MONSTERS UNIVERSITY

UPDATE 11/4/13: Blu-ray details review.QUALITY: Unsurprisingly, the video quality is stunning. Little else needs to be said about the transfer. It's flawless.EXTRAS: There are a TON of extras!If you like the behind-the-scenes process of filmmaking, the extras here are about as extensive as I've seen before. Not only do the shorts give a background of life on Pixar's campus (Campus Life), but plenty of dedication to each aspect of making the film. Of course, there's also some deleted scenes.What's nice about the scenes is that director Dan Scalon talks you through the scene in detail and why it was cut. They are of course unfinished, but still interesting to see what could have been part of the movie.If I have one complaint, it's the layout of the bonus features menu. Despite the features being on a blu-ray disc, the menu does not operate like a blu-ray menu. Typically, you're able to operate within the menu while the movie (or features) are playing on screen. Instead, you need to return to the menu screen to select the next option. It's a small caveat, but there we go.SPOILERS BELOW. DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM.If you don't care about the end being discussed, then by all means read on...My wife and I saw Monsters University and both loved it. Many of the Top Critics on Rotten Tomatoes however, seemed to miss the point of the film entirely."This is a safe, predictable, edge-free, nearly bland effort from a studio that rarely hedges its bets." - Richard Roeper"[It] conforms to [Pixar's] apparent drift toward the average, with toy sales taking priority over originality." - Liam Lacey"Monsters University is cute, and funny, and the animation, though not exactly inspired, is certainly colorful." - Steven Rae"Mostly memorable for being fine but forgettable." - Betsy SharkeySince 1995, Pixar has dominated computer animated filmmaking. They constantly win Academy Awards (9 nominations, 7 wins for Best Animated Feature) and are universally praised for their efforts by the critics. Nearly each Pixar movie has a handful of lessons or dominant themes it tries to teach and tell. The Toy Story Trilogy (friendship, getting older) A Bug's Life (self-esteem, ingenuity, teamwork) Monster Inc (greed, pride) Finding Nemo (father-son relationship, growing up, letting go) The Incredibles (family values, honor) *Cars and Cars 2 (I'm pretty sure these are just about marketing toys) Ratatouille (friendship, trust, confidence) WALL-E (consumerism, environmentalism) Up (love, living life in the moment) Brave (family values, respect, love, mother-daughter relationship).However, after seeing MU and reading the critical reviews, I was shocked how many reviewers missed the point of the film and the important lessons Pixar chose to address in the film. You could even make the argument that the lessons in MU are more bold than any previous Pixar film. Which leads to why MU is ultimately about failure and why that's okay.Obviously, as this is a movie about college, there are your typical and inherent lessons for the characters (finding your place, growing up, building friendships), but the most important and surprising lesson is watching Mike Wazowski fail. This lesson is a particularly unique and groundbreaking approach for the age groups in Generation Y (Millennial) and Z. Generational scholar and author Ron Alsop argued that the Millennial generation is a group of "trophy kids", who were given rewards just for participating. I'm a Millennial and like many of my friends growing up, we all received gold stars on our homework, ribbons for events, etc. constantly rewarding us for just doing our job. You could also argue we've been constantly told that we could achieve anything we want if we just worked hard. We were told there was no way we could fail. This is the definitive issue that MU tackles head-on.From the age of little monster, Mike is enthralled with the career of being a scarer - the job that every monster dreams of. It's for the cream of the crop. Mike is told continually as a small monster that he's too small and not scary enough to succeed. It's only after he sneaks into a live door on the Monsters, Inc. scare floor that people believe he's capable of great things. He uses that moment to work hard and get into Monsters University to study at the School of Scaring.The main plot is the competitive nature between the hard-working Mike and the famous-last-name Sullivan. Their antagonistic rivalry drives the story until they are forced to work together to get back into the School of Scaring. Like all feel good movies, Mike and Sullivan ultimately save the day, win the Scare Games and are cheered and admired amongst everyone at the school. They defeat the oppressive Dean and defy expectations, the day is theirs! But it's right that that the writers (Robert L. Baird, Daniel Gerson, Dan Scanlon) drastically changes things.Sullivan admits to cheating to help his team of lovable losers win and save face for Mike who he believes isn't scary. When Mike finds out, he breaks into the door testing laboratory to prove to himself that he is indeed scary. However, he quickly learns that he does not in fact scare the kids in the cabin. Crushed, Mike goes to the nearby lake and wallows in self-pity. Everything he's dreamed about and worked for has been for naught - he's failed to be scary, what society tells them is the only thing monsters should be. In the end Mike accepts this and along with Sully works his way from the mailroom at Monsters Inc. to the scare floor where we find him and Sully in Monsters, Inc.While this journey from the mailroom to success supports the "work hard and you can accomplish anything" mentality of our generations, it also addresses the fact that Mike isn't ultimately meeting his initial goal. He acknowledges his failure and grows past that. No other examples come to mind of children movies in which a character or character fail and are okay with it, at least not in the end. This is what the critics missed. Pixar has chosen to tell a story about children (monsters) who grew up and realized that they cannot achieve their dreams, that their dreams are out of reach and totally unattainable. This bold lesson is actually a fantastic one for kids who watch this film.For some, it's been decades of being taught that it is okay to fail, but that with hard work you can still achieve those dreams. For many that's true, but for some it's just not feasible. MU has managed to tell a story that supports that second statement. Failing isn't bad and realizing that some dreams really are out of reach is also okay. The real lesson is to be comfortable with who you are, what you're truly capable of and utilizing your strengths to better yourself and your community. That's what Mike does, he becomes the coach and teacher. His knowledge of scaring helps Sullivan to eventual massive success. He helps the rest of Oozma Kappa reach their dreams.It's not a story about settling, it's a story about failing, learning from it and growing from the experience to make yourself and others better. It's a life lesson that we should share with this current and future generations. Yes you can reach your dreams with hard work, but if you can't, that's okay too.

This is more a review of the Blu-Ray set than the movie. Plenty of others have extolled the virtues of the movie, which I and my 10 year old son loved. So I'm going to focus on what was good and bad on the Blu-Ray.The addition of the DVD is of no use to us - we have no DVD only drives anywhere, not even on our computers. Everything is Blu-Ray where we watch anything. So I'd really prefer to see them do more Blu-Ray that aren't the multi format versions, yet still have all the extras. For this movie, the only options were this, or combo packs that had both movies in it. I'd prefer to not have to pay for a version I'm never going to use.We already had this in digital format, but I wanted to get the Blu-Ray for the extra content. My son loves the "extras" in movies like the outtakes in Bugs Life and such, or even the bloopers on Muppets Most Wanted. So I had hoped we would get some good ones on here.And that's where he was disappointed. There were a couple hours of extras here, but not really any engaging content for younger kids. Most of the extra content is designed for older people. And for me, as a parent, it was fascinating, hence the 5 star rating despite the things I didn't like about it. They had a bunch of videos behind the scenes, showing the workflow and the things the people deal with while creating the animations, storylines, art, etc... As a grown up I really enjoyed it. My son lost interest in a few minutes and moved on to something else. But these videos had some really neat insight into how the story morphed and changed from the beginning (I never knew originally Sully was going to want to be a dentist like his father, which shows how much they changed as they went). They also discussed how they used light and shadow to help emphasize the differences between the characters, and how whenever Mike and Sully were at odds, one was always in sunlight, the other in shadow. Whenever they started working together, that's when they would both be lit the same. Or whenever they made a major decision, they'd step from shadow into the light. Little things like that, which made subsequent viewings of the movie more interesting as I strove to catch these little things I had missed previously.I had hopes for the deleted scenes, but unfortunately there were no scenes that were cut after animation, so all they are is a mix of very basic animation and storyboarding. They were alright, but I can see why they cut them, nothing really forwarded the story.They had some really nice artwork as well in a photo show you can do. Again, something that interested me as an adult, but held no interest for my son.The sound and video quality were excellent.All told, if you're doing like I was, and thinking of getting this for the extras for your child, don't bother. There's nothing of interest for the younger kids. But if you, yourself, want to see behind the curtain to get an inside look at how they do their magic, it's worth grabbing.

I would recommend you watch this movie before you watch “monsters ink” because you will understand it better! Besides that this is a perfect movie and is appropriate for young children!

Because they weren’t born when the first one came out.

Two goofball monsters in a familiar college scenario. Explains the origin of their working together at Monsters Inc.

They really are happy for this movie even it's old

Was q great film all round.Sean Donaldson.

My son loved this- it was a present for his birthday and parcel arrived before time stayed so very happy.

"Die Monster Uni" ist die gelungene Fortsetzung zu "Die Monster AG". Die Geschichte des Films spielt zeitlich vor dem ersten Teil und erzählt so die Geschichte wie sich die Freunde Mike und Sulley an der Uni kennen lernten und ein Team wurden.Schon als kleiner Junge hat Mike davon geträumt einmal ein großer Schrecker zu werden. Um seinen Traum zu leben muss Mike aber erst zur Monster Uni. Doch schon während des ersten Semesters droht Mikes Traum zu platzen und zusätzlich macht ihm noch "Sulley" Sullivan der Liebling aller Lehre Probeme.Auch wenn man als gewiefter Kinozuschauer noch immer, und trotz einiger gelungener, Fortsetzungen skeptisch gegenüber steht hat Pixar schon mit der "Toy Story" Trilogie bewiesen das sie in der Lage sind Geschichten gelungen weiter, oder wie hier von vorne zu erzählen.Wie gewohnt bietet der Film für jeden etwas. Die Geschichte rund um den schwierigen Beginn einer Freundschaft und den Versuch der Verwirklichung eines Traumes, trotz vieler fast schon unüberwindbarer Schwierigkeiten hat für Kinder, Jugendliche wie auch Erwachsene eine nicht zu verachtende Botschaft.Die Animationen sind gewohnt Weltklasse. Das Bild ist unglaublich farbenreich und es ist ein Traum den Figuren zu zu sehen.Das Steelbook lässt auch keine Wünsche offen. Dieses beinhaltet insgesamt 3 Blu-Rays.Disc 1 beinhaltet den Hauptfilm als 3D Version sowie dem Kurzfilm "Der Blaue Regenschirm".Disc 2 beinhaltet den Hauptfilm als normale Blu-Ray Version sowie, auch, den Kurzfilm "Der Blaue Regenschirm". Wer sich die Kurzfilme vielleicht sonst auch nicht anschaut sollte das hier tun. Ein wirklich toller Kurzfilm mit teilweise unglaublich realen Animationen (zu Beginn habe ich wirklich überlegt ob es Animiert wurde oder nicht).Disc 3 beinhaltet weitere Extras. Darunter die Doku, "Ein Tag auf dem Campus" bei der Mann den Regisseur des Films, Dan Scanlon, einen Tag lang auf dem Pixar Campus bei der Entstehung des Films begleitet. Weitere Extras sind "Story Schule", "Schreckspiele", "Monstrologie", "Willkommen auf der MU", "Ein Hoch auf die Musik", "Schreck Taktiken", "Farbe und Licht", "Wege zu Pixar: MU Edition", "Haarige Monster: Ein technischer Rückblick", "Zusätzliche Szenen", "Promo Material", "Ein Flug über das Set" und "Kunstgalerie".Ich muss zugeben das Steelbook nicht wegen der 3D Version sondern wegen der Bonus Disc gekauft zu haben. Es ist sicherlich schon ärgerlich das man die 3D Version dafür kaufen muss weil die anderen Versionen keine Bonus Disc haben. Trotzdem bereue ich den Kauf letztendlich nicht."Die Monster Uni" ist ein toller Film für die ganze Familie, zusätzlich bekommt man hier einen überzeugenden Kurzfilm und viele Extras die einen einen guten Einblick hinter die Kulissen geben und so zusätzlich Spaß machen.

iN GENERE I SEQUEL SONO SCARSI RISPETTO AL FILM ORIGINARIO, QUESTO DECISAMENTE NO! DIVERTENTE,SIMPATICO,ORIGINALE,INDIPENDENTE. SI INDIPENDENTE DAL FILM MONSTER, CERTO I PERSONAGGI LI RICONOSCI, SAI COSA FARANNO DA GRANDI MA è TUTTO QUI IL COLLEGAMENTO, LA STORIA è SLEGATA DAL FILM MONSTER, HA UNA SUA SOLIDITà, UN SUO SVOLGERSI, UN SUO MESSAGGIO E UNA SUA MORALE;DELINEA I CARATTERI DEI PROTAGONISTI CHE SI RICOLLEGANO BENISSIMO ALL'ALTRO FILM MA NON TI CI FA ANDARE CON LA MEMORIA, TI TINE CATTURATO ALLA STORIA CHE STAI VEDENDO, VUOI SAPERE COME VA A FINIRE Lì ALL'UNIVERSITà E NON TI VIENE IN MENTE MONSTER.INSOMMA PROPRIO UN BEL FILM.