As I sat near the front row of the theater with kids at least 10-15 years younger than me Sunday, I couldn’t help but get a sense of nostalgia. We were all there to see Disney/Pixar’s “Monsters University,” the prequel to the 2001 blockbuster “Monsters Inc.”
What we didn’t have in common was I remember seeing Monsters Inc. in theaters 12 years ago. Most of the other customers in attendance weren’t even thought of 12 years ago.
“Monsters University” tells the story we didn’t know for all these years, how did Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) and James P. “Sulley” Sullivan (John Goodman) meet?
It all began at a university that churns out the best “scarers” in the industry for a land that runs on the screams of scared children.
Mike enters college as a wide-eyed freshman ready to hit the books and become the best scarer after his four-year stay. He is quickly introduced to the equivalent of a no-brain jock in Sulley who considers himself too cool for school.
The two are more enemies than friends, as Sulley quickly becomes the big man on campus while Mike falls in as a brainiac. The two charismatic characters are only united as friends when they are dropped from the scaring program, ending any dream of someday working at Monsters Inc.
Mike joins a misfit group of monsters in the Oozma Kappa fraternity, vowing to win the annual Scare Games and win back the trust of Dean Hardscrabble of the scaring program.
When Sulley joins the fraternity it is all hands on deck as an “Animal House” and “Old School”-esque journey ensues with both characters searching to rejoin the program.
But as the two become closer through the team events of the competition, the story becomes as much about their journey toward personal definition as it is about winning.
In a classic tale of college experiences, Disney and Pixar once again strike big with the coming-of-age tale of an unorthodox set of characters. The movie focuses around the college campus and while the younger crowd surely enjoyed the movie to the tune of an $82 million opening weekend it was as much for our generation as it was theirs.
I remember moving into my first college room, the anticipation of meeting my roommates and trying to figure out how I’d fit in this melting pot of personalities on campus. These are the same struggles and themes seen in “Monsters University”.
Mike finds that by most people’s definition he’s not the scariest monster on campus but he has features that make him among the greats. For Sulley it’s a matter of dropping his pretentious personality and becoming his own person.
It’s the same struggle many students at their New Student Conference will experience this fall and beyond. College changes us but it allows us to figure out what kind of person we want to be and that’s what this movie was all about.
The movie is able to play toward the college stereotypes with fraternities and other organizations as well as one scene during finals where a monster with several arms is seen carrying five different cups of coffee and a the pot itself. Sound familiar?
As you sit down to watch Disney/Pixar’s latest masterpiece don’t let the children distract you, it’s as much for us college-aged students as it is for them.
Because finding ourselves in four years of college is what it’s all been about and being able to relive those memories – parties, friendships and conversations – through Mike and Sulley is enough to make “Monsters University” one I’ll be adding to my movie collection.