Monsters University

Billy Crystal is a big green ball with legs who wants more than anything to scare the cockles off children and earn the big bucks doing it. To get there he first has to geek it up at a university full of, you guessed it Sherlock, monsters one of whom is a big furry John Goodman. The school is all about the scaring and the dean is the scariest of them all, Helen 'I am the god-damn queen' Mirren. Everyone thinks Billy is wasting his time as we all know green balls are not scary, just look at the poddington peas, but he is determined to show us all by winning some scaring competition thingy. Can he do it? Who knows but maybe we will laugh anyway.

I loved Monsters Inc as I am sure most of us sane people did. It was witty, charming and full to the brim of heart, the reason for this? one word, Pixar. You all know I am a little in love with Pixar as a film studio and thank Christ this film does not darken the name. The characters of Mike and Sully are still charming and voiced perfectly by Billy and John. The character and world design is beautiful and inventive and the predictable monsters in uni jokes still make you laugh like a 9 year old. All that being said it is not a perfect film and doesn't quite make it to the top of the Pixar pedestal, not even close actually. It fails in a few areas in which the first film excelled, the most important of which is the heart. You don't fall in love with the characters the way you did in Inc and unfortunately it did not warm the blood in my cold, black heart. It's a bit of a shame really as you are just left with a feeling of disappointment, albeit a minor one. I would recommend this to anyone but would urge people to make their way through the Pixar back catalogue to see what true movie genius is.

Verdict: 3.5/5