Screenings

Monsters University
MU is short for “Monsters University.” Unfortunately, it can also mean Mostly Unfunny. Made by Disney/Pixar, this is a prequel to the very well done “Monsters Inc.” (2001) where we first got to know the big, easy-going, blue-furred, scary monster Sulley (voice of John Goodman) and his short, driven to succeed, shiny green, single-eyed pal, Mike (voice of Billy Crystal). The premise of MU is to take the audience back in time to the place where the mismatched pair met and learned to perfect their monster skills.
The “best buds” we know and love from “Monsters Inc.” don’t like each other at first. Sulley is part of the famous Sullivan clan of world-class scary monsters. With his intimidating size and frightening roar, he hasn’t arrived at MU to study, but to party and enjoy the laurels he is sure will come his way.
In contrast, Mike is the perky underdog. The first in his short-statured family to go to college, he is driven to succeed and make his family proud. He studies diligently and practices scowling, creeping, hiding and growling for hours on end.
Sulley and Mike quickly end up on the outs with the dragon-like insect monster, Dean Hardscrabble (voice of Helen Mirren), and in a G-rated Revenge of the Nerds-style plot device, the two misfits end up in a less than prestigious fraternity where they must win the annual Monster Games competition to save face.
To my mind, the filmmakers made several critical mistakes in the planning process. First, the audience for this film isn’t college-aged, or even high school seniors or juniors preparing to attend college. Instead, it is elementary school kids who understand and empathize with Mike in the new film’s opening sequence when he takes a school field trip to the Monsters Inc. factory with his classmates. Everyone else quickly finds a “field trip buddy” but Mike has to hold his teacher’s hand. “Don’t go past that safety line,” the teacher warns the class, but ever-curious Mike has to see things up close. The little green guy manages to follow on the heels of a professional scary monster as he enters one of the thousands of bedroom doors to elicit screams from the sleeping child on the other side of the door. The hazmat response team, the right-to-be worried teacher, the joyous fellow students, and the goings-on behind the bedroom door make for some fast-paced excitement.
This opening sequence to Monsters University shows what could have been done with this prequel. The storyline is tight, the target audience can identify with the character and the setting, it builds upon the “monsters scaring kids to capture their screams” premise established in the first film, and it’s funny.
Another inherent problem with the franchise is the corporate decision to make most of the monsters into smiling, huggable characters that can be easily made into millions of profitable toys. The majority of the characters whose faces appear on the collectible “Monster Cards” are as cuddly as a teddy bear. Only the movie villains—the crab-like corporate boss in Monsters Inc. and the red-winged insect-like dean in Monsters University—evoke truly scary monsters like the ones in Aliens or Predator.
Finally, there is the MU setting itself. Unlike the factory-like buildings of Monsters, Inc., the MU campus is all ivy-covered stone with throw back fraternity/sorority-focused social activities. There are so many rainbow-hued monsters-in-training dotting the landscape that the wide shots look like a Costco-sized jar of Jelly Bellies has spilled across the movie screen.
If it sounds like I am overly critical of “Monsters University,” it is because I am concerned that Pixar’s move to Disney Corp. is transforming the Emeryville studio. Instead of a creative drive for perfection, we have a profit-driven drive of mediocre sequels and prequels with a dearth of dynamic female characters (except, of course, for the villainesses).
Since “Monsters University” captured the #1 box office spot on its opening weekend, audiences are obviously looking for family entertainment at the movies. I just hope they didn’t feel like the 5th grader I overheard telling her parents halfway through the film, “I want to go home.”  
 
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