Starring: Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Helen Mirren
Having dreamed his whole life to be a "scarer", Mike Wasowski (Crystal, Noah Johnston) arrives for his studies at Monsters University to learn how to scare, so he can use the screams of children to generate power. However, small and humble Mike finds he has a rival in James Sullivan (Goodman) a much more proficient scarer. Worse still with the duo have to team with each other, along with other assorted misfits, in the University's annual tournament.
A prequel to Pixar's popular Monsters Inc. (2003), Monsters University has, by the miracle of voice-over animation made perhaps some of the widest leaps of age between character and actor in history with John Goodman and Billy Crystal playing (presumably) teenage versions of their characters from Monsters Inc. (ditto Steve Buscemi, who turns up every now and then). Still, it isn't long before your disbelief is suspended and you're involved with the charm of Pixar. Monsters University is by no means the studio's strongest effort, but it's also by no means a failure. The humour is consistently strong and the characters are largely likeable even if their designs have mostly become a little worn (there's only so many times you can see different colours pulled into different shapes). The size of the plot really only warrants a supplemental straight-to-DVD release but to be fair, Pixar don't do things by halves and although the ending gets a little ropey, this is a perfectly entertaining and enjoyable watch, even if it bares a resemblance conceptually with Nickelodeon's Aaahh Real Monsters!.
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