The animated series "Monsters At Work" wrapped its first season this year, and there's more than a few strings that tie it to everyone's favourite workplace sitcom. And with Halloween just behind us, it's the perfect time to look back at the world that Mike and Sully introduced us to all those years ago.
Reviewing - Pixar's Monsterverse
Monsters, Inc. (****)
In which a fearsome beast learns to love and be loved by a young captive girl – except there’s no talking furniture this time
Another instant classic from Pixar, Monsters Inc. tells a wonderfully meaningful and hilariously creative story without quite matching the visual splendour of its predecessors.
Part of what made Toy Story so great was that it addressed a question that we’ve all wistfully wondered as children – what are our toys up to when we’re away? Monsters Inc. follows that tradition with another fun question: what do the monsters do on the other side of the closet? It’s the kind of story that makes you wonder why someone else didn’t tell it sooner. Maybe someone else did – but Pixar’s made the definitive closet-monster movie in much the same way that Disney’s adaptations have become the definitive versions of those fairy tales.
Like Toy Story or many of the Pixar flicks that would follow Monsters Inc., the plot is centered around a dynamic pairing of characters. Sully and Mike Wazowski (I just can’t imagine not using his last name) are a terrific team, with Sully playing the straight man and Wazowski being the comical sidekick. John Goodman and Billy Crystal bring the monsters to life with ease, striking the perfect balance between zaniness and grounded-ness. It’s Boo that provides the central tension between the two characters, and she’s adorable. It’s clear that Pixar wasn’t yet ready to jump into a human-filled world, but they were able to create one sweet little girl. Sully’s relationship with her is delightful from beginning to end, and that scene where they part for what seems to be the last time is absolutely heartbreaking.
On that note, Sully and Boo reminded me a lot of the relationship between teachers and students. Sully and Boo bond over the course of shared experiences and trials. Sully helped Boo overcome her fears, and Sully learned how to be a better monster in the process. In fact, he changed his entire industry’s structure in much the same way that certain students have prompted teachers to rethink their entire educational strategy. But after helping Boo out, the two had to say goodbye to each other in a very permanent way so that the kids can “go grow up” as Wazowski said. It’s a sad moment but an important one, as keeping Boo with Sully would prevent her from becoming the person she’s supposed to be. Even so, the movie ends on a hopeful note – Sully might be able to see Boo again after all, albeit in a limited and from-a-distance way. Sully might never get to be with Boo again the way he was before, but the final shot makes us think he might get to see the person she becomes – and for Sully, I think that might be enough. As someone who’s just entering the teaching profession, I have no idea if my thoughts here might resonate with other educators. I guess we’ll see at the end of this year when I say goodbye to my first class.
The only negative thing I have to say about this film is the relatively uninteresting sets that we find ourselves in multiple times throughout the film. The big door chase at the climax is awesome, as are the different locales that the monsters find themselves in as they jump from place to place in the human world. But on the other hand, we spend a much longer time than you might remember just running through the Monsters Inc. hallways, which are only as interesting as an office building ever could be. Sure, the movie’s about a monster business, but I just feel that the result is a movie with less exciting visuals in the setting than some of Pixar’s other works (i.e. Finding Nemo, which comes next). But even so, that door chase was incredible. It was wildly fun, creative, and it kept you on the edge of your seat.
This film deserves its place in the pantheon of Pixar classics – if you’re looking for the company’s best of the best, you can’t do without this one.
Mike’s New Car (***1/2)
Like many of Disney and Pixar’s other short films that I’ve reviewed, ‘short and sweet’ is the most apt way to describe it. It’s nothing more than a quick set of laughs as we watch Mike Wazowski encounter problems with his new vehicle, but the fact that I laughed out loud on more than one occasion during the tight runtime indicates that Pixar knows how to make the most of a small space. The characters don’t talk much – to the point where you wonder if the short is going to transition into a ‘silent film’ frame of mind, which means that the bulk of the laughs are rooted in physical comedy. This short film doesn’t fill in any narrative gaps or tell us anything new about our Monster characters – it’s a self-contained and self-serving story designed to make you chuckle. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
Monsters University (***1/2)
In which Pixar tells you to suck it up and get a real job
Another step upward on Pixar’s climb from the pits of Cars 2, Monsters University has an under-appreciated message amidst classic Pixarian charm.
Most people wouldn’t look at Monsters Inc. and think, “Man, this film needs a prequel”. A sequel, certainly. What kind of impact would it have on a child’s development to be friends with the monster in their closet as they grow? How long could a fragile relationship like that last? How would Sully come to terms with going from being the top dog to the underdog? It’s questions like this that make me think a sequel is definitely a possibility down the road. But I likely never would have asked how Mike and Sully met. It’s just not necessarily an exciting question.
Thankfully, there’s a deeper and more thought-provoking question at the heart of this film: Can you really do anything if you try hard enough? My generation has long emphasized the empowerment of the individual. There are a few Pixar movies that are emblematic of this: A Bug’s Life, Wall-e, and Ratatouille have all shown us ‘different’ protagonists who changed their societies of sameness by believing in themselves and committing to their skills. It’s not a bad message. We need people who believe in the power within themselves, because –
(A) we want them to affect profound positive change on the world and
(B) we want them to be aware of the potential they all have to affect disastrous negative change.
But one of the potential pitfalls of this message is that our generation can begin to believe that anything – no, literally anything – is possible when they believe.
If you try hard enough, you can become an astronaut. If you believe in yourself, you can get famous. If you never ever ever give up, you can invent the ultimate streaming service. Each of these statements are (hypothetically speaking) true. But sometimes we can misconstrue possibilities for certainties. No amount of trying hard enough will get you into space if you’re eighty years old. Thousands of people who believe in themselves have been working at Starbucks for years while waiting for their big break. Dreams don’t always come true. We don’t like talking about it, but we can’t deny it, either.
This film teaches us the importance of pivoting. You may think you know what will make you happy, but sometimes we don’t know what we really need until we’ve lost the things we thought we needed. Your identity needs to come from more than just an achievement. Whether that’s a marriage, a family, a career, or whatever your definition of success is, you have to be able to move on even if that success doesn’t come around. Some people don’t get married. Some people don’t land their dream job. Some people don’t get written about in history books. But that certainly doesn’t make their lives worth any less than those who do.
Monsters University somehow manages to capture the essence of the campus life without ever going too far into the non-PG content that invariably pervades post-secondary education. There’s cliques, clubs, coffee chuggers, cramming for exams, and crazy rituals that must be followed in the spirit of tradition. I didn’t love my university years, but this film really highlights all of the best parts of that season of life. Getting to see Sully and Mike at odds with each other was really fun. Their dichotomy was really intensified by the fact that we KNEW Sully was going to be the scarer and Mike was not – even though Mike was clearly the one who wanted it more. To that end, the climactic scene where Mike and Sully had to work together to scare grown-ups really set the stage for their relationship in the original film.
Although Monsters Inc. is definitely the superior film of the two, I have to admit that the scenery is wayyy better. Much of Monsters Inc. was nothing but hallways and corridors – here, we were taken to so many different locales across campus. I really enjoyed that, just as I enjoyed seeing all of the new monsters that Pixar dreamed up. In classic Pixar fashion, this is a great looking movie.
In short, Monsters University may not be one of Pixar’s top ten films. That said, the message within it is one that we almost never hear, which is exactly why this film is so important. This film will teach your kid that there are some things they can’t do. However frustrating a lesson that is to learn, this film adds sugar to the bitter medicine by reminding us that our purpose is not bound to a dream we have. Who we are is so much more than the things we want – or the people we imagine ourselves being. Who you are ultimately comes down to what you do with the hand you’re dealt. The moments you fail are your greatest opportunities to grow.
Party Central (***1/2)
The next Monster short maintains the precedent set by its predecessor – the jokes are predominantly physical and visual. This time, the jokes are created not by a hyper-complicated car but by the opportunities that are created through the trans-dimensional door technology of the Monsterverse. Fans of the ‘Portal’ video games will feel right at home as our characters find entertaining ways to move an entire party from one building to another – and right through a human couple’s bedroom. The couple are particularly funny as they both miss and misinterpret the sounds that are permeating their space. Once again I laughed out loud, which is all I need to declare a short film like this a success.
Monsters At Work (***)
It’s ‘The Office’ but in the Monsterverse.
This isn’t a must-see series, but it won’t disappoint fans of the Monsters franchise. First and foremost, Mike Wazowski and Sulley are back in a bigger way than I’d anticipated. I kind of thought they’d just be around for the series premiere and pop up one or two more times in the series, but both of them were in nearly every episode – and Mike in particular had a prominent role in many of them. That’s great news, because he’s the reason everyone’s giving this show a shot in the first place. Billy Crystal’s still got it.
As much as our two favourite monsters are in this show, the show’s not about them. It’s about Tylor Tuskmon, voiced by Superstore’s Ben Feldman. He’s always wanted to be a scarer, but the events of Monsters Inc. have resulted in a paradigm shift so now they’re only interested in making kids laugh. Tylor gets sent to a mechanic and repair branch of the company, which is where the Office vibes start hitting really hard. Just take a look at the cast. Tylor is kind of the Jim Halpert, in the sense that he’s the coolest one of the bunch who is kind of just waiting around for a chance to get out of there and move on to bigger and better things. Fritz is in many ways the Michael Scott – he’s the boss of the department, and he’s desperate for Tylor to view him as a father figure and by extension to view the entire department as his family. He’s also tragically unfunny, although he thinks he’s hilarious. There’s a Dwight Schrute named Duncan who’s determined to get Tylor fired so he can one day take Fritz’s place as the boss, and we even have Kelly Kapoor herself – Mindy Kaling – playing a spirited mechanic who believes Fritz’s hype. The parallels are too obvious to be coincidental.
Beyond the cast similarities, the narrative is also similar in the sense that we consistently find our characters dealing with small time problems in their own special way. It’s not till the final episodes of this season that the stakes get really high – one episode is all about fixing the vending machine, which feels very ‘classic Office’. I’ll not say that this is anywhere near as fun as The Office, but I had a good time watching it. I almost wondered if the show was going to ‘open the door’ to giving us more time with Sully and Boo, but it doesn’t look like that’s in the cards yet. Maybe there will be another Monsters movie somewhere down the road – but for now, this was a fun detour back into the Monsterverse.