Pixar's "Monsters University" was released in 2013. It is the prequel to the 2001 hit "Monsters Inc." At the time, critics viewed this movie as shallow, but the themes of the movie are very strong and relatable. Spoilers for Monsters University and Monsters Inc. ahead!
Original release
Disney-Pixar released the movie "Monsters University" on June 21, 2013. The movie is about a young Mike Wazowski going to Monsters University with hopes of becoming a scarer. These dreams are thwarted by other environmental factors. By the end of the movie, Mike and Sulley end up getting involved in the scaring program at Monsters Inc. by climbing up the ladder and using their combined skills.
This movie stands out because it is a prequel to the movie "Monsters Inc." Pixar's "Monsters Inc." came out in 2001 and follows the plot of two monsters helping a little girl get back to the human world. It is considered a classic in Pixar's movie lineup and is often ranked among the highest of Pixar's movies by critics.
At the movie's release, "Monsters University" was criticized for having a far simpler plot than the first movie and for using college tropes. But I, for one, feel like that is an unfair assessment of the film.
Many did not enjoy the end of the movie, where they ended up getting kicked out of the University and had to make their own way. However, one can argue that the climax of the movie as well as its conclusion is very integral to the characters and gives more life to the characters from the first movie because it confronts viewers with one simple lesson.
Just because you want something does not mean it is achievable. It is okay to fail because sometimes, failure can be your greatest success.
Character Motivation (MU vs MI)
The character that gets explored through this lens of rejection is Mike himself. The movie does a really good job of establishing that since he was a child, Mike wanted nothing more than to be a scarer. His plot motivations are incredibly simple: Go to Monsters University, become a scarer, go to Monsters Inc. and be like his childhood heroes.
Mike is hungry for things to go his way. It is made very evident that the odds are stacked against him. He is small, and in a world full of monsters, he is considered not scary. But where Mike is not scary, he is very smart, and he knows everything there is to know about being scary. One might think he would be able to develop the skill of scarring because of this, as he is able to train the other people in his fraternity to be proper scarers.
But that is not the case. The Oozma Kappas (OKs) win the Scaring Cup and win entirely because of Mike's help in training them. But ultimately, the only reason Mike got the highest scores is because Sulley broke the machine for him. It is implied that they would not have won if that did not happen. After this, he is forced to face the fact that no matter how smart he is, it does not matter. He is not scary, and he will never be scary.
After this, they get kicked out of college, and it is made to believe that they have to figure something out. But because this is a prequel to a movie that came out about 12 years before, we know that they ended up working at Monsters Inc. The audience knows that they have made it and are considered the top scare team. But "Monsters University" subverts expectations and shows them getting to this goal through other means rather than through traditional means.
This connects well with Mike's character in Monsters Inc. Where he is seen as the nag because he and Sulley are close to breaking the scare record and in his eyes, it gets ruined because Boo gets brought into the monster world. If you put the two movies together, it makes perfect sense why he would behave this way. That is another reason I think that Monsters University is a great movie; it retroactively creates connections that act as character motivation.
If Mike did not face the rejection at Monsters University and have to claw his way to the top through other means with Sulley, it is not clear if he would have reacted the way he did during Monsters Inc.
Mike is not the only character who deals with rejection throughout the movie. Another integral character in the plot is Sulley himself. The first movie does a decent job of showing that Mike and Sulley have been friends for a long time. I think it was genius that at the beginning of the movie, Sulley was an unlikable character. He is very selfish at the beginning of the movie. He is very cocky and overall a jerk because he is part of a family with a long line of scarers.
Throughout the movie, he starts to enjoy hanging out with the OKs and Mike by extension. Sulley creates this bond with him where they are symbiotic (like enemies-to-friends). I think his character could have ended up very cliche. It was very easy to make him the “Frat guy who does not care about anything but then comes to care about the main character's struggles,” and this is in fact the main criticism with his character. However, during the climax while Mike is having his realization, the audience finds out that Sully himself has a fear of rejection and massive insecurities.
His fear of rejection is tied to his family. Throughout the movie, it is shown that while Sulley is gifted with scaring, he is not that bright. It was shown that the reason he knows enough to compete in the scare games is because of Mike's coaching. Academically, he has not shown himself to be a good student at all, and that is one of the very sore spots for his insecurities.
While a lot of fans of the first movie do not like the second movie, the main critique with Sulley is that the second movie feels like a character assassination attempt. I don't feel that way. If you go back and watch "Monsters Inc.," Sulley is kind of selfish.
It comes with their partnership dynamic that Sulley is going to have more attention as he is the scarer of the group. In "Monsters Inc.," both Sulley and Mike seem to be fine with this. One of the running gags for the movie is Mike’s face being constantly covered, but he is just happy to be included. Ask the movie goes on, Sully's actions begin to become a lot more selfish as he takes on Boo and begins to see himself as a father figure to her.
All of a sudden, he no longer cares about what he used to at the beginning of the movie, and his priority shifts. For a major part of "Monster's Inc.," a lot of the conflict in Boo being in the monster world surrounds the fact that it gets in the way of Mike and Sulley's goals. He only cares about getting Boo home. Through the plot, this ends up in the banishment of Mike and Sulley due to his protection of the kid.
I feel that the added context of "Monsters University" enriches the argument that happens with the Abominable Snowman. It makes sense that Sulley is still a little selfish sometimes. By the end of the second movie, he has changed. But it is not realistic for someone who has been taught behavior their whole life to immediately drop something just because they learn differently.
The monsters in this world are standing for humans in our world; they feel similar emotions to us and behave in similar ways. If he grew up being a selfish person that by the time he gets to college, he is a total jerk, it is entirely reasonable that he has selfish tendencies or acts selfishly when put in a situation to do so. It is learned behavior and it could come back. That does not make him a bad person; he would not have made sure Boo got back home if he was bad. He is acting on instinct, and he ends up accidentally hurting his best friend in the process.
If you cross-examine both characters, you can tell that the writers of "Monsters University" put care into the character integrity that was put forth in the first movie. If you watch the movies back-to-back, character motivations in the first movie become clearer. The bond that Mike and Sulley have is the main message of the movie: you can try your best and still fail.
Personal rejection and how to move forward
I feel like this movie is incredibly powerful, and it is a choice to take the stance that it is okay to be bad at something. In today's rise-and-grind society, everyone is just expected to be good at something. That is not always going to be the case. Sometimes you are going to fail regardless of how badly you want it.
This is a crushing, yet important lesson to learn. But the movie also teaches us that there are good ways to deal with this.
Before they work together, Mike tries to go to the human world to scare, and he realizes that he cannot. He ends up having negative consequences: he gets kicked out of college because he did this horrible thing. He reacted negatively and was hostile and got punished for it. But more positively, he then has to work with Sulley to get home. They find that, despite being bad at certain things, together they can do what needs to be done to get home.
This shows the pair that they need each other as friends, and they should work together. It teaches the audience that it is okay to rely on friends. It also fits with the whole theme of acceptance in the movie, which is evident in Mike and Sulley’s relationship and the plot.
This movie is also just really fun. Yes, the college tropes are cliche, and there are some pacing issues. The world of MI is so interesting, and MU does a really good job of showing this off. Of course, a Monster World university has classes on scaring, and of course, it is football. Of course they have something called the scare games, which is made to pretty much torture monsters and is all about how bad human kids are. It is a whimsical take on college that is easy for kids to digest.
"Monsters University" is a good supplementary material to "Monsters Inc." While there are some flaws, I enjoy it because it is a fun movie with a lot of messages behind it.
