Search This Blog

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Movie Review #78: Monsters University (2013) 100th Blog Post!!!

78 movie reviews
13 television reviews
5 news posts
3 best and worst lists
1 hate filled angry rant

I might not be the best at math, but those numbers add out to an even 100! A hundred blog posts within less than a year. I'm not sure if I will be able to beat that record. I kind of set the bar pretty high for myself! Regardless, thanks a bunch to everyone who willingly read my reviews to hear my simple thoughts on films. It means a lot to me and I am really grateful for the fact that I actually have an audience! Even if I didn't I would still do this because it is fun, but still, every one of your views gives me the motivation to come back to talk about movies. And what better way to celebrate than with a review of a Pixar movie?

When I first heard that Pixar would be returning to the world of Monsters Inc, I was beyond stoked. Then I heard that it wouldn't be a sequel but rather a prequel about how Mike and Sully became friends. I became less excited after knowing that. I mostly became nervous about the story. What kind of a story would they be able to give us being that we already know the outcome to it? But leave it to the geniuses at Pixar to never stop surprising me.

The past two Pixar films, Cars 2 and Brave, have proved to us that just because it is Pixar doesn't guarantee that it will be good. I thought that they had lost their touch and this made me even more nervous. Luckily I believe that Monsters University is a step in the right direction for Pixar.

I had a lot of fun with this movie. Perhaps the only improvement in Monsters U over Monsters Inc. is the comedy. I found myself laughing rather frequently. And they weren't just occasional chuckles, they were solid laughs! I guess since I am in high school right now I found the jokes twice as funny because I could relate to some of the jokes. The jokes that made me laugh the most were oddly enough the jokes in the background. It kind of reminded me of the Men In Black films!

It was also neat to see how different Mike and Sullivan's personalities were. It oddly enough reminded me of the lead performances in Amadeus. Mike is much like Salieri. He's very studious, intelligent and well put together. Always by the books and nothing but facts. Sullivan is more like Mozart. He's carefree and wild and constantly does better than Mike without even trying. And much like with Amadeus, the lead performances work off of each other very well with a very believable rivalry that is not only entertaining to watch but to see it end and the journey their friendship takes to form.

In Monsters Inc, the only real side-character was Boo, but there are a ton of supporting characters that work for the films benefit. The other members of their fraternity were really funny! They reminded me of my friend group at school because we are the exact opposite of "popular" or "cool" but manage to have fun doing whatever it is we do. I was able to relate to them and it made me happy.

As for the animation, let's face it, it's Pixar. Even their worst films still have stellar animation. The character designs were pretty creative, particularly the design of Helen Mirren's character Dean Hardscrabble. One thing that did take me out of the film for a moment were some of the voice performances. They weren't really awful, I was just instantly able to tell that that was John Krasinski's voice or Nathan Fillion's voice. Unlike with Crystal and Goodman who I knew were committed and dedicated to their characters.

Another aspect of the film I enjoyed was the message that was conveyed. The message was that even if you're different from the rest of the crowd, you can use your strengths to balance out whatever weaknesses you might have and it will serve you well later in life. That's a really good message for kids to hear that isn't always told to them.

Final Report: Monsters University is a strong prequel with clever humor, likable characters and a great message for kids. It's welcome return to the characters we loved from the predecessor even if it might not hold a candle to it.

No comments:

Post a Comment