If you’re looking for a modern day CGI animated classic in the run up to Christmas this year, you can’t go far wrong with the Monsters University DVD. It’s another stunning tag team effort from the guys at Disney and Pixar, producing a genuinely perfect animated adventure that takes us back to the Uni days of Mike and Sully before theybecame the finely tuned scaring machines of Monsters Inc.
Released on the 11th November 2013, the DVD is a must watch for any Disney, Pixar or animated movie lovers out there and great buy if you’re looking for a brilliantly funny animated movie. It’s one of the most beautifully animated movies we’ve ever seen too. If you watch it just take a moment every now and again to look around the screen to see the sheer level of detail the Pixar animators have put into ever frame.
Whether it’s Sully’s fur or the shine on Mike’s one big eyeball, you can’t fault the effort they must have had to put in to achieve the results that they have. It really adds to the feeling that what you’re watching could be real, making it even easier to buy into the movie, even though it is essentially about Monsters that come through kids doors at night to scare them and harvest their screem energy.
The storyline is just as cool as the visuals, starting out with a very young Mike Wazowski, voiced as brilliantly as ever by Billy Crystal, as he goes on a school trip to Monsters Inc. and finds out that to become a scarer he’s got to study hard and graduate from the Scare School of Monsters University. Skip a few years forward and a freshman Mike is on his way to the Ivy League of the moster world, but with Randy Boggs, voiced by Steve Buscemi (Youth In Revolt) as his roommate and a burgeoning rivalry with privelaged big man on campus, Sully, played by John Goodman (Argo), he’s got a pretty tough first year.
When a scare-off with Sully during their first scare simulator training class gets them kicked out of the scare programme by the dean of the University, Abigail Hardscrabble (Helen Mirren – Hitchcock), they find themselves a long way from their dream Uni days. However, Mike takes on the challenge of the scare games and manages to make an agreement with Hardscrabble that if he and his team of raggydoll-like fraternity mates from Oozma Kappa win the competition they all get to go back into the scare programme. When a place comes up in their rag-tag team, Sully joins the crew and the movie jumps into the full swing of the desperate underdog plot.
The comic timing is spot-on throughout, whether it’s one liners or slap stick. It’s helped along by an impressive performance from the cast. Goodman, Crystal and Buscemi have got a really natural interaction from their previous roles in Monsters Inc. and Helen Mirren is easily the scariest character we’ve seen in a while that isn’t actually a baddie.
The Oozma Kappa fraternity boys add a lot to the genius of the film with solid performances from Joel Murray as Don Carlton, an older student with a moustache that looks like a bats wing, Sean Hayes and Dave Foley as the two headed brothers Terry Perry, Peter Sohn as the multi-eyed and soft hearted Squishy and Charlie Day as the far out furry bipedal insanity that is Art.
Alfred Molina (Roger and Val Have Just Got In) is a bit quiet as Professor Derek Knight, the main teacher on the Scare Programme, but Aubrey Plaze (Parks and Recreation) has a few good lines as the Scare Games commentator and Greek council President, Claire Wheeler. Bill Hader (Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2) puts in a bit of a cameo as a referee in the games and Cheers legend John Ratzenberger has a cool cameo late on as The Abominable Snowman.
Monsters University is one of the best animated films of the year and the DVD is one to watch or add to your collection. It looks amazing, has some awesome characters, as well as a great plot, and it’s genuinely funny. However, if you’re looking for another reason to like the film you could add the brilliant music score, which was written by
Monsters University DVD review: 5/5
