Film review: Monsters University
Monsters University is having a hard time fitting in. Director Dan Scanlon’s first picture for Pixar Animation Studios simply does not know what it wants to be when it grows up – a feel-good buddy movie, a kids’ movie about friendship or a movie that shows new sides of familiar characters. Unfortunately, it doesn’t completely succeed at any of these.
While Pixar is no stranger to controversial topics, having contemplated aging and dying in Up, and obesity and pollution in WALL-E, Monsters University – a prequel of sorts to the company’s 2001’s hit Monsters, Inc. – may be the first time it directly addresses the fears and insecurities of millions of college-bound teenagers, although most of them would likely be too embarrassed to admit to anyone they watched it.
The triteness of the plot is surprising for Pixar, whose catalog contains some of the wittiest children’s movies made in the past 30 years.
Oddly unfocused for a studio known for its ability to weld top-notch children’s stories to jokes and characters that are admirably “adult” in their approach, Monsters University often feels forced and awkward.
Read the full review at The Prague Post.
(Photo by Pixar – © 2012 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.)
