Psycho's Movie Reviews #263: Monsters University (2013)

Monsters University is a 2013 American computer-animated monster comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed and written by Dan Scanlon (in his feature directorial debut) and produced by Kori Rae, with John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich as executive producers. The music for the film was composed by Randy Newman, making it his seventh collaboration with Pixar. It is a prequel to Monsters, Inc. (2001), making it the only time Pixar has made a prequel film. Monsters University tells the story of the main characters of Monsters, Inc., James P. Sullivan and Mike Wazowski, and their time at college, where they start off as rivals, but slowly become best friends. During the time, they must have to learn to work together, along with Oozma Kappa members, in order to make his dream reality and things right. John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Steve Buscemi, Bob Peterson, and John Ratzenberger reprise their roles as James P. Sullivan, Mike Wazowski, Randall Boggs, Roz, and the Abominable Snowman, respectively, while the new cast were joined by Helen Mirren, Alfred Molina, Peter Sohn, Joel Murray, Sean Hayes, Dave Foley, Charlie Day, and Nathan Fillion. Bonnie Hunt, who voiced Ms. Flint in the first film, voices Mike's grade school teacher Ms. Karen Graves.

Disney, as the rights holder, had plans for a sequel to Monsters, Inc. since 2005. Following disagreements with Pixar, Disney tasked its Circle 7 Animation unit to make the film. An early draft of the film was developed; however, Disney's purchase of Pixar in early 2006 led to the cancellation of Circle 7's version of the film. A Pixar-made sequel was confirmed in 2010, and in 2011, it was confirmed that the film would instead be a prequel titled Monsters University.

Monsters University premiered on June 5, 2013 at the BFI Southbank in London, England, and was theatrically released on June 21, 2013, in the United States. It was accompanied in theatres by a short film, The Blue Umbrella, directed by Saschka Unseld. The film received positive reviews from the critics and grossed $743 million worldwide against its $200 million production budget, making it the seventh highest-grossing film of 2013. An animated short film titled Party Central, which takes place shortly after the events of Monsters University, premiered in fall 2013 before being released theatrically with Muppets Most Wanted in 2014.

Plot

As a first grader, Mike Wazowski begins to dream of becoming a Scarer - a monster who enters the human world at night to scare children and harvest their screams for energy to power the city of Monstropolis. Eleven years later, Mike enrols in the Scaring program at Monsters University (MU) and meets classmate James P. "Sulley" Sullivan. Abigail Hardscrabble, dean of MU, warns the students that anyone who does not pass a final exam at the end of the first semester will have to leave the Scaring program.

As the semester progresses, an intense rivalry forms between Mike, who studies hard to improve himself, and Sulley, who relies only on his natural talent and begins to falter. They both attempt to join a fraternity, but only Sulley is accepted into Roar Omega Roar (ROR), the most prestigious house on campus. Hardscrabble tests them separately and fails them both -- Mike for not being scary, Sulley for choosing the wrong approach to scare a child without having all the relevant information about them. They are forced to transfer to a different study program, much to their dismay.

Wanting to prove himself, Mike learns of MU's "Scare Games" competition and makes a deal with Hardscrabble. If his team wins, all of the members will be admitted to the Scaring program, otherwise, he will leave MU. Mike joins Oozma Kappa (OK), a fraternity of misfits, but they are one member short of being able to enter the competition. Sulley offers to join OK, seeing it as his only chance to return to Scaring, and Mike reluctantly accepts.

OK finishes last in the first round but are saved from elimination after another team is disqualified for cheating. During each of the next three rounds, OK steadily improves due to Mike's knowledge of scaring and the others' unique talents. Despite their progress, they face humiliation by rival fraternities, and Hardscrabble questions whether Sulley believes that Mike can be an effective Scarer. Though OK earns a decisive victory over ROR in the final round, Mike discovers afterward that Sulley had tampered with the simulator settings to guarantee a win for OK, causing a heated argument between the two. The other OK members discard their trophy, equally ashamed that Sulley ruined their victory by cheating. Sulley confesses to Hardscrabble what he has done.

Outraged at Sulley's betrayal and still determined to prove that he can become a Scarer, Mike breaks into the school's door lab and enters the human world. He emerges in a summer camp cabin full of children but is unable to scare any of them and flees into the woods. With assistance from the OK members, Sulley sneaks through the door to find Mike, ignoring Hardscrabble's order to stay away from it and let the authorities handle the situation. The two reconcile and try to return to MU, but find out that Hardscrabble has deactivated the door.

As police officers begin to chase Mike and Sulley, Mike realizes that they may be able to power the door from their side. Working together, the two scare the officers so badly that their screams overload the door, then return to MU just as it explodes. Mike and Sulley are punished and expelled from MU for their actions, but admits the remaining OK members into the Scaring program for the coming semester, impressed by their performance in the Scare Games.

As Mike and Sulley are leaving the campus, Hardscrabble admits that they have surprised her and expresses her hope that they will continue to do so in the future. Seeing a "help wanted" advertisement for job openings at Monsters, Inc., the two decide to apply and are hired to work in the mailroom. They work their way up to different jobs before being scarer and scare assistant respectively.

Production

Plans for a second Monsters, Inc. film existed since 2002. Following disagreements between Disney CEO Michael Eisner and Pixar CEO Steve Jobs, Disney—which owned the rights to make sequels to all of Pixar's films up to Cars—announced that a sequel to Monsters, Inc. would be made by Disney's Circle 7 Animation studio, which was also working on early drafts of Toy Story 3 & Finding Nemo 2. Titled Monsters, Inc. 2: Lost in Scaradise, the film would have focused on Mike and Sulley visiting the human world to give Boo a birthday present, only to find that she had moved. After getting trapped in the human world, Mike and Sulley would split up after disagreeing on what to do. Screenwriters Rob Muir and Bob Hilgenberg were hired to write a script for the film, and storyboarded an early draft of it. Disney's change of management in late 2005—in which Eisner was replaced by Bob Iger—led to renewed negotiations with Pixar, and in early 2006 Disney announced it had purchased the studio. The Disney-owned sequel rights were then transferred to Pixar, leading to the cancellation of Muir and Hilgenberg's version of the film and the subsequent closure of Circle 7.

A Pixar-made sequel was confirmed in 2010. The film was originally planned for release on November 16, 2012, but the release was moved up to November 2, 2012 to avoid competition with The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2. On March 29, 2011, it was confirmed that the film would be a prequel and the title Monsters University was announced. On April 4, 2011, due to Pixar's past success with summer releases, according to a Disney executive, it was confirmed that the film would be released on June 21, 2013.

The feature was directed by Dan Scanlon and produced by Kori Rae. Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Bob Peterson, and John Ratzenberger reprised their roles, and Bonnie Hunt voiced a new character. New voice cast included Dave Foley, Sean Hayes, Julia Sweeney, Helen Mirren, Alfred Molina, Peter Sohn, Charlie Day, Joel Murray, Nathan Fillion, Aubrey Plaza, Tyler Labine, John Krasinski, Bill Hader, Bobby Moynihan, and Beth Behrs.

The plot of Monsters University details Mike and Sulley's first meeting, but this created a continuity error from the original film in which Mike tells Sulley "You've been jealous of my good looks since the fourth grade." Director Dan Scanlon said he had a dilemma with this line during pre-production, but he believed it was best if Mike and Sulley meet in college because, "we wanted to see their relationship develop when they were adults. And we also felt like college is so much about self-discovery and figuring out who you are." He added, "It felt like the perfect place to do this, but we had that line. So we tried versions where they met young and then we skipped ahead to college. And we knew we didn't want to make Monsters Elementary." Scanlon said during pre-production that, "Pete Docter, the original director, and John Lasseter finally said to me, 'it's great that you're honouring that, but you have to do what's right for the story.' So we made a tough decision to just have them be in college and put that line aside." Scanlon later retconned the line from the first film as "an old monster expression", saying, "That’s what monsters always say to each other."

Animation

Monsters University is the first Pixar film that used global illumination, a new lighting system introduced as part of the overhaul of the rendering system used since the first Toy Story film. In the planning stage of the film, director of photography, Jean-Claude Kalache, asked "What if we made these lights just work?" Before the new system, artists had to build reflections and shadows manually, which became increasingly complex as the models and the setups became more technologically advanced. The new lighting system uses path tracing, a technique that imitates the behaviour of the light in the real world; this automatized the process, delivered more realism, produced soft shadows, and let the artist spend more time on models and complex scenes – some of which contained thousands of light sources.

For research, the filmmakers visited several colleges in the U.S., including Harvard University, Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, observing college architecture, student life, Greek organizations, and the teaching methods of professors and faculty. To research fraternity life, which is central to the film, many of the film's producers spent several weeks at a fraternity house. Researchers also attended a "Bonfire Rally" at Berkeley in anticipation of the Big Game, a rivalry football game between the university and Stanford.

Soundtrack

The music for the film is Randy Newman's seventh collaboration with Pixar as composer. Walt Disney Records released the soundtrack on June 18, 2013.

The songs "Main Title", "Rise and Shine", and "The Scare Games" feature the drum line from the Blue Devils group "BD Entertainment". The recordings for the percussion tracks were done at Skywalker Ranch, and were written by Blue Devils Percussion Caption Head Scott Johnson.

The songs "Ísland" by Mastodon and "Gospel" by MarchFourth Marching Band are featured during the film but do not appear on the soundtrack. The songs "Party Hard" by Andrew W.K. and "Kickstart My Heart" by Mötley Crüe are featured prominently in the teaser trailers but do not appear on the soundtrack or in the film.

Release/Reception/Box Office

The first teaser trailer for Monsters University was released on June 20, 2012. Four versions of the trailer exist; in his sleep, Mike mutters excuses to avoid attending class in each one, such as "I'm not wearing any clothes," "My homework ate my dog," "Class President?", and "My pony made the Dean's List." A second trailer was released on February 11, 2013, a third on April 26, 2013, and a fourth and final trailer, which included scenes from the film, was released on May 30, 2013.

On October 8, 2012, Pixar revealed a fully functional website for Monsters University, complete with information about admissions, academic and campus life, and a campus store to purchase MU apparel. On April 1, 2013, the website was styled to appear as though a rival college, Fear Tech, had hacked and vandalized it. The first television commercial for the film was aired during the 2013 Rose Bowl Game, parodying advertisements for participating schools that are shown during college football telecasts. From June 27 until July 11, 2013, Disney's online game Club Penguin hosted a Monsters University Takeover event to promote the film. Players could dress up as their favourite monsters and take part in the Scare Games.

The film had its worldwide premiere on June 5, 2013, as a special screening at BFI Southbank in London with the director and producer in attendance. The film had its Asian premiere as the opening film of the 2013 Shanghai International Film Festival on June 15, 2013. It premiered in the United States on June 8, 2013, at the Seattle International Film Festival, and was released in theatres on June 21, 2013. The film's theatrical release was accompanied by Pixar's short film titled The Blue Umbrella.

Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 80% based on 203 reviews with an average rating of 6.80/10. The site's critical consensus reads "Offering Monsters, Inc. fans a welcome return visit with beloved characters, Monsters University delivers funny and thoughtful family entertainment for viewers of any age." Another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 65 based on 41 reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. According to Disney, audiences were 56% female and 60% below the age of 25. Families made up 73% of business, and teens accounted for 15%. The film played well with all ages.

Matt Zoller Seitz of Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars out of four, saying it "is true to the spirit of Monsters, Inc. and matches its tone. But it never seems content to turn over old ground." Trevor Johnston of Time Out gave the film four stars out of five, writing "It has enough of the right stuff to haunt the imagination long after the immediate buzz of its fluffy-furred cuteness has melted away. For a mere prequel, that's a result." Steven Rea of The Philadelphia Inquirer gave the film three stars out of four and said it "is cute, and funny, and the animation, though not exactly inspired, is certainly colourful." Jake Coyle of Associated Press gave the film three stars out of four, saying it "might not be as gifted as some of its other movies, but sometimes it's alright to be OK." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film three stars out of four, and said "It's all infectious fun, despite the lack of originality. In the art of tickling funny bones, Crystal and Goodman earn straight A's." Richard Corliss of Time gave the film a positive review, saying "This minor film with major charms still deserves to have kids dragging their parents to the multiplex for one more peek at the monsters in the closet. With Pixar, familiarity breeds content." Bill Goodykoontz of The Arizona Republic gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of five and said it is "one of those movies that has absolutely no reason to exist, but once you've seen it, you're kind of glad it does." Alan Scherstuhl of The Village Voice gave the film a positive review, saying "Monsters University feels not like the work of artists eager to express something but like that of likable pros whose existence depends on getting a rise out the kids. It's like the scares Sully and Mike spring on those sleeping tykes: technically impressive but a job un-anchored to anything more meaningful."

Leonard Maltin of IndieWire praised the animation and art direction, but wrote that he wished "the movie was funnier and wasn't so plot-heavy" and that "Pixar has raised the bar for animated features so high that when they turn out a film that's merely good, instead of great, they have only themselves to blame for causing critics to damn them with faint praise." Michael Phillips of Chicago Tribune gave the film two stars out of four, saying "Monsters University, the weirdly charmless sequel to the animated 2001 Pixar hit Monsters, Inc., is no better or worse than the average (and I mean average) time-filling sequel cranked out by other animation houses." Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a negative review, saying that it "never surprises, goes off in unexpected directions or throws you for a loop in the manner of the best Pixar stories. Nor does it come close to elating through the sheer imagination of its conceits and storytelling." Claudia Puig of USA Today gave the film three stars out of four, and said it "may not be as inventive as Inc., but it's an amusing and amiable addition to Pixar's roster of animated coming-of-age stories." Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post gave the film three stars out of four, saying "It may be children's terror that powers the movie's fictional universe, but it's the energy of its stars that lights up Monsters University." Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly gave the film an A− and said it "is exactly the rebound Pixar needed after 2011's Cars 2 left some wondering if the studio had lost its magic. The delightful story of when Mike met Sulley puts those concerns to rest." James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film three stars out of four and wrote "Although it falls short of the best Pixar has brought to the screen over its long association with Disney, it's nevertheless worth a trip to the theatre, especially for kids."

However, the film was not without its detractors. Richard Roeper gave the film a C+, saying "This is a safe, predictable, edge-free, nearly bland effort from a studio that rarely hedges its bets." Stephen Whitty of Newark Star-Ledger gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and said "The artwork is accomplished, and intricate. The G-rating is genuine, without any gross-out gags. And there's none of the usual winks to the adults with tired, pop-culture references." Manohla Dargis of The New York Times gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of five and wrote "Both the originality and stirring emotional complexity of Monsters, Inc., with its exquisitely painful and touching parallels with the human world, are missing." Ty Burr of The Boston Globe gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four, and said "This is not a bad movie, and to small children it will be a very good one, but it's closer to average than one would wish from the company that gave us Up, WALL-E, The Incredibles, and the Toy Story series." Rene Rodriguez of Miami Herald gave the film two stars out of five and wrote that it "feels half-hearted and lazy, like they weren't even trying. At least show a little effort, guys."

Monsters University grossed $268.5 million in the United States and Canada and $475.1 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $743.6 million. Calculating in all expenses, Deadline Hollywood estimated that the film made a profit of $179.8 million.

It became the 53rd highest-grossing film of all time, the 11th highest-grossing animated film all time, the seventh-highest-grossing 2013 film, and the third-highest-grossing Pixar film. The film earned $136.9 million worldwide on its opening weekend. Disney declined to provide a budget for the film; Entertainment Weekly speculated that it was higher than that of Brave ($185 million), mainly because of the high cost of John Goodman and Billy Crystal reprising their roles. Shockya and EOnline reported the budget to be $200 million—on par with previous Pixar films.

Budget $200 million

Box office $743.6 million

My Review

Monsters University is a new film from Pixar that is a prequel to their film Monsters Inc. In addition to the two main characters, a whole lot of new characters are introduced at the college that Mike and Sully attended. The plot involves Mike trying to become a 'scaring major'—something quite unthinkable since he isn't the least bit scary. There's a lot more to the film than this, but I won't spoil it by saying more about the plot.

My nephew was lucky enough to go to the debut of Monsters University. He liked it but also felt the story was disappointing since it lacked original characters and the story reminded him of too many college films (like Revenge of the Nerds and Animal House). My wife saw it with me and she said that the film put her to sleep! This is all very odd, as I am usually the most difficult to please in the family when it comes to films—yet I thoroughly enjoyed the film and nearly gave it a 9. While I would agree it lacks originality, it did make me smile. It was a nice, gentle film—one that I didn't mind just watching without picking it apart (like I usually do). Much of this is because the CGI was simply gorgeous and It was a pleasure watching such a beautiful film… as well as such a nice and enjoyable film.

Monsters University as a prequel did have a fair bit to live up to, seeing as Monsters Inc is one of Pixar's best films. It is not as good as that film though, it doesn't quite have the same degrees of originality and heart (though there is still a fair bit of heart here, just that the final 10 minutes of Monsters Inc were among the most heartfelt moments of any Pixar film), but Monsters University is still more than worthy to it without being one of their best. And it is Pixar's best since Toy Story 3, Cars 2 and Brave were not as bad as often said on IMDb but compared to what Pixar had done before they fell short. As always with Pixar, the animation is amazing. The details, vibrant colours, eye-popping backgrounds and beautifully rendered characters are all here and done in a way that makes it true to the style of the original film. The uplifting and beautifully composed music score is also something to look out for, as are the witty screenplay, the interplay between Sulley and Mike is loose and recognisable and is often hilarious, the clever sight gags and affectionate nods to live action frat comedies. The humour comes by at a breakneck pace, but still gives you time to breathe at the same time. The story, while not as original as Monsters Inc, is still interesting and paced in a way that allows all the family to be entertained. It is also full of endless charm, perfectly pitched humour and great heartfelt morals that don't preach, telling a good story is one of Pixar's strongest points and it shows. The characters are still wonderful, it is easy to love Sulley and Mike still even in their younger versions, there are shades of Randall's character in the original coming through here and Dean Hardscrabble is a great addition, a literal monster's answer to Rebecca's Mrs Danvers. The lack of Boo doesn't hurt the film, despite fears that it would do. The voice acting is fantastic, John Goodman and Billy Crystal carry their lead roles splendidly and Helen Mirren is wonderfully stone-faced and menacing. Everybody gives their character a personality and one that stands out. To conclude, while not quite as good as Monsters Inc or one of Pixar's best it does compliment the original Monsters Inc really well and is a step-up from their previous two films. 9.2/10

{A lot of the score for this film is forgettable, but in some small dark crevasse did 'Roar' by Swedish House Mafia remain lodged. It's in the RoR frat party scene}