Hey guys! Today we're reviewing and discussing "Monsters University", Pixar's 14th and newest movie. Before the film, there was an accompanying short film called "The Blue Umbrella".
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
Mike Wazowski is a 6-year-old at Frighton Elementary School who is visiting Monsters Inc., a scaring company, applying to help Monstropolis with energy. While on the field trip, the class meets Frank McCay, an employee. He gives the students a couple of pointers about being a scarer, then tells them to watch him enter the human world. However, Frank doesn't notice that Mike had sneaked into the room before he closed the door. At first what Mike saw and heard was Frank roaring, then a girl screaming. Before Mike snuck into the room, one of his classmates sees him, and reports it to his teacher. Frank comes out of the room, and followed by Mike. With Frank figuring out what had happened, he scolds Mike, but eventually perks up and reassures him. The teacher then scolds him, but Mike is happy and states he wants to be a scarer when he grows up. The class leaves, and approximately thirteen years later, Mike is accepted into the prestigious Monsters University. Now a college freshman, Mike begins majoring in scaring. On his first day, Mike befriends the nerdy and shy Randall Boggs, who desires to be popular and has difficulty controlling his camouflage power. While studying one night, Mike encounters an arrogant, playful, all-brawn, large blue monster named James P. "Sulley" Sullivan, who suddenly breaks into Mike's room to hide Archie, the mascot of rival college, Fear Tech. After greeting each other, Archie steals Mike's hat and escapes. Mike and Sulley chase Archie outside where struggle to catch him. When they do catch Archie, Sulley is invited to join Roar Omega Roar, the top fraternity on campus. Mike tries to join, but a fight with Sulley starts a rivalry between the two. While the duo compete to see who is the better scarer, Dean Hardscrabble, the headmistress of the MU scaring faculty, tells the students their final exam for the semester will determine if they can continue in the scaring program. Eventually, Mike and Sulley's rivalry gets out of hand and causes Dean Hardscrabble to drop both of them from the program and Sulley to be kicked out of the fraternity. Unhappy in his new major, Mike decides to enter the Scare Games, a series of physical challenges that tests a monster's scaring ability, in hopes of proving he can be a good scarer. However, the competitors are teams from MU's fraternities and sororities. But hope arises when he joins Oozma Kappa, a fraternity of misfit monsters consisting of founder and mature student Don Carlton, nervous and shy Squishy Squibbles, free-spirited and eccentric Art, and bickering siblings Terri and Terry (who share the same body). Mike tries to enter Oozma Kappa into the Scare Games, but needs one more player. Mike reluctantly lets Sulley onto the team and makes a deal with Hardscrabble to re-admit their team to the scaring program if they win and that if they lose, he'll leave the campus. Sulley doesn't think the team can succeed, but Mike offers to train the others to get them ready. Meanwhile, Randy becomes a member of ROR and asks Mike to stop talking to him. Oozma Kappa surprisingly advances through the first rounds of the Games. During a party at ROR house, the ROR pranks Oozma Kappa and humiliates them in front of the whole student body. A secret visit to Monsters, Inc. lifts their spirits and Oozma Kappa makes it to the final round against ROR. Even as the final round arrives, Sulley has a hard time believing Mike can be a good scarer. So in the final round, he tweaks the equipment so Mike can register a good score and allow Oozma Kappa to win the Games. When Mike realizes this, he is heartbroken and decides to prove to everyone that he can be a good scarer. So, he breaks into the door lab and uses a newly-crafted door to enter the human world at a summer camp, but his plan goes wrong and he fails to scare the kids. Back on campus, Sulley confesses to the Dean just as she is notified of the break-in. Realizing what happened, Sulley enters the door to look for Mike. After finding and reconciling with Mike, the pair attempt to return, but Dean Hardscrabble deactivates the door until the Child Detection Agency arrives, trapping them in the human world. Mike realizes that the only way to get back into the monster world is to generate enough scream energy to power the door from their side. Working together, Sulley and Mike scare the investigating authorities, generating more than enough scream energy to return to the lab. They then get expelled, but before they leave, Hardscrabble acknowledges that Sulley and Mike have both surprised her and wishes them luck. Mike and Sulley decide to take jobs at Monsters, Inc. in the company mailroom, and over time, work their way up until they become part of the scarer team, establishing the story for Monsters, Inc.
The movie is really good. It has a really important lesson at the end and incorporated (pun intended) into the story line. In a scale of 1 to 10, I give it an 8.5. Oh, I almost forgot the short film! The short film was pretty good overall, but the best thing was definitely the storyline :-)
Happy weekend!
Maria.
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