses and then says "that's the last time I lose to you, Sullivan" I was heart-brokenly disappointed at this. To me it actually belittled Randal as a villain in the original because suddenly he just didn't seem that evil anymore now knowing that it all stemmed from him losing once against Sully in University and wanting to be popular. They at least could'v developed it further...more than two scenes at least.
The rest of the movie was just countless predictable plot points. It's the age old university centred movie story of rival houses having a competition (Screw it there's going to be spoilers, I'm angry and ready to rant) and of course Mike and Sully start off not being friends and what'ya know it they become friends because, common, I know you know this one... Yeahp, that's right! They discover they have to work together to succeed at things instead of trying to do it on their own and it brings them together...because we haven't seen that in a dozen Disney movies already. AND THAT'S IT! There's literally nothing more than that. The first movie was so groundbreaking and had such amazing scale and then they just took those characters, put them in university, and told a story we'v all heard plenty of times before.
It wasn't even that funny. I can remember laughing out loud once: a slug monster is late for class and starts trying to run but he just goes really slow and they pull the whole "Family Guy" joke goes on longer than expected and I admittedly laughed quite long and loud. But that's it. The rest I could recognize it was supposed to be funny but it just didn't work for me. I was probably just too disappointed to laugh.
The one redeeming thing about this movie (ULTIMATE SPOILER) is at the end they get expelled, which I didn't expect. It shows in a montage that they found their own way to work at Monsters Inc. showing that university isn't necessarily the only option, which I think is a good message to send to the young people of today (considering most are brainwashed the opposite).
But that was it. The rest of the movie was just constantly predictable and disappointing. They had such great material to work with and it's like they didn't even try. I felt like I was watching a Disney channel show that was a spin off of one of their well known movies, or like a made for TV movie. It was the equivalent of Shrek's Christmas special...only I expect something like that from Dreamworks after seeing Shrek 2...and 3...and 4. Pixar is the last group of people I would call unimaginative, and yet here I am. They should'v left it at the original if they weren't willing to do something fresh with it. I think Pixar should stick to original films and stay away from sequels/prequels. Yes, they struck gold with Toy Story 3 apparently (I'm the only person who hasn't seen it yet), but that doesn't mean everything else needs a sequel...and yes "Plains" counts as a sequel to "Cars", I don't care what you say. Actually I wouldn't mind a sequel to "The Incredibles"...okay, if you're going to make a sequel make sure it's WORTH making and you're not just making a sequel for the sake of making it with no real original exciting story to tell. I expect other movies to make sequels without putting too much thought into if they're worth making, because they know people will see them and they'll make money. But not Pixar, they were the last production company I'd expect to do that. A sequel/prequel should be able to stand on it's own, this prequel barely stands on the shoulders of the original, it wobbles at best.
I'm just so...
Disappointed.