I have a confession to make.  I have never watched MONSTER INC, but I did enjoy this unexpected prequel called MONSTERS UNIVERSITY that chronicles how Mike and Sulley met at Monsters University as they both are pursuing their dreams of becoming Scarers.  Sulley (aka Mike Wazowski) has all the smarts as a one eyed cute green monster while Sulley (James P. Sullivan) has the looks of a monster while trying to live up to the family name.  Mike and Sulley get through in with the OK fraternity to compete in the Scare Games so they can keep in the Scare program as they go against the odds as they learn about the value of teamwork.  MONSTERS UNIVERSITY sometimes feel like a fun remake of REVENGE OF THE NERDS at times complete with the jocks and nerds clichés in it in addition to the scary dean who doesn’t approve of Mike or Sulley.  It is a fun prequel that provides a few twists and ;lots of fun moments.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Blu-ray DISC ONE/ DVD-

Audio commentary with Director Dan Scanlon, Producer Kori Rae, and Story Supervisor Kelsey Mann

THE BLUE UMBRELLA THEATRICAL SHORT leaves me disappointed and it just doesn’t seem as great as other animated shorts

Blu-ray DISC TWO-

CAMPUS LIFE- a day in the life of the production as the director and animators work on MONSTER UNIVERSITY

STORY SCHOL- the process of finding the story through storyboards

SCARE GAMES- a series of competitive games between various departments involved in the movie as inspired by the Scare Games

MONTROPOLOGY- a look at creating various monsters for the prequel

WELCOME TO MU- how they modeled Monsters University on various real classic college universities

MUSIC APPRECIATION- behind-the-scenes of recording the score for MU with composer Randy Newman

SCARE TACTICS- perfecting the action of the animated characters so each scare is unique in the prequel

COLOR AND LIGHT- building the pictures of the story through color and light before doing the finished animation

PATHS TO PIXAR: MU EDITION- the animators of MU tell of their jobs before Pixar and how long it took them to score a job at Pixar

FURRY MONSTERS: A TECHNICAL RETROSPECTIVE- the challenges of animating hair for MONSTERS INC and how they went to use in other Pixar movies including MONSTERS UNIVERSITY

The deleted scenes include storyboard animation of deleted plotlines including Sulley and Mike being in grade school together and the two of them being involved in theater class at the university

Interactive Art Galleries: CHARACTERS, COLOR KEYS, DEVELOPMENT ART, ENVIROMENTS, GRAPHICS

Set Flythroughs for the various environments in MONSTERS UNIVERSITY

PROMO PICKS which has a funny MONSTER MASHUP reel, three college spots (COLLEGE COMMERCIAL, MARCH MADNESS, ADMISSIONS), and four trailers for the Theatrical Campaign (TEASER TRAILER, BACK THEN, ONE NIGHT, and the JAPANESE TRAILER is you care to hear the characters speak in Japanese).

FINAL ANALYSIS: MONSTERS UNIVERSITY is a fun movie about how you should never give up your dreams because you may get there in the most unexpected ways.  Still I love the behind-the-scenes extras more than the movie as that second blu-ray disc shows the various aspects that go into making the MONSTER INC. prequel.

This review is (c)10-28-2013 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

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