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First reviews for MONSTERS UNIVERSITY rolling in.

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Movie was great as any other Pixar.

I know they like to put subtle hints and references in their films, did you guys pick up some from MU? (spoiler it obv)
 
Just saw it tonight. Enjoyable, definitely agree with the "good entry into Pixar middle-of-the-pack" comments.

What I can't get over is how GOOD it looks. Pixar is just amazing at this sort of thing. Nobody can even touch them. The animations, the lighting...it's all so excellent. Even moreso in The Blue Umbrella. I was BLOWN AWAY at how good that little short looked.
 
That was a very good movie. Honest, touching portrayal of pursuit of dreams and (obviously) a nice tale of friendship. Few random notes.

-Loved the beginning with young Mike.
-
The whole scene with Mike and Sully in the human world was brilliant. Touching, intense, and perfectly played out.
-It did sort of drag in the early parts of Mike in college.
-Supporting characters were all pretty funny.
-Gorgeous movie.
-Blue Umbrella was awesome! Loved the inanimate objects, and the MUSIC.

I still think the internet is a bit irrational towards Pixar lately. Even Brave was pretty good, but this is better. Great movie.

Were there any nods to The Good Dinosaur?

Side note. I watched this with my girlfriend in a theater packed with families obviously. The movie started with trailers to movies that were obviously inappropriate for children. Many parents complained. At the end of the movie every person got a free movie ticket. I get to watch Pacific Rim for free now!
 
While I already expected it not to reach MI's greatness (my personal "best" Pixar film), I think people are being too hard on it. It's not Cars level quality.
 
I'm probably going to end up seeing this tomorrow. Might go to a later show to keep the kids in the theater to a minimum.
 
Mistle said:
^Apparently Pixar used a new lighting technology for MU and the short. It shows!
Click to expand...

That's another thing I noticed. Anytime when they are in a shadow, it looks absolutely amazing.

1040234_10151735824214078_697887790_o.jpg
Click to expand...

Apparently it's all automated now, as opposed to before where animators had to place thousands of light sources individually.
 
boring movie. everyone else in the theater seemed bored as well. lady next to me yawned quite a few times. some people walked out. family in front of me seemed to be falling asleep. hardly any laughs.

movie was fairly annoying and not very interesting. only a few good parts.
 
I watched yesterday and loved it; MUCH better than Brave.

I also enjoyed The Blue Umbrella, but just like Paperman the ending just wasn't satisfying.
 
Wasn't a fan of The Blue Umbrella personally. La Luna is still my favorite.

The movie itself was ok, IMO. It had some weird pacing and just didn't seem as good as Monster's Inc. I think it had a little trouble hammering out a theme. Still, it looked great, and had some good jokes.
 
RubxQub said:
I don't know...

The main protagonist wanted nothing more than to be a Scarer. If it'd ended with him achieving that goal and winning the Scare Games by being a super awesome scarer (like it initially looked like it was going to do) than it would have been really cliche.

Instead we have the main character get kicked out of school, never realize him dream, but makes a friend and finds a new direction in life.

We're talking about a Disney movie where a dude is kicked out of school and fails at achieving his dreams, works in a mail-room and works his way up to scare floor coach. Cliche seems about as far from the mark as you can get with this movie.

I get that the middle of the movie followed the standard cliches, but the bookends worked really nice here.
Click to expand...

Also, it was a movie that had a surprising lack of
villains, even the Dean wasn't a villain.
So I wouldn't say it was that much of a cliche at all.
 
Heck, even the jock frat wasn't really villainous.

They pulled one prank on them, but other than that, they were competitors. They never tried to fight dirty.
 
Saw a showing earlier today, I was really surprised at how good Monster University is. In fact, I think I might have liked it better then the original. Belongs on the Top-Tier Pixar movie list (IMO). My faith in the company has been restored!

WillyFive said:
Monsters University avoiding almost every cliche in the book really is one of the best things about it.
Click to expand...

Exactly.

For a movie that everybody already knows the ending to, it was quite brilliant how unpredictable the experience turned out to be.
 
surprisingly good. not quite TS3, but way better than many of the others.

So did anyone else notice the rendering quality made a huge jump part way through the movie? It went from just like Monsters Inc to one of the best I've seen. Step daughter even commented.

Anyone else notice? Sorry if this has been covered....
 
"I want to touch them!"

Took my wife and two kids yesterday and we loved it. Really a fun movie that was just a joy to watch with the kids. Lots of college humor too that worked well for adults.
 
I think you guys are over-exaggerating the twists on the cliches. Sure, it's a nice touch, but the movie still felt mostly derivative. Maybe they were never used as much in a single movie, but I'm pretty sure they've been done before.

It's just a little extra dressing on the same meal you've ate plenty of times before.
 
I did like the message at the end.
You don't have to have a college degree to be successful in life.
. *Sorry, edited for tiny spoilers.
 
Monsters University is an exemplary film in that it does exactly what a prequel should do; tell a separate story that doesn't necessarily contradict, but compliment the events it precedes. It's an arduous process and one that many creative teams aren't cut out for. Hence the stigma prequels often generate.

Thanks to this movie, I can look at Monsters, Inc. with a newfound sense of appreciation. What we got was an elucidating and resonant tale that never feels subservient to the movie that was released before it.

As a side note,
Mike's comedic routine at the end of Monsters, Inc. now feels like it has a far greater payoff. We learn he had to set aside his aspirations to scare in order to play a supportive role for Sully. There's satisfaction in knowing that he does get his moment to excel at the end of his arc in Monsters, Inc.
.


bearythebear said:
I did like the message at the end.
You don't have to have a college degree to be successful in life
.
Click to expand...

"Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen." –Conan O'Brien

In a way, being a "scarer" feels like
an allegory for working in the entertainment/storytelling business
. It's a thought-provoking ending when you consider that
Mike and Sully became top employees by starting at the bottom and having an unbridled sense of enthusiasm only paralleled by their work ethic. Whereas Randall joined a fraternity and presumably used his connections from MU to get hired at the company
.
 
BenjaminBirdie said:
These descriptors are not applicable to the exceptional Monsters University, they just aren't.

At every point where they could have been unimaginative or predictable, they didn't. To wit:
Have Mike and Sully be roommates. Nope. Hi, Randall.
Have Mike and Sully join forces to thwart their frat nemeses? Nope. Sully cheats and everyone gets expelled.
Have Mike prove himself as a scarer and get the respect of everyone who thought he couldn't do it? Nope. He realizes he'll never be scarer when he fails to scare a girl.
Have that girl teach him a lesson about being yourself in some kind of precursor to Boo? Nope. Turns out the girl is in a sleepaway camp in a reveal just as joyously shocking as the Banishment in Monsters Inc.
Have them get back home through a retread of the door chase in the original? Nope. They have to scare a room full of humans.
Have Mike and Sully join forces to get back into the scaring program when they make it back? Nope. They get Monsters Inc jobs WITHOUT EVEN GRADUATING FROM FUCKING COLLEGE, probably the most progressive education-based thematics I've ever seen in a family film.

Oh, Pixar. When are you going to make an imaginative film again and stop being so darn predictable and uninspired. When, when, when.
Click to expand...
Quoting this post because 1) I want to save it 2) it's spot on and also 3) because (as a fan of creative writing who likes to analyze stories) I think the way each these points were handled was excellent.
 
Totakeke said:
I think you guys are over-exaggerating the twists on the cliches. Sure, it's a nice touch, but the movie still felt mostly derivative. Maybe they were never used as much in a single movie, but I'm pretty sure they've been done before.

It's just a little extra dressing on the same meal you've ate plenty of times before.
Click to expand...

This is fair. It had a lot of familiar structures and the overall arc was nothing new. The team of misfits in an elimination competition, with the final event pitting the two rival teams against each other with everything on the line! It sounds generic, and I thought it was from the trailer.

But as BB's post and others have mentioned, where MU surprises is in the details. Because from that structure you'd think you know where the movie goes, but it doesn't. Some things I thought would happen based on the premise/trailers, but didn't:

I though the rival jock team would cheat or play dirty to win. Nope! It's Sully that cheats.

I assumed the Dean was a villain, and during the film, thought she would break her promises. Nope! She was just telling Mike the way she saw it. And kept her end of their bargain.

As it turns out, there were no villains. How refreshing!

I figured Sully and Mike would enter college best friends, and the trial would test that friendship. No, they are antagonists, and Sully is a stuck up prick. The games humble both of them and forge the friendship. (Not super original, but it flipped what I had been expecting.)

And the big one is, they're kicked out in the end, and don't graduate. They lose. Mike fails at his dream. He's not scary, and no amount of hard work will make it so. He has to change his dream, and his path in life, to be happy. I thought that was nothing less than startling.

This goes on, but that's the idea. Familiar story arc/premise, but they resisted the easy way out at nearly every turn.
 
GhaleonEB said:
It had a lot of familiar structures and the overall arc was nothing new. The team of misfits in an elimination competition, with the final event pitting the two rival teams against each other with everything on the line! It sounds generic, and I thought it was from the trailer.

But as BB's post and others have mentioned, where MU surprises is in the details. Because from that structure you'd think you know where the movie goes, but it doesn't. Some things I thought would happen based on the premise/trailers, but didn't:

I though the rival jock team would cheat or play dirty to win. Nope! It's Sully that cheats.

I assumed the Dean was a villain, and during the film, thought she would break her promises. Nope! She was just telling Mike the way she saw it. And kept her end of their bargain.

As it turns out, there were no villains. How refreshing!

I figured Sully and Mike would enter college best friends, and the trial would test that friendship. No, they are antagonists, and Sully is a stuck up prick. The games humble both of them and forge the friendship. (Not super original, but it flipped what I had been expecting.)

And the big one is, they're kicked out in the end, and don't graduate. They lose. Mike fails at his dream. He's not scary, and no amount of hard work will make it so. He has to change his dream, and his path in life, to be happy. I thought that was nothing less than startling.

This goes on, but that's the idea. Familiar story arc/premise, but they resisted the easy way out at nearly every turn.
Click to expand...

It's like instead of a left turn they took a right turn but still mostly up ended at the same place. I liked the ending, but that's how I mostly felt about the movie.
 
Just got back from seeing it. It was mostly okay, but I really didn't become engaged until
the last act of the movie, once it's revealed that Sully cheated.
From then on, the movie defied my general expectations of kids-movie-morals.
 
Very entertaining movie and on my list of the better Pixar entries. I'll agree that it did an excellent job of not falling into too many traditional cliches.

The entire ending sequence was really strong and creative.
the camp kids were creepy and it was great in showing what adults can be scared of
 
I kinda wish they made Randall a bit more developed though. Yeah the idea was that he could've been a nice fellow who ended up with the wrong group, but then he suddenly "rawr Sullivan" at the end as though the stakes were personal.

On a related note why are people expecting Mike to be
top scarer
? lol
 
bearythebear said:
Didn't have the emotional hooks of a Pixar-tier movie. Monster's Inc. had the little kid in it. I think Boo is her name
Click to expand...

I think the entire arc between
Mike realizing he didn't win the games to the entire real world sequence and the ending montage
was very much just as emotional as that of the first film and Toy Story 3.

Special props to the opening of the movie too in
the Monsters Inc. scare floor
for being remarkably well done, both with a sense of nostalgia and wonder of seeing it from a very different perspective.

teruterubozu said:
It was basically Revenge of the Nerds, Pixar-style. I thought it was highly derivative.
Click to expand...

It's a college movie, that doesn't make it derivative; a college movie will feel like a college movie. It's the actual plot that makes a movie different, not a genre.
 
WillyFive said:
It's a college movie, that doesn't make it derivative; a college movie will feel like a college movie. It's the actual plot that makes a movie different, not a genre.
Click to expand...

I would say more specifically it's a frat-house movie. A college movie can have more diversity, like Good Will Hunting and The Social Network. Either way, my daughter enjoyed Monsters Uni, which is all that counts for me.
 
Yeah I honestly think a lot of the stuff that's supposedly "uncliche" doesn't really matter.

I still feel like Randall could've been used better.
 
I enjoyed the movie, it was a good flick. I mean the story structure didnt blow me away, but it was a nice film and I enjoyed it.
 
Mistle said:
^Apparently Pixar used a new lighting technology for MU and the short. It shows!
Click to expand...
Actually, this is the first movie in which they have used full on raytracing. Before it was shadow-maps with selective raytracing for very sensitive parts.

The power of light.
 
Thinking of seeing a movie today ($6 tuesdays!) and a bit torn, but I'm probably going with MU. The mixed reviews are not making it easy, but how bad could it be? Plus I can redeem my ticket for some Disney points.
 
Zeer0id said:
Thinking of seeing a movie today ($6 tuesdays!) and a bit torn, but I'm probably going with MU. The mixed reviews are not making it easy, but how bad could it be? Plus I can redeem my ticket for some Disney points.
Click to expand...

It's pretty good. In a way more lighthearted than most other Pixar films, but it doesn't stop it from being enjoyable and it got plenty of good laughs from me and my gf.
 
Just got back from the movie. I loved it. Everything everyone said in the thread about going the direction they did with the message of the story and avoiding cliches is true. Great, great message. The first third of the movie was good but nothing laugh out loud, but the rest of it was fantastic.

As for "Blue Umbrella," "Paperman" absolutely destroys it. It wasn't even close to being as good.
 
Plinko said:
Just got back from the movie. I loved it. Everything everyone said in the thread about going the direction they did with the message of the story and avoiding cliches is true. Great, great message. The first third of the movie was good but nothing laugh out loud, but the rest of it was fantastic.

As for "Blue Umbrella," "Paperman" absolutely destroys it. It wasn't even close to being as good.
Click to expand...

The thing I don't understand about 'Blue Umbrella' is
the drinking coffee in the rain with the umbrellas up
. You've never seen that and you'll never see that because nobody would do it.
 
thecouncil said:
The thing I don't understand about 'Blue Umbrella' is . You've never seen that and you'll never see that because nobody would do it.
Click to expand...

Some parts in Blue Umbrella don't make sense either. I mean, that car (or was it truck) hit should definitely cripple the umbrella and not just some minor wound! :P
 
wow, so much hate for Blue Umbrella here. I loved it. The fact that it was ridiculously gorgeous probably influenced my opinion of it because the whole thing was just shot so beautifully (not to mention the technology in general) that I could overlook the fact that what little plot is there doesn't really make much sense and probably is a poor-man's-paperman. and I'm a sucker for cities drenched in rain—it's such a great setting.

also, MU was decent. lower tier Pixar for sure.
 
MU was good, but not great. If anything, it made me want to watch the original again, and it's not one of my favorites. It felt a little bit like it was a parody of college movies as opposed to being a parody of college life, which was disappointing.

Pixar delivers an unparalleled voice cast as always though. Always one of my favorite things about their movies.
 
Mister Negative said:
Just saw it tonight. Enjoyable, definitely agree with the "good entry into Pixar middle-of-the-pack" comments.

What I can't get over is how GOOD it looks. Pixar is just amazing at this sort of thing. Nobody can even touch them. The animations, the lighting...it's all so excellent. Even moreso in The Blue Umbrella. I was BLOWN AWAY at how good that little short looked.
Click to expand...

When it comes to character animation, I think other studios smoke em pretty well but nobody has touched Pixar when it comes to pure tech. I remember being blown away watching Ratatouille, they used a new process for human skin in that one for the first time and it was amazing as hell
 
Just finished it and I thought it was great

One question though, how did Mike
get out of that camp room without being touched by all the kids?
 
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