Monsters University (Dan Scanlon, 2013)

What's it about? A prequel to the excellent Monsters Inc., which explains how Mike (voiced by Billy Crystal) and Sully (voiced by John Goodman) met at university. Mike is the class swot, determined to learn everything about being a scary monster, whilst Sully is the class slacker, a naturally talented scarer, but lazy. But they must learn to work together to succeed.

Is it any good? Has to go down as a disappointment. If it was a student in a class at University, it would be the anonymous one in the middle who doesn't do anything particularly wrong, but doesn't ever do anything impressive either - the sort of person quickly forgotten by classmates and lecturers alike. Perhaps even more disappointingly, it would be the sort of sensible student who wouldn't really be all that exciting to party hard with. That's not to say it's terrible - it has a competent sports movie arc, as Mike and Sully must team up to inspire a bunch of no-hoper monsters into winning a big competition against all odds. It looks fantastic and delivers a couple of campus-based chuckles. However, we've come to expect greater things from Pixar and this doesn't do enough to join those at the top of the class, with a notable lack of imagination, emotional impact and memorable supporting characters, especially when compared to the likes of Monsters Inc. and the Toy Stories. Ultimately, it feels like a film which has been forced to do an exam and is happy to do just enough to pass. 

Anything else I should know? Fancy creating your own monster? Visit this site and let your imagination run riot. Here's my effort. I give myself a first-class mark for it.

What does the Fonz think? 2.2 standard