For the past 17 years, since Toy Story first introduced the idea of computer animation, Disney/Pixar has been at the top of their game. In the early 2000’s, they didn’t miss a beat, stringing out classic after classic. Within the past few years, though, they have done Cars 2, Brave, and their latest, Monsters University. None of these are really “bad” movies; they just don’t quite match the brilliance and originality of Wall-E, Up, Finding Nemo, or the Toy Story sequels. Really, though, it’s holding too high of a standard to expect them all to be masterpieces. Monsters University is still a wonderful and enjoyable children’s movie.

Monsters University is actually a prequel to the original Monsters, Inc. We get to see Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) and James P. “Sully” Sullivan (John Goodman) as teenagers, both attending college to become “scarers,” which, for those of you who have seen the first, the job consists of sneaking into the human world and harnessing childrens’ screams in order to provide energy for the monster world. But where Monsters, Inc. dealt with the problems between the two worlds, Monsters University almost exclusively deals with the Monster one. Mike, as we soon find out, is determined to be a scarer, and has practiced it his whole life. But he has one huge problem: he isn’t scary. Sully is naturally gifted, and though he never opens a book, is able to easily defeat the very studious and diligent Mike. It is this clash that forms the conflict of the movie.

But there is another way that this movie differs from the first: it is a whole lot funnier. Monsters University is, essentially, an animated, children’s version of Animal House or Revenge of the Nerds, though with funny-looking scary monsters instead of rowdy college kids.  There are all the elements of the classic college coming-of-age tale: the mean, overbearing Dean, in the form of a flying dragon centipede monster; the “bad boy” click at school, which looks down on and continually teases the nerdy group; the competitive school games with wagers riding on it, in this case the chance for Mike and Sully to join the scare program; and, of course, a strong and important life-lesson learned by all. By the end, it’s hard not to at least look back and smile at the enjoyable journey that we have just taken.

Monsters University may not have seemed an absolute necessary addition to the Disney/Pixar world, at least when I first heard of the production. The reason is because the first movie ends on a sudden realization: the monsters could use laughter from the children, instead of screams. The idea of these scary monsters going into bedrooms to amuse children was a much brighter prospect than lurking in the shadows to scare them, sleeping alone in their beds. The very concept itself is almost terrifying. So, how could Monsters University take all of that away, and start from the beginning? Well, they pulled it off, mainly because of the lesson that Mike learns (which I’m not going to tell you, so as not to ruin it.)  But it is one that resounds deeper than most children’s movies out there.

Even when Pixar doesn’t do their finest work, such as with the somewhat disappointing Brave that came last year, they always have created impeccably detailed computer-animted worlds. The Monster world here is vibrant, with hundreds of obscure, brightly-colored monsters. It is as if you took the magical world of Oz and recreated it through modern computers. It is perhaps even more detailed than the first movie, since more of the Monster world is presented. As far as the voice-acting, we still have the pairing of the always-funny Billy Crystal and John Goodman. Some great additions to this cast include Helen Mirren as Dean Hardscrabble, Charlie Day as Art, and Joel Murray as Don Carlton, the leader of the nerd fraternity.

Maybe Monsters University is not in that same category of perfection as many of the Disney/Pixar collaborations that came before it. But I walked out of the theater grateful that it had at least some heart, and enough laughs to make up for where the sentiment was lacking. It’s a fun, entertaining, animated 3D experience, proving that Pixar has at least a few aces still up their sleeve.