Have you ever wondered how Mike and Sulley from Monsters Inc met? Did you ever ponder what it would be like to attend college in the monster world? Well wonder no more, Monsters University has arrived!
From the first time he experienced the Scare Floor at Monsters Incorporated, Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) wanted to be a Scarer. During the Pixar monster universe’s version of elementary school, while on a school field trip, Mike and his class meet Frank McCay (John Krasinski) a top Scarer at Monsters Inc. Mike is enthralled with Frank. Frank encourages Mike to follow his dream and even gives him his Monsters University baseball cap. Frank is an alumnus of Monsters University, a college in the Pixar monster universe.
So Mike spends all of his time reading every book on scaring he can find, learning everything he can about being a Scarer. When the time comes, following the advice of his hero Frank McCay, he enrolls at Monsters University. Mike is ready to start his career as a Scarer!! During his first days at school he meets Randall (Steve Buscemi) and of course, James P. Sullivan, better known as Sulley (John Goodman).
While Mike spends all his time studying, reading, and learning, Sulley would rather slack off. His father is one of the greatest Scarers ever, so he is riding on his dad’s coattails (side note: they never showed either Mike or Sulley’s parents in this movie. In fact, they rarely talked about them except for Sulley’s dad). Believe it or not, it is hate at first sight. Mike and Sulley do not get along. Mike can’t stand Sulley’s arrogance, and Mike’s earnestness and bookishness annoys Sulley.
Right away, Sulley pledges the top fraternity on campus, Roar Omega Roar. Mike doesn’t have time for fraternities because he is too busy studying how to be a Scarer!! Unfortunately, despite all of Mike’s studying and Sulley’s father’s legacy, the monsters are kicked out of the School of Scaring by the Dean of the school, Dean Hardscrabble (Helen Mirren), a former top Scarer. Mike is devastated; he’s worked towards being a Scarer his whole life.
Now enrolled in classes learning about canister making, Sulley and Mike are bored out of their monster minds. That is until Mike remembers a flyer that he picked up at the beginning of the school year – a flyer for the Scare Games. Mike finds a fraternity of misfit monsters who live in a house off-campus. Oozma Kappa is unofficially led by Squishy (Peter Sohn) an awkward, somewhat nerdy monster, and includes Don (Joel Murray) an older gentlemonster who was a former salesman that was let go from his job and decided to attend the university, Terri (Sean Hayes) and Terry (Dave Foley), a two-headed monster who is constantly arguing…with himself, and last but not least, Art (Charlie Day), a purple, furry, hippie-like monster. Since they need six monsters to form a team, Sulley decides to join their fraternity (he was booted from Roar Omega Roar after he was kicked out of the School of Scaring).
Mike makes a deal with Dean Hardscrabble – if Oozma Kappa wins the Scare Games, he and Sulley can rejoin the School of Scaring. Along with their new fraternity brothers, Mike and Sulley prepare for the Scare Games, which has events that eliminate the losing sorority or fraternity after each event.
Will Oozma Kappa win the Scare Games?? What will happen to Mike and Sulley?? The answers to these questions and more are revealed in “Monsters University”!!
Basically, Monsters University was a clean, kid-friendly version of “Revenge of the Nerds”. It was amazing to see how Pixar created this whole college world…for monsters. Everything you would find on a human college campus, you can see at Monsters University. I found myself constantly being amazed by both the animation (of course, it was Pixar!!) and the level of detail in each scene. I loved the addition of the new monsters in the Oozma Kappa fraternity. Stay tuned for a cute scene after the credits.
