Friday, June 21, 2013

Monsters University Head Canons *may contain spoilers*

*Alright, so I started this a few months ago and said I would publish it the night before the movie comes out, but now, I've already seen the movie and have decided to confirm or deny these. Reminder, there will be spoilers!*

I won't call these predictions because chances are, plenty of them won't be in the film. I just thought I'd take my guesses and see how close the film gets.

I'm gonna continue updating this with conformations, denials, and additions, and put it up the night before the movie comes out.

- Randall and Mike are best friends, as they are both "nerds".
  - Update: This is more than likely seeming true.
CONFIRMED

- Celia and Sulley are dating; and Celia wouldn't give a second thought about dating Mike.
  - Update: from what it seems, Celia won't be in the movie.
DENIED mostly. A picture of Celia is seen near the end, but that's it.

- Waternoose and Roz work at the university, Waternoose perhaps as a long-time alumn and of presitgious honor, and Roz perhaps as a lunch lady or custodian. Another thought is that Waternoose visits from MI to give the students a talk about the company.
   - Update: Waternoose is no longer on the Wikipedia, so I doubt he'll be in it.
DENIED mostly. Like Celia, a picture of him is seen near the end, but that's all. Roz makes a brief appearance near the end.

- With regard to the "You've been jealous of my good looks since the fourth grade, pal" line in the first film, perhaps they knew each other somewhat in the fourth grade but didn't remember it when they went to college; it only occurred to them once they became friends.
   - Update: This is more of a head canon, as Pixar says they'll probably just ignore it.
NEITHER CONFIRMED NOR DENIED. Just ignored, as Pixar planned to.

- While practicing, the scaring majors will try and scare Boo's mom.
   - Update: This is really just wishful thinking.
DENIED.

- Most of the other scaring majors in their fraternity weren't scary enough to make the cut, and thus we didn't see them in Monsters, Inc.
NEITHER CONFIRMED NOR DENIED. In the credits, it seems that the OKs became scarers, and yet we don't see them in the other movie. Also, some other students like the RORs ended up working at different scare companies.

- Don Carlton was one of the first monsters in his fraternity and hasn't been successful with the rest of his life and thus has stayed with them. He might be the uncle of Squishy, or at least act like one.
PARTIALLY CONFIRMED, PARTIALLY DENIED. We're not sure if he was one of the first brothers, he seems to have just gone to them once he went back to college. He ends up being Squishy's stepdad.

- Fungus isn't popular, but doesn't start out as a friend of Randall's, either. Maybe he makes fun of him.
DENIED. No Fungus in the film, sadly.

- Sulley gets extremely nervous when he gets his job at MI, and thus, starts working out regularly as opposed to never doing so as he used to.
IMPLIED CONFIRMATION. It seems as though Sulley didn't work out as much because he thought he could just wing scaring and be good at it. Once he understood it takes more than that and got to the big leagues, he knew better.

Monsters University: Pros and Cons *may contain spoliers*

Back to the old pros and cons format just because I think that's fit for this.

Last night, I saw the movie I've been waiting all year for, and it was just as wonderful as I had hoped, if not even a bit more.

Pros:
The characters. I feel like we have a lot more characters here than we did in the first one. I love big worlds with plenty of colorful characters and that's exactly what you get here. If we're going more in depth, the personalities of the characters are great too. There are plenty you fall in love with. You feel for Mike very deeply, even Sulley a bit later on, and characters like Art and Chet are very enjoyable. Also, the way everything happens with the dean is great. It's not too quick to her becoming "good", nor does it avoid it all together. The way it works out is great.
The connections to the first film. Whether funny or heartwarming, they make all of us who loved the first movie as children smile. The appearances of other known characters near the end just made the whole movie all the more worthwhile, Roz especially (I was praying for that so hard). As many are saying, we don't go very in depth with Randall, but I think that's okay, because this is more about Mike. But what we do get with Randall is definitely good in my opinion. There are some parts where music from the first film is recycled, and I just love that.
The depth. While I did briefly mention this when talking about Mike, I will continue to say that you immensely feel for him and the others and become very invested in what they're going through. Mike was a bit of a flat character in the first film but I've always preferred him over Sulley, so to see this was great.
Teamwork. The message is great and played out perfectly. Sulley is scary, but doesn't know the science behind scaring. Mike is the opposite. This is why them teaming up to scare together is the perfect solution. It also shows them that they wouldn't have nothing if they didn't have each other, reference completely intended.
The fun. In addition to the world and its colors, the movie is just very fun. It is very deep too, yes, but it is a college movie. You do get some partying, fun training montages, etc.
The shipping. At the end. I should've seen it coming. Admittedly, I kinda did, but I'm so glad it happened.

Cons:
The friendship. Near the end, the only thing about Mike that Sulley seems to care about is that he knows how to scare. He doesn't show all that much actual care for him. But, honestly, I can't think of another way this could've played out.
The pace. Just in one part. Mike introduces the OKs as if he knows them so well, but at that point, I don't think he had even joined them yet. A little hesitation on his part may have better explained that.
Character roles. Just a nitpick. You know, I would've liked George to get a legit speaking role, some Boo somehow would've been nice, you know.

Honestly, all those are nitpicks. This movie has no major flaws, but what else would you expect from Pixar?

All in all, this movie was fantastic, just as I hoped it would be. I highly recommend it. Also, I'm pretty bored so I might write a review for Epic and/or some other movies, maybe, maybe not, we'll see.