Viewed – 25 December 2013  Blu-ray

A daunting prospect … a sequel to possibly my favourite animated movie of all time.  I absolutely loved Monsters Inc. and consider it Pixar’s crowning achievement … funny, a perfect ‘buddy comedy’, charming, magical and with gorgeous animation and a brilliant concept.  This is more a prequel showing the early years, mainly during University of much loved characters Mike and Sully (Billy Crystal and John Goodman) as fledgling monsters who dream of nothing more than becoming Scarers one days and working at Monsters Incorporated.

Clearly a parody of every campus comedy you’ve ever seen, and seemingly closely resembling Revenge Of The Nerds … I loved the idea of Mike and Sully becoming part of the least popular frat house on campus and having to compete against the more skilled & scarier houses for a chance to learn to be a Scarer.  The banter between the wealth of imaginative creations is first rate, and again Goodman & Crystal work brilliantly together.  There are also plenty of cameos and appearances from other supporting Monsters Inc characters, including Steve Buscemi’s chameleon-like Randy.

With less interaction with the human world this time and more of a focus on the monster world, this does lose ‘something’ that the original movie had, and with a hectic storyline and sometimes too many characters, it fails to zip along like it did before … oh and the ending was anti-climactic.  But these are small gripes for a stunning looking movie (Pixar at the top of their game) and plenty of jokes and fun moments meaning it’s impossible not to come away with a big grin on your face.  Pixar’s best movie in a while.

Verdict:  4 /5