Monsters University
The charming "scarers" of Monsters, Inc.—brainy, earnest eye-blob Mike Wazowski (voiced by Billy Crystal) and his furry lug of a pal, James "Sulley" Sullivan (John Goodman)—are just entering college. They're still years from the work that brought them to Boo, and still profoundly insecure and finding their own place in the world. Humor (and a delightful mash-up of college movie memes meant to evoke Revenge of the Nerds and Old School, but without all the boobies) keeps the whole thing from getting too treacly. Maybe this isn't Pixar's most amazing entry, but it's always refreshing when a monster movie comes off as more human than most of its non-monster peers.
by Denis C. Theriault