Monsters University (2013) – Encore Review

“It’s my job to make great students greater, not make mediocre students less mediocre.” – Dean Hardscrabble

Number of Times Seen – 2 (10 Oct 2013 and 6 Oct 2015)

Link to original review – Here

Brief Synopsis – In a prequel to Monsters Inc. (2001), we get to see how the characters of Sully and Mike originally met while in university together and became the best of friends

My Take on it – As you all know, I’m a pretty big fan of just about all things PIXAR, but they somehow managed to surprise me with this one and it ranks very high on my PIXAR favorites list.

I liked Monsters Inc. (2001), but I thought it was far from being perfect.  When I heard about this sequel (which is really a prequel), I wasn’t so enthusiastic about seeing it because it would probably be average Pixar fare like the first one.

When I finally got around to seeing this, I was truly amazed at how well they managed to do this one.

They took a bunch of somewhat diverse ideas and merged them all together in order to make this movie so entertaining.

They merged college year humor with a reality competition doppelganger (The Amazing Race, obviously) and made the characters compete in strange monster filled events that would prove their worthiness.

Besides all the fun that they must have had making this, they put an awe inspiring message in the storyline about creating life long friendship even when you initially think they will clash, because you never know….

It was nice seeing these characters again because it helped recreate PIXAR magic.

This IMHO is once again PIXAR at its very best, giving us all of the elements that we need (no matter our age) to enjoy a movie and walk out with a deeper appreciation and understanding.

Let’s hope they continue with this tradition for years to come.

Bottom Line – Great idea to show the evolution of characters that we all know and love.  Excellent mix of college type humor, Amazing Race and of course showing how life long friendships can appear where we least expect.  Was great revisiting these characters.  Personally enjoyed this even more than the original.  PIXAR once again at their best. Highly Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia –  As the students enter the School of Scaring building, they all touch the front paw of the statue in front of the building. This is a reference to a tradition at Harvard University where students touch the left foot of the statue of John Harvard for good luck. As a result, the foot of the statue of Harvard is shiny and polished down. The animators included that onto the statue in the movie as well. (From IMDB)

Rating – Oscar Worthy (no change from original review)

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