Monsters University - Take 2

One of the most unusual additions to my list of favorite movies is Monster's University. The 2013 addition to Pixar's Monsters Inc. is one of those feel good movies that's enjoyable regardless of age. The story portrays the introduction of Mike Wazowski, And James "Sully" Sullivan two rival monsters with dreams of becoming scarers in a world fueled by the screams of children. After both being failed out of the scaring program at Monsters University, their only way of pursuing their dreams is through proving themselves in a scaring competition. After assembling a team of unlikely monsters, the group have to prove themselves to be scariest monsters around so they can return to their program.

This 3D animated film uses entirely CGI to show the events of the narrative, but it does so in a way that we almost forget it is an animated movie at all. The camera angles, choice of shots and story line are all exactly what we would expect a standard camera-filmed movie to show. The movie has editing choices, cinematography, and narrative that set the movie apart to create a unique film, and but still show how animated movies such as this, follow the same structure as any.

The movie's editing allows for choices to be made that affect how we see the movie in very effecting ways. Therefore, it is very useful to look into what choices they made and what effects these choices had on how the story was told. Starting with the first scene of the movie, we see a school bus full of kids arriving at what we will recognize as Monsters inc. We are introduced to our protagonist; Mike, and his goal. The next scene shown after a chronological jump is of Mike moving into college. By showing this scene, setting up a normal world, we are given a motivation for the character that drives the story, and the type of world it's set in. The movie is all shown in chronological order and there is no serious jump, apart from the one just discussed, from one scene to the next. There are two montages that the film uses to show part of the plot quickly. These parts of the plot are important enough to include but not to spend much time over. The first montage is Mike studying his way through his first semester up until the final. Second is of the events in the scaring competition and the training the team goes through to prepare, improving drastically from the beginning to the end of the montage. Montages can turn normal plot events and combine them into a more interesting format.

Though there is no real camera used to film the movie, the animation portrays events from a variety of angles, almost as if there were. The film's cinematography can be examined much the same. Characters are shown in a variety of shots that change how much of the character should be visible in the frame. Movies all vary in which shots are used, some with a prevalence to one or a couple shots over the others. In Monsters University many of the shots used, show the entirety of the characters in frame: long shot. This may be a result of the characters sizes; some of the characters, Mike for example, do not have much of a body besides their head. Next, the angle at which the characters are shown effects the way the film to be seen at. For the majority of the film the “camera” is in a position near the ground, sometimes having to look upward depending on the character shown. I view this to be a reflection of our protagonist, Mike's, shorter view of the world. POV is used only rarely in the movie, and each time is used almost in necessity. Firstly, and most memorably, we are given young Mike's point-of-view when his view of the Monsters Inc. scare floor is impeded by the other students on his field trip. This is used as a motivation for his next actions; sneaking onto the floor for a better view. All the ways the movie is filmed in alters what we take from the film.

This movie as a narrative follows the same set of rules that guide the plot of all narratives. It's progression follows the same format; normal world, rising action, stakes rising, climax and resolution. The normal world: Young Mike's field trip to Monsters Inc. Rising Action: Mike studying for his final, with a mini climax of the final itself, continuing on with the scare games. Climax: The final scare game event. Resolution; Mike and Sully working in the mail room and eventually making their way to be scarers. It has a variety of characters and types of characters that have different roles in continuing the plot. The protagonist, Mike, is a very round character, changing greatly as the story progresses. He starts off very confident and hard working, with the belief that he doesn't need anyone else's help. By the end of the movie he has gained a greater perspective of teamwork and finds in himself a very capable leader. Sully the main support character has a even greater change from the beginning of the story to the end, instead of coasting on his family's name, he becomes intrepid. Finally, the omniscient narration style allows the audience unimpeded view of plot events. However, it does in two places leave the omniscient view in favor of the protagonist's restricted narration; we are only aware of events that Mike is aware of. One such example is Mike and the audience not knowing that the scare simulator has been set on the lowest difficulty by Sully. This and the other points in the plot with restricted narration are used to build suspense and make us surprised by how it turns out. Even though narrative structure is always similar the way the story is told and all the choices made all make the film unique.

Works Cited

Monsters University. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, 2013.