Monsters University is B Average Work from an Honor Roll Student

In my review
earlier this year for Oz the Great and Powerful (also
released by Disney, incidentally) I noted the limitations inherent in the
virulent strain of prequelitis currently running amok in our nation’s
multiplexes; namely that the film’s end point being predetermined by where we
pick up with these characters in the previous film coats the proceedings in a
thick sheen of inevitability. We’ve grown to accept this lazy form of
storytelling from our summer tent poles, but to see Pixar Studios indulge in it
proves disappointing. Which
isn’t to say Monsters University is bad in any way, in
fact far from it; it’s a gorgeously rendered trip down memory lane with the
same strong sense of its main characters as Monsters Inc., packing
more gags into its running time than any previous Pixar entry.  But one can’t escape the sense that Pixar is
slumming it with this release, coasting on the goodwill generated by previous
work instead of earning it with the film at hand. The result is something like watching a
baseball star known for his towering home runs awkwardly leg out an infield
single – a net-positive result to be sure, but slightly disappointing.

Where the first film was centered on James P. “Sulley”
Sullivan (John Goodman) and his journey of discovery, this film uses Billy
Crystal’s Mike Wazowski as it’s jumping off point. We see him fall in love with the Scarer
profession from a young age and watch him set his sights on the prestigious Monsters University as the means by which to
achieve his career goal. It’s here on
campus that he meets a young Sulley, and while they butt heads at first (Mike’s
academic leaning creates friction with Sulley’s more laissez-faire approach to
scaring), they’ll need to learn to rely on one another in order to achieve their
ultimate goal of becoming world-class scarers.

The world Pixar created in Monsters Inc. proves
fertile ground for exploration in this prequel, allowing for a wider array of
creatures and sight gags that expand the universe even further beyond the
already rich tapestry previously created. And once again Goodman and Crystal play off of
one another magnificently, managing to make their chemistry readily apparent
even when our main characters are at odds with one another. Once the plot kicks
into high gear it’s a very generic slobs versus snobs template at play, but
Pixar’s storytelling faculties are so assured and fine-tuned that you allow
yourself to get swept up in the conventions all the same. The film even
manages to subvert your expectations at numerous turns, with a final plot
resolution that is slightly surprising, but thoroughly Pixarian. The animation is as lush as ever, creating a
rich environment populated with unique characters that I’ll be overjoyed to
pore over in detail once the movie’s DVD is released. And as already stated, the film might be the
funniest that Pixar has ever released; by having our characters previously
established and the plot rather basic, it allows them to unleash a flurry of
sight gags (stay through the credits!) and character bits that make the time race by.

Still, it’s disconcerting how Pixar seems content to sit
still while the rest of the animation world catches up to them. Last year’s Brave was an admirable
attempt at melding the worlds of Pixar and Disney together, but the era in
which Pixar made masterpiece after masterpiece seems to be getting further and
further away from us (while efforts like How to Train Your Dragon and ParaNorman
prove that the quality gap is ever-lessening). The next few years look to bring
them back towards the original material that their reputation was built on, so
we’ll have to wait and see if they manage to regain their former glory. But if work as entertaining as Monsters University is the end result of
their slow crawl towards the mean, it’s hard to maintain any disappointment
in the face of such boundless computer animated enthusiasm.