Good

Rating: Null/10 (15 September 2016)

Just saw this at an advance screening. I had very low expectations to be honest because I really didn't see how they could have made a second Monster's Inc movie.
But it wasn't bad at all. It definitely isn't as good as the first but Pixar has proved time and time again that they know how to play with our emotions and make us relate to these weird looking characters. And this was no different. First of all I was surprised to see that this was pretty much Mike's story and not equally centered on both Mike and Sully. I liked this since the first was more about Sully and Boo. I also liked how they didn't play too much on the college movie stereotype. I mean there are a lot of predictable moments but again the writing and emotions are spot on.
My biggest gripe would probably be the fact that since this is a prequel we know how everything sorta turns out. So when they win the Scare Games I knew something was gonna go wrong because Mike isn't a scarer in the first movie. Also the absence of a character like Boo is definitely noticeable, especially since she was such a big part of what made the first movie so great. I guess since this one is more of Mike's personal story this isn't really a big deal though.
I wasn't sure what to expect going in, but I was really blown away by this film. It was enjoyable from start to finish: there were so many creative moments and characters, the Monsters world was wonderfully rendered, the pacing was spot-on, the narrative was unusual for an animated movie, and to top it all off it was absolutely hilarious the whole way through. To me, it felt more like a fairly authentic slice of life rather than your typical college flick. These were not 1-dimensional caricatures by any stretch. (See: Sully being a jock and a frat boy the whole way through, as well as Randall's slow transformation from nerdy kid to utter douche.) There were also some great Bay Area moments, like the Oakland cranes and bits and pieces of the Cal campus.
I'm gonna have to disagree with the critics on this one: Monsters University ranks among Pixar's better movies.