Monsters, Inc. was a smash hit. When they announced that they were making a prequel, I went through all the normal levels of fan anxiety thinking that it wasn't going to be as good as the original movie. And it turns out, I was right.
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It was better.
*SPOILER ALERT FOR THE ENTIRE POST*
Monsters University focuses on Mike Wazowski as a young man monster with only a single thing in mind: to become a scarer. All throughout the movie, Mike was told by everyone that he didn't have it in him to be a scarer, that he wasn't good enough. But he was determined to fulfill his lifelong ambition.
If you're thinking that the message of this movie is "Dreams will always come true if only you believe in yourself!", then you are obviously new to my blog.
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Anyway, Mike does everything to achieve his dream. He studies diligently, he trains hard to win the fraternities' Scare Games, and he believes in himself more than anyone else.
In the end, though, he realized that he was just not cut out to be a scarer. No matter how hard he tries, it won't ever be a reality for him.
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Sometimes, we have a specific dream or goal in mind and we do everything we can to achieve that. That's awesome because otherwise, every time we encounter an obstacle, we'd throw in the towel and we'd never get to achieve anything.
But sometimes we can do everything right and it still won't be enough. And that's okay. Failure teaches us resilience, and it forces us to examine other paths we might have overlooked. It forces us to reevaluate our strengths and weaknesses, and to reassess our goals.
That's why MU ain't just for kids. It's also for all the struggling grown-ups who have given up on a certain goal, or have had their dreams crushed (sometimes repeatedly). It's for the adults who know that despite doing whatever you can, life simply gets in the way.
It is a bitter pill to swallow, but it's the truth.
This wasn't the Monsters, Inc. prequel that I expected, but it was the one we all needed.
