Take Monsters Inc. and smash it with Animal House, and you come up with Pixar and Disney’s newest creation, Monsters University. Sully and Mike Wazowski are back and this time we get to see how they became friends and broke into scaring. Poor little one-giant-eye Mike has had a lifetime of struggles being the short and unintimidating guy, but he has a large monster-sized heart inside. Sully, on the other hand, has had things handed to him forever and doesn’t have a hard work ethic. While Mike’s work ethic and drive is second to none, Sully is content coasting along on his family’s name.
With both of them facing expulsion from the School of Scaring, Mike and Sully are forced to team up with each other and the less-than-cool monsters from the Oozma Kappa (OK) fraternity. They must play in a series of fraternity games, the Scare Games, to determine who are the scariest monsters of all and ultimately win favor with the college dean. These games comprise the majority of the movie, and many people in our theater found the games quite humorous. The three kids who tagged along with me to the movie (ages 9, 7, and 6) especially enjoyed the action sequences of Monsters University.
I had high expectations going into Monsters University because I loved Monsters Inc. The first one was original and had a great story of two friends working together. Like most sequels, this film doesn’t quite live up to its predecessor, but that being said, it is still an entertaining film. Once it stopped recreating scenes from the first movie and chartered its own course, the movie hit its stride.
I enjoyed Mike Wazowski’s many sweet moments in this film and his life quest made a great story. I hope I’m not giving too much away, so I’ll say “Spoiler Alert!”, but I also thought there was a good lesson in the film that hard work and determination do not always pay off. Sometimes people are just better at something and no matter what you do you can’t and won’t be the best. Sometimes you must accept your lot in life. I’m not sure if that was a lesson they were intending to instill, but that’s what I took away.
Final Verdict? This one wasn’t as good as the first, but I still enjoyed it and my kids loved it. I also enjoyed a beer pong reference.
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Visit the website: http://www.Disney.com/MonstersU
Check out Monsters University related activities with Milk Mustache here: http://www.milkmustache.com/
MONSTERS UNIVERSITY is now playing in theatres everywhere!
Knowing that there is a different lesson (working hard doesn’t always pay off in real life) makes this a great choice to take the kids to see…should trigger some great family discussions about goals, work, and results.
Thanks for the review – especially the “Spoiler” – knowing that there is a different message, I’m more inclined to go see it!
Peace,
LBD