This review contains some spoilers. Can you handle the truth?

Everyone’s favourite movie monsters (sorry, Pacific Rim) make their long-awaited return to the big screen in Monsters University, a prequel that charts the beginning of Mike and Sully’s friendship. Feeding on Disney Pixar’s taste for sequels, particularly since the success of Toy Story 3 and Cars 2, it was inevitable that something would be planned after the box office triumph of 2001’s Monsters Inc, which reportedly made $562,816,256 worldwide.

This prequel sees a young Mike Wazowski dream of studying the art of scaring at the prestigious Monsters University. Fast-forward a few years and Mike has defied all odds to earn his place there, but he soon realises that a good work ethic alone is not enough to achieve his amibitions.

Laugh-out-loud moments are plentiful in the film. University students will doubtless find the film particularly funny as there are constant references to stereotypical aspects of student life: house parties, group mentality and a Fresher’s Fair – or in this case ‘freshman’. In fact, you might appreciate the film’s university aspects more if you were American. The battle between the fraternities and sororities has a central role and makes for a lot of ‘in’ jokes that might not be understood by an international audience. Many of the jokes might be lost on the younger demographic who are likely to watch this during their summer holidays.

As for the visual effects, I think production teams do such a fantastic job with the quality of animation that it’s hard to say whether it’s at all ground-breaking. Helen Mirren provides a solid British accent as Dean Hardscrabble, the menacing Head of the University, but her character is grossly under-used. As a mean, unforgiving leader, she gets just enough screen-time to be convincing, yet there were faint glimpses of a back-story behind her character which could have given a much-needed new dimension to the film’s plot.

As an incoming final year student, what struck me about the film was the sudden end to Mike and Sully’s University careers and how they managed to secure their dream jobs without having needed a degree in the first place. Their dedication and commitment to pursue their dreams is admirable and inspirational but perhaps the film gives out a slightly disjointed message about the value of a degree. Maybe the message here is that you can achieve anything if you put your mind to it, regardless of background.

In the end, there was nothing that special about Monsters University. The kids might not understand all of it but it was good for the laughs if not much else. It was a film that wasn’t really sure what audience it was aiming at and so ultimately lacked that roar-factor. Worth the 12-year wait? – Only sort of.

RATING: 3/5

Nirankar Phull