The first movie I am going to write about is an extraordinary piece of art. All pixar movies are accompanied by a short. The one screened before Monsters university, called The Blue umbrella, is possibly the most beautiful one to come out of pixar's computers. The movie is classic Pixar. Without a single word being said, they show how our hero, the blue umbrella, bumps into the extremely pretty Red umbrella, falls for her and tries to unite with her. The story itself is touching. You root for the blue umbrella and hope he get to be with red. But what blows your mind is how detailed and perfect the artwork is. Pixar, in my opinion, is the gold standard when it comes to art in animated movies. But even seen against pixar's lofty standards the art here is phenomenal. It is unbelievable how the animators are able to convey so many emotions on the faces of pavement tiles, mail boxes, sewage pipes and obviously the umbrellas. I don't think rain has been captured so well in any movie, live action or animation. Accompanying all this is a beautiful music score. The six minutes take you through a whirlwind of emotions ending with a nice happy feeling at the bottom of your heart. Whether or not Pixar wins the best animated feature oscar next year they are almost certainly winning the best animated short. Especially given that the academy is partial to movies like this. ( Paperman won last year)
Which brings us to the feature. I really loved Monsters Inc. So I was looking forward to Monsters university with decently high expectations. The fact that Pixar's track record with sequels (Toy story 2 and 3) is awesome added to these expectations. They typically avoid extending a franchise unless they are very sure about their material.
Monsters University does nothing to harm their reputation. It most certainly is not as awesome as Monsters Inc. but it does not disappoint either. The prequel is mainly a Wazowski show. Mike Wazowski, as we know, is not exactly a Gabbar Singh of the monster world. Parents are definitely not going to tell their children that if they do not sleep on time Mike Wazowski will come and scare them. And anyway children would probably cuddle him rather than get scared by him. But there is only one catch. Mike does not know this. And dreams that he is going to be greatest scarer ever. The story follows Mike's fight to overcome his unscariness with sheer determination, confidence and well-planned strategies. He leads a team of underdogs in a scare competition. Victory in the competition would allow him to be a scaring major in Monsters university. A stepping stone to further success in his career. Along the way he manages to convert Sully, who is introduced as a complete douche into the nice guy Sully we know from Monsters Inc.
The climax of the movie is what makes it better than your run-of-the-mill david beats goliath kinda movie. Though Mike leads his team to victory he does realise that he is not a monster born to scare. He simply does not have the ability and how much ever he may try he is not going to make it as a scarer. He needs to be pragmatic and choose a path that will help him use his immense talents in a field that his close enough to his dreams but not quite what he wished to do. That I believe was a very strong message and one that was translated beautifully onto the big screen. Most underdog movies end up being cliches but trust Pixar to come up with something to surprise you while still warming your heart!
Which brings us to the feature. I really loved Monsters Inc. So I was looking forward to Monsters university with decently high expectations. The fact that Pixar's track record with sequels (Toy story 2 and 3) is awesome added to these expectations. They typically avoid extending a franchise unless they are very sure about their material.
Monsters University does nothing to harm their reputation. It most certainly is not as awesome as Monsters Inc. but it does not disappoint either. The prequel is mainly a Wazowski show. Mike Wazowski, as we know, is not exactly a Gabbar Singh of the monster world. Parents are definitely not going to tell their children that if they do not sleep on time Mike Wazowski will come and scare them. And anyway children would probably cuddle him rather than get scared by him. But there is only one catch. Mike does not know this. And dreams that he is going to be greatest scarer ever. The story follows Mike's fight to overcome his unscariness with sheer determination, confidence and well-planned strategies. He leads a team of underdogs in a scare competition. Victory in the competition would allow him to be a scaring major in Monsters university. A stepping stone to further success in his career. Along the way he manages to convert Sully, who is introduced as a complete douche into the nice guy Sully we know from Monsters Inc.
The climax of the movie is what makes it better than your run-of-the-mill david beats goliath kinda movie. Though Mike leads his team to victory he does realise that he is not a monster born to scare. He simply does not have the ability and how much ever he may try he is not going to make it as a scarer. He needs to be pragmatic and choose a path that will help him use his immense talents in a field that his close enough to his dreams but not quite what he wished to do. That I believe was a very strong message and one that was translated beautifully onto the big screen. Most underdog movies end up being cliches but trust Pixar to come up with something to surprise you while still warming your heart!
