Hilarity: An adult affair

Rating: 7/10 (6 September 2013)

Having been a massive fan of the original Monsters' Inc. I must say this prequel worried me slightly. Even though i have a lot of love for Pixar and the joy they bring with their brilliant and ground breaking original stories (Cars and Cars 2 aside). Prequels and sequels in cinema generally worry me. This is due to the common trend within the movie industry, especially at the moment, to play it safe and take an already popular movie and exploit our love of the characters and story-line with second-rate sequels and prequels. Ensuring the masses relinquish their cash due to these nostalgic/fan emotions instead of relying on great actors and clever, well-thought out story lines. This has lead to movies being churned out which are undeniably not terrible but at the same time would not grace my home collection.
However I found this movie to be extremely entertaining and thankfully Pixar achieved here what they did with the Toy Story series. I will admit I thought the start was slow but once it picked up pace it continued with it and kept my sides warmed throughout. If you are a fan of the Spongebob/Family guy humour you would not be disappointed with this movie, at the same time you will probably not be disappointed if you are not also.
Nevertheless I would have to point out that though I thought this movie was very funny i could not recommend it to younger viewers. I thought the combination of the setting, the type of humour and the characters (there are a lot of university archetypes thrown around) meant that it was wholly a more young adult experience. In fact i would consider it more like Spongebob Squarepants where kids watch it but do not quite fully understand all the jokes. This is reflected within my score for the movie. I understand that children's movies do have to strike a balance to keep all ages entertained, but i would argue that this movie was definitely for an older audience. Although Pixar has created something extremely enjoyable once again I think it masquerades too much as a child friendly movie and you would definitely be better off taking your children to a different movie.
All in all Monsters' University is a must see if, like me, you watched the first one as a child and are at university or are going sometime soon. For the family of all ages I think you may want to consider an alternative in order to ensure your little ones aren't too bored.