Monsters University - Scaring with Honours

In 2001 a twelve year old Jack Murray entered the cinema ready to be entranced by Monsters Inc., Pixar's latest animated work of splendour. Twelve years on and a twenty-four year old Jack Murray expects the same levels of entrancement from its highly anticipated sequel, Monsters University. Reuniting the same team behind the original, the film brings back on board Billy Crystal (Mike Wazowski), John Goodman (James P. 'Sulley' Sullivan) and Steve Buscemi (Randall Boggs). However, in a first for Pixar sequels this takes the story of Mike and Sulley back, making it a prequel. The story focuses on their first meeting at Monsters University, both on a quest to become the best scarer Monstropolis has ever seen.

Unlike the best of friends we witness in the first film, Mike and Sulley begin their student career as anything but. Mike has worked long and hard to gain his university place; he's read all the theory - he just isn't necessarily very scary. Sulley, on the other hand, has gained his university place through family reputation and his ability to roar like nobody else. What results is a battle of the scares between the two, determined to out-do each other inside and outside the classroom. However, when they come across the formidable Dean Hardscrabble (Helen Mirren), the head of the university, Mike and Sulley find they must work together if their places at Monsters University are to remain secure. With the help of some very un-scary monsters, Mike and Sulley have to put aside their personal differences and work together to triumph in the University's scaring contest which provides us with many the comic moment!

Billy Crystal and John Goodman are just as perfect for their roles as they were in the first film, as is Steve Buscemi as the scheming Randall. Helen Mirren is equally terrifying and brilliant in her role as the winged and scaled Dean Hardscrabble, by far the scariest monster in the film. Excellent support also comes from Alfred Molina (The Da Vinci Code, Raiders of the Lost Ark) and as usual John Ratzenberger gets his usual Pixar cameo, reprising his role as the Yeti (also giving a nod to his famous role as Cliff Clavin from Cheers).

The film is a work of animating triumph and looks amazingly colourful and vibrant. The soundtrack is bouncy and true to the Pixar tradition. My one and only gripe with the film (and it is the same gripe I had with Pixar's last film, Brave) is it lacked that certain emotional pull that Pixar films are renowned for. Think of Sulley's relationship with Boo in the first film, Jessie's abandonment in Toy Story 2, or Wall-E's relationship with Eva - all of these, which are but three examples of many, pull at the heart strings of even the most cynical of us. While there was some pathos towards the end of the movie when Mike and Sulley think all their efforts have been fruitless, it still doesn't make our heart strings zing zing zing. This, I know, is a small point, yet is such an important ingredient we have come to expect from Pixar's films.

All in all though, a twelve year wait to be reunited with Mike and Sulley may have been a bit too long but it was certainly worth the wait. Having been truly scared with The Conjuring last week it was nice to be scared in a different way - after all the motto of Monsters Inc. is 'We scare because we care' - and so do we.