It’s now approaching Halloween and we may be getting scared of monsters in the wardrobe coming to haunt us, but for the monsters in this film it’s the best time of year with lots of scream energy to power their world. So let’s take a quick look at this new prequel to the original family favourite. Having missed this film in cinema, I regret not seeing it sooner. I was already a big fan of the first film, and Pixar films in general, but after watching this most recent one I went back and watched the whole Pixar film collection all over again.
The film features many of the same characters from the original ‘Monsters Inc.’ with the exception of Boo. It is based more around the character of Mike Wasowski than the first one, which was focused mainly on the character of his best friend Sully, and I found this a refreshing choice. The fact the film is a prequel to the first also enabled the writers to expand and explore the relationship between the two main characters further and see how they came to be such a close pair.
The story begins with Mike deciding that he wants to be a scarer after being inspired by some on a school trip; it then follows him several years later when he starts university. After being told by the principal that he is not scary enough, he enters the school scare games to prove her wrong and regain his place on the course. I particularly liked this film due to its unpredictable ending and I felt that, as with all Pixar films, the production company waited to make the film until there was a story to be told, rather than just to make money. With film franchises it can often be easy enough to keep making sequels as long as they continue to make money but for me Pixar should be applauded for waiting until they were able to produce a good quality film before they released this prequel. The team at Pixar also cleverly timed the release of the film so that those, like me, who were young children at the time of the first film, would be going to university when this one was released.
If you enjoy the music found in classic Pixar films then you’re in luck since the soundtrack for this picture was written by Randy Newman, the same man responsible for many of the original Pixar soundtracks such as the Toy Story films, A Bug’s Life and the first Monsters Inc. film. The cast of voice actors is also once again good, featuring John Goodman and Billy Crystal from the first film as well as Helen Mirren who voices the part of Dean Hardscrabble, the infamous scarer.
Of course the film only really works when seen after the first one which it relies on for the viewer to understand several jokes ,as well as to really appreciate the ending, so if you haven’t already seen it, and you would be in the minority, see it as soon as you get the chance and then watch this one straight after!!! Sounds to me like five hours well spent!!
Image from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2a/Monsters_University_poster_3.jpg
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