Monsters University

If there's one thing that Pixar knows how to do, it's parody a genre. Look at the brilliance of some parodies we've seen - we have Toy Story 3 as a prison break movie, Cars 2 as a spy thriller, each movie manages to be another genre of film. But when I heard they were going to touch on college comedy, that was definitely a strange choice in my book. How could it really nail the feeling of college in a way that would still appeal to kids? It's not a phase of their life that they've reached yet, certainly not one we'd expect them to just instantly grasp. I had my doubts about this film, especially with Brave having been one of my biggest disappointments last year.

The film started out brilliantly - portraying Mike as a young, curious toddler who was watching those working his dream job do so. Immediately, kids have a similarity to latch onto. And even though they haven't been to college, their enthusiasm about it can be right along side Mike's as he begins his first semester at Monsters University. It really works brilliantly.

The story itself is no masterpiece of cinema - it's silly, embraces it's bizarre but cute premise as a story worth telling. But I have to say, this is definitely the funniest Pixar film to date. It really has a great sense of humor, easily bouncing between humor for adults and humor for kids (although the adult humor is definitely the stronger). I loved the fraternities and their social levels as monsters, as well as college life for monsters. I also loved the specialized majors. Sure, we heard about sociology and theatre arts. But it was like going to a college for music and hearing about composition, performance, history, etc. The scare school at Monsters University had scaring, door building, tank building, and more. I loved that idea.

Performances in this were expectedly spot on. Billy Crystal gave a really nice twist on the Mike character, making him naive and a bit more immature than his Monsters Inc older version. John Goodman gives a great immature Sully, with just as much charm and likability as the original but with a lot to let him grow into as the movie goes on. I had an enormous amount of fun with the perfectly creepy Dean Hardscrabble, and the entire Oozma Kappa fraternity was fun, cute, and easy to love.

All in all, I think that this movie is the funniest of the Pixar collection. It's not brilliant, sure. But as a college comedy, it's a spot on adaptation and a great addition to the world Monsters Inc created.

Rank - 4.5/5