"Monsters University" Makes Good

Maybe I was feeling sorry for PIXAR after hearing about the delays with the troubled "The Good Dinosaur" feature, their Canadian campus closure, or the latest round of snarky complaints about how they sold out after the Disney merger. Maybe it was because none of the other animated films this year have been quite as good as I felt they could have been. But for whatever reason, I found myself really impressed with "Monsters University." I had been cool toward the first film, and wasn't expecting much out of the prequel, but this was really a very solid and entertaining PIXAR movie.

This time out, Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) is really the star of the show, who makes a fateful visit to Monsters Inc one day as a little monster, and becomes enamored with the idea of growing up to be a Scarer, one of the monsters who travels into kids' bedrooms at night to collect the energy generated by their screams. An ace student, he gets into the top school for Scarers, Monsters University. But though Mike is dedicated, he's simply not as intimidating as monsters with natural talent for scariness, like an infuriating slacker named Sully (John Goodman). Mike and Sully are rivals at first, but when they're kicked out of the Scaring Program by the harsh Dean Hardscrabble (Helen Mirren), their only way back in is to lead a team of misfit monsters to victory in the Scare Games, the campus's version of the Greek Games.

There are lots of new characters, the most prominent of which are the other members of the Oozma Kappa fraternity that Mike and Sully find themselves having to join in order to qualify to compete in the Scare Games. There's middle-aged former salesman Don (Joel Murray), two-headed Terri and Terry (Sean Hayes, Dave Foley), eager beaver Squishy (Peter Sohn), and Art (Charlie Day), who is a little out there and who resembles a colorful dust rag I once knew. Much of the film is taken up with getting them all trained up and ready to compete. The Oozma Kappas' chief rivals are the Roar Omega Roar frat of bigger and more aggressive monsters, lead by Johnny J. Worthington III (Nathan Fillion). Oh, and remember Randall (Steve Buscemi), the chameleon villain from the first movie? He's in this movie too, but I won't give away in what capacity.

I don't tend to get along with college frat house comedies, but "Monsters University" really only borrows the basic template of one to tell its story. There's no raunchy humor to speak of, and little material could be viewed as objectionable to small children. However, there's a good, solid story underneath, one that actually gets across some good ideas and messages to its intended audience. Mike's dream is to be a Scarer, but his physical limitations put that goal out of his reach. And the movie doesn't magically find some way for Mike to overcome those limitations or get around them. A big part of the movie is about Mike accepting who he is and Sully helping him get there. The friendship that develops between the two has its ups and downs and silly contrivances, but at the end of the day it's honest and genuine and heartwarming in the best way possible.

Or your could just watch the movie for the gorgeous CGI graphics, which present hundreds of different monsters, big and small, and a scenic campus full of monster-y flourishes, that seems to have borrowed bits of architecture from a dozen different real-life institutions of higher learning. There are lots of little details it takes multiple viewings to fully appreciate, and the visual gags are constant. I especially love the way many of the new character look. Dean Hardscrabble is a cross between a dragon and a centipede. Other monsters resemble griffins, squids, slugs, bears, haystacks, and assorted polygons, with a design sensibility that seems to have been borrowed from the Muppets, where nearly all the monsters are in bright colors with cuddly features. Mike and Sully get shined up a bit for this outing, but look reassuringly like themselves.

The worst thing you can say about "Monsters University" is that it's middle-of-the road, not particularly ambitious in its aims. There's nothing really new or exciting about the technology, the movie was clearly aimed at the broadest audience possible, and there are a few logical inconsistencies with its predecessor that may rile the obsessives. However, what it does choose to do, it does well. This could have easily been a piece of fluff, the way so many other animated sequels and spinoffs have been lately, but it wasn't. This one took itself seriously, and there's a lot of care and contemplation apparent in its story. That's the kind of commitment to quality that I'm glad to see is still alive and well at PIXAR.
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