Builds up to the Screaming Genius of Monsters, Inc.

Rating: 8/10 (16 July 2013)

8.2 of 10. Monsters, Inc. is perfect, so I can understand why it took 12 years for a sequel (in this case, a prequel). It ties in seamlessly with the original, even helping explain and give context to parts of the original, including the characters. For those who haven't seen the first, I can understand why this would seem near genius too. For those of us who have, however, it's very satisfying, just not a masterpiece.
Part of this has to do with timing. The first film was released in November just after Halloween. This would have fit better being released near that time of year too.
The character voices are too old. Goodman would have been better as the father in The Croods (2013) and Crystal as maybe a teacher in this just for the sake of giving hardcore fans something to play with. They are monsters, so their is some room to play, but given they have kid monsters with kid voices, it would make more sense to give them more teen/college-like voices along with more slang.
As for the animation, outside of a momentary quirk where it seemed like Sully was a human wearing a monster suit, it's as good as cartoon animation gets. Whereas the soundtrack added to the first, the soundtrack in MU is transparent, neither adding nor subtracting from the film.
Maybe most importantly, this prequel will not ruin or even take away from the original. Watch and enjoy in whatever order you like.