Why I Love "Monsters University"

*Warning there will be spoilers!*

Monsters University is a great movie. It’s hilarious, touching, and it has the same hysterical and loveable main characters as Monsters INC. (Plus some new as equally funny ones!). MU is the story of how Sully and Mike ended up as a scaring team at Monsters Incorporated. It starts off with Mike as a kindergartener going on a field trip to MI and is he the cutest little monster or what!?!?! Then it flashes forward to Mike’s first day of college, he’s going to MU to join their prestigious scaring program this is where Sulley enters. So I could go into a very long summary of the movie or I could get to the point (because if you’re reading this it means you’ve seen the movie and know what happens ;) ). I think the overarching point of the film is humility. Both Mike and Sulley end up getting kicked out of the scaring program as a result of pride. Sulley because he thinks he’s amazing just because he’s a Sullivan, and Mike because he couldn’t just focus on his upcoming test, he had to prove to Sulley that he was a scarer too. Flash forward to spring semester and both Mike and Sulley (and probably the rest of the students lol) are bored to death. Then the annual scare games. Mike decides that he wants to use this opportunity to get back into the scaring program. He has to (unwillingly) team up with Sulley and the Fraternity of ‘misfits’: Oozma Kappa. With the bet that if they win, all of them will be allowed into the scaring program but if they lose the have to leave MU. Thus begins the adventure. The Oozma Kappa members start out as a team in name only. Sulley has little interest in trying to prepare and Mike is trying to be the leader without taking into consideration the useful qualities of the other O.K. members because he thinks he can do it all himself without any help. During the different activities of the scare games they slowly come to realize that each person has something to give to the team and that if they all work together they might actually have a chance of winning. I think the turning point where they realize that they need each and every player is during the library test, when Mike and Sulley are still both trying to prove to each other they know best. But when Sulley cause the librarian to be disturbed it’s the other O.K. members who end up helping them get into the next level. The O.K. club slowly works itself up to the top and there’s only one more test left. I think this is an important theme to have in a kids movie, that every person is important. Even if they might seem weird or strange, you should never just push them aside because they’re not perfect. I mean let’s face it, who is?

    During the final games Sulley afraid that Mike isn’t scary enough and that’ll make them lose, he cheats and rigs the machine so that when Mike goes into the scare simulator it automatically registers a 6. Oozma Kappa wins the scare games and they’re now back into the scare programs. When Mike realizes what Sulley has done, he’s rightfully upset. Sulley feels awful, and instead of just keeping the secret. He goes to Dean Hardscrabble and the President of the scare program and admits that he cheated. Taking the blame completely he begs them to let Mike and the others stay in the scare program.  Meanwhile Mike goes to the door making department and goes through, to try to prove to himself that he is a scary monster. Once Sulley realizes that Mike has gone into the human world he goes back in after him. The two are chased through a camp forest and end up back in the cabin and find that Dean Hardscrabble has disconnected the door power at the other side. They come up with an elaborate plan to scare the counselors to power the door. They realize that on their own neither of them make great scarers but together... they make an unbeatable team. Once back they have now not only cheated at the scare games but went through an untested door which is against the university rules. They are both expelled from the school. They start to part ways and then realize the work to well together to just give up. So they decide to get into Monsters INC. the only way that’s left. To work as mail sorters. Now this is the part that takes the cake. In how many movies now do people truly get punished for things? Yes they may apologize or realize they're wrong, but it usually ends with “Oh I’m so so sorry I’ll never do it again” and that’s about it. They never really have to pay for their mistakes. They do usually have to suffer something but it usually gets resolved pretty easy in the end.  In MU yes there sorry and they apologize, but they do still get kicked out of school. Even better though is that Mike and Sulley do get kicked out, but they move on from their mistakes and are better for it. They also then take the initiative to work for what they want. Think about that, they could have just been like “oh well we got kicked out of school.. darn.” But no, they want and got a job at the lowest spot at Monsters Inc. Just so they could work at their dream company and then proceeded through hard work to work themselves all the way to top scarers. I believe that is a very important message these days. That hard work pays off, it’s worth it, and that if you apologize and learn from your mistakes and if you commit yourself to work hard you can still reach your goal.