Take a trip back in time to when star Monsters, Inc. employees Mike Wazowski (voice of Billy Crystal) and James P. "Sulley" Sullivan (voice of John Goodman) were just two promising young students at Monsters University in this frightfully fun Disney/Pixar prequel. Dan Scanlon (Tracy) takes the directorial reigns for this prequel featuring additional vocal contributions by Steve Buscemi, Dave Foley, and Julia Sweeney. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Director: Dan Scanlon
Cast: Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Helen Mirren, Peter Sohn
Release Date: Jun 21, 2013 RealD 3D
Rated G for frightening Scenes
Runtime: 1 hr. 42 min.
Genres: Animated, Family
Review:
Pixar has been in a strange funk as of late. I tend to act like Cars 2 doesn’t exist and Brave played it too safe for my taste. Since I’m still waiting for a sequel to The Incredibles, Monsters University will have to fill the spot. It’s typical of Pixar’s work, polished, well written and funny enough to keep most children and adults entertained for the better part of its runtime. What it’s not, like their last 2 entries, is special. In fact it’s surprisingly generic, borrowing the plot of Revenge of the Nerds. Hearing John Goodman and Billy Crystal back in their classic roles is good fun and there are some strong bonding moments. It’s just hard to ignore that it’s all rather lackadaisical and uninspired. It doesn’t seem to have any heart. This prequel is lacking that emotional connection the original had with Boo and Sully. Its fun seeing Mike and Sully become friends but it all feels rather perfunctory. It’s not terrible by any stretch of the imagination; it’s actually quite good but just not up to Pixar’s standards.
B-
Call me crazy, but I have never been a big fan of Pixar. The Incredibles is great and the first Toy Story was revolutionary, but never found their other movies to be particularly profound or all that funny. I skipped Pixar's last two movies due to the negative ratings, but I might give this one a shot on Blu-Ray if I have nothing better to watch.
ReplyDelete-James
I'm a big Pixar fanboy, Brave was much better than expected but Cars 2 I didn't even watch. There are some real gems out there man, like Up Wall-E and Toy Story 3. This recent trend doesn't speak to their quality.
DeleteSounds exactly as expected!
ReplyDeletePixar might need to watch and not get lazy. The past few DreamWorks have been very decent.
Don't think we get this one for a few weeks. I know I will still see it out of nostalgia more than anything!
K :-)
Yeah I really want them to get back on their A game and I know I was being kind of harsh on it but I expect better.
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