Monsters University

Earlier today I saw Monster's University. I went in reluctantly, expecting a lower tier Pixar movie, largely because of the mixed reviews. To my surprise,  I really enjoyed it.

I put it just a notch below Monster's Inc. but honestly, it was closer to the quality of the original that I had anticipated. Yeah, there weren't as many laugh-out-loud moments as the original, but there were still a lot of clever and witty moments that had me smiling. I smiled through-out the majority of this movie in fact, to the point I really left the theater in a really good mood, which is the feeling Pixar often manages to enforce. I agree with Aaron Wallace that its better than the Cars movies and Brave, but I actually enjoyed it more than a lot of the Pixar films that many claim are Pixar's best such as Finding Nemo, Wall-E and Up. In fact, the only real flaw I could find was its predictability, but since children are a big target, its not like they'll notice the similarities to Animal House.

I don't know if it'll hold up as well on repeat viewings as Monster's Inc. But for a prequel(which I was grateful for it being rather than a sequel so Boo's fate can be left ambiguous) it worked better than most. There really isn't anything about Monster's Inc. that feels diminished or fallible with this movie's existence, unless you count the original teaser from 2000.

Speaking of the original, I'm still trying to make my brain accept the fact that its been 12 years since the original Monster's Inc. instead of 5. I could accept Toy Story 3 having been released 11 years since Toy Story 2, but Monster's University being released 12 years since Monster's Inc. is just surreal.

I can still remember seeing the original Monster's Inc. in theaters on November 2nd, 2001. It was at the AMC theaters at the Woodland Hills mall in CA. My Mom used discount tickets we had from Ralphs. The screening was upstairs and when we went into the screening, the trailer for Return to Neverland was playing. Toy Story was still just about my favorite movie of all time, so I of course was ecstatic for this movie, and it did not disappoint. Afterwards, we went to the Disney store which had just opened from remodeling. I got a free Mike and Sully tattoo that lasted 4 days, as well as mouse-shaped lollipops. Monster's Inc. was pretty much all I thought about for a week (Even during the Harry Potter craze, Pixar managed to release a hilarious MI trailer before the first Potter movie so as to prevent the box office from dropping too low during the 2nd week) It still remains one of the most pleasant movie-going experiences in my life.